I don't play metal ...

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Zen

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I don't play metal but I do play with driven tones a lot. I like to play just behind full on distortion and right on top of it if the harmonics are right. I really like phasing waves when the harmonics are singing. I play open harmonic shapes a lot as a rhythm player mostly.

Anyway, I've liked a 5:50, considering a TC50, plus I like their price. I loved playing a Mark IV a few times. I'm currently chatting with a guy who's got a "mint" Mark V head for around $1800. This is a great deal but I don't have a lot of time playing the Mark V so I'm not super familiar with it.

Do think the Mark V can be played with nuance or is it a full throttle rig mostly? Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks!
 
Zen said:
I don't play metal but I do play with driven tones a lot. I like to play just behind full on distortion and right on top of it if the harmonics are right. I really like phasing waves when the harmonics are singing. I play open harmonic shapes a lot as a rhythm player mostly.

Anyway, I've liked a 5:50, considering a TC50, plus I like their price. I loved playing a Mark IV a few times. I'm currently chatting with a guy who's got a "mint" Mark V head for around $1800. This is a great deal but I don't have a lot of time playing the Mark V so I'm not super familiar with it.

Do think the Mark V can be played with nuance or is it a full throttle rig mostly? Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks!

It absolutely can. I love playing metal, but I play most styles and this amp allows everything from ridiculously crunchy doom to the best cleans, and in between sounds subtle/intricate and the feel is extremely reactive.
It will cry, it will wail, it will do it all whilst beautifully detailing and tracking your every expression with such instant reaction that you'd swear it to be telepathic. And the tone blooms, the more you apply feel, whatever sound you got dialled. And the definition in the chords of the individual strings is fantastic, no matter how distorted you dial it can be heard. It excells in allowing you to express yourself. This is definitely the amp for you, I think..

AND it is a hell of a full-throttle rig too, into the bargain. :twisted:
 
I don't play metal and I think the amp is great. I can do everything from cleans, slightly overdriven, crunch, rock, metal... it's an extremely versatile amp.
 
Great feedback.

I asked a few questions to the guy selling the $1800 one, and then he decided to keep it! ha. I found another one used and after shipping+tax it'd be about $2k. Seems about as good as I can do short of springing full price.
 
If you are planning to spend 2k, my suggestion is to get a new one.

Anyway, this might be right up your alley..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpl0u6tDAqY&list=LLGKqoNPdpqAeyE5AKsRbNJg&index=29

Note: I am not the person in this vdo, I just love the overtones and feedback he gets while playing the amp.
 
I found one on reverb.com for 1500. There is currently another one there for 1599 + 65 for shipping. So far, I've made 3 purchases from there and each one has been a winner. Maybe I got lucky.
https://reverb.com/item/6045135-mesa-boogie-mark-v-90w-head-black
 
Good looking out and thanks for link! The price I quoted earlier was a Guitar Center transfer + their extended warranty + shipping + tax = basically 2k.

I see a Mark V on there that's a 2016, which would still have a Mesa warranty. Cost+shipping=$1800. Pretty sweet. Why doesn't Reverb sales charge tax?
 
You will be better off if the Mark V is a bit newer... There was a tone stack change in 2010 on CH3 preamp to cut back on too much treble and such.
If you find that CH3 is a bit icy there is a simple fix for that too (just a tube swap).

I generally play everything and use all of my amps for that purpose. I am really digging into the blues lately or running just the clean channel but still love to get into some early 70's stuff like ACDC or Led Zeppelin. All of the amps on my sig will do that quite well.

My top two amps are the JP-2C and the TC-50. Definitely there is a huge difference between the two in tone but they can sound similar if you dial one to match the other (sort of). It all depends on how loud I want to play. I find the TC-50 easier on the ear due to the master volume control. That amp is so much fun to play, just as much fun as the JP-2C. For either amp (in head format, JP-2C is head only, TC-50 you have options) I would recommend the Mesa Vertical 212 cab.

For the Mark V, I have struggled with it over the years I have owned it. I had bought it in late November of 2012. I have had it much longer than the TC-50 or the JP-2C. I have also had a Mark III new from 1987 until October of 2012 and a Mark IV from 2000 until May of 2015. Never had any issues with the III or the IV. Both amps have served me well and the Mark III went to a good home and is still in use today. Not sure what happened to the Mark IV as I sold that to Sam Ash as I was building up a studio and drum kit at that time. I decided to keep the Mark V due to its features and versatility. I had other amps to cover the high gain style of music when I want to play Heavy Metal as well as other styles of music. The JP-2C cured my woes for what I was missing after selling the Mark III and the Mark IV, and it gave me far more that what I could get from the Mark V, that is until the "saturation mod" thread was started and all that changed. Mark V is a good amp to get. I would find it very difficult to decide on just one (V, JP or TC).

