Mark V at practice last night......

[Monsta-Tone]

My band has been on an extended break. Until last night, we had not played in about 2 months.
I borrowed a Mark V head from a friend. I've been playing a Rectoverb for a few weeks, but it's just not what I'm looking for. The ROV cleans are too dark and the distortion is really fizzy. Could just be tubes, but I don't think it's the amp I'm looking for.

Anyway, I put the Mark V head on top of the ROV combo cab (after taking the handle off of the combo cab).
I ran the V through the ROV's speaker, essentially using a gigantic 1x12 3/4 back cab with the V.
The pictures show the wattage settings on 10 watts. I used all 3 channels on 90 watts at practice.

The clean channel sounded really good, but needs more dialing in.


Channel 2 sounded phenomenal. A little dark, but I was too busy playing to even care!


Channel 3 sounded overly bright and brittle, no matter what settings I used or where I set the EQ. I finally just stopped trying to use this channel because I didn't want to waste valuable band time. I am going to need some help with this channel for sure!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Sorry for the bad angle on the pictures. I tried 3 times to edit them in photobucket and they just keep coming up like this.......


So,
I'm looking for a very fat and chunky heavy tone from channel 3. I do not like overly bright guitar tones.
I like lots of crunch and sustain.
I'm not looking to sound like anyone else, so all suggestions are welcome. I'm hoping that I can find something I like in this channel.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

I'm thinking you're almost there with fat and chunky on the Extreme mode on CH3. Don't know what your EQ curve looks like, but I'd bet your tone could stand some more treble in the preamp, which should give you more gain too. Don't worry about brightness. Just compensate with the topmost EQ slider and your presence control.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I didn't think about that, thanks!
Like I said, I didn't have a whole lot of time to play with settings. This was our 1st practice in 2 months and we only had a couple of hours.

Here is where the EQ was set. I almost never set the bass that high, but I guess this is where it ended up.
The Preset knob actually sounded decent, but the channel was still nasally and thin sounding. It really didn't have much gain either.
Guess that's because the Treble was turned way down.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I've been reading the manual all morning. I found this part interesting:

MK IV is a faithful re-creation of the MARK IV’s Lead Channel. Because of the vast options in configuring this channel on the MARK IV – combined with the fact that the MK II C+ Mode covers a wide range of brighter sounds, we have configured this Mode for a slightly warmer sound. The MK IV Mode has a substantial increase in midrange gain that creates the impression of a roll-off in the upper harmonics resulting in a huge, wide sound. It’s a different flavor of fatness as compared to Channel 2’s MARK I Mode, as here the midrange is voiced higher and stays tighter. Because of this characteristic the graphic EQ does an amazing job of shaping this sound into whatever you want it to be. The EQ doesn’t have to compete with the increased low end early in the preamp of the MARK I Mode and can be used to dial in some incredibly big sounds that won’t get flubby.

The Mark IV and Extreme modes both have way more upper mids than the IIC+ mode on the amp that I've been using. They just seem so much brighter than the IIC+ mode.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

I even have the bright switch on (again, more gain) and have the 750 slider down around the first line. There's still a bit too much honk in the mids even there, but it's bearable. It is voiced very different from ch2 for sure. I felt like a newby scooping the mids, but in this case it's warranted.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Right on, thanks! I'll give those settings a try in a little while.
I also found a picture of JP's settings in the Mark V Settings thread that I want to try today.

I was really amazed at how touch sensitive the amp is, even with all of the bells and whistles.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

I also found a picture of JP's settings in the Mark V Settings thread that I want to try today.

That's basically how I have my CH3 set up. Although it sounds a bit different from him owing to how I have a combo and I'm using a different guitar, it still works and is a huge sound.

 

[screamingdaisy]

The preamp shapes the feel and the graphic EQ shapes the sound.

If the amp is too bright most people will tend to reach for the treble or presence knob, but in reality they should be reaching for the 6600 slider.

My recommendation is to dial in a fairly generic but proven setting on the preamp (try the Workhorse Mark IV setting out of the manual) and don't touch it for the rest of the session. Make all the adjustments with nothing but the graphic EQ. Once you get the sound you're looking for on the graphic go back and tweak the preamp to fine tune the feel of the amp, then if necessary tweak the graphic again.