Markbass Micromark 801 5-stars Reviews

Pretty amazing

First new amp I've bought for many years after having mainly large set ups. I'm amazed at the sound that comes out of something so small. You get proper bass. Not quite to the level of a big dub sound system but very adequate for the volume level, which is also surprisingly loud for it's size. I use it with a 1990 MIJ P bass with emg Geezer Butler pic ups. 2 knobs on the bass, 2 on the amp but everything you need. Sounds great even to my old deaf ears.

Amazing amp

I had Boss Katana 110, but bought this for another room. This amp is so much better than Katana. It sounds much better in every way, without myriad of tone options which all sound worse in Katana. What a bliss just to plug and play without messing with all the knobs! Also it looks super cool, especially compared to Katana. Almost forgot, Katana weighs like Japan.

How do they do it?

I can only imagine Markbass put magic pixies inside and sprinkle fairy dust over these amps. You won't believe the bottom end you can generate out of this tiny 30cm cube. Don't understand it at all. Perfect for small gigs (you'd have to drive it too hard over a drummer but there's an output for front of house/monitor mix so you're really sorted anyway). Sounds great. Who wants to hump an 8x10 around these days anyway? Move with the times-small is beautiful!

I love this amp!

It's a very nice and portable amp. Sure it's tiny, but damn it's powerful! I used it in many different occasions, from my studio room at home, to the rehearsal space, to various gigs.

Since it doesn't have any equalisation I always use it in combination with my fishman platinum stage preamp, both with e-bass and double bass. It just works!

I live in the Netherlands and I always travel by bike within the city. With this amp I'm able to just fit it in the front of my bike and... Voilà! No problems of transportation whatsoever!

Sure, it's not something I would use for bigger stages, it works very nice for "semi acoustic" concerts and it can fill the room with its sound. But If you're playing with a very loud drummer or you need intense low frequencies this might not be what you're looking for!

Overall a must have!

Great for practice in a small room.

This combo is light and well built. It gives a natural sound.

It is not too loud, so it's great for practice at home.

Doesn't have many features, but I never needed them.

Great sound & easy to carry

Was looking for a mobile bass amp for my Cort B4 Plus and I'm very happy with my purchase so far. The Markbass Micro 801 been in use too often yet, but it's fairly light and has a great sound. I'm new to bass guitars & amps but it was easy to set up and feels high quality.

Perfect bass amp for bedroom practice!

what a beautiful amp for bedroom practice, sound is so pleasant although the lack of Low-mid-hi controls is a bit annoying, you can still figure out if you like it and you play through it.

This little thing is unbelievable!

People are looking for a much bigger amp/speaker combo when they hear you play through this little monster! If you need more power through the PA you can use the balanced XLR line out ... or for recording. Internal speaker can be turned off. External speaker can be connected.

Optimal Quality and Price

The magic sound and low price. It's first step for understanding of true sound of a bass guitar. You can finally feel the difference of guitars you have.

Great sound from a small amp

I use it only in my flat so I don't play loud but it sounds great with almost no background noise. It is small enough that it fits in a shelf from Ikea! Well worth the price even though there are cheaper alternatives.

Heavy sound for a very lightweight

For home practicing, recording and small gigs (venues) it's just perfect. It's pretty amazing how good (really deep bass and pure. Both for the acoustic and the electric bass) is the sound and how light it is the weight.

the perfect jazz combo

The construction quality is amazing.

The weight / sound ratio is by far unmatchable .

If it had a VLE knob would be perfect!

Small But Not Small.

All of I want.

small size, light weight, headphone, DI, etc.

but It is sensitive about electric condition noise.

and limit of small amp are inconvenient.

but Compared the other small amps, It's awesome!

For home practice or very small gigs, lighter genres of music

I bought this combo mainly for my home practice. It is extremely small and simple to use, very mobile and yet with MB's regular high finish and built quality. It is powerful enough for any small and subtle gig for around 20-30 people. As for a solo practice volume (1/4), it produces superb sound. When turned way up (2/4+), you start to notice its sound quality limitations, but that's only expected from an 8" speaker, I guess. You should be warned that the combo produces some additional rather subtle hiss with its radiator fan, which I can see could be a problem if someone played some really quiet stuff or expected to record a fretless for instance. I myself can perfectly live with it. Another problem you may find is the effective gain level, which is different when compared to larger combos or cabinets. As a result, most of the stompbox effects sound a bit different (more aggresive or dominating) when plugged into it. The combo fits virtually anywhere, the sizing is superb. The price-to-quality ratio is debatable. You can definitely get much more power from larger combos at its price so you might not be interested in this piece unless you're looking exactly for some of the features I mentioned.

Very simple and very good.

Light weight, easy to carry and sounds great. It's a very warm sound for it's size and reasonably powerful. Good for accompanying acoustic sessions and for use at small gigs. Not cheap but you get what you pay for.

Light little combo, heavy big sound

What I was looking for

I play bass with a ukelele band, we perform for fun at local charity events, private parties and small festivals etc. Before getting this combo I was using a 40 watt bass combo, which provided a good loud sound in conjunction with both my Kala Rumbler u bass and my Hofner violin bass. But I was looking for something smaller and more convenient to lug around than my current combo, especially for the weekly rehearsals when sometimes it was a long walk from the car to the room, where up to 30 or more members of the ukelele club meet. So any new combo had to as light as possible, as small as possible to fit in the tiny boot of my sports car, yet loud enough to compete with 30 noisy uke players scratching away and singing in a packed rehearsal room!

Searching around

Researching every available make of bass amps online and in music shops proved to be a long process, and nothing I could find competed with the compactness combined with power of the combo I already had. But it was so darn heavy to carry and set up I kept looking. Eventually I came across the Markbass MicroMark 801, and although this was more costly than I originally wanted to pay, nothing else fitted my particular requirements. So I ordered one and hoped it would be as good as described.

In use

When it arrived in its little box I could hardly believe how small and compact it is. Basically cube shaped, it looks great with a black carpet type covering set off by an orange speaker cone. It sounded loud enough at home, but how would it cope at the clubroom? I was relieved to discover it EASILY had enough volume to play with my noisy fellow members with the amp set only at about half power, and that even at higher volumes there was no distortion or rattling of the cabinet. I have used it straight on a number of small gigs, and again there was no lack of volume when using it with a dozen or more people playing ukes acoustically, with even some of them plugged in and miked up for the singing. On larger gigs the Markbass has been plugged into the band's PA desk using the XLR output socket on the back of the combo, and it sounds really nice and big through this.

Sound quality

The sound quality is excellent, very smooth, professional, and with no coloration, what you hear is the natural sound of your bass instrument. The combo is very quick to set up, plug in, turn on, adjust the volume and away you go. I really like the fact there is no messing around with bass, middle and treble knobs like on most other combos. You can't do that, there's just a volume control and one other filter knob that subtly shapes the sound. But it sounds naturally just great without all the usual fine tuning, you can concentrate on your playing and make any little adjustments to your tone with your instrument's controls if necessary. The amp is very quiet with no trace of any mains hum, and no noise or crackles when you turn the controls. If you want a monster sound and a monster rig to play at big gigs this is obviously not for you. However if you want a small, loud, great sounding little combo for rehearsals and use at smaller gigs this could be very suitable. It really suits the sound of the u bass, and I'm pleased I went for such a high quality product rather than a cheaper one!

markbass 801 bomb

hi there, after having owned a 601 combo i decided to go for the slightly bigger 801 combo, pleased i did, its much louder, with more depth, and more punchy!. ive already done 2 small gigs with it, and its plenty loud enough. great combo, im going to keep.