Dialing out that nasal sound in my amp

Probably my number 1 ***** with the mark v is how hard it is to dial in good tone. Everytime I switch guitars, I have to reshape the tone controls to get that guitar sounding good.

I am wondering if I could take my amp to a professional amp tech and have something inside changed to get rid of that nasal sound. I believe that it is caused by the mid control and there has to be a different value cap or something that could be used that would sweeten up the tone section of the amp and end that nasal tone.

IDK, I am just thinking outloud. Anyone else share this observation about the mark v?

Marks in general are fairly nasal sounding amps. The joke used to be that they had all sorts of knobs and no way to dial out the midrange.

To answer your question, try dialling back the mid knob. I know it may seem obvious, but I used to run it fairly high all the time fearing that if I ran it low my guitar would disappear in the mix. To my surprise lowering the mid knob doesn't really reduce the midrange so much as alter the way the mids feel/respond. My mids (Mark IV mode) are set to zero right now and there's still a lot of midrange in the amp... however it does produce a fatter, slightly more saggy sound than what I was getting with the mids at 12:00.

The best description I've heard was when I was told by someone that the midrange knob in a Mark works more like an overdrive than a midrange knob... basically, 9:00 is generally no boost and turning it above 9:00 gives it more of a mid boost. Lowering it below 9:00 doesn't lower the mids so much as soften the response.

Don't know if this will help or not... just throwing the info out there.

Post removed.

Turn down the mid knob, or try and use less of the 750Hz frequency on the slider EQ...

KH Guitar Freak said:

Turn down the mid knob, or try and use less of the 750Hz frequency on the slider EQ...

Click to expand...

The 750 slider is CRUCUIAL and very sensitive.

That " nasal sound" is what helps this amp to project at 50 feet away. most amps at an outdoor gig at that distance unmiked are lost..really lost. Not the V, loud and clear. Helps you cut through the mix too. This amp is a gigging beast...best stage amp I have ever had.. always sounds good never lets me down... comes to life at about 40% on Master volume knob. (like a Ferrari happy at 200). Just cut your mids...Get a good sound without the EQ and then add EQ to taste.

Try cranking it (maybe with an attenuator) to get some power tube saturation. Worked wonders for me, getting rid of the preamp buzz and nasal sound.

screamingdaisy said:

To answer your question, try dialling back the mid knob. I know it may seem obvious, but I used to run it fairly high all the time fearing that if I ran it low my guitar would disappear in the mix. To my surprise lowering the mid knob doesn't really reduce the midrange so much as alter the way the mids feel/respond. My mids (Mark IV mode) are set to zero right now and there's still a lot of midrange in the amp... however it does produce a fatter, slightly more saggy sound than what I was getting with the mids at 12:00.

The best description I've heard was when I was told by someone that the midrange knob in a Mark works more like an overdrive than a midrange knob... basically, 9:00 is generally no boost and turning it above 9:00 gives it more of a mid boost. Lowering it below 9:00 doesn't lower the mids so much as soften the response.

Don't know if this will help or not... just throwing the info out there.

Click to expand...

It certainly helped me SD

I've been on the hunt for my sound in CH3 for 18 months now, and tried this recommendation on the MK IV setting. It has been key in balancing EQ to various guitars with different PUP outputs, and I now have something close to the sound I was looking for. The V is finally a 3 Channel amp for me. The Mesa journey continues ...

Chester said:

It certainly helped me SD

I've been on the hunt for my sound in CH3 for 18 months now, and tried this recommendation on the MK IV setting. It has been key in balancing EQ to various guitars with different PUP outputs, and I now have something close to the sound I was looking for. The V is finally a 3 Channel amp for me. The Mesa journey continues ...

Click to expand...

Sweet!

If you want my other lesson learned.... lower the treble/presence.

When I first started using the Mark V I dialled it in with the classic Boogie 7/5/2 on the T/M/B that worked well on my Mark III. With the Mark V the results were aggressive and extremely bright. I wound up dialling them back to around 4/0/4 with the presence rolled back to around 4.5 as well and the tone is fatter and now more "rock" than "metal".

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m197/screamingdaisy_album/Guitar%20Kit/Amplifiers/file-2.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m197/screamingdaisy_album/Guitar%20Kit/Amplifiers/file-1.jpg

toneseeker911 said:

Try cranking it (maybe with an attenuator) to get some power tube saturation.

Click to expand...

Not gonna happen unless you dime it completely, at least not with a poweramp this clean.

Your advice is good though, turning the amp up moves more air and get them speakers working, and that definitely dials out the buzz and perhaps some honky-ness too.

+1 to what others have said on the 750Hz slider and the Mid knob.

Jackie said:

toneseeker911 said:

Try cranking it (maybe with an attenuator) to get some power tube saturation.

Click to expand...

Not gonna happen unless you dime it completely, at least not with a poweramp this clean.

Your advice is good though, turning the amp up moves more air and get them speakers working, and that definitely dials out the buzz and perhaps some honky-ness too.

+1 to what others have said on the 750Hz slider and the Mid knob.

Click to expand...

It's not too difficult to get it in the 45W/10W mode. On the clean channel, I adjust the attenuator, output and masters till I can hear distortion when I dig into the strings. That gives me a reference on how loud it should be to breakup the power tubes... then shift into channel 2 or 3 and adjust gain/masters to get to that volume. Then switch the clean channel back to 90W (to avoid power tube saturation) and lower its master to balance out the volumes. And I'm done !
All this is if you don't know how power tube saturation feels/sounds... once you get addicted to that, you'll know when you get there.