Picked up a used Mark V head about a week ago, been playing it through headphones via a cabclone I borrowed off a friend (bought a cab from Avatar that should be here soon). Seems to work perfectly, but I seriously can't tell if these switches do anything! Either they don't do anything, I just can't tell because of the cabclone and headphones, or my amp is somehow messed up. The bold one seems to be a little noticeable, but I seriously don't notice a thing with the other 2. Like I said I have a cab on the way so once that gets here I can get a better idea, but I thought that even with a cabclone+headphones I'd notice SOMETHING. Were my expectations wrong? :?
The bold/thick/bright switches... do they do anything?!
- Thread starter iamrobk
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screamingdaisy
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Bold makes the clean channel push more mids.
Thick only works in Mark I mode.
Bright works in all three modes and is pretty noticeable too when played through a speaker cab.
Thick only works in Mark I mode.
Bright works in all three modes and is pretty noticeable too when played through a speaker cab.
Archlute75
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I agree with the above, but you're likely going to have a difficult time hearing it through headphones. You really need to be pushing air through a cab.
The bright on channel three adds a noticable bite, almost like the high-mids switch on a Suhr Koko booster. Great palm-muted riffing.
The thick switch on the MkI mode stays off for me. I mostly use humbuckers, and it's just too much. It is probably meant to add girth to single coils, but with hotter wound humbuckers takes it from thick and articulate to dark and slightly muddy.
The bold toggle makes for a warmer and more in-your-face sound. Great for clean comping or smooth blues playing.
Everything makes a diff on this amp (including the Variac switch, rectifier and triode/pentode toggles), but it doesn't always make a noticable diff at low volumes/headsets.
The bright on channel three adds a noticable bite, almost like the high-mids switch on a Suhr Koko booster. Great palm-muted riffing.
The thick switch on the MkI mode stays off for me. I mostly use humbuckers, and it's just too much. It is probably meant to add girth to single coils, but with hotter wound humbuckers takes it from thick and articulate to dark and slightly muddy.
The bold toggle makes for a warmer and more in-your-face sound. Great for clean comping or smooth blues playing.
Everything makes a diff on this amp (including the Variac switch, rectifier and triode/pentode toggles), but it doesn't always make a noticable diff at low volumes/headsets.
BrownieD2W
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I agree with Screamingdaisy, playing through a speaker-cab would make the changes more audible.
The differences are pretty substantial in my experience. Each of the switches is accurately labeled, which is great because accurate descriptions of features is pretty rare with just about anything.
Bold on Channel 1 is a little more subtle depending on the mode you're in, I hear the biggest difference when using the Tweed voicing. I don't spend much time in Mark I mode, only because I find that I have to hit a certain volume threshold before I really like that voicing but the Thick switch definitely thickens up that mode, probably a great switch for single coils. I kind of wish Channel 2 had a mids-boost switch instead of the Thick switch for Mark I mode only.
The Bright switch on Channel 3 is probably the most fun to mess with. I find it to be a bit much when used on the Mark IV mode, I really like to use this mode with the bright switch off and I dial in more treble/upper-mids with the channel EQ and graphic EQ. The bright switch on the Mark IV mode seems to send the preamp tubes into microphonic territory pretty quick if you don't watch out. I flip it in and out depending on what I'm going for in the IIC+ and Extreme Modes.
Now that I have played live more, I like to think of the bright switch as a Live Switch. I spend a lot of time in IIC+ mode playing rhythm, and the Bright Switch is a must. At times I have to keep it on in order to stay audible when playing with a Lead player that has his mids pushed to 11.
The differences are pretty substantial in my experience. Each of the switches is accurately labeled, which is great because accurate descriptions of features is pretty rare with just about anything.
Bold on Channel 1 is a little more subtle depending on the mode you're in, I hear the biggest difference when using the Tweed voicing. I don't spend much time in Mark I mode, only because I find that I have to hit a certain volume threshold before I really like that voicing but the Thick switch definitely thickens up that mode, probably a great switch for single coils. I kind of wish Channel 2 had a mids-boost switch instead of the Thick switch for Mark I mode only.
The Bright switch on Channel 3 is probably the most fun to mess with. I find it to be a bit much when used on the Mark IV mode, I really like to use this mode with the bright switch off and I dial in more treble/upper-mids with the channel EQ and graphic EQ. The bright switch on the Mark IV mode seems to send the preamp tubes into microphonic territory pretty quick if you don't watch out. I flip it in and out depending on what I'm going for in the IIC+ and Extreme Modes.
Now that I have played live more, I like to think of the bright switch as a Live Switch. I spend a lot of time in IIC+ mode playing rhythm, and the Bright Switch is a must. At times I have to keep it on in order to stay audible when playing with a Lead player that has his mids pushed to 11.
As others have mentioned, at band volumes all three make a difference.
That's how I also approach the bright switch, I set Ch 3 up with it off, if I get in a "dead" room and have trouble cutting through I flip on bright.
Dom
BrownieD2W said:
That's how I also approach the bright switch, I set Ch 3 up with it off, if I get in a "dead" room and have trouble cutting through I flip on bright.
Dom
Thanks guys. Cab just came. Played around with it for 5 minutes, and I can definitely tell the difference with the Bold switch on channel 1. Still not seeing anything with the switches on channels 2 and 3, but I didn't really turn it up at all since I'm just at my apartment right now. I guess I'll just see how it goes once I get a chance to actually turn it up and maybe take it to a tech if I never notice a difference.
