Markbass Micromark

I bought this amp as a demo from a canadian dealer, and got a good deal on it. It will be shortly available in America, but I was tired of waiting for them to hit the shelves in America so I bought this one.

This amp has just what I need. A volume and "tone" control/vpf filter. One input. A line out. CD/ipod input and a headphones output. A speaker/headphones switch and a ground switch. Very simple.

Of course, I cannot get over the size of it! I can throw it in a small duffle bag (I found a padded duffle bag by Gator that fit perfectly with room for cables, tuner, strap, etc.

No, you're not going to do a club gig with this beauty, but who would try? I could see doing a small coffee house drummerless gig, but I have already used it playing in a blues trio with a low volume drummer on a small kit and a guitarist.

One unsung feature of this amp is that my 6 strings sound great through it. I know several jazzers in my area using small bass amps running through a 10 or 12 speaker and getting great clean sounds. My strat sounds oh so clean through this amp. I have not yet tried my pocket pod and strat through this little beast, but I bet it will sound good.

I travel alot, and this amp goes with me for hotel room practice and for computer recording. I record at home and at the homes of friends.

The only thing this amp could use is an external speaker jack, and for the price of the amp, there is no excuse for not having that. I suspect this little amp could fairly rock a 12 or 15 speaker.

Sounds just like the other markbass products. Great. Not alot of sound coloring going on. Takes the sound of your bass and puts it out there. Having the other tone control like the bigger markbass amps would be nice, but since it is so tiny that is understandable that something had to be left off.

It is still new so reliability is hard to say. Friends who own MB amps think they are very reliable. Of course the Fiat legend affects all italian products, so let's hope it works better than my friend's dads X-19 back in the 70's, which didn't work so well.

Don't know but I am aware that Markbass guarantees it's amps. Since GC and MF are now selling them, I suspect service will be good. The questions I emailed them about the amp before I bought it were promptly answered.

Again, I wouldn't try to do a bar gig with it, but for my type of playing it is what I need. I mostly jam with a friend or two and do alot of recording, so the line out is crucial and nice.

Only wish it had an external speaker jack.

SPEAKER1x6"
TWEETER optional "satellite" tweeter.
IMPEDANCE 8 ohms
SPEAKER POWER HANDLING 50W RMS (AES Standard)
AMP OUTPUT POWER 50W @ 8 ohm
PREAMP: solid state
FREQUENCY RESPONSE 70 Hz to 8 kHz
SENSITIVITY 100 dB SPL
WEIGHT 9.26 lbs / 4.2 kg
HEIGHT 8.86 in. / 22.5 cm
WIDTH 8.86 in. / 22.5 cm
DEPTH 8.62 in. / 21.9 cm

Includes: mini-plug aux in (for CD or MP3 player), mini-plug headphone jack, VPF filter, XLR line out, ground lift, speaker off switch, tweeter jack for "satellite" tweeter.

Wow.
Physics imposibility!
This little amps wows wherever it goes which is basically, wherever I go. Never without it. Heard above a 25 piece wind band. Copes with practice sessions no problem. Even does gigs , small & D.I.-ed into P.A. in super large venue.
Local studios amp of choice for session work.
Everybody laughs at this tiny bass amp until I play through it.
Then its gob open, pause, then a muttered .......*%$" me!
E.G. Indian Classical music with a demon percussionist on rudy big drums (my pal Sandeep) with 10 other musicians & singers on stage with 500+ peaple dancing with sticks AND THEY COULD ALL STILL HEAR ME WITH A 9X9 inch BASS AMP??????????

Dropped, bouced, over activated (too much gain from Stingray) & had its nuts strained off by several, "Oh I forgot I only had this little guy!" gigs.

Great. Small fan problem. Sent through no hassle & free of charge under warrentee. V happy

There has never been a better ??300 or so quid of my money spent.
It sounds like a lot of money for a small amp but thats the point

I already reviewed this amp above, but now that I have owned it longer I wish to add some comments and rate it. I'm giving it a high rating for features. Although it is very simple it has everything I need in an amp this size, the most important feature being the D/I out. I would like to see a pre/post switch for the D/I so I'm giving it a 9.

As I mentioned before this amp will give you a good rendition of the sound of your bass. The only tone control is the VPF filter. I also own a Markbass Mini CMD 121P 12" combo. I find that I am using exactly the same tone setting on this amp as the Micromark ( everything flat - VPF on 2). This says a lot for their claim of getting the same sound in a smaller package.

My amp was converted from European 250 volts to 110v. I recently accidentally connected it to a 240v circuit and blew it. I took it to my local repair guy ( I live in Mexico) and he fixed it the same day for $20.

I contacted Markbass before buying this amp and got a fast response. Guitar Center claimed to me that Markbass would pay for shipping to & from Italy should their amp need warranty repair.

