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ifailedshapes

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I played through a Mark V today. I played one when they first came out, but didn't spend much time with it. I have extensive experience with a Mark IV, and I remember being really excited when the Mark V was announced. (I even made it the background image on my iPhone, replacing my then girlfriend, now my wife.) My main gripes with the IV were the shared tone controls, global reverb, and only having one EQ for three channels. The V, as you know, addressed all three of these. As I found out today, it even has a more useful master volume; whereas the IV was either off or loud. :)

Sadly, the local shop who had the Mesa contract lost it to Guitar Center, so the amp I played was a G.C. floor model. Channel 3 was substantially quieter than the other two channels, so I'm sure it had a bad preamp tube.

I played channel 1 in Fat mode. Man, that mode is made for a Strat neck pickup. I already knew I would love that, though, so I went on to channel 2. I tried all 3 modes and instantly bonded with the Mark 1 mode. It was warm and dark, yet it wasn't muddy, and I could hear each string. I love the gain of my Ace, but I liked this mode even more.

Channel 3 took more tweaking. I liked the basic tone of all three modes, but the dodgy tube made it impossible to truly judge it. I've got to say that I was pleasantly surprised to get non-metal tones! Every video I've ever seen has a scooped metal tone on this channel, so I was expecting to cringe. Instead I really enjoyed it.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the reverb. I had just a tiny wash dialed in, but it was so tasty. Just enough to fill the sound out, but not enough to be obvious.

So as I said in another thread, I'm in love, and nothing else will do. Haha. Seriously though, I have found MY amp. I don't think it's perfect, but it's the best amp I've ever played through. All I need to do now is sell some more gear, save some more money, and then it will be mine. Oh, and I actually really really like the standard black for this amp. I'm usually drawn to the custom jobs, but there will be a plain, run of the mill, black Mark V head in my future.

Geez, I'm gushing like a little school girl with a playground crush. Yeah, it was THAT good. :mrgreen:
 
ifailedshapes said:
Geez, I'm gushing like a little school girl with a playground crush. Yeah, it was THAT good. :mrgreen:

Glad to hear you liked it. It takes some time to figure out this amp.
 
Congrats ifailedshapes on seeing what all this great amp offers! :D

One small bit of advice would be that there may not be any problem at all with the amp! Depending on how I have things set.....it is very possible to have Ch3 at a much lower volume than 1 or 2 it just depends. My advice is to not automatically think there is a problem with the amp. Experiment greatly before assuming anything would be my suggestion FWIW!
 
MBJunkie said:
Congrats ifailedshapes on seeing what all this great amp offers! :D

One small bit of advice would be that there may not be any problem at all with the amp! Depending on how I have things set.....it is very possible to have Ch3 at a much lower volume than 1 or 2 it just depends. My advice is to not automatically think there is a problem with the amp. Experiment greatly before assuming anything would be my suggestion FWIW!


90 watts, pentode, gain up, treble up, and master nearly cranked. :)

When it comes to the Mark series, I'm not a noob. I freely admit I've never played a Mk I, II, or IIi, but I have extensive experience with the Mark IV. I've also watched every video and read every review I could find of the V. Those two things combined actually made it pretty easy to find the sounds I wanted. The only thing I don't like about the V is having to choose between Fat and Tweed in channel 1. It's like choosing between a busty blonde and a petite brunette. They're very different, but equally desirable. ;)
 
I felt the same way when I plugged my guitar into the V for the first time..so many options but I have settled on Fat, Crunch and MKIV mode all 90 watts...except for really small rooms ( switch to 45 watts rec tube)..but to have all those choices is great. The guy's I work with at MOJO Studios love this amp. So easy to get a great sound. Yeah I found My amp too...
 
I often toggle between "fat and tweed" between songs depending on what I am after. It requires some changes to volume and gain settings of Ch1, and some minor tweaks to some of the tone knobs, but I find these tweaks easy to do now that I have so much experience with the amp. I also toggle between the IIC+ and MkIV modes of Ch3 with minor adjustments depending on the song with good results. I pretty much stick to the crunch mode of Ch2, but have been known to tweak it between songs. The crunch mode of Ch2 does cover a lot of useable territory for me.

I have used all power options of all channels with great results.....depending on my needs.

I realize that the 10W mode isn't for everyone, but I find some excellent sounds using it....especially in tweed mode of Ch1.
 
My first impression of the V was total ****, but that's because the guy who owned it didn't have a clue and didn't let me fiddle his settings.

The second time I played it (and with some hours on my rack rig behind me), I got to tweak channel 3 and turn it up some, it sounded just like I expected it to be. If I didn't have my rack rig, I'd definitely have a Mark V (though I prefer my rack rig because of MIDI since I need it for gigging). But there was one thing wrong - it was the combo version, and I'm a total 4x12 junkie so I expect I would be really floored if I tried it through a cab and all.
 
Jackie said:
My first impression of the V was total sh!t, but that's because the guy who owned it didn't have a clue and didn't let me fiddle his settings.

The second time I played it (and with some hours on my rack rig behind me), I got to tweak channel 3 and turn it up some, it sounded just like I expected it to be. If I didn't have my rack rig, I'd definitely have a Mark V (though I prefer my rack rig because of MIDI since I need it for gigging). But there was one thing wrong - it was the combo version, and I'm a total 4x12 junkie so I expect I would be really floored if I tried it through a cab and all.

Yeah, man. It's frustrating when people are crazy particular like that. You'd think if he really knew his instrument (in this case, his amp) that he'd be able to get his settings back when you were done.

And I'm thinking that I'm more of a combo person. I really don't want to deal with the weight of a Mesa combo, but that's the sound I fell for, so that will probably be what I get. Oh, and it's cheaper than head + cab, which is a huge factor at this time in life.
 

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