A quoted response from the man himself:
APEMAN wrote:
Hey there,
over the past days I was able to deepen my tests with 12AT7 in V4 vs V6. Here are my thoughts about it:
In V6 (with IV mode engaged) it is the pure and cleaned IV mode - just without the ice pick (the overall effect is more subtle). FX and Solo work very well without sound degration. It has that special drive in the upper mids that makes the sound very big and chunky, perfect for heavy rythm, but you might fight those upper mids for leads. Unfortunately, I found the total amount of gain in the crunch mode in CH2 suffers a little bit - which is sad because I totally love this mode.
In V4 (with IV mode engaged) it is all what I wished the IIC mode would be. It sounds and plays phantastic. There is a certain amount of low mid girth that the V couldn't do before. No ice pick at all and Solo and FX work very well again without sound degration. Those upper mid harmonics I talked about before in the V6 configuration get lost with the 12AT7 in V4 - but it is possible to compensate that with the channel eq pots so it is just a little different. Everything sounds more organic and musical. After all this years with the V (in the IV mode) it feels a little like a new amp and settingwise I have to get used to it. The Extreme mode makes that even more expressive with a very musical mid bump. CH1 and CH2 stay original which is perfect. I will run my V with the V4 config for at least a while. Tomorrow with the band I will see if it cuts as good as the V6 config.
In conclusion, it is very nice to have the ability to choose! Some MarkIV lovers might like the V6 config more, some more lead orientated players might become addicted to the V4 config. So it is up to your personal feel as a player.
One final thing, I never had more fun to experiment with the triode/pentode switch and the multiwatt features together with the full power/variac selector then now with the V4 config.
Just wow! Unbelievable what this amp has to offer! This amp is so highly adaptable, it covers any stage from small club to stadium.
Cheers!
