Mark IV combo or Mark V combo for Metallica?

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Mark IV or V?

  • Save your money; get the old IV

    Votes: 3 75.0%
  • Don't cheap out; the V's options are worth it

    Votes: 1 25.0%

  • Total voters
    4

Beery Swine

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I've been set to buy a used Mark V for awhile, just waiting till I found a good deal, but now I see the prices of Mark IVs and I'm thinking "why not save another 500 bucks if I can?" I mean there's a TON of cool options on the V but at the end of the day, I'll probably just dial in my tones for each channel and leave it, and they ARE both just 3 channels. idk

The tone I'll be going for mainly is Metallica, black album. That's my holy grail tone. If I can get Enter Sandman and Through the Never tone, I'll call it a life then. I've heard back to back to back comparisons of a Mark IIC+, III, and IV all with the same basic settings to sound like Lamb of God, and they all did a great job, tho obviously the IV was the most accurate bc that's what LoG actually use, so I figure if I'm going for the Hetfield sound how different can a IV be from a IIC+, ya feel me?

So what do you guys think? Worth the extra money for a V combo? Also, general discussion, if this hasn't already been brought up before: does the IV come closer to Hetfield than the V?

Update:

I decided to go for the IV shortbody combo, and I am SO glad I did! All the push/pull knobs seem to not be on the V, and they DRASTICALLY change things up. After just a few minutes fiddling with it it was easy to hear how pushing or pulling knob X would get you a more Master of Puppets sound or TBA sound. Plus it was nice to save some money.
 
Beery Swine said:
I've been set to buy a used Mark V for awhile, just waiting till I found a good deal, but now I see the prices of Mark IVs and I'm thinking "why not save another 500 bucks if I can?" I mean there's a TON of cool options on the V but at the end of the day, I'll probably just dial in my tones for each channel and leave it, and they ARE both just 3 channels. idk

The tone I'll be going for mainly is Metallica, black album. That's my holy grail tone. If I can get Enter Sandman and Through the Never tone, I'll call it a life then. I've heard back to back to back comparisons of a Mark IIC+, III, and IV all with the same basic settings to sound like Lamb of God, and they all did a great job, tho obviously the IV was the most accurate bc that's what LoG actually use, so I figure if I'm going for the Hetfield sound how different can a IV be from a IIC+, ya feel me?

So what do you guys think? Worth the extra money for a V combo? Also, general discussion, if this hasn't already been brought up before: does the IV come closer to Hetfield than the V?

I own a Mark V and it's a great amp, but a lot of people have trouble getting good tones out of it (it can DEFINITELY be done, though).

I can't speak to a Mark IV specifically, but I can tell you that, based on my own experiences and what I've heard from others, either one should work great for you. Both amps sound great.

If you're looking to save money, I'd get the IV. You'll basically be getting variants of the V's Channel 1 Clean, Channel 2 Crunch, and Channel 3 Mark IV mode.

If you want more flexibility, the Mark V is a great amp.

But either choice will be a good one.
 
dlpasco said:
I own a Mark V and it's a great amp, but a lot of people have trouble getting good tones out of it (it can DEFINITELY be done, though).

I can't speak to a Mark IV specifically, but I can tell you that, based on my own experiences and what I've heard from others, either one should work great for you. Both amps sound great.

If you're looking to save money, I'd get the IV. You'll basically be getting variants of the V's Channel 1 Clean, Channel 2 Crunch, and Channel 3 Mark IV mode.

If you want more flexibility, the Mark V is a great amp.

But either choice will be a good one.
How different are the IIC+ and IV modes on channel 3? I listened to demos and can't really tell much of a difference. What styles do you play?
 
I'm all over the place musically - definitely into Metallica, detuned metal and rock (Queen, Foo Fighters, etc).

IIC+ mode is a lot tighter that Mark IV mode, Mark IV mode is also a little deeper. The names are a little misleading, and should probably be called "Small cap Mark" and "Large cap Mark with Pull Deep pulled out". The cap was small on IIC+'s without a graphic equalizer. The ones with a graphic eq had a larger cap. The non-eq models with the small cap were a lot tighter and more responsive.

Metallica definitely had graphic eq on their Mark IIC+'s, so the Mark IV amp or the Mark V's Mark IV mode should be plenty tight.

Note that you can also get solid Metallica tones from a Mark III which is even cheaper. Sotosprince has some great samples on youtube worth checking out this and his other videos as well: https://youtu.be/AUfb95rA3NI

All of the Marks from the IIC+ on up are going to work out great for you. The differences between them are only going to be noticeable if you A/B the raw guitars like crazy (which I did for a couple of years - don't be like me).

Figure out the price point and options you want and you'll do great.



Beery Swine said:
dlpasco said:
I own a Mark V and it's a great amp, but a lot of people have trouble getting good tones out of it (it can DEFINITELY be done, though).

I can't speak to a Mark IV specifically, but I can tell you that, based on my own experiences and what I've heard from others, either one should work great for you. Both amps sound great.

If you're looking to save money, I'd get the IV. You'll basically be getting variants of the V's Channel 1 Clean, Channel 2 Crunch, and Channel 3 Mark IV mode.

If you want more flexibility, the Mark V is a great amp.

But either choice will be a good one.
How different are the IIC+ and IV modes on channel 3? I listened to demos and can't really tell much of a difference. What styles do you play?
 
The IV will be better for black album, in my opinion. :mrgreen: And a III would be a great option as well. I have trouble getting Metallica tones I liked out of my V. It has a weird, ugly midrange thing going on that other marks don't have. Makes it sound congested, not as open sounding as other marks. Just my opinion! You can YouTube the black album demos, where I belive Hetfield uses a mark IV. The JP2C absolutely nails black album tones. In fact, I think it does them better!! :lol:
 
Mark IV, no question, for Black Album Metallica. I like all of the Marks, but the IV is the better option for that sound. We were just dialing in some of our Marks and A/B-ing yesterday at my place with:

'84 Mesa Mark IIC++
'85 Mesa Mark IIC+
'91 Mesa Mark IV
'14 Mesa Mark V

We love the V, and think it's a great amp, but the IIC+ mode doesn't even come close to how MY IIC+'s sound that we like. The IV mode - when dialed in properly - can get close to the actual IV. However, the IV dialed in can do a close approximation of the IIC+/Metallica sound.
 
If all you want is Metallica then Mark III or Mark IV. If you want a bigger pallet of tones to work with then Mark V.

Also, I recommend skipping the combo and get either a 2x12 or 4x12 cab. If your goal is Metallica you're not going to find it in a 1x12 combo.

If you're a home player it might also be worth checking out the Mini Marks. (I'm not 100% sure since I've never tried one. If you're interested then hopefully someone that owns one will chime in).
 

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