Markbass F1 users

[timmy5strings]

I picked up an F1 yesterday and gigged it last night. It's much more convienient than the SVT-CL that I love but its getting too much to drag to the smaller clubs I'm playing. Anyway it was going fine until the middle of Frankenstein where the keyboard makes the crazy noises. Our keyboard player wasn't there last night and we had a sax player filling in. I was making some slapping noises on the board of my StingRay to help fill in with the guitar and the amp shut off on me, lights on but no sound. I don't know what happened, everything was at 12 oclock, except the gain and volume which were at about 9 oclock. I started to panic as we just started our 2nd set and they finished the song without me, I turned it off and back on and it worked again. Does it have a shutdown on it that maybe my obnoxious slapping and pounding set off, clipping perhaps ? Has this happened to anyone else ? It sounded great the rest of the night with normal playing, no problems.

 

[Aussie Mark]

Slap detector, excellent feature!

 

[Oldtoe]

My brand new F1 did that exact thing to me in the first song of the first set at an outdoor gig the other night. It was very warm. The amp got hot and apparently went into some thermal protection mode. My other digital amp-using friends have told me they all bring clip-on fans to blow on their amps during gigs. Oh well, I'll get one then. I like the amp too much to fuss about it. If I can keep it cool, then I'll play the heck out of it.

 

[ekb16b]

thats what you get for slapping, if i were markbass i'd take it a step further and make it blow up



and yes, its not that i hate slapping its mainly because im a spastic at it and jealous of those who can

 

[bob atherton]

Slap detector, excellent feature!

LOL, I also think every mic should come with a rap detector

 

[timmy5strings]

thats what you get for slapping, if i were markbass i'd take it a step further and make it blow up



and yes, its not that i hate slapping its mainly because im a spastic at it and jealous of those who can

Thats funny. I wasn't really slapping per se, more like making the 'copter noises in the song by muting the fretboard and slapping up by the neck (OMG I guess I was slapping ). I gotta check to see if the fan was working properly, I have an outdoor gig next weekend. It's also a floor model GC gave me to use until the new one comes in, I thought that may be a factor, but now maybe not.

 

[Oldtoe]

The fan on mine was huffing and puffing for all it was worth, even after it quit making sounds. I'm positive the sun shining on it was the cause. It has been fine ever since. Texas weather is often unkind to electronics needing a bit of cooling. The F1 is a great amp, all the same!

 

[bradfordws]

This is a little off the topic of Markbass, but it seems that these little high-powered heads have issues - including Walter Woods, which is my main rig - I have the 1200 W blue light Ultra head. I just got this one last year, but the one I had before that - the green light 450 W model, did a shut-down on me when I was at an outdoor gig - got too hot in the sun and shut down. One time before that, I had run an multi-fx pedal board into the input instead of the FX loop and somehow it popped a transistor or something. Another example - I've already owned and returned 2 of the Acoustic Image Focus heads - both shut down on me - something about a thermal switch. When I first saw the Markbass F1 at NAMM 2007, I was sure I'd be buying one, but it took a whole year until we saw them in the stores, so I gave up on the whole idear while waiting to see one at a GC. Now, it looks like GK is coming out with a small 500 W head called a MB2-500 which I just happened to see on Musicians "Fiend." GK doesn't even mention this head on their website! MF says "available on 6/20" but I don't know when we'll see one at a GC or other dealer so we can try it out. I have the EA Micro 300 and it recently smoked - it's being fixed now - they say the first batch had bad transformers. I've always like the small and powerful amps since I got my first WW back in 1996. I also own the GK MB 150S mini head - a little short on power, but good for small gigs or as a backup to throw in the car just in case. But back to the topic, I always make sure I can get my rig in the shade if I'm on an outdoor gig + I keep my channel volume below 12:00 and master volume in the 2:00 or 3:00 range so I don't overload the channel input.

 

[Frantic Slayer]

LOL, I also think every mic should come with a rap detector

+infinity!

that would be the best feature the music would ever see!

 

[tkarter]

Those sound like the keep a cold beer sitting on top heads to me. Just the encouragement I need to get one of those Markbass F1s.

tk

 

[agplate]

I had a Little Mark II which also played this little shut off thing one night too. Indoor gig, not really pushing it that hard- Cycled the power switch and it was back online.

Nonetheless, I've no time for this ( and the manual made no mention of any shut off feature/slap detection!) so I returned it to GC and bought the Genz Benz Shuttle (and I love it)- no surprises yet!