Ambiance, room accoustics maks a huge difference with V

[bandit2013]

Tone quest, re-tubing the Mark V, endless effort to cut down the highs without sacrificing overall tone. Been there, done that, oh wait a second, the only thing I did not try was a different location. The room the amps were in was the largest one in the house, cathedral ceiling, etc... 70% of the wall surfaces is drywall, the remaining surface is comprised of a huge brick fireplace. The amp did sound great but some days it was brighter than normal, other days it would sound great and not so bright. This weekend I cleared out one of the spare bedrooms that had mainly boxes of stuff that never got unpacked after moving. This mod did not cost anything but hard work to make the change.

Location and room acoustics is often overlooked, I am aware of this but neglected to look into alternatives for where the amp will reside. Now the amps are in a room 1/4 the size of their original location, I do not think the high end will be much of a problem now. Aside from the tonal character of the room, I no longer hear the buzzing and rattling noises from the furniture, wall fixtures, etc... Both amps sound much better in their new location.

 

[pivot]

Take the Casters off of the cab and let it sit on a hardwood floor.

 

[bandit2013]

Easier said than done. I would have to install a hardwood floor in order to do this.

The old house I used to live in had nothing but hardwood floors and thick plaster walls. I do know the difference.

I admit, I have left the casters in place on both the cab and mark IV. Now that I have a dedicated room for the guitars and amps, Casters can come off. Everything sounds much better once I moved the amps into a less reflective room.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I had a room where the amp only sounded good in one spot. If I moved it a foot to the left or right it'd sound like sh*t.

 

[bandit2013]

It was worth the effort to move everything from one bedroom to the other. I wanted the amps in the center of the home so I can crank it up without disturbing my neighbors.

It is remarkable how much of a difference it makes. The Mark V is no longer ice picking my ears. Even the Mark IV is happy. I was playing that through the 412 just to compare and it sounded just as good. Makes me want to get another 412 cab and convert the combo to a head. Na, leave the combo as is, but another 412 is a possibility.

 

[bdubbs]

Might be the speakers also.

 

[bandit2013]

If it was the speakers, I may buy that. When I first got the Mark v it sounded terrible. In the show room it sounded awesome though Mesa Recto cab. The only difference between the two cabs, mine was 13 years old. At low volume everything was fine, but crank it up a bit, total garbage. I knew this amp had more to offer, replaced the tired V30's with EVM black label and behold, finally was able to hear all the capabilities of the Mark V without the mud or ice pick tone.

After some several hundred hours of use with the SED wing = c= I notice the treble was creeping up. Either the speakers were finally getting broken in or the tubes were drifting. Come to mention it, the Mark IV was also responding the same way. Room Acoustics was the key, the only variable in the room was the air quality (level of humidity) and air pressure due to outside ambient conditions. This somewhat relates to my car in some respects. Supercharged V8 Mustang Cobra with high flow resonators (no mufflers). On some days it sounds awesome as it should, other days it seems quiet. Air density was the key. Since the amps were in the largest room of the house, The brick fireplace, I should rephrase that to the Brick wall since it is one complete side of the room, as well as the hardest to control temperature wise was influencing reflection of the high frequencies.

Having moved the amps to another location made a world of difference. I doubt that would have changed my opinion on the V30's though, I did not care for them from the start when I first got the cabinet. It sounded OK but did not get much use over the years. In the new location I can appreciate the tonal differences I can get from both V and IV. RH2 on the IV sounds awesome through the 412. Before, I did not like that channel, now it is becoming a favorite when driving the half stack.

 

[bandit2013]

Another point to add, since I relocated everything to a different room, the bass response never sounded better. Snappy, tight and more punch. I would swear I was using EL34 or KT-77's not 6L6.

One note about the EVM12L, they may have a lower frequency response than V30's but they are just as bright too. What is different, no breakup. I may just get another 412 cab for use with the Mark IV. Sometimes I wish I would have opted for the head and not the combo, but having the combo is great since you do not need to take the 412 with you when you jam over at friends house. I am upgrading the MKIV with a Fane Axiom Studio 12L speaker. If I like it I will get a 412 cab from Dynamo with the Fane speaker. That way I can use either EVM or Fane for different tones. I really want the Dynamo GT-6 head but very pricey. I did consider replacing the Mark IV combo with a Mark V combo. There are certain characteristics of the Mark IV I like over the Mark V, and vice versa. I was also planning on getting a V3 until I discovered the Dynamo. It all depends on what transpires in the next few months to follow.

 

[K-Roll]

I myself have the very same experience as you guys. What usually sounded awesome in our rehearsal place turned out to be a rather thin/shrilly/telephony kind of sound once I took the amp live onstage.

I was completely disappointed with the amp.. So much that I'm still thinking of selling it and getting something else but.. last time what I did was that I completely slightly boosted the first two slides even though it seemed too much and turned down the presence on CH3 to something like 9 o'clock and even brought down the last two sliders on the GEQ which now are below the middle line and so far everything seems to be OK.

The room itself makes so much difference I could not believe it at first and the funny thing is, that once you get it cranked in a bigger room, it's the treble that start filling out the space rather than bass/lowmids..

 

[bandit2013]

That's it, Treble was dominant, although the bass was well defined but not as tight and punchy.

I would not have realized the larger room would be dominated by the higher frequencies, but it makes sense since they have a shorter wavelength and it is harder to obtain any cancellations in the upper register. Where as the bass, depending on the tone of the room (resonant frequency) you may or will get cancellation at lower frequencies.