Hi all - following on from my other post ....
Today I got the chance to spend nearly 3 hours with a Mark V Head and an Express 5|50 Head - the wholesaler got rid of their F50 some time ago.
As I mentioned before - I own and love my Mark III - its a 1986 Graphic and EQ 60w head.
My only issue with it that these days I need a much more modern semi-dirty-clean and dirty-crunch
I used my own 1978 Ibanez Artist 2618 - Dimarzio SD in the back - Dimarzio PAF in the front. Each pickup has a 3 way split - single coil / phase / humbucking.
Each head was running into a closed-back single 1 x 12 rectifier cab.
No effects were used - guitar -> lead > amp -> speaker cab
I'll keep this short.
Mark V
CH - 1 = ridonkulous = just glorious... enough said
CH - 3 = see comments for CH 1
CH - 2 = see below
Express 5|50
CH - 1 Clean = vey nice - note quite the Mark V but still very very nice - no issues at all - voicing is quite bright so get ready to tweak down the treble quite a bit
CH - 1 Crunch = also very nice - does a very good pushed-semi-dirty-clean - HOWEVER the bass needs to be run very low and even then the sound is noticeably "flubby" <- that's a technical musical term
CH - 2 Blues = its voicing definitely suits soft-harder jazz / blues beautifully BUT for anything else, its unusable / terrible sounding
CH - 2 Burn = very nice for harder crunch BUT the bass needs to be wound almost to zero and the mids need to be cut quite a bit too but still has a bit of low-end "flubiness"
Contour = very nice for both channels
Mark V - CH 2
OK - I don't want to upset anyone - and bear in mind I don't to jazz or blues ..... but my goodness, its soo lifeless / flat / sterile .... and so BOXY sounding - manipulating the EQ and EQ blend helps a bit but even then its just so useless for anything other than blues / jazz ..... all the various toggle sound "models " are just so mid-heavy and bottom-heavy - I could get something useable from EDGE, but even then it was not fantastic.
I was able to dial-up VERY good and VERY useable sounds is literally no time at all with both the Express channels and CH1 and CH 3 of the Mark V .....CH 2 on the Mark V however is just simply not-quite-right.
For sure, a couple of hi-end pedals well placed in the signal chain will probably do the trick but if I'm spending $2500 on a HEAD I want it to sound pretty freakin awesome out of the box - I'll use pedals to add spice to the sounds or to tweak the sounds A BIT, but if I have to totally "pedalize" a channel in order to make it useable, then for me, whether its a boogie or a behringer, its a total waste of money.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth ...... I have a feeling I will need to try and find a F series amp - ideally and F50 Head - as that will probably suit me perfectly.
No offence intended to any Mark V owner - CH 1 and CH 3 are AWESOME ... I was just honestly quite stunned and how crap CH 2 was for my [ modernísh-rock ] needs.
Ben
Today I got the chance to spend nearly 3 hours with a Mark V Head and an Express 5|50 Head - the wholesaler got rid of their F50 some time ago.
As I mentioned before - I own and love my Mark III - its a 1986 Graphic and EQ 60w head.
My only issue with it that these days I need a much more modern semi-dirty-clean and dirty-crunch
I used my own 1978 Ibanez Artist 2618 - Dimarzio SD in the back - Dimarzio PAF in the front. Each pickup has a 3 way split - single coil / phase / humbucking.
Each head was running into a closed-back single 1 x 12 rectifier cab.
No effects were used - guitar -> lead > amp -> speaker cab
I'll keep this short.
Mark V
CH - 1 = ridonkulous = just glorious... enough said
CH - 3 = see comments for CH 1
CH - 2 = see below
Express 5|50
CH - 1 Clean = vey nice - note quite the Mark V but still very very nice - no issues at all - voicing is quite bright so get ready to tweak down the treble quite a bit
CH - 1 Crunch = also very nice - does a very good pushed-semi-dirty-clean - HOWEVER the bass needs to be run very low and even then the sound is noticeably "flubby" <- that's a technical musical term
CH - 2 Blues = its voicing definitely suits soft-harder jazz / blues beautifully BUT for anything else, its unusable / terrible sounding
CH - 2 Burn = very nice for harder crunch BUT the bass needs to be wound almost to zero and the mids need to be cut quite a bit too but still has a bit of low-end "flubiness"
Contour = very nice for both channels
Mark V - CH 2
OK - I don't want to upset anyone - and bear in mind I don't to jazz or blues ..... but my goodness, its soo lifeless / flat / sterile .... and so BOXY sounding - manipulating the EQ and EQ blend helps a bit but even then its just so useless for anything other than blues / jazz ..... all the various toggle sound "models " are just so mid-heavy and bottom-heavy - I could get something useable from EDGE, but even then it was not fantastic.
I was able to dial-up VERY good and VERY useable sounds is literally no time at all with both the Express channels and CH1 and CH 3 of the Mark V .....CH 2 on the Mark V however is just simply not-quite-right.
For sure, a couple of hi-end pedals well placed in the signal chain will probably do the trick but if I'm spending $2500 on a HEAD I want it to sound pretty freakin awesome out of the box - I'll use pedals to add spice to the sounds or to tweak the sounds A BIT, but if I have to totally "pedalize" a channel in order to make it useable, then for me, whether its a boogie or a behringer, its a total waste of money.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth ...... I have a feeling I will need to try and find a F series amp - ideally and F50 Head - as that will probably suit me perfectly.
No offence intended to any Mark V owner - CH 1 and CH 3 are AWESOME ... I was just honestly quite stunned and how crap CH 2 was for my [ modernísh-rock ] needs.
Ben
