Mark Vintage Pre User Manual

Mark Vintage Pre Owner’s Manual

IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

MORE INFORMATION

MARK 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 BOOST, 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.

This manual will help you get the most out of your MARK VINTAGE PRE.

If you have any questions after reading it, please feel free to contact our Online Customer Service Department at

Thank you again, and enjoy your MARK VINTAGE PRE!

FUNCTIONS OVERVIEW

GAIN (1) – determines how much signal is sent through the preamp tube section.

DRIVE (2) – controls the amount of drive tone, ranging from crunchy overdrive to aggressive distortion (DRIVE switch allows to select two types of distortion)

MASTER (3) – controls the overall preamp volume

BLEND (4) – This 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 recordings.

LOW (5) – The LOW EQ control is set to a center frequency of 70 Hz. That means it either boosts or cuts the volume of the frequencies around 70 Hz, to a maximum of 16 decibels.

MID LOW (6) – The MID LOW EQ control is set to a center frequency of 400 Hz, boosts or cuts the frequencies around 400 Hz, by as much as 16 decibels.

MID HIGH (7) – The MID LOW EQ control is set to a center frequency of 2.5 KHz, boosts or cuts the frequencies around 2.5 KHz, by as much as 16 decibels.

HIGH (8) – The MID LOW EQ control is set to a center frequency of 10 KHz, boosts or cuts the frequencies around 10KHz, by as much as 16 decibels.

3-WAY SWITCH (9) – This switch gives 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.

AUX IN (10) – Use this input to plug in an iPod, CD or MP3 player using a mini plug 1/8”. This signal mixes in evenly with your instrument input.

PHONES (11) – For quiet practicing plug headphones into this mini plug 1/8” input. You can practice anywhere and anytime you like.

LED (RED/GREEN) – FUNCTIONS INDICATOR (12)

NO COLOR -> Off

GREEN -> On

RED -> Boost ON

GREEN blink -> Drive ON

RED blink -> Drive ON, Boost ON

TUBE LED blink fast -> Clip

TUBE LED 100msec pulse -> Dist type1

TUBE LED 2 (blink) x 100msec pulse -> Dist type2

DRIVE switch (13) – allows to activate the drive section and selects two types of distortion holding the button until the TUBE LED turns off, after that the TUBE LED will blink with a different pulse depending on the selected distortion type as described in point 12. Type 1 features a scooped tone to get a pure distortion and Type 2 is designed mainly to increase the sustain, particularly useful in pop/rock tone.

ON switch (14) – turns the preamp on and off; the LED indicator is green when the effect is on.

This pedal features “true bypass”circuit: that means when the MARK VINTAGE PRE is ‘off’, there will be no audio signal quality loss.

BOOST switch (15) – It 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.

CONNECTIONS

1/4” INPUT JACK (16) – The input jack accepts an unbalanced signal from your bass via a standard 1/4” instrument cable.

1/4” OUTPUT JACK (17) – This output can be connected to power amp, powered cabinet and unbalanced input of other devices via a standard 1/4” instrument cable.

SEND/RETURN (18-19) – The send/return FX loop allows to interface your favorite stomp boxes and multieffect units to the MARK VINTAGE PRE, connecting the send to the effect input and the return to the effect output via standard 1/4” instrument cables.

XLR LINE OUT (20) – The BALANCED LINE 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 OUT (21) – 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 44.1/48/96KHz, 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.

DC IN (22) – External power supply connection 12VDC / Power requirement only 300mA

TECH SPECS

TUBE

12AX7 (ECC 83)

INPUT

Impedance 1MΩ, max. voltage 6 Vpp

GAIN RANGE

-46 ÷ +23 dB

EQ

LOW: Level ±16 dB (Freq. 70Hz)

MID LOW: Level ±16 dB (Freq. 400 Hz)

MID HIGH : Level ±16 dB (Freq. 2.5 KHz)

HIGH: Level ±16 dB (Freq. 10 KHz)

3-WAY switch (FLAT / CUT / OLD)

CONTROLS

GAIN | MASTER | DRIVE | BLEND

SWITCHES

ON/OFF | DRIVE | BOOST

OUTPUTS

UNBALANCED 1/4” JACK

BALANCED DI OUT with transformer (GND switch)

DIGITAL OUTPUTS: RCA (with transformer) and TOSLINK with sampling rate switch 44.1/48/96KHz

POWER REQUIREMENT

12VDC | 300mA (power supply included)

DIMENSIONS (W/D/H)

7.6” x 5” x 2.32” | 19.3cm x 12.7cm x 5.9cm

WEIGHT

1.9 lbs | 840gr

BLOCK DIAGRAM

Mark Vintage Pre User Manual – Mark Vintage Pre User Manual –