Markbass CMD JB Players School

In the development of all Markbass instruments, care is taken to make them as innovative as possible and truly at the top of the bass ladder. Interestingly, within the philosophy of this Italian brand, they have managed to combine a big, variable and high quality sound with minimising size and, most importantly, weight - an undeniable advantage not only for those who need to travel frequently with their gear.

Within the Markbass amplifiers you can find both transistor and tube models, and for the end amplifiers not only analogue but also digital is used, which makes it possible to create a really wide range of instruments with a very interesting sound that can be used almost everywhere. The best electronics are used for maximum quality, all major components are siliconized to protect against unwanted vibrations, the chassis of the amplifiers is made of 2 mm thick aluminium sheet, the cabinet of the combos is made of reliable multi-layered poplar plywood. Only neodymium magnets are used in the combos, which have excellent technical parameters and at the same time very low weight. Simply put - quality wherever you look.

This Combo Head series is an instrument created exactly according to the ideas of Jeff Berlin, who is renowned as a bass virtuoso in musical directions such as jazz fusion and progressive rock. Berlin has long been a Markbass factory player and this is an instrument that absolutely meets all his requirements.

This combo has a power output of 150 watts and is fitted with a single 15-inch speaker made by B&C that contains a neodymium magnet. For optimal sound projection, the cabinet features a bass reflex located on the rear of the unit, the tweeter has been removed based on Berlin's requirements. The frequency range is 40 to 5,000 Hz, and the speaker sensitivity is 100 dB SPL.

On the control panel you will find a standard input for a 6.3 mm jack cable from your instrument, but there is also an XLR connector. The jack connector can be used to connect both passive and active basses without any problems, the XLR input is there to connect electroacoustic basses, but it is possible to connect it at the same time as the jack input and have, for example, a microphone in it.

To adjust the volume of the sound, there are Gain and Master potentiometers, with Gain setting the signal level before the preamp input, and Master setting the overall volume. To avoid any clipping and unwanted distortion, there is an LED behind the Gain control to indicate clipping. Equalization of the sound is done with four controls, namely Bass, Mid Low, Mid High and High. All these potentiometers have a range of +/- 16dB at a given frequency, which is 40 Hz for Bass, 360 Hz for Mid Low, 800 Hz for Mid High and 5 kHz for High. It's really no problem to set up any quality sound you want. For even more versatility, there are VLE (Vintage Loudspeaker Emulation) and VPF (Variable Pre-shape Filter) potentiometers behind the EQ. VLE basically takes away the high frequencies, making the sound softer and more "vintage" sounding, VPF adds bass around 35 Hz and treble around 10 kHz, while taking away the mids at 380 Hz, making the sound more modern, "rockier".

The Markbass CMD JB is therefore the ideal companion for musicians demanding great sound without compromise. This beast is truly guaranteed to make you heard.