Mark I Mode

I find that Mark I Mode is okay at home, but am always amazed at how great it sounds in a live band mix.

I’m playing with two other guitarists in a Weezer cover band and when I switch from clean to channel 2 it sounds incredible: huge, gnarly, authoratative. It’s a popular tone with the rest of the band.

Are you running the lots of treble, little bass, sloping upwards( / ) graphic EQ curve?

I played around with it as a lead done for a bit, but eventually settled back to Channel 3 and disabling the Graphic to restore more mid cut.

I also use Mark I mode as my primary lead mode. At home, running 10 watts, it's pretty cool, but in a band setting at 90 watts, it's pretty spectacular. I run the gain at around 2:00 or 3:00, treble and presence around 3:00, bass and mids around 9:00. The GEQ is sliders, set in a modified V, scooping to 0, bringing in my bass freqs with the sliders and I generally have the Deep switch on. Pretty much the way I still set up my old Mark I. Which is still an incredible amp after all these decades. I run that one in 100-watt mode, same GEQ, volumes on 8-10, treble 10 - nice gain boost, bass and mids around 3.

I'm using mine for rhythm. I've got the eq on, and am using the preset curve at about noon.

Like I said, it sounds okay at home during practice but it really stands out well in the band mix.

How high are you running the overall master with your band ? I just haven't been able to jive with the Mark I mode and that Santana kinda tone has never been my goto tone.. IMO of course..

Bankim said:

How high are you running the overall master with your band ? I just haven't been able to jive with the Mark I mode and that Santana kinda tone has never been my goto tone.. IMO of course..

Click to expand...

The photo was of my rehearsal settings. Definitely sounded more Pork and Beans than Black Magic Woman.

I can't use the preset EQ at all with the Mark 1 Channel. It boosts bass way way way too much for me to turn it up to even 10:00. I either use the graphic with an upwards slanted line, bass cut to treble boosted, or else I don't use it at all if I don't want to sacrifice it from C3. I don't know how loud your band plays... I've turned it up pretty loud when nobody is home. Any bass boost at all from the EQ sections just thunders and rattles things off the walls. Cut the bass enough though, and it definitely has it's own thing and a very cool thing going on. For a while, I was using C3 Extreme for rhythm and C2 Mark I for leads. IF the V had 2 EQs like the JP2C does, I'd seriously consider using the Mark I as my lead tone, but without a dedicated EQ to cut the bass further, I can't use it that way exclusively. If you have some C3 settings that you like that don't require the EQ OR if you can use the Preset EQ on C3, you can use the 5 band on the Mark I mode and it is a very cool sound.