At the moment I would rate in favoritism: TC-50, JP-2C, Mark V. Of course that will shift depending on what I want to play. All three will do the blues but the leader of them would fall on the TC-50. For an acoustic sound (even better if your guitar has piezo bridge) that goes to the Mark V clean. Crunch would be all three. The amp with the most tube choices: TC-50 (6L6, EL34, 6V6), Mark V (6L6, EL34), JP-2C (6L6).

The Mark V has the most versatile power supply (full power/Variac, 90W, 45W, 10W, each channel can be set to individual power settings but the full/variac is global and will affect all three at the same time). JP can be set to 100W or 60W (global setting). TC-50 is just 50W but can run to 25W with the 6V6 tubes. The Mark V probably has the most features of the three. However the JP and TC have some other things that make them attractive.

I would even recommend the Roadster too or even the RA100. Actually most amps will work well for all venues and styles of music. If you were really into country style of music the amps on the list will suffice but the LoneStar may be a better choice.

Out of the 3 amps in question (JP, TC and MKV) they will perform quite well with all types of guitars. Hollow body types may serve well with the TC-50 (I have played a semi-hollow body guitar when I first tried a TC-50 and actually liked it more than I expected). Single coil or humbucker guitars, set neck, neck though and bolt on all work equally well with all of them. If you were looking to add a bit of OD or just a bit of saturation but not so much to get muddy the Mark V and JP really do well with pedals up front.

Roll the dice or flip a few coins. They are all good amps.... As for the 5:50, never played though one....
 
Zen said:
Good looking out and thanks for link! The price I quoted earlier was a Guitar Center transfer + their extended warranty + shipping + tax = basically 2k.

I see a Mark V on there that's a 2016, which would still have a Mesa warranty. Cost+shipping=$1800. Pretty sweet. Why doesn't Reverb sales charge tax?

Reverb is sort of like eBay. They just bring sellers and buyers together. Since a seller can be anywhere, I suppose it's too difficult for them to handle all the different sales tax rates. Honestly, I really don't know. One of my purchases was in my state and I had to pick it up...still no sales tax. Sometimes I think they are a little high priced, but they also have brand new Mesas there for the same price you can get them anywhere. Some sellers are approved vendors that also have brick and mortar shops.

I bought my TC-50 through Sweetwater. But I got my V through Reverb. I also bought a stand alone Cab Clone on Reverb. No issues with either. I now have a non-Mesa amp on there for sale since I've liked my experiences.
 
When looking for the most versatile, do it all amps, the Mark V head and TC-50 combo are very, very good. I find them to be voiced quite differently from each other but I love them both. To my ears, the Mark V is voiced, in general, a bit more mid-rangey and thicker sounding. The TC-50 has a bit more bite and it seems the treble requires more rolling off. especially on channel 2 when playing at 12'oclock or less gain. At any rate, the TC-50 may be easier to dial in "out of the box" but the Mark V is worth the learning curve, easily worth it. Both amps do "everything but metal" very, very well. And, they both are excellent chunking/shredding amps.

Mace
 
Zen said:
I don't play metal but I do play with driven tones a lot. I like to play just behind full on distortion and right on top of it if the harmonics are right. I really like phasing waves when the harmonics are singing. I play open harmonic shapes a lot as a rhythm player mostly.

Anyway, I've liked a 5:50, considering a TC50, plus I like their price. I loved playing a Mark IV a few times. I'm currently chatting with a guy who's got a "mint" Mark V head for around $1800. This is a great deal but I don't have a lot of time playing the Mark V so I'm not super familiar with it.

Do think the Mark V can be played with nuance or is it a full throttle rig mostly? Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks!

Huh ????
I don't play metal ever.
Great majority of Mark players never play metal on them or "full throttle".
The Extreme and Mark IV channels are there for people who wanna use it but I rarely do.
Even without Extreme the Mark V is still the most versatile amp ever made and will do anything you want fantastic.
 
I mostly play hard rock and metal and this amp delivers amazingly. Still, the cleans and lower gain stuff sounds great as well! You should definitely try before you buy though. You might end up just "needing" the Mark V 35.
 

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