Marcus Miller M2 5 TBL 2nd Gen Reviews

excelent

well packaged, extremely nice sound and tunning out of the box, just the strings little high but fixed in 2 min, super recommended

Awesome

I just to play the V7 and I really want to check this M2 and I really love the sound and the green color is just beautiful

Luis Vargas

Gran sonido y desempeño a buen costo!!

Not the bass you are looking for

Hi. I apologise in advance for the long review,

I purchased this bass almost 2 years ago, as a budget-friendly choice and an introduction to the 5-string world. It is still my only bass guitar. It arrived with a bump on its head and the dual pot knobs were stuck together and they were spinning as one, but that's not the main problem because i asked a luthier to fix it and he did. The main problems with this bass are its electronics, its pickups and ,therefore, its sound. Here are a few ways I found to make it work better, in my 2 years of playing with it:

1. The tone knob was not working, so i asked a technician to make it work. It appears it needed a few more capacitors (3 actually) and it turns out it is not even a tone knob, it's more of a mid booster.

2. The pickups are made almost exclusively for Marcus Miller-style slapping. They don't sound that good in other styles. I had to get an EQ to practically mute the 1kHz frequencies, so now it doesn't sound THAT bad, but it is still bad. I also have the lower frequencies fully compressed the whole time.

3. Even more about the pickups, their circuit was TOTALLY WRONG. Maybe it was a mistake from the factory, i don't know. The wiring of the humbuckers was parallel, when it actually needed to be in series. The technician couldn't believe his eyes! Changing the wiring made the bass sound bigger, rounder and more powerful than before, but still...you know, pretty bad.

Conclusion:

If you slap like Marcus Miller, then by all means go for it. Me, personally, I don't do that. I needed an "all-around" 5-string bass with a pretty descent sound for performances and recording, as many other basses in this price category have. This bass simply can't offer that. I was really close in selling it, but I kept it because I love its beautiful appearance and I got used to playing it. Finally, I put new pickups and now it's all good, but I'm sure you don't want to spend extra 300 euros just to fix your new bass. Maybe something else will suit you better.

Oh and good luck finding strings for this one, it might take you a while.

Disappointed

Expected much better for the money, cheap plastic controls and overall a shoddy finish, machine heads cheap and very poor.

Excellent bass, especially considering price.

I couldn't be happier with this bass. It looks even better in person than online, it plays very comfortably, and sounds great. The neck feel is perfect and the trans blue finish with the binding effect is beautiful. Seems fairly light weight for a 5-string as well. Nicely done!

Awesome bass

I wanted a 35 inch bass so i tried this one, i was impressed! Sounds great, easy to play, and not too heavy. The bridge is ok, i only wish the trussrod access was somewere else.

Good, just not necessary great

First impressions out of the box - it looks and feels great. I really like neck profile, it is kinda rounded and feels really nice (for me). Actually I think it is the most comfortable 5er I've ever played. Transparent blue finish looks really nice.

Quality - well, not so great. Few painting defects around the edges, plastic knobs are just awful, finish is really fragile and chips easily. Pickup cavities is so tight that you can't event get pickups out, not mention change pickups height! So prepare your chisel for that. It had few high spots on the frets. Also nut slot for A string has been too low.

Sound - didn't really like it, maybe just not my kind. Of course it has a lot of features, like active preamp with parametric EQ, but I found it really not that usable. Frequencies band width is really wide, so boosting low end, for example, makes it mutter. In fact I personally liked it in passive mode most.

All in all - it is good bass. It required full setup (including fret leveling, fret end dressing etc.), but after that it plays really great. As for sound - well, it is a matter of preferencies after all. It is not like "bad" by any means, but it my opinion it just not "great" at same time.

Fret buzz on 4th 5th and 6th Frets of the B String

This was my first bass. The balance, weight, tone and the controls were really good. But I had fret buzzing issue on the B string and hence took to a professional guitar service center for setting up the guitar. They told the frets are uneven and they need to take the frets out for filing to fix the buzz problem.

Maybe I just received a defective product.

EXTREMELY PERFECT!

I've alredy have few Harley Benton guitars. They very cheap and well builded.

