Mark V 25 Reviews

Thought I would start a review-specific post so I can add to it over time.

To start:

I GOT MY MV25!!!!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

It is the greatest amp I have ever owned. Seriously, though, it is seriously badass. I only have about an hour in on it, but amazing. Way better than I imagined, and I imagined it to be great as I have come to expect from my MR. I will say that the EQ is a huge part of the greatness. Without the EQ it is really kind of meh. I want to add an EQ to my MR now.

I would say that I love love love the Fat Clean, and the crunch is incredible. Crunch has quite a bit of gain, and also has more life. Where channel 2 is really tight, crunch is looser and pushed the power stage nicely. It has a lively vintage feel.

I really like all the channel 2 modes. I find that I am drawn to MKIV mode because it has a lovely richness and powerful low end, but also love the clarity of the 2C+ mode. WIsh I could use both :lol:

I assumed I would not be a fan of xtreme mode, but it is amazing.

I played it at the store through a theile and slant 1x12 and it was HUGE. I used my ASAT classic and on clean especially it was perfect. I also played one of my 7-strings through all the modes of channel 2 and I was amazed at how well the low B comes through. Tight and huge. On most amps it just dies out.

Set it up at home with really no trouble. It's easy to set the tone controls, went with the big V on the EQ. Tried it through a vertical 2x12 and my new widebody ported 1x12 with matching boogie logo :wink:

Sounded great. Big, big, big low-end response. A little fizzy on top, oops too much hi boost with the EQ. Nice and bright and scratchy, great pinch harmonics. Way more lively than other amps I'm used to, with a great combination of gain and tone control and dynamic response.

Then I went full-throttle. Used the stereo outputs on my G System to run to the MV25 and the power amp in my MR at the same time. UNBELIEVABLE :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Now I really want to hook the MR preamp into a loop to have a 4-channel stereo Mark-tifier. HUGE. Seriously. Huge.

Finally got around to trying the cab clone and headphones. After the wall of volume of the stereo setup, I shut down the MR and set the cab clone speaker switch to off.

I generally hate headphone outs on amps because they are usually unlistenable. The V 25 headphone isn't perfect, but it is really not bad. Better clean than distorted, but even distorted sounded decent for quiet practice. My GF was really happy with that

I hope that the tone out of the XLR is better. I may try recording with it tomorrow if I get a chance. That will have to be after I finish tweaking and wiring, change strings, rehearse for my gig next week, install new pickups on my 7-string...

Incidentally, based on the pics and the aspect ratio, I though the V 25 would be much bigger than the MR head. Turns out it is a little bigger, both taller and deeper in particular, but still awfully small. Putting the MR on top really puts into perspective.

Congrats on the new amp! I can't wait to get one. I will watch your cab comments as well to help me decide which cab to get for it.

Looking goog so far

My local shop apparently has stock now so hopefully I can try one next week.

What I want to know is how the clean tone measures up against the big MV or ED. I've had a number of EL84 amps, but they never seem to have the purity in tone of say a 6l6 or EL34 tubes. I probably just don't like EL84 tubes, but am hoping the V:25 can change my mind.

Congrats Elvis!! Your rig looks awesome to btw. I also thought it would be several inches bigger than the mini rec.
I also own a 112 widebody front ported cab and can't wait to receive my amp MV25! :mrgreen:

Congratulations Elvis. You have the perfect mini rig right there.. 8)

This is what I've been waiting for, opinions about the MV 25 from someone who actually has it in his hands. I will be following this thread as you get more familiar with it and report back the good , bad and/or ugly. Man it dose look small sitting on that 4x12, puts it in prospective. Thanks Elvis, I look forward to more input. I've had my eye on this since the "press release".

Buster Leggs said:

This is what I've been waiting for, opinions about the MV 25 from someone who actually has it in his hands.

Click to expand...

Kippiejr has had one since 9/26. His review starts on Page 3: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=68226&start=30

dodger916 said:

Buster Leggs said:

This is what I've been waiting for, opinions about the MV 25 from someone who actually has it in his hands.

Click to expand...

Kippiejr has had one since 9/26. His review starts on Page 3: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=68226&start=30

Click to expand...

Thanks I missed that, he's Mr. mark series so his option would interest me. Thanks Frank !!!

Buster Leggs said:

dodger916 said:

Buster Leggs said:

This is what I've been waiting for, opinions about the MV 25 from someone who actually has it in his hands.

Click to expand...

Kippiejr has had one since 9/26. His review starts on Page 3: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=68226&start=30

Click to expand...

