Took the Mark V Plunge

Greetings all,

After contemplating the purchase of a new Express + 5:50, and then considering the extra cost of ordering it with a few special options to flash it up... I realized I was within grasp of actually affording the Mark V, which is what I set out to raise funds for in the first place. From the onset, the MV seemed a little out of my budget, and honestly, seemed to possess far more bells and whistles than I really needed... enter the notion of settling for a 5:50.

Well, yesterday I found a used mint condition Mark V that was only a few hundred more than a new stock 5:50 and so I jumped on it. I printed out and read (and reread, and so on...) the 70 page manual until I had a good feeling about what all this thing can do and how it does it. At this point I just need to start exploring with my ears. It'll be interesting to see how this thing plays with my speaker cab which is not exactly the run of the mill set up...

It's a closed back 2X12 loaded with Eminence Commonwealths. The speakers are rated at 225w a piece and do not color the sound very much at all... the cab can shake a room with it's lows and make you bleed from the ears with highs if you don't know how to set an EQ. It sounds HUGE, and right now I'm just running a little Fender Super Champ X2 (15w) through it. From what I can tell by reading, the Mark V requires a delicate touch with regards to EQ settings but I think once I get it dialed in it's going to sound glorious.

Channel 3 will be interesting for me to mess with... I play largely jam band, classic rock, clean chording, slight OD and mild distortion for soloing. I'm a huge Deadhead and often use Garcia's and Steve Kimock's tone as a point of reference. As far as I can tell channel 3 is where the heavy stuff lives... I have no experience using a Mesa IIc+ or MkIV so it's heritage and history are a bit lost on me. I once owned a Mesa Blue Angel for a spell and loved it for it's etherial cleans but alas, I had to get rid of it and it was later replaced with a Fender Twin which I have played since. I'm hoping to coax some cool clean to threshold of break up tones from Ch3 but we'll see. I don't play any heavy stuff so it's metal potential will again be lost on me.

I guess I just need to get my hands on the amp and start playing with it. I'm going for a Fenderish clean on channel 1, an in your face Fenderish clean/on the edge of breakup ch2, and we'll see what happens on channel 3. My thinking is that because I have a few dirt/OD/dist. pedals on my board that I will concentrate on "mastering" one channel of this beast at a time so I don't feel overwhelmed... something tells me that this amp will offer a lifetime of rewarding exploration! I look forward to learning more about the amp and picking a few brains around here. 8)



Here's a shot of Jerry from '76 with a few Mark I's.

Channel three isn't just for high gain stuff, that gain knob goes down just as easily as it goes up. :wink:

SteveO said:

Channel three isn't just for high gain stuff, that gain knob goes down just as easily as it goes up. :wink:

Click to expand...

:lol: Oh, I don't doubt that... I've just never had a chance to play many Boogies so I didn't know what type of cleans are attainable on ch3. I played a Mark of some sort years ago... maybe the III? that a friend of mine had at his studio a handful of times. I honestly don't remember much about how it sounded, it was quite a while ago. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I've yet to find much in the way of reviews that highlight the clean tones of chs 2&3 on YouTube or elsewhere.

Hello - I know this topic is a bit old, but so am I ... and I've just purchased a used Mark V as well ... and I'm a Deadhead that's been trying to dial in a bit of Jerry as well ... so I was curious if you've been able to get the sound out of the amp you wanted or if you've moved on since this post many years ago? FWIW - I'm been able to get 'something' out of all channels - mostly inverted v eq, treble & bass at 9 oclock, mid at 3 oclock ... noon gain on channel 1, and just over 9 oclock in 2, and just below 9 oclock in three ... clean on most settings - Mark IIc+ in three ... it's not perfect but it's also not a fender twin mod head pushing through a McIntosh ... and I'm not Jerry ... but it gives an ok tone. Any luck with anyone else? Cheeers - RichaRD

Congrats on taking the plunge on the Mark V. I remember when I made the decision. It's difficult to put down that much money on an amp at once, but I took stock of all the amps I had and they easily met or exceeded the cost of the Mk V, so it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I've had the amp for around a year and a half now and still am learning something new about it on a regular basis. What's great is that as I GAS for another amp, I can usually satisfy it by tweaking the Mk V to get whatever flavor I'm after. I've contemplated selling it and downsizing to a different amp, but I'm glad I haven't because this amp is just so high quality.

I highly recommend reading and re-reading the owner's manual and keeping it handy at all times. It can be boring for some, but the info in there is invaluable. Enjoy!

Edit: just realized this post is 3 years old. Whoops!