I wish Weaver would make their Marlin bases more flexible, with all the scope choices today you often find combinations that don't work. One thing about them though, they are aluminum, so I don't hesitate to get out the file and work them over. The reason I do that instead of shopping around is that I have standardized all my guns to Weaver. They are reasonably priced, sturdy, easily available, easy to modify, and you can remove and replace the scope and the zero is always good.
One combination I have ,low rings with a Simmons 1.5-5 shotgun scope, I had to file a new notch, and then knock the height at the rear of the base down to clear the power ring on the scope. Still it only took at most half an hour. I wouldn't consider using anything but low rings, because of the low combs on Marlins. You want your eye to be right there when you throw the rifle up on a gun like a Marlin. If you're shooting prairie dogs you can fiddle and jiggle, but when you are trying to hit a deer bouncing through the brush, there's no time for that.
I don't even bother to try to refinish my bases after I whack on them. Being aluminum they won't corrode, and the shiny surfaces are almost entirely hid. Just be sure to make any cross notches big enough that the ring fits fully down on the top of the base. Modify only one of the notches, one should be left untouched to hold the scope in recoil.
