Markbass AC 101

I've always used this amp with a 38-string (five and a third octave) Camac centlic harp (plus Fishman pre-amp). I chose it after carefully checking some AER amps, which involved carrying the harop into the shop, and spending hours playing through them. I then drove to another shop (GC Music) and tried this Mark Acoustic - and this was far better for the demands of the harp, which are wider than any guitar, for example. This is a compact, solid-state, cube-like combo with a 10-inch speaker and a one-inch high compression driver on the side. It has two channels and four reverbs and two chorus effects. It is very well made, quality look and light to carry (10.5 kilos, 23 lb). It does not come with a cover, so I had to get one made. I've had it for over five years now. Its features are good,c including special tonal controls for one channel if used for vocals, line out with control, and variable high-compression driver. It's unusual, and it all works very well. It's small enough to be hardly noticed in some gigs and yet it can easily fill a hall, a largish one. It should definitely have a padded cover, however, hence the 8. It's very portable, a big plus point for the amount of sound it produces.

I play all styles of harp music, and it works on Celtic, Latin American (where you want bass) and jazz. I've had a great many compliments for the sound alone over the years, which has to be the combination of the harp, pre-amp and amp. The amp is ideal for harp, but though I have tried it with a couple of jazz guitars (Heritage, Peerless) it sounds far too bassy with them, even with all the treble turned up and the bass turned down. So that's not good, in my view, for guitar. It's much better with my Martin 000CRGTE, with Fishman pickups inside - this sounds good. Vocals. singing and speaking are great with this amp. It has served as a PA in a hall more than once, and also for film sountrax, so it is pretty versatile. It's a great amp for my purposes, so I give it 9, because I don't know what a 10 could be (probably 10 times as expensive, and maybe not as portable). I've played many town halls and this little combo fills the place and the sound is still around 3-4....

It has worked fine for over five years now, and the only fault was when I noticed the reverbs were stuck on room, and wouldn't go to 'hall' my usual choice. I returned it to the shop (GC Music) and they forwarded it to the importers, and it came back fixed, no charge. That was excellent service. The ampm itself has worked every day without problem. I trust it almost totally to deliver.

The Warranty, I'm uncertain of the length, but the effects went wrong after three or fourt years and were fixed free of charge. That's excellent in my view.

I've been playing over 30 years, guitars, harps and some woodwind. With harp I have to be especially careful, because whereas guitar tones can be partly created by the amp, with a harp you want transparency, just 'a big harp', no colouration. I tried many acoustic combos, including AERs and this AC 101 was the best, the most balanced response and also the warmest bass (far better than any AER could manage.