MARK

Early Days

BASS: Like Tim, Mark got his first bass in 1989. It was the brand 'Axe'. In the sleeve to Jack Names the Planets, you can see a bass that appears to be a fender, but I have no more information on it. This is basically all the info I have on Mark's gear from the early days. I will add more as I find it out.

AMPS: With his bass came a 2 watt battery powered amp, which was apparently used on the early ash records (turned on full with a distortion pedal in front of it).

EFFECTS: Information on this is very sketchy as well, but I am guessing before Trailer Mark started using his trademark Boss SD-2 overdrive.

MISC: Mark's signature look includes only 3 bass strings. He has said that he was always popping the G string (trying to be Flea) and it was far to expensive to buy a new pack of strings everytime this happened. He therefore abandoned that string and has never gone back.

Trailer

BASS: For the trailer era, Mark switched to his now standard Gibson Thunderbird. This can be seen in all the early videos and from every live show since this era.

AMPS: Mark's amp rig, at some point, became an Ampeg SVT-1 with a Mesa cabinet that had the following speakers: 1x15, 2x10, 1x12.

EFFECTS: The Boss SD-2 was used for Mark's overdrive purposes.

1977

BASS: Mark's got another Gibson Thunderbird for touring purposes. He also picked up a Rickenbacker sunburst bass (unsure of model) which can be seen in the Goldfinger video.

AMPS: The same as the Trailer setup, with the addition of an Ampeg 30 watt combo amp at home.

EFFECTS: Boss SD-2.

Nu-Clear Sounds

Mark's setup did not change for the Nu-Clear Sounds era, with the exception that he got a few more Thunderbirds.

Free All Angels

BASS: Same live setup. For the studio, Ian ordered in two basses: a blue 1973 Fender and a brown 1991 Mexican Fender. 2 of the Thunderbird's went on tour with Mark.

AMPS: Mark started using an Ampeg SVT 2 Pro head with an Ampeg 8x10 cabinet.

EFFECTS: Live rig remained the same, with the addition of a Boss TU-2 for tuning purposes. In the studio, Mark experimented with a few different pedals (namely the Maestro Parametric Filter and the Boss Hyper Fuzz).

MISC: Mark got a deal with string company Elite and now receives his strings in sets of 3 (gauges: .65, .85, 1.05). He also uses black 1mm Gibson nylon plectrums.

Meltdown

BASS:

AMPS: Same live rig; may have used different stuff in the studio.

EFFECTS: Mark's Meltdown pedalboard.

A note about Mark's Thunderbird basses: "Mark has owned 5 of these basses: 1 of them has been in the North sea ( a piece of sea that separates the UK and northern Europe) during the making of the Oh yeah video. The other couple have had so much gin, vodka and water spilt on them Even tho the Tech's have re-wired them a million times and even changed the pick up's in one n.b. Gibson dont make spare pick ups for this bass (because you will never need to change them/they cant break)" - Ian Laughton