Hello all,
My name is Deaj and I'm new to this forum. I've been doing a bit of reading here as of late following a Mesa Mark V demo that left me with a very positive impression. My current amp is a factory custom Fuchs ODS 1x12 combo tuned to best suit my playing. I bought the amp 4 years ago and haven't used another amp since. I demo stuff when I go to buy strings, picks, etc. as I like to know what's on the market and appeals to me should it ever be necessary to buy an amp (theft, fire, catastrophic failure, etc.) and because I just like amps a lot. There are a lot more great amp choices now than ever before and at every price point. Although my Fuchs is bar none the best sounding amp I've ever played through (this one particularly so as it has been tweaked to respond well to my playing dynamics) I don't think I'd drop the coin for another were it to be stolen or damaged beyond repair. It was worth the money to me once but there are so many great sounding amps at affordable prices that I would never be able to justify the cost again.
I dropped in to a local music store a short while back to pick up some flatwound bass strings and noticed a Mark V on the floor. I've always enjoyed playing through the Mark series amps and wondered if the Mark V would hold the same appeal for me. I asked to demo the Mk.V and my quick drop-in for strings turned into a lengthy demo and a longer than expected lunch break. A quick look at the front panel up close took away any misconception of complexity - the controls are as intuitive as any single channel amp, there's just three of them instead on one. I started (where else) on channel 1 and found the clean tones to be more to my liking than any I remember from other Mark series amps. There seems to be a slight lean towards a Fender voicing without losing its Mesa identity. Plenty of headroom at full power. Harmonic overtones (shimmer? chime? - I dislike subjective superlatives when describing sound, they're only accurately descriptive to the describer :? ).The various channel specific options allow one to dial in the dynamic response to suit most technique I would think. Very impressive!
Channel 2 strikes me as a, well, three straight up rock and roll amps. It was easy to quickly find the usable range for each control in each mode and then dial the channel in for the desired sound. I found several low gain (verge of breakup or a hair hotter) sounds that were surprisingly good considering that all of the clipping was taking place early in the amps gain structure at reasonably low volume. I can't wait to see what this sounds like with the output section working hard! I think I burned the most time playing with channel 2.
Channel 3 was just bags of fun to toy with. I'll be honest - there's not much in my playing style that mates up well with the more aggressive sounds available in this channel. That didn't seem to stop me from having a blast dialing in 80's tones and trying to play tunes I haven't played in 20 or more years or trying unsuccessfully to cop a Schon or Lukather vibe. The playing left much to be desired but I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face. This channel is the toy I've wanted most of my adult life! It's a self indulgent thing having little to do with anything productive I might do with a guitar but **** it's fun to dial in a Petrucci type tone and try to slop my way through some of his simplest material or set it up for a 'Master Of Puppets' sound and hammer out fast muted rhythms!!
Ummm.... I like channel 3.
I've always wanted to be able to have these types of sounds available for self indulgent wankery, to relive my high school band days in my living room but I don't really have the space for more than three amps (one Fuchs combo, one Markbass bass combo, and...?) and three is pushing it. I have built a few pedals that do a reasonably good job of copping such tones - they're fun but it's not quite the same thing. My home studio is small (8'x10') with a small closet - no storage space outside of this room. The electric guitars and basses are hanging on the walls but, with an acoustic guitar, clarinet, saxophone, keyboard/stand, amps, pedalboard, and computer/audio desk the floor gets crowded fast. I can squeeze in one more amp but it would have to be something that I'll use productively or it'll eventually get pulled out of the room (code for 'get sold'). I've had a second amp in the room a couple of times since buying the Fuchs. Both were narrow enough in focus so as to limit their usefulness and so both eventually became an object in the way more than anything else. This has kept me from buying another amp - the whole 'boy meets amp / boy buys amp / boy lets amp collect dust / boy sells amp' thing is time consuming and a pain in the neck. The Mark V actually seems to me to be two very useful amps in one: 1. A widely flexible three channel amp with tones very different from my primary amp, and 2. A toy I've wanted for decades but have no room for.