Thanks I missed that, he's Mr. mark series so his option would interest me. Thanks Frank !!!

Click to expand...

Always my pleasure to be of assistance! His review is pretty in-depth, as I'm sure elvis's will be. This new amp has really piqued my interest. 8)

Spent some time playing withe the CH2 settings, both with and without EQ. You can get a good tone without the EQ, but low end really is limited. It doesn't take much bass to get flubby.

Without EQ it seems that the tone is really vintage-y, so bright and a little thin, but still powerful. I find I like both 2C+ and Mark IV modes a lot. The 2C+ mode give a more simple but clear tone that is easy to work with. The Mark IV gives more complexity, but also a pretty big Bass boost. Interestingly, I find that at any settings, I can switch between these modes and they are both useable and the volume is comparable.

I mostly worked with the EQ in fairly heavy V settings, though with some variations. I found that I tend to cut the middle slider, but it is really powerful. With full mid-cut, the low end can sound huge, but the amp sounds muffled. Bringing up the mid slider just a little bit has a huge effect. The way Mesa explains it is really apt - bringing up the mids slider pushes the amp forward. When I find that the amp seems to be missing high end, I find it is really the mids.

So the honeymoon is over, I am working on really dialing in the amp. The huge tone that grabbed me at first is starting to sound kind of muffled, but I am learning a lot about tweaking the settings, and I think that this amp will be capable of an incredible array of tones. However, it is really clear that no mtter what the tone settings, it sounds like a Mark. So switching to my Mini Rec, I get a totally different tone that the Mark can't get. Pretty cool, actually. I expect that I may wind up using settings without the EQ, then adding just a bit of low-end to bring up the bottom so it's not anemic. With mega-V EQ settings the amp starts to sound less lively and more boxy.

I also ran my 7-string with the new pickups (Crunch Lab & Liquifire). Wow! Tons of output and bite. Mates well with the Mark.

Are you mainly playing it with the 2x12V? That's the cab I will probably end up with.

Not to hijack, but i have a 1x12 recto and I'm either going to add a 1x Thiele and use both, or sell the 1x and get a 2x Recto (probably V). These will be used with my Mini Rec and a V25 (when I get it). Trying to find the speaker setup that would be best for both amps. So, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts if you flip some speaker/cabs around and try it with others as well.

I've had good results with various cabs. I have been playing through a vertical 2x12, a 4x10 and a widebody ported 1x12 with V30. You can see them here: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=68382

The 4x10 is the darkest and quietest. The 2x12 is in the middle. The 1x12 is the brightest (this is off the floor on a stand, BTW, expect to try on the floor soon).

In the store I tried it with 2 speakers in parallel: a 1x12 slant on top of a Theile.

A few weeks ago when I auditioned the 1x12 widebody ported (with Mini Rec), I found that the theile didn't have nearly as much low-end. With all 3 placed on the floor, the theile sounded tinny, the widebody ported sounded similar to a 2x12 vertical recto. I was really impressed with the WB Ported.

I think that with EQ, pretty much any speaker would work with the MV25. I prefer the 2x12 and 4x10 with my Mini Rec and with the MV25 without EQ, as they give the best low-end. As I understand it, a pair of Theile or a WB Ported stacked on the floor is supposed to give a pretty huge response as well.

I have run the 1x12 in paralle with the 2x12 and the 4x10. The 1x12 is louder than either of the others. They all combine well. Short-term I am going to gig with the 4x10 + 1x12, long-term I may go to a pair of the 1x12. I need to try them.

I ran the stereo amps (MV25 + power section of MR) with the MV25 into the 2x12 and the MR into the 4x10.

Played last night via the cabclone into a mixer to rehearse along with my iPod at low levels to allow my family to retain their hearing. That worked really well! It's not perfect, but has its place for sure.

I also played with the EQ more, less V shape, more tuning of low-end. The amp is really versatile, and actually sounded less tone-rigid with less extreme EQ settings. I see the amp as having a sort of thin, vintage tone with no EQ, and a huge over-processed tone with big V on the EQ, but there are definitely all shades in between. I never messed much with the EQ on my Studio Preamp, so this is actually pretty new for me.

I find that for a lot of what I do, I prefer the simpler tone of the 2C+ mode. While I like the bass-boost of the Mark IV, and use it for heavier stuff, I mostly play classic rock in my band.

