MARKBASS MINI CMD 151P

Yes, those bass gear mak­ers from Italy with the yel­low obses­sion have been at it again with a range of mod­u­lar heads and addi­tions to their cab range. Seem­ingly obsessed with mak­ing every­thing smaller, lighter, more com­pact (a damn lot eas­ier in my book!) with­out tonal sac­ri­fice Mark­bass really set the bar with their redesigned cabs and use of neodymium speaker tech­nol­ogy. Today we have an often over­looked mem­ber of the bass com­mu­nity — a 1 x 15″ combo in the form of the Mark­bass CMD 151P 1x15” combo.

A large mark combo…upsized?

It’s a fact, com­bos are often over­looked by bass play­ers. The mod­u­lar idea of hav­ing a head and cabs is very much seen as the way to go. Whilst I do under­stand the flex­i­bil­ity angle, what about those that use smaller rigs and indeed don’t need a head and 4 x 10? Gui­tarists have embraced the combo idea for a long time yet bass play­ers haven’t seemed to fol­low this lead. Maybe it’s not cool as your favourite band that only uses 8 x 10 cabs? Or per­haps it’s the per­ceived restric­tion in tone? Or maybe you just down­right hate ‘em? What­ever the rea­son Mark­Bass are here to try and sway that stub­born mind of yours over to the dark (and yel­low) side.

Lit­tle Black Box

Opt­ing for the rugged black car­pet styled exte­rior the CMD151P is a pretty sturdy look­ing beast with tough black cor­ners and a solid grill and han­dle. The face­plate is located at the rear of the top of the amp mak­ing it easy to access in a gig sit­u­a­tion when it’s sit­ting on the ground or even on a riser. With the suc­cess of the Lit­tle Mark II head you’ll be pleased to see that this sec­tion has essen­tially been included as the amp for the CMD151P with a solid state 330 watts @ 8 ohms or 500 watts @ 4 ohms.

With a four band eq sec­tion (Low, Mid Low, Mid High and High Fre­quency) there’s plenty of room to move. Bal­anc­ing the Gain and Mas­ter Vol­ume lev­els is a great start­ing point keep­ing in mind the Gain con­trols how much sig­nal is passed through the pre­amp stage, which includes equal­i­sa­tion and the effects loop whereas the Mas­ter deter­mines the out­put of the power amp into the speaker. The inclu­sion of the Clip lead next to the Gain con­trol makes for easy mon­i­tor­ing and gives the flex­i­bil­ity of boost­ing or drop­ping when work­ing with var­i­ous basses. With all this on board it was easy to setup a clean round thumpy tone with­out a hint of dis­tor­tion. Push­ing the mids and highs made for a slightly more hi fi tone with enough edge to keep the slap­pers happy (that is, the slap play­ers amongst us…you know what I mean!)

Spe­cial Filter

Mark­Bass have again included their VLE and VPF fil­ter con­trols on the CMD 151P adding to the EQ pos­si­bil­i­ties and scope (pretty cool for a sin­gle speaker combo styled amp I must say). The Vin­tage Loud­speaker Emu­la­tor (VLE) fil­ters out highs as it’s engaged giv­ing a mel­lower tone — per­haps even suit­ing dou­ble and acoustic basses. In con­trast the Vari­able Pre-Shape Fil­ter (VPF) boosts lows and highs and cuts mids — often a fave of harder edged or rock play­ers for sit­ting in alter­nate places in the mix. Whilst these type of fil­ters ain’t everyone’s bag they are a cool addi­tion and can eas­ily be dialled out if you’d pre­fer to leave your eq set­tings untouched.

1 x 15?

Mark­Bass are the first to admit that 1 x 15 com­bos haven’t been the toni­est of rigs in the past, in fact the web­site states ’ fif­teen inch speak­ers used to sound big and dumb, lack­ing definition…But our 15’s cus­tom made by B&C will change the way you think about speaker sizes!’. A fair state­ment, and from what I can see and hear the CMD 151P is def­i­nitely a step in the right direc­tion with some real depth and vol­ume for 4, 5 and 6 string players.

Old Yeller?

I’m not say­ing the CMD 151P will cover all your basses bass amp wise (ha!) but if you need a small, com­pact rig with enough tone and power to com­pete on small to mid­sized gigs it’s def­i­nitely worth some con­sid­er­a­tion. The fact that it weighs only 18.5 kgs and mea­sures a measly 50cm x 50 cm x 50 cm (approx) means you could sit this on the front seat next to you (even in the mis­sus’ pink barina when your trusty gig bus is out of action) and stil have room to jug­gle Hun­gry Jacks on your knee on the way to the gig.

Price: RRP $2295

Dis­trib­u­tor: CMC Music

Phone: (02) 9905 2511

web­site www.cmcmusic.com.au

By Nick Brown