Markbass TA 503 - Manual (Page 12)

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7. tA503 Product oVerVIeW
The Markbass TA503 is a high-quality bass amplifier with a tube preamp and an analog power amp, which delivers 500W of power into a 4 ohm cabinet, or 300W into an 8 ohm cabinet. The tube preamp includes one
ECC81 tube and one ECC83 tube, both manufactured by JJ Electronics in the Slovak Republic.
7.1 tA503 front PAnel
InPut
The TA503 offers two input jacks: one for PASSIVE BASSES (2) and one for ACTIVE BASSES (1). If your pickups are powered by a battery, your bass is considered “active”.
gAIn and mAster
There are two knobs on the front panel of the TA503 that control the volume of your bass. The GAIN (3) control determines how much signal is passed through the preamp stage of the unit, which includes equaliza-
tion and the effects loop. The MASTER (19) volume regulates how much output comes out of the power amp into your cabinet. If playing through the amp causes the blue “CLIP” (4) light to turn on at all, you should
turn down the GAIN (3) control to avoid distortion. When you first plug into the amp, start with the GAIN (3) and MASTER (19) controls set at their lowest levels, in other words turned all the way counter-clockwise.
Then, turn your instrument’s volume up to its full level and play as hard as you do in your most aggressive moments, and turn up the GAIN (3) control until the blue light starts illuminating. Next, back off on the GAIN
(3) just enough so that the light stays off as you play. This method will result in the optimal gain setting for the bass you’re playing. Different basses have different output levels, mostly depending on their pickups-and
in the case of active basses, the instrument’s onboard preamp and EQ settings. Once you’ve set the GAIN (3) level, use your MASTER (19) knob to control the volume of your bass.
lIne out
This LINE OUT (5) knob controls the volume level of the rear LINE OUT XLR (29), which is connected to the mixing console in live or studio situations.
eQuAlIZAtIon
Markbass amps are designed to faithfully reproduce the natural sound of your bass. If you have a good instrument, very little equalisation (EQ-if any-should be required. Bass guitars produce a surprisingly wide range
of frequencies-from extremely low frequencies that are more felt than heard, to extremely high frequencies that pass through your cabinet’s tweeter and are barely audible to the human ear. As you experiment with
your EQ settings, you will notice that all the different frequency ranges play essential roles in making up your bass tone:
LOW frequencies constitute music’s sonic foundation-they give power to your sound, physically resonating your listeners’ bodies (and yours!), sometimes even causing people to move and dance!
LOW MIDs (“MF LOW” or Mid Frequency Low) make your bass sound loud, projecting the sound over long distances, “filling the room.”
HIGH MIDs (“MF HIGH” or Mid Frequency High) convey the pitch of the notes that you play. Clarity of this range ensures that the melodies in your bass lines are heard. If detail is missing in this range, your melodic
contribution to the music will suffer. HIGH frequencies carry the percussive content of your playing-the attack of your notes, the sound of your finger or pick passing over the string, fret noise, and in the case of slap
bass, the “tick” noise produced when the strings bounce off the frets.