Markbass Vintage Pre

After the huge success of the Little Mark Vintage head, marking a new Markbass era, we designed the Mark Vintage Pre, a new tube preamp pedal, real true bypass, ready to become a must have tool for pro bass players. Mark Vintage Pre delivers a very wide palette of tone options, from modern sounds to vintage ones and many other features to satisfy any needs.

4 band EQ, 3-way switch with preset EQ settings, drive control with two types of distortion that can be mixed with the clean signal thanks to the blend control, +6 dB booas, Aux-in and headphones output, FX send / return, DI-line out with a dedicated transformer and, starting from an idea suggested by our top artist Marcus Miller, on this pedal we added the digital outputs RCA (with transformer) and Toslink with sampling rate switch 44.1/48/96KHz, making it the perfect studio tool for recording bass players.
A state of the art piece of gear letting everybody get a quality pro sound everywhere, from studio work to stage concerts.

Tube preamp
The Mark Vintage Pre features a 12AX7 (ECC83) preamp tube, offering rich and warm tone, full of harmonics.

A wide range of tonal possibilities
Don't be fooled by its name and its exquisitely vintage look, this preamp pedal gives a very wide range of tonal possibilities, from modern sounds to vintage ones.

4-band EQ / 3-way switch
Like the Little Mark Vintage head, Mark Vintage Pre 4 Bands EQ section has a new setting on frequencies center, all tuned to offer a pretty balanced tone that easily cuts in the mix, plus a 3-way switch with three useful EQ preset options to get very quickly a real flat setting, a cut one with scooped Mids and enhanced Low and High and an old one with scooped High to get an old vintage style tone.

Two types of distortion / Blend control
The Mark Vintage Pre offers two types of distortion (that you can select via footswitch). The amount of drive tone, ranging from crunchy overdrive to aggressive distortion, is controlled by the drive pot. The blend control allows to mix the drive tone with the clean signal of the tube preamp. Adding a bit of distortion during a studio recording gives a 'gorgeous' bass sound perfectly cutting in the mix; this is one of the tricks often used by professionals during studio recording.

Boost
The boost switch allows you to boost your signal level to +6 dB, to instantly get more headroom whenever you need it, for example it helps you stand out while taking a solo.

Real DI box
The balanced DI out is a real DI box with transformer, it is optimized to give pure, full, rich sound on all frequencies, handling extreme transients without introducing any distortion or coloration.

Digital outs
Developed from an idea suggested by our top artist Marcus Miller who was looking for a small, professional unit for studio recordings, we featured the digital outputs RCA (with transformer) and Toslink with sampling rate switch 44,1 / 48 / 96 kHz, making it the perfect studio tool for recording bass players. With the Mark Vintage Pre you can get a quality pro sound everywhere, from studio work to stage concerts.

Aux in / Headphone out / FX loop
The Mark Vintage Pre includes a headphones output and an aux input for connecting an iPod or MP3 player to mix it with your bass sound, allowing you to play and practice discreetly anywhere, anytime. Plus, a send/return FX loop to interface your favorite stomp boxes and multieffect units.

True bypass
This pedal features “true bypass”circuit: that means when the Mark Vintage Pre is off, there will be no audio signal quality loss.

Specifications:

• Tube: 12AX7 (ECC 83)
• Input impedance: 1MΩ, max. voltage 6 Vpp
• Balanced DI out with transformer (Ground lift switch)
• Digital outputs: RCA (with transformer) and Toslink with sampling rate switch 44,1 / 48/96 kHz
• Gain range: -46 to +23 dB
• EQ low: Level ±16 dB (70 Hz)
• EQ mid low: Level ±16 dB (400 Hz)
• EQ mid high: Level ±16 dB (2,5 kHz)
• EQ high: Level ±16 dB (10 KHz)
• EQ 3-way switch (Flat / Cut / Old)
• FX loop: Yes
• Controls: Gain, Master, Drive, Blend
• Switches: On/Off, Drive, Boost
• Power requirement: 12 VDC, 300mA (power supply included)
• Dimensions: 193 x 127x 59 mm
• Weight: 840 g