First of all, let me thank all of you for such great info that this forum provides. It sure did help me a lot with my research on tubes.
I was feeling a little underwhelmed with my Mark V regarding Channel 2 in Crunch Mode and somewhat in Channel 3 in Mark IV mode. I just seemed that it was lacking something, and after watching the Mesa Doug West demo on YouTube, I thought to myself hmmm... my amp does not sound like that. So after many overdrive pedal experiments, I just could not understand why I could not get the sound I wanted.
I used to have a Mesa Studio Preamp and it had all the gain and punch you could imagine, but why didn't my Mark V sound the same or even better!! Anyway long story short, after researching about preamp tubes I purchased and replaced V1, V2, V3 and V7. I now get great crunch and clarity on Channel 2 and liquidy smooth saturation on Channel 3 Mark IV mode. It really did make a world of difference. I had to turn the gain back on both channels and re-tweak my settings. The Treble and Presence Controls now have a much better response than they did prior to the swap. Overall it really brought out everything I was looking for. While this selection may not be for everyone, this is the tube cocktail I used:
V1 = Mesa SPAX7
V2 = JJ Hi Gain
V3 = Ruby Hi Grade
V4 = Stock
V5 = Stock
V6 = Stock
V7 = Sovtek 12AX7LPS
Thanks again for your help and I hope maybe this selection might be the answer to others as well !
I was feeling a little underwhelmed with my Mark V regarding Channel 2 in Crunch Mode and somewhat in Channel 3 in Mark IV mode. I just seemed that it was lacking something, and after watching the Mesa Doug West demo on YouTube, I thought to myself hmmm... my amp does not sound like that. So after many overdrive pedal experiments, I just could not understand why I could not get the sound I wanted.
I used to have a Mesa Studio Preamp and it had all the gain and punch you could imagine, but why didn't my Mark V sound the same or even better!! Anyway long story short, after researching about preamp tubes I purchased and replaced V1, V2, V3 and V7. I now get great crunch and clarity on Channel 2 and liquidy smooth saturation on Channel 3 Mark IV mode. It really did make a world of difference. I had to turn the gain back on both channels and re-tweak my settings. The Treble and Presence Controls now have a much better response than they did prior to the swap. Overall it really brought out everything I was looking for. While this selection may not be for everyone, this is the tube cocktail I used:
V1 = Mesa SPAX7
V2 = JJ Hi Gain
V3 = Ruby Hi Grade
V4 = Stock
V5 = Stock
V6 = Stock
V7 = Sovtek 12AX7LPS
Thanks again for your help and I hope maybe this selection might be the answer to others as well !