Mark V 35 combo pedalboard question

Last weekend I purchased a Mark V 35 combo and am loving it. However I am having a problem and I've called Mesa direct twice and they've not been able to help me so thought I'd make my first post today for help. I'm age 60 so a bit technologically challenged. I'll of course use the Mesa Footswitch but I also want to hookup my Nano Pedaltrain with my 5 individual pedals as well. Can't seem to make it happen and again, Mesa techs couldn't walk me thru it. I would appreciate VERY MUCH if someone in layman terms could possibly tell me how to hook this up. Maybe via bullet points step by step, or please spell it out as simply as possible. Once I get that hooked up I'm ready to roll. Anxiously await your responses and will attempt your suggestions tonite. Thank you very much.
Bmac

Well, what brands and types of pedals are on that train? And, are you trying to hook them all up in front of the amp or in the EFX LOOP or a mixture of the two?

The mesa footswitch is independent of the pedal board. The input to the first pedal in the chain on your pedal board should come from the send in the efx loop. The output from the last pedal in the chain on your pedal board should go to the return. Any effects that you want to put in front of the amp go directly to the input jack on the front of the amp.

Here's what I'm running and how I connect it. I have a wah, a tuner, a shure wireless, and a tremolo on my pedal board. Output from the wireless goes into the tuner. Obviously I don't have to plug anything into the wireless. Otherwise, if you're not wireless, your guitar cable would go into the tuner. Output from the tuner is input to the wah. Output from the wah goes to input on the amp. So that's what I've got going on in front of the amp. As I mentioned previously, the Mesa footswitch is totally independent. It has it's own cable and interface on the back of the amp. So that only leaves the effects loop. This is where you'd want your delays and tremolos. I run the send from the effects loop to the input of my tremolo. Then the output from the tremolo goes to the return in the effects loop.

That's how I do it.

Hope that helps/

Thanks so much for responding. I ran it this way and am getting better results so thank you. Want to stick with 3 cables vs 4 if possible.

This amp is a fire breathing dragon, in a good way. Man is that thing powerful. Gonna go deaf if not careful. My latest problem is the way loud Hiss/Hum on channel two. Can't live with it so I bought an MXR Noisegate with no luck.

I hooked it up to my pedal chain and it does help there a bit but that's not my problem. I need channel 2 high gain to quiet down and the MXR helping very little if any. I have no pedals of course on channel two cuz am able to get a ton of dirt/distortion with that channel alone. My thought is the amp is not reading/picking up on fact MXR is plugged in which is why it's not reducing the noise on channel 2. Again, quiets amp on channel one cuz it's hooked up to pedal chain but no help when I kick in gain on channel two.

Suggestions on how to quiet channel two (and one preferably) with a MXR Noisegate or maybe a Boss noise suppressor? What's worked for you guys and how do you have it hooked up? Thanks.

Would also like option of inter changing between pedalboard and my HX Effects which I love when I want, but haven't really experimented with HX Effects yet. Only had amp a week and want to get pedalboard working and quieted first. All help/suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

I don't have a noisegate or anything like that, so I can't comment on how those work or where to put them in the chain.

On your comment about 3 cables vs. 4:

I will add this, for my pedal board I bought two identical length cables and one 2 feet longer (for example, two 10' cables and a 12') to run to and from the EFX LOOP. I braided the cables together. Then I put a velcro cable wrapper around them about every two feet of length. This way, it is as if I have one cable. I can just lay this "super cable" in the pedal board bag with the pedal board, so it feels like there is no extra crap to lug around. The reason one cable is longer is so that I can run it under the amp and to the amp INPUT.

I also have another longer set for larger stages (22-25' cables).

My chain is Guitar>Volume pedal>wah>tuner>TS818>amp INPUT. EFX SEND>Vibe>chorus>Delay>EFX RETURN. So, I have 4 cables total (guitar to pedal board, and the 3 cables in the cable braid. The only way to have 3 cables total is to not have any pedals in front of the amp.

Anyway, making a "super" cable by braiding three has saved a lot of hassle. I've seen that some places sell these types of cables pre-made but they were more expensive than just buying 3 seperate cables for about $75 total.

"My latest problem is the way loud Hiss/Hum on channel two. Can't live with it so I bought an MXR Noisegate with no luck.

I hooked it up to my pedal chain and it does help there a bit but that's not my problem. I need channel 2 high gain to quiet down and the MXR helping very little if any. I have no pedals of course on channel two cuz am able to get a ton of dirt/distortion with that channel alone. My thought is the amp is not reading/picking up on fact MXR is plugged in which is why it's not reducing the noise on channel 2. Again, quiets amp on channel one cuz it's hooked up to pedal chain but no help when I kick in gain on channel two.

Suggestions on how to quiet channel two (and one preferably) with a MXR Noisegate or maybe a Boss noise suppressor? What's worked for you guys and how do you have it hooked up? Thanks.

Would also like option of inter changing between pedalboard and my HX Effects which I love when I want, but haven't really experimented with HX Effects yet. Only had amp a week and want to get pedalboard working and quieted first. All help/suggestions appreciated. Thank you."


I don't own a Mark V amp yet (hunting for one now), but I've used pedal boards with amps for many years, and a couple of my boards have the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor pedal. So what I do is run all of my dirty pedals in the noise suppression "loop" of the pedal and the last distortion pedal in the chain then goes to the input of the amp. Then after the preamp section of the amp where the distortion is....I run the the FX send from the amp's effects loop back into the return jack of the NS-2 pedal. This eliminates ALL noise. Then I run output from the NS-2 (not in the NS-2's noise loop) to the remaining modulation pedals like delay and then into the FX return of the amp. Now the noise elimination from the amp's internal distortion/preamp will only work if the FX loop is series (not parallel). Since I believe all the versions of the Mark V amps have series fx loops, this should work...."in theory". This is how I plan to run my Mark V amp when I get one. Hope that helps.

BTW - my old Mesa Boogie DC-5 amp head and my Marshall JCM2000 TSL60 amps are my only amps that have parallel effects loops so using the NS-2 in the loop did not work. I am NOT a fan of parallel effects loops, although I get their merits.

prs2017. said:

Thanks so much for responding. I ran it this way and am getting better results so thank you. Want to stick with 3 cables vs 4 if possible.

This amp is a fire breathing dragon, in a good way. Man is that thing powerful. Gonna go deaf if not careful. My latest problem is the way loud Hiss/Hum on channel two. Can't live with it so I bought an MXR Noisegate with no luck.

I hooked it up to my pedal chain and it does help there a bit but that's not my problem. I need channel 2 high gain to quiet down and the MXR helping very little if any. I have no pedals of course on channel two cuz am able to get a ton of dirt/distortion with that channel alone. My thought is the amp is not reading/picking up on fact MXR is plugged in which is why it's not reducing the noise on channel 2. Again, quiets amp on channel one cuz it's hooked up to pedal chain but no help when I kick in gain on channel two.

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Please provide a detailed description of tour current signal chain. Include what is between the guitar and the amp input and what you have in the FX loop.

One thing you can already check is if your FX send level is not too hot. The signal level of the MKV FX loop is known to bee too hot for some effects. On my MKV:90 I run the FX level at "10 o clock".
And I have to assume that you are using a decent cable and your guitar is shielded properly...does your guitar have single coils or humbuckers?