voodoo_child wrote:
That picture is of a Nomad. Petrucci has used Nomads in the past (with talkboxes) so I don't see any reason to call it anything other than a Nomad.
Everything about it is the same as a Nomad, knob layout, channel lights etc. The only small discrepancy is the 'Nomad' logo in the bottom right which looks a little weird. But the damn picture is 600x450 taken by an iPhone, so anyone trying to pretend there is actual detail there is an idiot.
It looks like a Nomad, so until someone proves otherwise, it IS a Nomad. You can come out with the usual BS...'oh, its a MK5 disguised in a Nomad shell' etc, but if you're going to take that route, you might as well throw all logic out the window because then ANY of his amps could be a MK5.
If you look next to the power switch and the standby switch, there's a jewel light. The Nomad had a jewel light, not the smaller type lights that were on the Mark IV's. Same goes for the lights that are above the power and standby switches. They look to be the same kind of lights that were above the switches on the Mark IV. The Nomad doesn't have those either. There also looks to be 2 mini toggles for each channel, which the Nomad also didn't have. The only thing JP has used the Nomad for in the past was to power his talkbox, and on the last tour, they didn't do any songs with the talk box. I think its definitely the Mark V. It wouldn't make sense for him to take a Nomad out on the road for only a few shows. If he was using the Nomad again, I'm sure he'd incorporate it into his rig. It would make sense however if he was road testing a new prototype. I don't think its that hard to believe that the picture is legit and thats the Mark V prototype in a Nomad chassis. Mesa's done that in the past with other prototypes. Another thing I notice is that the logo looks like its 2 words separated, which would lead me to believe that it says Mark V or Mark 5.
JP's tech has posted replies on the HRI forum talking about how the amp sounded and that when JP played him a new track from the studio and that his tone was crushing. I don't see that coming from a Nomad.