Markbass gear on the Anagram

Markbass is an Italian bass amp company. It helped change the bass rig in the 2000s with small, light heads and neodymium cabs, easy to recognise by their yellow speaker cones. The Little Mark head became one of its best sellers, and a common sight on festival backline.

On the Anagram, both Markbass-inspired blocks are built in. Darkglass does not name the originals, so each is likely, inferred from the names and the controls.

Tiny Lark III draws on the Little Mark III head. Its cab partner, Black and Yellow 4x10, lines up with a Markbass 4x10 such as the Standard 104HR.

The Little Mark sound is clean, modern and hi-fi. It has a fast, punchy attack and a lot of headroom. Its two filter controls do most of the shaping. One scoops the mids and lifts the lows and highs for a slap-ready tone. The other is a low-pass filter that rolls off top end for an older, rounder sound.

That makes the heads very flexible. Turn one filter up and you get a bright, modern funk tone. Turn the other up and you get something closer to a vintage, flatwound sound. Most players use a little of one, not the full range of either.

The 4x10 cab has a tweeter, so it keeps the detail of the string attack. Pair it with a darker amp block if the top end is too much for your bass.

Try Tiny Lark III into Black and Yellow 4x10 first. Set the tone controls flat, then try each filter on its own to hear what it does.