Mark III/Mark V/Mark V:25

I have owned a blue stripe Mark III since the early nineties and picked up a Mark V in 2012.

I wanted to like the Mark V's lead channel enough to use it instead of the Mark III but really never felt the love. The V felt far too compressed and sterile compared to the sheer aggression of the Mark III. Crunch mode really did nothing for me.

I finally sold the Mark V a few months ago and bought a V:25 for a variety of reasons.

Although I will never sell my Mark III, the V:25 is unquestionably the better amp for me. I spend all my time in Crunch mode on channel 1 and IIc+ mode on channel 2.

The V:25 is more of a beast than the III, amazingly.

I frequently ran my III in Class A mode, which was a deafening 15 watt mode, so I don't have any problems with the fact that the newer amp runs at 25. If I want more headroom I can (and do) run it through the power sections of my Dual Rectifier and Tremoverb.

The V:25 is a beast and it's the amp I play the most. Seemed worth sharing.

Thanks for sharing. I love my Mark III too and don't have any plans to ever get rid of it. I would love to check out a Mark V 25 as well, but there aren't any around here. I don't even think the 2 GC's near me have them in.

lowercasee said:

Thanks for sharing. I love my Mark III too and don't have any plans to ever get rid of it. I would love to check out a Mark V 25 as well, but there aren't any around here. I don't even think the 2 GC's near me have them in.

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I think Mesa/Boogie dropped GC as one of their retailers back in 2013 or so - pretty sure you'll have to look elsewhere for anything but used Mesas.

mkVplayer said:

lowercasee said:

Thanks for sharing. I love my Mark III too and don't have any plans to ever get rid of it. I would love to check out a Mark V 25 as well, but there aren't any around here. I don't even think the 2 GC's near me have them in.

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I think Mesa/Boogie dropped GC as one of their retailers back in 2013 or so - pretty sure you'll have to look elsewhere for anything but used Mesas.

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That makes sense. Outside of a used Dual Rec or 2, I haven't seen any new Mesa stuff at either place in a while.

Xtreme mode balances very well with Crunch mode.

There is a mark IV on CL - $550 obo - but after reading this post, I'm debating myself!

ryjan said:

Xtreme mode balances very well with Crunch mode.

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Agreed. They are very similar it seems. Xtreme just has more gain stages. They are both very immediate sounding (stiff?) and loud.

Markedman said:

There is a mark IV on CL - $550 obo - but after reading this post, I'm debating myself!

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What the what?? That's a retarded price! Assuming it is in working order you could easily flip it and make a few hundred bucks after you give it a go. To me, the IV was too temperamental, and the volume was hard to control. The V:25 is much friendlier is pretty much every regard. It is pretty easy to make a IV sound less than great (tweaker's paradise). It is VERY hard to make the V:25 sound bad. It is instant gratification as much as can be obtained from a Mark series amp.

Markedman said:

There is a mark IV on CL - $550 obo - but after reading this post, I'm debating myself!

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Wow, that's an incredible price! As stated, you could easily make a nice profit on that if you don't like it, assuming it's in good condition. There is one on my local CL and they are asking $1000, though it is in like new condition. Even that is a decent price and I would snatch it up if I had the money.

http://hartford.craigslist.org/msg/5251598176.html

I sent him an email with a cash offer for 5 large.