A couple more trips out to demo the Mark V convinced me to purchase a Mark V 1x12 combo and see how it works out. I happened to make mention that I was leaning towards buying one in an amp discussion thread on The Gear Page forum about a week ago and and another longtime member sent me a private message letting me know he had a like new Mark V combo with everything including the original shipping box/materials that he was thinking about selling (that or a guitar) to fund some other purchase. After some discussion about the amp we arrived at what appears to be an excellent price for the amp - $1,750 shipped. Payment has been sent and the amp will ship this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
I am pretty excited about this purchase and I'm looking forward to playing through it. This is a bit more of a sure thing than many other amp purchases for me over the years. I'm not searching for anything or trying to fill a gap. I don't need the amp and there's no expectation that it will do anything for me I can't accomplish with the equipment I already own. At the same time it appears to be an ideal fit for a second amp providing more sonic flexibility for recording projects and a much desired toy to boot. If the amp turns out to be as musically expressive as my demo time would seem to indicate it will find a home here for the foreseeable future. If this works out then I get to play 80's metal head or guitar hero at home whenever I want and have THE sound for it! (well, the Fuchs does the Lukather thing pretty well but the Mesa is more ideal for Schon, Hetfield, others).
One other thing I'm looking forward to trying is using one amp dry with a line out to an effects processor then sending time based effects 100% wet to the output section of the other amp (wet/dry). I've never used a wet/dry rig before - sounds interesting.
That's all for now. I'll be sure to post my observations once I've had a chance to run the amp in my own environment and at a volume that gets the output section participating in the fun. This is a nice community from what I see in my reading here. I look forward to participating here on this forum! I'm sure I'll have questions once I get into it and it looks like there are plenty of knowledgeable Mesa owners here who seem happy to help.
Have a great day everyone!
My name is Deaj and I'm new to this forum. I've been doing a bit of reading here as of late following a Mesa Mark V demo that left me with a very positive impression. My current amp is a factory custom Fuchs ODS 1x12 combo tuned to best suit my playing. I bought the amp 4 years ago and haven't used another amp since. I demo stuff when I go to buy strings, picks, etc. as I like to know what's on the market and appeals to me should it ever be necessary to buy an amp (theft, fire, catastrophic failure, etc.) and because I just like amps a lot. There are a lot more great amp choices now than ever before and at every price point. Although my Fuchs is bar none the best sounding amp I've ever played through (this one particularly so as it has been tweaked to respond well to my playing dynamics) I don't think I'd drop the coin for another were it to be stolen or damaged beyond repair. It was worth the money to me once but there are so many great sounding amps at affordable prices that I would never be able to justify the cost again.
I dropped in to a local music store a short while back to pick up some flatwound bass strings and noticed a Mark V on the floor. I've always enjoyed playing through the Mark series amps and wondered if the Mark V would hold the same appeal for me. I asked to demo the Mk.V and my quick drop-in for strings turned into a lengthy demo and a longer than expected lunch break. A quick look at the front panel up close took away any misconception of complexity - the controls are as intuitive as any single channel amp, there's just three of them instead on one. I started (where else) on channel 1 and found the clean tones to be more to my liking than any I remember from other Mark series amps. There seems to be a slight lean towards a Fender voicing without losing its Mesa identity. Plenty of headroom at full power. Harmonic overtones (shimmer? chime? - I dislike subjective superlatives when describing sound, they're only accurately descriptive to the describer :? ).The various channel specific options allow one to dial in the dynamic response to suit most technique I would think. Very impressive!
