Brianiac5150
Well-known member
OK...I'm gonna carry on a little to get to the point and please don't read most of this as gloating (except for the part about me now owning a Mark V :wink: ). All die-hard Boogie fans, please read entire story before taking offense to one of my early statements. 
I'm a Midwest, USA, hard rock musician who's had the great fortune of opening shows for many, many of my influences and great bands. During that time, as I and the band were extremely poor, I was playing through an ADA MP-1, into a Carvin X100B head and X100B combo (FX Returns), out to stock Marshall 1960A cabs, of which all but the cabs were used equipment - had to borrow from family to get the cabs. I was fortunate enough to be able to accomplish some seriously awesome guitar tone with this stereo and/or mono setup. In fact I played many, many shows opening for big, signed bands running large Mesa backlines and had people come up to me after the show telling me how awesome my tone was and how lucky I was to be playing Mesa Boogie, at which point I would explain my non-Boogie rig to them that was side-washing the stage and easily overlooked. Furthermore, these same people would later tell me how much better my rig sounded than the headliner Boogie setups - please read on. These statements usually ended up pacifying my "Boogie lust" and I kept on with that setup for darn close to ten years - still have most of it. Unfortunately, that band "lost steam" and is no longer together. Fortunately though, I moved on to different paths, got a decent job and this year Uncle Sam bought me a Mark V. (Hallelujah)
In recent years I haven't been playing anywhere near as much as I used to until Mr. Mark V came into my life. This amp has truly renewed me. That said, there is one thing about the Carvin X100B series that has always captivated me. Running E34Ls tubes in them results in one of the most pristine, clean sounding amps I've ever heard. Although I did thoroughly read the excellent Mark V manual the day it came home with me, two recent posts sparked complete revelation with me. One is about re-reading the manual and the other about the slave out (post asks about "line out"). This morning I ran the Mark V slave out to the Carvin head (I've regrettably sold the combo and one cab) into a Marshall cab and OH MY GOD!!! No seriously...OH MY GOD!!! Heaven literally pours out of this setup. The MP-1 definitely has some great tone; however, slaving this head into the Carvin results in huge, huge amounts of the clearest, most awesome tones I've ever heard and I haven't even been able to get it anywhere close to stage volumes.
Point of all this rambling: Any of you with other "great" amps sitting around, slave your Mark V into them and re-discover your Mark V (AGAIN!!!). I'm pretty sure I've posted the following statement before; however: just when I think I've explored the Mark V to its limits, it renews itself again. The Mark V is truly, truly an amazing amp. How lucky we are.
I'm a Midwest, USA, hard rock musician who's had the great fortune of opening shows for many, many of my influences and great bands. During that time, as I and the band were extremely poor, I was playing through an ADA MP-1, into a Carvin X100B head and X100B combo (FX Returns), out to stock Marshall 1960A cabs, of which all but the cabs were used equipment - had to borrow from family to get the cabs. I was fortunate enough to be able to accomplish some seriously awesome guitar tone with this stereo and/or mono setup. In fact I played many, many shows opening for big, signed bands running large Mesa backlines and had people come up to me after the show telling me how awesome my tone was and how lucky I was to be playing Mesa Boogie, at which point I would explain my non-Boogie rig to them that was side-washing the stage and easily overlooked. Furthermore, these same people would later tell me how much better my rig sounded than the headliner Boogie setups - please read on. These statements usually ended up pacifying my "Boogie lust" and I kept on with that setup for darn close to ten years - still have most of it. Unfortunately, that band "lost steam" and is no longer together. Fortunately though, I moved on to different paths, got a decent job and this year Uncle Sam bought me a Mark V. (Hallelujah)
In recent years I haven't been playing anywhere near as much as I used to until Mr. Mark V came into my life. This amp has truly renewed me. That said, there is one thing about the Carvin X100B series that has always captivated me. Running E34Ls tubes in them results in one of the most pristine, clean sounding amps I've ever heard. Although I did thoroughly read the excellent Mark V manual the day it came home with me, two recent posts sparked complete revelation with me. One is about re-reading the manual and the other about the slave out (post asks about "line out"). This morning I ran the Mark V slave out to the Carvin head (I've regrettably sold the combo and one cab) into a Marshall cab and OH MY GOD!!! No seriously...OH MY GOD!!! Heaven literally pours out of this setup. The MP-1 definitely has some great tone; however, slaving this head into the Carvin results in huge, huge amounts of the clearest, most awesome tones I've ever heard and I haven't even been able to get it anywhere close to stage volumes.
Point of all this rambling: Any of you with other "great" amps sitting around, slave your Mark V into them and re-discover your Mark V (AGAIN!!!). I'm pretty sure I've posted the following statement before; however: just when I think I've explored the Mark V to its limits, it renews itself again. The Mark V is truly, truly an amazing amp. How lucky we are.
