Help me choose...

[tlester]

Hi all -

I currently play a small boutique combo (a Top Hat Club Royal). I love it, but when I play live I play a very diverse set list. Anything from real poppy stuff to hard rock. Not so much metal, but we do do the occasional synth metal type thing w/ some drop-D action. It's hard for me to really get where I want to get for each of the songs with my single channel amp. I DO get a lot of different tones just by managing my volume, pickups, and a few pedals. But for example... it's hard to get a true clean when I'm dialed into the crunch that I want. Vice versa... if I get the clean I want, it's hard to get enough gain for the harder stuff. The tone is pretty good, though.

So, I've always loved boogie since I was a kid and always wanted one. I never have. The problem is... I really want an amp that has the Lonestar, Mark V, Stiletto, and Roadster all in one amp

For heavy (what I consider heavy...), I'm a big fan of Chevelle's tone. Love RATM.
In the middle, I need to pop-punk'ish tones like Blink, Angles & Airwaves, My Chemical Romance, Greenday.
On the lighter side think U2, The Fray, Cold Play.
On the super clean, think funk.

I was originally thinking Roadster, and brought one home, but it was broken. I think it just had a couple of bad tubes, but the store didn't have any replacements so I just returned it. I haven't had time to mess with it again. I like the Mark V a lot as well. I love the tightness of the Mark V for the heavier stuff, but not sure if it's going to be too tight for the poppy stuff. Then, I see JJBoogie using a Mark V for pop/rap stuff. So, I don't know. I love the lonestar clean, but not sure if the drive has the tone I'm looking for. I LOVE the tone of the drive, but I don't hear ME playing it.

Can you more experienced MB people help me out? Or am I barking up the wrong tree all together?

My ultimate goal is to pair it up with a G-System and an Amp Gizmo.

I would love to hear some feedback.

thanks,
Thoams

 

[screamingdaisy]

The Mark V is pretty good at 'pop' sounds. It doesn't have to be tight unless you dial it in to be tight... just don't roll off the bass knob as much as the metal guys do, and consider using channel 3 in triode instead of pentode for a rounder tone with a bit more compression.

Chevelle's tone is a Mark IV, which the Mark V will do.
RATM is Marshall, but I can get close enough using channel 2 crunch.
Blink 182 is Recto, which the Mark won't do, but you can get good pop-punk tones in either Crunch or Mark IV mode (Offspring was Mark IV and the dude from NoFX has gone from Mark IIIs to Mark IVs).
Greenday - Marshall... so channel 2, crunch again.
U2 is in the clean channel.
I've never heard of the Fray and don't remember what Cold Play sound like.

 

[fishyfishfish]

From what you posted, if you wanted a Boogie the Mark V would be the way to go. Right now we (My band) do about the same thing and I am running a Shiva with about 6 pedals and I can get just about everything I need, but with the Shiva it has to be loud. Good and Loud. And I have to do a lot of tap dancing on some of the songs
With my Mark III, I have the complete small rig that lets me get loud as hell if I need to and I don't have to do a lot of tap dancing. If I had to do it again, I would go the Mark V route, just because of all the options and small package.
I had the a Lone Star, and I was always fighting the gain channel. Clean was good for pedals, but I really couldn't get "My" tone from the amp.
I used a Dual Recto for about two years and really liked it, but I always felt the amp lacked a little warmth and midrange for our style of music, and could be a little over the top gain wise if I wasn't careful, and there is no way I would ever use 100 watts at a gig so to me it was over kill.
Run through a V starting on the clean channel, I think you might find what your looking for.