My Mk5:25 is great, but DI and reverb are poor.

What is up..

I bought a Mk5 25w version and generally it has been a very good workhorse. I love the size and weight, the cleans, and the flexibility of the amp. But I think there are two poor areas:-

1. Using DI via the inbuilt simulation, the clean channel works ok, not great, but ok; but dialling in any sort of gain and I get a nasty tone, nothing like what it sounds like through the speaker, and definitely not fit for use. Strangely, using hi gain pedals through the clean channel do work well, but using the amp’s own dirty channel does not. An AB test between using DI/mic to Logic reveals a significant difference in tone and frequency when analysed.

2. The reverb is very weak, like it is mixed weakly in parallel. Turning up the reverb on the rear knobs (one per channel) research the length of the reverb tail but the ‘mix’ is still weak.

I’ve kind of learned to work around these two issues by not using them but I always wonder if anyone has addressed the issues.

Cheers and stay safe everyone

When using the CabClone DI keep the speaker plugged in and ON. That will help the tone a bit (not make it super awesome, but somewhat usable). The CabClone is passive so having that load of the speaker helps with the vibrancy of the tone. Now, if you are looking for silent playing directly into Logic... then yeah, the CabClone is not so super duper.

The reverb seems OK on mine, but I'm not a big reverb user so maybe not the best judge of it!

I can get pretty strong reverb out of mine. It's kinda harsh reverb, but it's strong.

I've got a V 35 and while I like the reverb I started feeling like I wanted more. I tried to make up for it with my delay pedal, a TC Flashback 2. It helped but I wanted stiil more and started searching for a reverb pedal. I wound up with Source Audio's Ventris dual reverb. I thought about going with TC's Hall of Fame, which probably would have been fine, but I went with the ventris and couldn't be happier. There are so many options with this pedal and it's all customizable with their software. I was so happy I bought their nemisis delay, and again, very, very happy. I then got their neuro hub and midi controller, and now also have their distortion and chorus pedals, which also do fuzz, phaser, and flanger. Being able to do presets with any combination of pedals, and modify them with the midi on the fly, is fantastic. And it all started with the ventris reverb, which in its own, is wonderful. So, by all means grab a TC or some other pedal if you want a change, but if you have the cash, treat yourself to the Ventris.