Mark V combo "farty" distortions.

Hello there! This is my first post, hopefully you can help me.

I bought a Mark V combo recently but I'm struggling with it a bit.
I'm using an ES335 with humbuckers and my main problem is how all the dirty channels sound like. They are quite... "farty". Like there isn't enough definition to it.
The speaker seems to be working as it should, and I don't think I'm playing that loud even though its a 4 piece rock band.

I'm using 6L6's btw.

Has anyone experienced that sort of "problem"? I know I wasn't very specific but... "farty" is the best way I found to describe it.

Hope you have some hints for me.
Cheers!

Congrats on the new amp and welcome!

I don't know your settings, but on a Mark series amp you need to keep the bass knob very low, like in the 0-3 range. Especially if you have the gain knob above 1 o'clock or so. At lower gain settings or on clean sounds you can set it a bit higher. If you need more lows it's better to use the graphic eq to boost them. This keeps the low end tight and focused.

To keep it simple, the Mark series has the tone controls before the gain, unlike most amps where the gain is before the tone controls. This means that if you use a high bass setting this gets boosted by the gain into a muddy mess. You can think of the tone controls as individual gain knobs for their respektive frequencies. The treble and mid controls can be boosted without taking away from the focused tone the Marks are known for, but usually work best somewhere in the middle 10-2 o'clock range. The graphic eq comes after the gain and can be seen as your main tone controls.

Try setting the treble and mid somewhere around 12 o'clock and the bass to 0. Set the other controls to taste. Then slowly increase the bass until it starts to get "farty" and then back it off a bit. If you find that it lacks bass, increase the 80hz (and perhaps the 240 a bit as well) slider.

I've never played the V combo so I don't really know how the lows are on that. But I'm not so fond of Mark series amps in combo form. To my ear they need a closed back cab to get the warmth and low end I like. But a lot of people seem happy with their Mark V combos.

Anyway, I hope this helped somewhat.

What he said. The above post contains a lot of helpful information to get you started.

Secondly, I haven't played an ES335 through a MkV but I would expect that their naturally more resonant and boomier voice (compared to solid guitars) would require some cautious and conservative dialing or the results could sound just like what you said. Yes, keep the Bass pot on your amp very low. Remember, it is not just a tone control like on many other amp designs, on a Mesa Mark amp, it is a bass boost. And boosting the low frequencies tends to mush up your high-gain tones.

In general, you need to first use the tone "boost" pots (T, M, B - the Treble pot is the most important) and the Gain pot to sculpt the distortion character of your Mark amp, and then use the GEQ (or the preset EQ) to adjust the tone color. You can use the sliders to bring back the lows at that stage.

Or, if you find that your Mark V does not seem to pack enough oomph, you could try adding an extension cab. For high-gain tones, a Mark combo plus an extension cab is a winning, time-honored solution. Even a simple closed-back 1x12 extension cab will transform your channel 3 tones significantly. Of course bigger cabs (2x12, 4x12) would be even better but that could get cumbersome when you also have a heavy combo to lug around with you.

That was all extremely helpful guys. Thank you very much!!

Cheers from Portugal!

No problem. Happy to help.

I hope this got you closer to what you want. Mark series can be difficult to dial in, especially if you are used to more common amps. You can't dial a Mark like a Marshall. Keep the bass low, the treble and mids somewhere in the middle range (I usually set my Marks something like this: tre 1-2 o'clock, mid 11, bass 8-9) and use the graphic eq to set the tone. I usually use the "V" setting on the eq, but not totally scooped at the 750, and I usually boost the 6600hz slider less than the 80hz slider. But I'm mainly a metal player, so you might like something different. The graphic eq is very powerful, so play around with it until you find something you like.

Once you learn the small "tricks", the Mark series are a lot easier to deal with. They all work pretty much the same even if they sound a bit different from each other. So if you happen to try a Mark II, III, IV or JP2C, you know where to start from and you will be able to dial in a great tone a lot faster.

All that was said, plus some more if it helps.

How new is the amp? You may need some break-in time with the speaker too. New speakers tend to miss-behave and may drown with some frequency content. Probably will take a few hours of use before the suspension of the speaker softens up. You may need to back off on volume if it is persistent and work your way up in level for hours used.