Elvis,

Thank you so much for your continued reviews of the mini Mark! Please keep them coming.
I can't wait to receive mine, but so far haven't heard back from my retailer!
I am the proud original owner of a mid 90's 112 widebody combo Mark IV; and the very first release offering of the Mark V 112 combo that I purchased about 5 years ago.
Honestly, the big Mark V offered all of the things that I had hoped for that weren't offered with my Mark IV......consequently, my Big Mark V has gotten most of my play time.

That said, one thing that is very common with most Mark series amps is the 5 band GEQ sliders which offers tremendous versatility in all channels/modes. However, IMO the GEQ is not essential for me to achieve great sounds out of my Mark amps. I do use my GEQ and kick it in for particular passages with my Big Mark V, but don't rely on it to achieve great sounds.

My main suggestion to people new to the Mesa Mark Series or any Mesa that offers the GEQ is to first experiment with the various sound offerings in all modes / channels using the primary gain, treble, mid, bass, presence controls. Once one gets a feel for the sound offerings of modes / channels / power settings.....then dive into the incredible diversity of potential sound enhancement options using the GEQ sliders. The only reason I say this is that while the GEQ sliders can be used to greatly enhance a tone in any mode.....they can also be set to greatly ruin a great sound since the GEQ circuit offers such a powerful tone shaping feature. The middle slider setting of the GEQ is crucial to the sound of the amp with GEQ engaged......so much so...that even a slight adjustment to that slider can make a Huge difference in overall sound.

BTW....I am delighted that Mesa included the 5 band GEQ sliders with the mini rather than the single knob GEQ option available on the big Mark V!! I can't wait to receive my Mini Mark V!! :mrgreen:

^ Good observations. The other thing I noticed: in Mark amps the tone pots have a significant impact on gain and on one another, whereas the GEQ has a purer, more discreet impact on the final "post-production" tone. It's more the icing on the cake, whereas changing tone stack settings is like messing with the basic ingredients.

Thanks for the encouragement!

I had rehearsal with my band last night. I didn't feel ready to use the MV25, so I brought it as a spare to my MR, which I have been using with this band.

I never wound up using the MR. The temptation to try the MV25 was just too much. I loved it. Make no mistake, I really love the tone and cut of the MR, but it was so cool playing the MV25. We didn't use a PA so I went Stereo with the MR power amp. I used my 4x10 and 1x12 widebody ported. I like this setup because the 4x10 brings some great low-end, and the 1x12 has good overall tone, but is definitely brighter AND quite a bit louder. So I put the 1x12 by me so I could hear and the 4x10 on the other side of the drums. Worked really well.

The MV25 took me a couple songs to dial in, but it went really quickly, because I have found that I don't really use much range on the tone controls.

CHANNEL 2:

It was the EQ that really took some tweaking, but even that didn't take much. I tried to use as little as possible, but still wound up with a pretty significant "V".

One note about the EQ: I usually have to adjust the master volume along with the EQ because it has a big effect on volume. Another note, again I found the MID slider to be the most sensitive and powerful. All the others are pretty easy to set.

I found it easy to tweak the knobs as I played, and I liked that they are a little stiff, so they stay where I leave them.

I also really liked that I can change modes without a big pop or change in volume, and they work well with a given tone setting. So I play mostly 2C+ because it has a great lively bright classic rock tone. Add OD808 and the rhythm is huge, add BBPre and the lead tone is liquid and sustainy. I am running a bit more channel gain than I used to because I like the chunky tone I am getting, and I am losing patience with my prior philosophy of running as little gain as I can possibly stand.

Switch to MKIV mode for more modern stuff, and it worked right out of the box, no tweaking. I could have gone for some EQ tweaking for a more tight metal tone, but it still worked really well and I am not playing metal with this band... yet.

Anyway, that is a great feature. No big volume jump between modes. Just a tone change.

CHANNEL 1:

I still need to work on this one. So far I am happier with the MR clean channel. I'm sure this is just the fact that I spent 2 years tuning that one and 10 minutes on the MV25.

I haven't been switching between modes, just sitting on FAT for the moment. I could use clean, but it's not a big diff for me and I like FAT. Crunch is great, but that mode really needs a total retuning of tone and gain, so that is the odd man out. I can totally see why people would want that as a third channel. I would love to have that available on the fly.

Ran my cab clone output from the MV25 yesterday at high volume via a small mixer and near-field monitors. It actually sounded really good. Better than at low volume.

Moved to speaker cab (no cab clone) and the tone changed quite a bit. Granted my near-fields are really bass-heavy and generally not the greatest fidelity.

I might get a standalone cabclone for my MR.

Very well put dodger!
Elvis, I am pleased that you feel the cab clone sounds pretty good at higher volume settings and thanks for your continued review posts!