BUT, after buying THAT bass, im just sitting and playing few hours already!!! SOMEBODY HEPL ME!!!!1

Cons:

1) Poor knobs quality: They spinning together. When u spinning upper knob (for example), the lower knob spinning too.

Pros:

1) Cheap. (Yes it is)

2) Nice looking. (She's sexyyy)

3) PERFECT fretboard (rounded), and frets (rounded too). After Harley benton basses that's god's bless rays on my hands, told u!

4) PERFECT neck! Nice action!

5) 24 FRETS, YAY BABY!!!1

7) Active bass.

8) No ugly fret dots (actually they exist, but transparent).

9) And finally: PERFECT SOUND!

I've got already few basses, maybe 7. And this is first bass with so clear, punchy and strong sound. Even unplugged it sound SO LOUD, ROUND AND NICE! Trust me!

I don't know how about u, but for me it's new world!

After that bass im going to sell all my HB guitars.

Yes, HB doing very nice and cheap stuff, BUT just try THAT bass, u will never regret!

Last i want to say : Sorry for my English and BRAVO MARCUS AND SIRE!

Good value for money

Overall it's what I've expected to get for this price. The look is pretty decent and this transparent blue finish (actually more of a green for me) is really beautiful. With the preamp built-in you have many options for a sound, but eventually I ended up with everything boosted up to a maximum. Sounds really bright and full so I'll go with it as an everyday bass.

The neck profile is quite strange for the bass defined as a modern one. It's much more thicker comparing to the one of my Musicman bass and it takes some time to get used to it.

The build quality is not as good as it looks like. I have corrosion traces on a first few frets. There are some little painting defects on the edges. And preamp knobs are poor quality too. First the tone knob doesn't have much affect on the tone itself. I've even not sure if it works at all. Next is that dual knobs don't work as designed. When you turn one it always turns another, so you can't adjust it with one hand. You have to hold one knob with other hand while you turning another. So it's not something that I'll request for a money-back for but this is a bit disappointing for a bass named after Marcus Miller.

A nice intrument

It is a very nice instrument.It feels nice in your hands and the sound it's incredible.The body isn't that big and that gives you more comfort when you hold it.I think this bass is a good choice if you have a limited budget,it's not expensive and it's a great bass for the price that it has.

Moreover,I like the passive/active pickup switch.It's something you might need or not,this depends on you,but defenetly I needed that switch on a bass.

The wood from the body is very good and the neck is even better.

The maple is one of the best wood for neck and fretboard.

In conclusion,I recommend this bass.

Underpriced

The bass just feels right. For that price you get solid 3-band EQ preamp, which is also equipped in Sire's higher version M7, except two humbucker split toggles.

Also, compared to elder M7, HH set is different, but taking into account that M7 has those split toggles, perhaps that's the only difference that these two set s have (in frames of sound).

Last difference is bridge (in these two models), where M7 got a better one, which lets you to tune it more precisely.

That's it. Other than that it's a matter of taste and wood combination preference. Just guided by these 3 differences I can state for sure, that M2 deserves a good review having most of the benefits of elder's version (which is twice the price).

I've jumped in to the bass from LTD B-404SM (which is still with me of course) and I may say M2 is decent and can stand in line with my oldie LTD. LTD equipped with Aguilar soapbars and MikePop FlexCore pre-amp and of course variation of sound you can get out of it is way more bigger than from M2, but M2's own pre-amp impress at least a half of tones you can get out from it. The "out-of-the-box" sound is pretty warm and full of sustain. Lack of attack is noticeable, but can be compensated by pre-amp tune for genre you play.

If not talking about the price, here are mine pros & cons

Pros:

1. Amazing pre-amp which would suit variety of genres

2. Build quality + color finish. Looks fantastic and pretty modern

3. Easily comparable with elder's versions.

Cons:

1. Lack of attack out of the box

2. Generic bridge. I have not tuned it yet for a week I have the bass (except the day it has been delivered), so can't complain much, but I guess there may be some issues tunning it precisely for someone :)

3. Plastic pre-amp knobs are made not so good.

I can recommend this bass to anyone.