New amp day in the UK - Mark V head

Greetings from Lincolnshire in the UK.

I received my new Mark V head earlier this week and have finally had some time to dial in a few tones at a proper volume with everyone out the house!

I'm in a covers band covering a wide variety of stuff-Bowie, Deep Purple, Free,Foo Fighters,Biffy Clyro, Kings of Leon, My Chemical Romance,Vaccines,Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age , Black Keys to name more than a few so needed more versatility than my Marshall DSL50 and Cornford MK50 mk2 allowed - although both very good amps at what they do!

First impressions running through a 2x12 Creamback loaded cab with PRS Custom 22 with Dragon 2's Very impressd. Lovely fat sparkly clean tone but set channel 1 for Tweed style soft breakup and crunch if hit hard.

Tweed mode 45W tube rec variac bold eq off



Marshall style medium gain crunch with channel 2 and very happy with results!

Crunch 45W tube rec eq on Preset depth 10 o'clock



High gain from Channel 3 for FooFighters, My Chemical Romance rhythm and also leads with delay and 5db boost from Eventide H9 in loop.

IIc+ 45W pentode bright eq on - sliders






I am blown away with the tones I've got already but the acid test is how they sit in the band mix for gigs. Band practice next week so we shall see!

I want to tweak my Channel 1 settings to try and get a bit more sparkle and power tube compression - volume may be the answer there! Will also dig my BB preamp out for this channel for solos.

Thankyou for welcoming me to your community and I would be grateful for any feedback and constructive criticism of my settings! I am at the start of hopefully a not too steep learning curve and that is due to all the knowledge I have gained from this forum.

Rock on 😎😎

Considering your gain settings on all three channels are fairly tame you may find the BB is effective for boosting all three channels.

Still, boosting Tweed mode with it already set to light clipping is pretty fun.

Thanks for your comments Screamingdaisy. I have never used a ton of gain as I'm more used to getting lots of power tube distortion to add compression and fluidity on Marshall style amps. The problem I find with preamp gain is that the more gain the less it cuts through with the band (2 guitars) and volume needs to go up! Loving the amp and will post settings if they change significantly with band practice.

Mark's are already inherently mid heavy. The way they're voiced you can afford to run a lot of gain and carve out some midrange and they'll still cut. Gain doesn't make them mush out like some amps, they just sort of hit a point where they're difficult to control.

Another thing to understand is that the preamp controls are pre-distortion and the graphic/preset EQs are post distortion. Generally, use the preamp to dial in how the amp feels and the graphic/preset to dial in how the amp sounds.

For example, try sweeping the midrange knob from fully open to fully off. Note how little difference it makes to the actual sound of the midrange, but also note how fully off makes the amp feel stiff and dead, and how increasing it adds compression and saturation. On a Mark's mid knob 9:00 is fairly neutral and as you increase beyond 9:00 the mids start pushing the following gain stages for more distortion, similar to hitting the amp with a Tubescreamer.

Now, compare that to the 750Hz slider. Very little change to the feel, but one hell of an effect on the sound.

You'll have no problem with your acid test. The V will sit in the mix very well.

Now flip that switch down in the back at loop(by pass) and let the dragon breath :evil: . Careful it will be loud. But there is something special about the by pass switch. I am right there with you. Nothing like power tube breakup!.
Also check out the Haggerty videos with the Suhr KOKO Boost & Mark V.

Good luck with your V..

Cheers for the advice guys. I had band rehearsal last night and did some tweaking before and during based on your suggestions ( mainly increasing gain) . Unfortunately I had to go down to 10w mode which rounded off the attack a bit but hugely impressed with how it sat in mix and the tone. Loved tweed mode and the increased gain seemed to thicken and round off the tone from the treble strings for arpeggios and made it less "spikey" but more "sparkly". Crunch was my main setting and sounded fantastic. Channel 3 still needs some work as sounded a bit thin after other 2 channels but probably because it was more mid scooped. Lots of complements from the other guys on my tone.I've still got a lot of tweaking to do though!- here are my latest settings.

Also used my Cornford V30 loaded 2x12 cab - much preferred to the Creamback loaded 2x12 cab. More clear/ hi fi sound and less "congested"mids

Channel 1 tweed eq out bold



Channel 2 crunch eq on - preset


Channel 3 IIc+ eq on sliders bright pentode