Well...I've had my Mark IV for a week, and I was warned on the Boogie Board that at first I'd want to sell it...and I do.
Great clean, great rhythm, but no matter what settings I use that lead sound sounds like flabby Carlos Santana city...and that's not the tone I'm going for. I had really hoped that, considering the wide claims of versatility, that I'd be able to tweak a lead sound that sings a little more and tweak this thing's lead tone to not be quite so Boogie-ish (I know that sounds like a contradiction but)...but so far it appears that isn't the case. With my old rig, which was essentially a Pod through a Roland full range amp (and I don't care what you tube snobs say...it sounded good...it was just the usual solid state problem of "we can't hear you") I used a Boogie-ish Frank Gambale type tone and a Robben Ford/EJ type Tube Driver through a Marshall tone. I can get that fusion-y Gambale tone ok, but I'm a million miles away from a touch-sensitive violin tone. Even something approaching that sound would be ok with me...it doesn't have to be nailed. I don't know, I was always told that every little knob setting made such a big difference on the Mark IV, but on the lead channel all settings seem to point to Black Magic Woman and I'm sick of it. Combine that with the fact that the amp only sounds like itself roaringly loud and I can't tweak it for more than 10 minutes without needing a break, and I'm just really frustrated. Another frustration is that tone doesn't even change that much from switching to the front or rear pickups...every pickup on every guitar sounds like a neck pickup with tons of FLAB.
All I've got here is a BadMonkey and a DS-1, but through countless tweakings the OD pedals seem to have NO effect whatsoever in warming the lead tone or tightening the attack. Has anybody had any luck with OD pedals on a Mark IV? I really expected an amp of this quality to take to OD pedals better than it does.
Really getting worried here...if I can't get a tighter non-Santana lead tone out of this thing it's gonna have be put up for sale, yet everything else it does I love.
Great clean, great rhythm, but no matter what settings I use that lead sound sounds like flabby Carlos Santana city...and that's not the tone I'm going for. I had really hoped that, considering the wide claims of versatility, that I'd be able to tweak a lead sound that sings a little more and tweak this thing's lead tone to not be quite so Boogie-ish (I know that sounds like a contradiction but)...but so far it appears that isn't the case. With my old rig, which was essentially a Pod through a Roland full range amp (and I don't care what you tube snobs say...it sounded good...it was just the usual solid state problem of "we can't hear you") I used a Boogie-ish Frank Gambale type tone and a Robben Ford/EJ type Tube Driver through a Marshall tone. I can get that fusion-y Gambale tone ok, but I'm a million miles away from a touch-sensitive violin tone. Even something approaching that sound would be ok with me...it doesn't have to be nailed. I don't know, I was always told that every little knob setting made such a big difference on the Mark IV, but on the lead channel all settings seem to point to Black Magic Woman and I'm sick of it. Combine that with the fact that the amp only sounds like itself roaringly loud and I can't tweak it for more than 10 minutes without needing a break, and I'm just really frustrated. Another frustration is that tone doesn't even change that much from switching to the front or rear pickups...every pickup on every guitar sounds like a neck pickup with tons of FLAB.
All I've got here is a BadMonkey and a DS-1, but through countless tweakings the OD pedals seem to have NO effect whatsoever in warming the lead tone or tightening the attack. Has anybody had any luck with OD pedals on a Mark IV? I really expected an amp of this quality to take to OD pedals better than it does.
Really getting worried here...if I can't get a tighter non-Santana lead tone out of this thing it's gonna have be put up for sale, yet everything else it does I love.