I recently had a 5 week gig on a cruise ship. It was really easy to pack this amp and bring it along. I had a chance to use this amp at a private party/jam on the ship with members of Manhattan Transfer playing with a grand piano, vocalists and a flugelhorn. The amp sounded great in this context. The bass player with MH was top bassist John B Williams and he played my bass through this amp. I walked around the room which had about a 200 - 300 person capacity and the bass was clear and round and I could hear every note. I also enjoyed playing it in this context and did not feel that I needed any more volume. the flugelhorn player was astonished and commented how much it sounded like an upright bass.I really enjoy owning this amp and would definitely buy another. There is nothing else like it.

I bought this amp slightly used may 2007. The previous owner had it professionally converted to 110v. It is amazingly small.It is intended as a practice amp. I used it on a radio show with a guitarist playing at medium volume through a Fender 60 and it had enough volume. I used it with my 5 string Fodera bass and it will handle the low notes with asoft touch. The amp was loud enough that when I hooked it up I had to ask the engineer if my bass was coming through the studio monitors. it wasn't! When I first tried it at home the neighbour in the house next door could hear it!I own a Phil Jones Briefcase. The Micromark is about 60% - 70% as loud as the Briefcase but way smaller and 30% of the weight. I took it on a plane in a shoulder bag. However the Markbass does not have the tone or tone shaping capability of the Briefcase. See below.

I play Fodera , Lakland and Rob Allen 5 string basses. There is very little tone range with this amp. You get the sound of the bass and that's it. if you play too loud the limiter can be heard. However, at low volumes this amp puts out an amazing amount of lows with my Rob Allen Deep 5 and MB2. I would use this amp when sitting in acoustic level drummerless situations. At a pinch I could use it for a piano/bass duo gig.

I have not owned it long enough bto comment on reliability but it seems well made.At this price a cover should be included.

I have emailed Markbass with a question and received a prompt and helpful reply.They say that the warranty covers shipping to Italy from anywhere in the world.

I have been playing professionally for over 40 years. I own Fodera, Rob Allen & Lakland 5 string basses. Acoustic Image amps, Bergantino cabs, Phil Jones Briefcase, and a Markbass CMD 112P combo.If I lost this I would look for another. I will not rate this amp as it is unlike any other.It is a bare bones minimum amp in an amazingly small package. It is very useful to me but it may be useless to you. I have been waiting for something like this for years!

This is a tiny (roughly 9'x9'!) 2007 Micromark 100 watt (probably 50 watt RMS) amp with a 6 inch speaker.
It has a mini jack aux in for MP3 players/drum machines, a mini jack head phone socket, volume control as well as Markbass's VPF (check out markbass's website to see what this is) control.
The speaker can be switched off when using headphones, there's a ground lift switch a XLR line output and an output for the optional tweeter.
I really like the fact that you can plug your MP3 or whatever in and play through the headphones.

I tried it in the shop with a passive bass and it did have problems with some of the lower notes (speaker popped), but I play a 4 string Musicman at home and when I tried it with that it sounded great, no popping.
I definitely wouldn't use it with a passive bass.
This amp is very very expensive for what it offers, it's a practice amp there's no way you could use this on a gig but the sound quality is very good (It sounds like all the other Markbass amps, clean, clear and loud). Although it doesn't have a 3 band EQ it has the VPF which makes it very easy to get a good sound.

I've only had it a day so I can comment on reliability!! Seems sturdy enough though.

I have had problems with this. I tried to find out some info on this amp before I bought it, but there was a lack of info on the web about it (hence this review).
Markbass are normally quite good at getting back to your emails but when I was trying to find out some info on the Micromark, they didn't get back to me which really fucked me off. Anyway through much Google-ing I found a thread from a bass forum which their head of marketing had been on. I got in touch with him and he got back to me very quickly and answered all of my questions.

I spent ages trying to get info and good prices on this amp, so I thought about it long and hard, you probably will have to as well.

It's a great practice amp but it's VERY expensive.
I have a big Markbass amp which I cant play in my small flat because it's so loud so this is perfect for me cause you can store it so easily and the sound quality is very good.

One of the reasons that I had to think about it for so long is that Markbass are going to be releasing an amp which is basicly double what the Micromark has to offer. Its called the Minimark and it'll have the same fetures as the Micromark but 150w (and 250w if you connect it to a 8 ohm cabinet!) two 6' speakers and a piezo tweeter, volume, VPF and VLE controls and it's gigable. Sound great eh? But I reckon that's gonna be REALLY expensive though! (apparently about 60% up from the Micro) So dependent on what you want the amp for you might wanna wait for the Minimark
Another reason that I bought the Micro was because the store where I bought it gave me the best price and they said they would buy it back when I Minimark comes out but even though I've only had it a day, I'm very happy with it so I might not bother with the Mini.

There are other very good products out there I considered like the Phil Jones Bass Buddy but for what I needed the Micro was perfect, if it was nicked or lost I would probably get another one.
Things I love: the size, the sound, the headphone out and the aux in.
Things I hate: (if you haven't guessed already) the price and....well thats about it.