Markbass T902 Head

This amp was made in 2004 before the redesign of the Markbass look. It is a solid state amp with 800 watts of power. In other words it will make your eyeballs bleed at full power.

This amp has the ability to biamp with cross over, an effects send, and a line out. Most of which are meaninless to me as I run it in Mono-Bridge mode.

It does everything I need it to do. My complaint is the instruction manual suggests that the channel 2 knob and the crossover knob should not effect the sound in Mono-Bridge mode. However after 4 months I played with them and nearly blew my head off. I was only running the amp at half power the one time I cranked it all the way. Now I know that channel 2 increases the power even more.

The crossover effects the tone even in Mono-bridge which is good as my tone was good for sludge before I found this, but needed more umpf. However, the manual should have been more clear that this control effected the sound even in mono.

I'm using a BC Rich Warlock NJ Neck thru with passive pickups as well as a Dean 12 string with active pick ups. I play through a Sansamp Bass Driver almost always and a Keeley modded Vox Wah sometimes. This amp handles all of those sounds very well. I'm playing it through a Mesa/Boogie 2x15 speaker cab.

My only complaint is that it doesn't do as good with the sound at lower volume levels. That may be as much of a function of the speakers as the amplifier though.

I've been rehearsing with it for months. However it was only recently that I found that the Channel 2 volume increased the sound in Mono-Bridged mode so that may make the amp heat up more. So far, no problems.

I do wonder how it will do in a hot club environment after an hour or so at decent volume.

I emailed them after I got it asking very general questions and got no responce at all.

Now that was just after their website came back online after they redesigned their line, but still they could have at least sent a general responce.

As this is an Italian amp that doesn't have a large US presence. I have my doubts as to service.

I guess I'll see when the time comes.

I got this amp because I had bought an 800 watt Mesa/Boogie 2x15 off ebay. My poor little 45 watt traynor bass head had no hope of driving that cab.

I was looking for a high quality bass amp with a high wattage rating to push that cab. I looked through ebay and found the Markbass. Their site was down at the time so it was hard to find information, but everything I found was very complimentary. I think it was the deal it was because most people were not familiar with them and their website was down as they prepared to re-launch the brand with a new look.

For the power output I can't imagine I could have gotten a better deal. The sound is excellent. It is easy to transport. Excellent amp. Now if it had the sound of a tube amp like an SVT or a Matamp or if I had more confidence in the customer service of this company the rating would be higher.

For what I paid used, this amp was one hell of a deal.