I just received Marble Max yesterday (http://www.marble-amps.com). I bought it from www.harponline.de since I got it from there without posting expenses when the total is >800e. (I heard that actually amps can't be got without post expenses but they forgot to update that on the web so I got mine without those expenses :) I was wondering between Harpgear2 and Marble Max (good review on those: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=51523264&blogID=218196836), but because the harpgear would have cost me about 850e with postage, taxes and toll I went for the Max which costed me 745e.
About the amp:
The sound is very good. I tried it with few different mics (SM58, SM57, some Sennheiser mic and Superlux D112) and volumes. Best sounding mic was the D112, it provided very crunchy sound that I like. All the other mics were also good but not as crunchy as the D112.
I like the sound most when the tone button is set somewhere above 7, then the sound gets nicely distorted. When volume is getting from 9 to 12 the feedback will become problem unless the tone is turned to lower numbers.
I also bought an Artec analog delay which sounds very good with the Max. Actually it sounds very good with the other amp (homemade 15W tube amp) that I also have in use. I previously bought Behringer multieffect with digital delay but that wasn't very good for me - at least I couldn't find good setting for the tone. With this Artec it was very easy to find good setting.
I also compared the Max with my homemade tube amp and the biggest difference was the nice distorted crunch that Max provides. The other tube amp is also very good for harp(it was made by my bands guitarist for himself long time ago) and it has very good tube driven reverb in it which the Max doesn't have. The delay however overcomes this shortage. The Max is even smaller than I expected from the pictures, which makes it very easy to take with you to gigs and rehearsals - still it has very loud sound which will be enough for the rehearsals of full-sized band. And it has line out for PA's too.
As a summary I can say that I really like the Max and I'm happy I went for it although it's more expensive than some used amps or little amps made for guitar. Actually our guitarist has made a few custom amps during years and he said to me that 750e for a handmade amp isn't really much as it is quite timeconsuming task to make one - and this is made from the best materials. I also thought that if I'll for some reason sell the amp after few years I'll still get pretty good bucks for it and thus it is more of an investment than an expense. So these were the reasonings I used for this investment. ;)
It really feels like the harp is easier to play with this amp, perhaps because it responds so well with the playing and you can hear all the little subtleties from the sound. For example the headshake seems to be lot easier than it used to be, and also the bending seems to be more accurate.
I have one. I like it a lot. Sounds great and with a high-gain GB it only needs to run through the p.a. at medium-large venue gigs. Ideal for jams as it's light enough that it's worth the schlep even for 3 songs.
I can post a link in case people want to hear how an intermediate player sounds through one.
Good video, nice to see Jon and Yuki blowin' some harp!
I have to say from that video the Marble Max sounds the best amp of the bunch. I am a huge fan of small amps, and If I was buying an amp on that day it would have been the Marble Max. To my ear it just had a liveliness that all the other amps didn't.
I agree that the marble sounds the best from the video, but that doesnt really reflect the live experience.
I think the video camera's microphone was simply unable to pick up the weight of sound of the larger amps. The Marble is not really comparable with the sonny jr / bassman. Not saying it's worse, but there is always a difference between the tone/response of small and large amps (and my preference for most situations is large amps). The marble is a very good small amp however.
I thought the modified light bassman sounded superb on the night, with a wonderful fat broken up sound and I thought it was at least a match for my sonny jr at the time.
You're right the camera would have struggled with the big amps for sure. I have no doubt that all the amps sounded great.
I'm just not a fan of big amps.
Having had numerous big amps I find I just don't really like them. My preference is for small to mid sized amps. I would rather use two smaller amps than use one big amp.
Of course it's all just down to personal preference.
Last Edited by on Jul 01, 2009 11:41 PM
Here's a clip using the Max from a London jam, playing a reggae-fied blues - Howling Wolf by way of Errol Linton.
I play over a verse at the end of the clip - nothing fancy, but you can hear the tone when played with a Green Bullet. Settings were about 5 o'clock on both volume and tone. It's the dry sound - no delay pedal or anything.
...and yes I know my intonation on the 3 draw bend could be better
Nice jamming Gamblershand. About the volume and tone buttons - 5 o'clock, do I understand correctly that they were turned about all the way up? (to 11-12?)
I'm happy to hear that you've gotten good value for your money. Harp amplification can be expensive.
This is the appropriate time for me to give a little testimonial. I've had a HarpGear 2 for 4-5 months and I think it's a fantastic amp. It's loud as heck for the size, it's extremely easy to use, and the tone is everything I want in an amp. If that sounds like a testimonial--well, consider it a testimonial. The amp keeps sounding better the more I use it. With the mic I've got, ideal operating range is between 7 and 8. But it's worth remembering that every mic will drive your amp harder or less hard. My PE5-H doesn't drive my amp as hard as some mics; with those mics, I wouldn't need to turn the amp up as loud. What's nice, though, is that the amp is forgiving in this way.
To clarify - the Max was below halfway on each. 6 o' clock would be halfway. The tone seems to be a filter on the Max - brighter tone is also quite a lot louder.
However with a GB I would only go to 2/3 volume maximum before the gain becomes too much and I lose punch (but get lots more feedback). With a slightly lower gain JT-30 styled mic I could get to 3/4 before excessive feedback (and perhaps slightly less overall volume).
Yesterday I accidentally ran into a "new" amp from Marble, called "Marble Super Max": http://www.harponline.de/index.php?lang_id=en_GB&js=false&page=index&
Actually when you look at the Marble's web pages you can see that they offer the Max with different speakers and there is even a picture of the two different size Maxs' but there isn't any mention about the size difference of the cabins.
It seems to me that Marble offers an amp with the specs from that review of HG2 vs. Marble Max that was linked from my first post. (Where the result was that the three harp player geeks that compared the two amps also used the HG as a cabin for the Max and liked that setup the best.)
Marble "Super" Max cabin seems to be made with the same measures as HG2 and uses the 1x10" Weber Alnico speaker, but circuitry is the same as the original Max. The price is 875e which is 130e more than the original Max. (HG2 you'd get with 815e to Finland with postages and taxes+toll included.)
This option for Max was interesting to find out as it's not advertized very well - and for me this shows that competition is driving improvements to the amps which is good and apparently amp builders are reading the user reviews. Of course the sound most likely is a matter of taste, but still it's good to have options I think. Anyway, "Marble Super Max" seems to add another direct competitor for HG2 as it's about the same size and allows the use of bigger speakers too.
Personally I wouldn't (and didn't) spend another 130e(+postage30e) for this update, but it's good to know of such option.
The Marble Max is a great little amp from what I have heard, as is the HarpGear HG2 of course. I would love to see a side by side vidoe comparison of the sound of each.
