Mark V 90w at Manageable Volumes?

I like having the 90 watts for the clean, but for the crunch and lead I'd like to have that liquid Mark V tone at lowish volumes. Not bedroom levels, but not ear splitting either. I play to crowds of usually 300 or less, with a plexiglass shield in front of the cab. So is the 45 watt setting on reasonable volume gonna sound as good as blasting at 90 watts?

John_not_Pet said:

I like having the 90 watts for the clean, but for the crunch and lead I'd like to have that liquid Mark V tone at lowish volumes. Not bedroom levels, but not ear splitting either. I play to crowds of usually 300 or less, with a plexiglass shield in front of the cab. So is the 45 watt setting on reasonable volume gonna sound as good as blasting at 90 watts?

Click to expand...

I say It will sound just as good. With my Mark V I love the lower wattage settings just as much as 90, slightly more spongy but great to play on none the less.

First, the lower wattage settings also sound good, they're all distinct in tone and feel.

Second, the Master Volume is very effect on the Mark V. There's no reason you can't play with 90w at a lower volume and not still sound great. I often use 90w at bedroom levels. The tone from these amps is largely from the Preamp, with the poweramp just cleanly amplifying.

I've really been digging 45 watts and variac power. Switch to triode setting on the back and WOW! It sounds great at ANY volume.

I generally run at full power and 90W. I actually like the temperament of the amp on both CH2 and CH3 with a reduction on the master volume control when using the FX loop in active mode (switch on back turned on and not set to hard bypass). You still get the preamp to saturate and when you govern the level with the global master volume you get a better balance between the three channels. Sounds good to me.

I'll echo the above comments and add one more: use a clean boost if you are not getting the kind of fully saturated tones at lower volumes. Slam the front end of the V 90 with 20 dB of boost and you'll love the results.

On top of that.... the Mesa grid slammer sounds awesome on the front end of the Mark V (at any volume level). Dang does it sound great though the JP-2C do. I have tried others but found the grid slammer works quite well with a Mark series amp.

you have many options, saturate the FX loop buffer with a moderate channel volume level and reduce the global master volume. If you are using the amp with the FX loop in bypass mode (turned off), it will be difficult to get an awesome tone with the volume of the channel turned down.