Finally played a Mark V..

[MarshMesa]

at the Hollywood store and was blown away. Best amp that I've ever played, by far. I don't know why anyone would sell one of these, unless they were in some kind of financial trouble. The distortion was the most brutal and warm I've ever heard from a Mesa. So much distortion - no need for any overdrive pedals. The options that allow one to adjust the tone are just ridiculous. So many choices! Great clean, great medium gain, great heavy gain. I will make it my life mission to save up for one of these someday or maybe the Mark IV's (if it's similar enough).

 

[kc_ksom]

I have not played a mark v yet but in australia they cost a bloody fortune man, around the 6k mark.
I waited so many years to get my dual recto, I have had it now for about 6 months & brought it 2nd hand, if you want one you will find away, you will get there one day.

Regards
Casey

I also just brought an old mark III 2 weeks ago, its still at the amp tech getting a freshen up & new tubes, I am looking forward to hearing how it sounds...

 

[rgx612a]

I have not played a mark v yet but in australia they cost a bloody fortune man, around the 6k mark.
I waited so many years to get my dual recto, I have had it now for about 6 months & brought it 2nd hand, if you want one you will find away, you will get there one day.

Regards
Casey

I also just brought an old mark III 2 weeks ago, its still at the amp tech getting a freshen up & new tubes, I am looking forward to hearing how it sounds...

You will love the Mark III.

 

[MarshMesa]

I have not played a mark v yet but in australia they cost a bloody fortune man, around the 6k mark.
I waited so many years to get my dual recto, I have had it now for about 6 months & brought it 2nd hand, if you want one you will find away, you will get there one day.

Regards
Casey

I also just brought an old mark III 2 weeks ago, its still at the amp tech getting a freshen up & new tubes, I am looking forward to hearing how it sounds...

Man, now THAT'S expensive. I had no idea how much they cost for you guys across the pond. I think you would be better off buying a plane ticket to Los Angeles and purchasing one there and take it home.

 

[kc_ksom]

Yes they cost a bloody fortune, the dual & tripple recto's were like 5k up untill recent years, and there still over 4k now (this is for a head). Our aussie dollar was and has been for a while anywhere from $1.00 to $1.10 per USA dollar. Australia's economy has been pretty good of late, but once the US dollar starts going back up, and it will be back up there, mesa will only become more expensive, currently the aussie dollar buys .95c US cents, at our bottom the dollar is buying .47 USA cents..

As much as I would like to come to the USA to purchase stuff, we get hit with TAX on the way in to Australia, on top of that the shipping cost is rediculous, so its a no win situation, Oh also we use 240v power here so it would have to be an export model or I would need a step down transformer (additional cost) so thats the reason I was happy paying $2200 2nd hand for my dual recto, even though you could pick one up in the states for about 1k

I am very happy with the recto, it sounds really good, Ive come from a solid state Line 6 Vetta II head, but I gotta say the Line 6 has been really good, but side by side the line 6 is not in the same class..

I am really looking forward to this Mark III though, I had snippets of how it would sound as it had some problems and volume would jump, but when it did jump and I could play a few tunes, man its gonna scream... Cool

regards

Casey

 

[MarshMesa]

I figured there might be additional fees I wasn't aware of, and additional problems like not having the same power plugs. They need to find a way to lower the prices for Mesa's going abroad. Marshall's are made in Britain, and I didn't have to pay a lot for it? I'm now curious why...

I think the Line 6 amps that combine the modeling with tubes are pretty good. I never did like their exclusively digital amps because when you cranked them up, they just didn't sound like a tube amp to me. Nothing really sounds like a tube amp except for a tube map imo. Still way better than many others brands I could name though.