Channel 2 strikes me as a, well, three straight up rock and roll amps. It was easy to quickly find the usable range for each control in each mode and then dial the channel in for the desired sound. I found several low gain (verge of breakup or a hair hotter) sounds that were surprisingly good considering that all of the clipping was taking place early in the amps gain structure at reasonably low volume. I can't wait to see what this sounds like with the output section working hard! I think I burned the most time playing with channel 2.
Channel 3 was just bags of fun to toy with. I'll be honest - there's not much in my playing style that mates up well with the more aggressive sounds available in this channel. That didn't seem to stop me from having a blast dialing in 80's tones and trying to play tunes I haven't played in 20 or more years or trying unsuccessfully to cop a Schon or Lukather vibe. The playing left much to be desired but I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face. This channel is the toy I've wanted most of my adult life! It's a self indulgent thing having little to do with anything productive I might do with a guitar but **** it's fun to dial in a Petrucci type tone and try to slop my way through some of his simplest material or set it up for a 'Master Of Puppets' sound and hammer out fast muted rhythms!!
Ummm.... I like channel 3.
I've always wanted to be able to have these types of sounds available for self indulgent wankery, to relive my high school band days in my living room but I don't really have the space for more than three amps (one Fuchs combo, one Markbass bass combo, and...?) and three is pushing it. I have built a few pedals that do a reasonably good job of copping such tones - they're fun but it's not quite the same thing. My home studio is small (8'x10') with a small closet - no storage space outside of this room. The electric guitars and basses are hanging on the walls but, with an acoustic guitar, clarinet, saxophone, keyboard/stand, amps, pedalboard, and computer/audio desk the floor gets crowded fast. I can squeeze in one more amp but it would have to be something that I'll use productively or it'll eventually get pulled out of the room (code for 'get sold'). I've had a second amp in the room a couple of times since buying the Fuchs. Both were narrow enough in focus so as to limit their usefulness and so both eventually became an object in the way more than anything else. This has kept me from buying another amp - the whole 'boy meets amp / boy buys amp / boy lets amp collect dust / boy sells amp' thing is time consuming and a pain in the neck. The Mark V actually seems to me to be two very useful amps in one: 1. A widely flexible three channel amp with tones very different from my primary amp, and 2. A toy I've wanted for decades but have no room for.
A couple more trips out to demo the Mark V convinced me to purchase a Mark V 1x12 combo and see how it works out. I happened to make mention that I was leaning towards buying one in an amp discussion thread on The Gear Page forum about a week ago and and another longtime member sent me a private message letting me know he had a like new Mark V combo with everything including the original shipping box/materials that he was thinking about selling (that or a guitar) to fund some other purchase. After some discussion about the amp we arrived at what appears to be an excellent price for the amp - $1,750 shipped. Payment has been sent and the amp will ship this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
I am pretty excited about this purchase and I'm looking forward to playing through it. This is a bit more of a sure thing than many other amp purchases for me over the years. I'm not searching for anything or trying to fill a gap. I don't need the amp and there's no expectation that it will do anything for me I can't accomplish with the equipment I already own. At the same time it appears to be an ideal fit for a second amp providing more sonic flexibility for recording projects and a much desired toy to boot. If the amp turns out to be as musically expressive as my demo time would seem to indicate it will find a home here for the foreseeable future. If this works out then I get to play 80's metal head or guitar hero at home whenever I want and have THE sound for it! (well, the Fuchs does the Lukather thing pretty well but the Mesa is more ideal for Schon, Hetfield, others).
One other thing I'm looking forward to trying is using one amp dry with a line out to an effects processor then sending time based effects 100% wet to the output section of the other amp (wet/dry). I've never used a wet/dry rig before - sounds interesting.
That's all for now. I'll be sure to post my observations once I've had a chance to run the amp in my own environment and at a volume that gets the output section participating in the fun. This is a nice community from what I see in my reading here. I look forward to participating here on this forum! I'm sure I'll have questions once I get into it and it looks like there are plenty of knowledgeable Mesa owners here who seem happy to help.
Have a great day everyone!
