Do Mark V's have to be cranked to sound good?

[DrummerChas]

I'm just curious what songs you play at church? I never really thought of a church as a place for loud rock music, or just needing heavy tones (even if you are playing creed) Is there a time or event that occurs that you get to rock out?

I'm just wondering since alot of people play at church's and i've yet to see any advertisements for an event like that around me.

We have a fairly heavy music format at our church. In past church services we have covered songs such as "Apocolypse please" by Muse, "Carry on my wayward son" by Kansas, "Child's Anthem" by Toto, "Long way home" by Supertramp, and most recently we covered "Bring me to life" by Evanesence on Easter Sunday. Most of our musicians have a rock music background. People really seem to enjoy it when we throw in crossover music that really rocks and goes along with the message. We also play a ton of Hillsong United music which is Christian music but has a fairly heavy rock feel.

 

[screamingdaisy]

The answer is... yes and no.

The amp sounds great at low volumes, but "opens up" when you get to about 10 on the master.

By "opens up" he means "turns into a raging fucking monster that continually knees you in the guts".

But yes, it does sound good turned down. It's the first tube amp I've played that's made me forget how quiet I'm playing at. There'll be times that I think I'm rocking out loud, but then I realize I can still hear my pick hitting my strings acoustically...

 

[dylan7620]

Quick answer: While it will pretty much always sound better at higher volumes, it still sounds great at more reasonable levels. Especially with the 10w setting you can get the power section to open up a bit and get that nice "bloom."

Hi all -

Like Marshall/Vox type amps, they really don't sound great until they get to a certain volume (power tube saturation) level. Is this the case as well with the Mark V's?

The thing with cranking old Marshall and Vox amps is that a lot of those vintage designs relied so heavily on how the power sections blended with the preamp making it so you HAD to push the amp to get the juicy gain and tone out of 'em that they are known for. Mesa's cascading gain design was innovative in that it really shifted the focus of control more so to the preamp than before and relied on it to achieve the same levels of gain previously by giving you gobs more of it in the front end. All of a sudden you could dial in the tone you were looking for without having to carry around earplugs. Cranking it up just fleshed out and enhanced the sound while leaving the preamp to do the heavy duty shaping of the core tone.

 

[spawnofthesith]

It sounds great at low volumes, but man is it hard to turn back when you experience this thing cranked @ 90 watts

 

[drewthesteelman]

Yes and no. Like any tube amp, you won't reach the sweet spot unless the power tubes are pretty well saturated. I've noticed the distortion is pretty thin and weak at low volume in the 10 watt mode in full power. However, the saving grace of this AMP is the variac power mode. The looseness of this setting makes the distortion feel fuller and more rich at low volume. Harmonically, this power mode works extremely well at bedroom volume. Because of the extra flub, the manual recommends this mode is best for blues, jazz, and vintage rock. However, I've found it to be perfectly acceptable and dare I say....even very good sounding for metallica/megadeth type metal at bedroom volume. Not even knowing what I was doing, I had the thing in variac power when I unboxed it and Harvester of Sorrow (a good test song for any new amp) sounded better than on any of my prior amps.

To get the full glory of this amp without needing ear plugs, risking hearing damage, or risking angry neighbors, an attenuator is a must.

Its beyond me why some of these amp manufacturers don't start making attenuators a part of the amp design. I'd gladly pay an extra couple of hundred to get an amp with one built in it, on it, attached to it, etc. Even 10 watt amps can blow your ear drums out at full tube sat.

 

[Scary]

Yes and no. Like any tube amp, you won't reach the sweet spot unless the power tubes are pretty well saturated. I've noticed the distortion is pretty thin and weak at low volume in the 10 watt mode in full power. However, the saving grace of this AMP is the variac power mode. The looseness of this setting makes the distortion feel fuller and more rich at low volume. Harmonically, this power mode works extremely well at bedroom volume. Because of the extra flub, the manual recommends this mode is best for blues, jazz, and vintage rock. However, I've found it to be perfectly acceptable and dare I say....even very good sounding for metallica/megadeth type metal at bedroom volume. Not even knowing what I was doing, I had the thing in variac power when I unboxed it and Harvester of Sorrow (a good test song for any new amp) sounded better than on any of my prior amps.

To get the full glory of this amp without needing ear plugs, risking hearing damage, or risking angry neighbors, an attenuator is a must.

Its beyond me why some of these amp manufacturers don't start making attenuators a part of the amp design. I'd gladly pay an extra couple of hundred to get an amp with one built in it, on it, attached to it, etc. Even 10 watt amps can blow your ear drums out at full tube sat.

I always figured it was because attenuators are notorious tone sucks. With the Mark V there is no need for attenuation, just put it in 10watt and you're good!

 

[screamingdaisy]

I try all of my amps through an attenuator, and for the most part you can make a master volume amp sound better unattenuated than you can attenuated. You just need to fiddle with the EQ to cope with the tone shift that happens as you drop the volume (generally, as the volume comes down you want to lower the mids and raise the bass).

Further, the whole point of the graphic EQ was to make a Mark amp sound better when used at low volumes, and truthfully it does a way better job of that than an attenuator.

 

[Hendog]

I try all of my amps through an attenuator, and for the most part you can make a master volume amp sound better unattenuated than you can attenuated. You just need to fiddle with the EQ to cope with the tone shift that happens as you drop the volume (generally, as the volume comes down you want to lower the mids and raise the bass).

Further, the whole point of the graphic EQ was to make a Mark amp sound better when used at low volumes, and truthfully it does a way better job of that than an attenuator.

Lots of truth here. Switch over to the Preset EQ and dime that mofo. All of the saturation shows back up at whisper volumes.

 

[randy]

no, i think is really good at low volume

even though i don´t like the 10 watt mode and i use the 90 watts