First day with my new Mark V!

[satch4u3]

I can see why everyone raves about this amp! It is great! However it is easy to dial in horrible sounds on this thing if you don't read the manual and tweak while thinking outside of the box. I spent the majority of the day sitting with the Mark V tweaking and I have got some great tones! Here are a few things that concern me and I am wondering if anyone else has seen them:

1. I have searched the boards and I have seen posts in regards to certain delays sucking tone while in the loop. I am using a Vox Time Machine delay and it only sucks tone while I am in the 10 Watt monde in Channel 3. Weird huh? Also the delay is not very promanent in channel 3. It is very faint. I also find that the repeats from my delay tend to be a little distored in the clean channel. My preamp volumes are not high. Maybe it is the pedal itself?

2. Does anyone else find that the tone is sooo much better with the FX Loop circut hard bypassed? Because I do. So much so I am thinking about giving up my much beloved delay effect and perminetly keeping the FX Loop hard bypassed. Although while it is bypassed, channel 2 and 3 masters are super sensitive. How are you guys running the amp? Are you just bitting the bullet and running with the FX Loop enabled?

3. Is it normal that you have to have the reverb up to almost 12 o' clock before you actually hear strong reverb?

 

[espmaster1]

My answers to 2 and 3!

2) I have heard about that FX loop thing, I'm running an Eventide Timefactor through the loop and lets say I'm biting the bullet, I'm also too afraid to try bypassing cause if it's that much better I don't know what I'll do! Probably keep my timefactor, I need my delay!

3) I agree with the verb, I'd say that's normal at least with my amp!

 

[jb's 52]

1) Have you tried the delay up front? My DL-8 sounds great in front.

2) I like the 'solo' button too much so I'll never hard bypass.
Try fiddling with the "send," I keep mine a little past 2 o' clock.

3) Yes, mine again is around 2 o' clock

 

[Ploki]

delay gets mushy if you put it in front with a lots of gain.
but that was my suggestion too.

i dont hard bypass often, but the sound doesnt change in quality so much that i'd trade my master volume for it. well, perhaps for recording purposes in studio, why not?!

as far as reverb goes.. i usually play dry. not a big fan of spring anymore. perhaps i need to rekindle my love for it

 

[boogieman60]

I use a digitech 100 (don't laugh ) in the loop for my delays. For many reasons, but mainly because it has an EQ. When players say " tone sucking" what do they mean???? No control over EQ.... Hence a flat or dull sound. You really should use a device with an EQ in the loop. I just AB with the footswitch and adjust the EQ on the 100 so as to get the thing as nearly transparant as I can. On this unit it means cutting the lows at -1 the mids at -2 and the highs at +2. and ta da no tone sucking....just that great Mesa sound with delay. It also has a master volume control..

 

[satch4u3]

I have not tried my delay up front. From my expereince the delay just dosen't play nice when it is out front. I will give it a shot tho.

The way I have my channels setup are as Clean, Crunch Rythum and Solo sounds. So loosing the solo boost would not be the end of the world for me as I can just set channel 3 a little louder. I would however really miss giving up my delay.

I have a gig this weekend so I may try the first and second set with out the loop and delay and the second set with. Or vice versa. Maybe once I have the volumes up at giging levels I may not hear that much of a difference. I will report back.

Have any of you gigged with your Mark's yet? What was your expereince like?

 

[Ploki]

pretty awesome. i changed my rig in the middle of small tour... from quad + 50/50 to MKV. And it felt pretty awesome, i didnt miss my old rig AT ALL.
for the first gig i had to twiddle-dee my tone basically on the soundcheck. :lol: its great.
no worries. i also dont think you'll notice such a big difference with FX loop when you crank it up nicely.

 

[jabberwocker]

I would avoid running any digital stuff in the loop unless the ADDA is bypassed for the dry signal (or you have a high end unit). I mean, who wants cheap digital conversion in the main audio path? Might as well by a modeler then.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I can see why everyone raves about this amp! It is great! However it is easy to dial in horrible sounds on this thing if you don't read the manual and tweak while thinking outside of the box. I spent the majority of the day sitting with the Mark V tweaking and I have got some great tones! Here are a few things that concern me and I am wondering if anyone else has seen them:

1. I have searched the boards and I have seen posts in regards to certain delays sucking tone while in the loop. I am using a Vox Time Machine delay and it only sucks tone while I am in the 10 Watt monde in Channel 3. Weird huh? Also the delay is not very promanent in channel 3. It is very faint. I also find that the repeats from my delay tend to be a little distored in the clean channel. My preamp volumes are not high. Maybe it is the pedal itself?

Probably.

2. Does anyone else find that the tone is sooo much better with the FX Loop circut hard bypassed? Because I do. So much so I am thinking about giving up my much beloved delay effect and perminetly keeping the FX Loop hard bypassed. Although while it is bypassed, channel 2 and 3 masters are super sensitive. How are you guys running the amp? Are you just bitting the bullet and running with the FX Loop enabled?

I leave the FX loop on. I do hear the difference, but it's not that big a deal to me.

3. Is it normal that you have to have the reverb up to almost 12 o' clock before you actually hear strong reverb?

The reverb level is tied to the channel master level. The lower the channel master the higher the reverb level will need to go to compensate... and vice-versa.

 

[rika_gd]

I believe that the hard bypass sounds great for playing at home, but in a gig you can use the loop normally cause all of those details that hard bypassing provides are almost lost in the mix..it´s still a great tone thought

 

[satch4u3]

The reverb level is tied to the channel master level. The lower the channel master the higher the reverb level will need to go to compensate... and vice-versa

That makes sence. I have been playing with the master volumes fairly low due to running the loop hard bypassed.

I believe that the hard bypass sounds great for playing at home, but in a gig you can use the loop normally cause all of those details that hard bypassing provides are almost lost in the mix..it´s still a great tone thought

Hey rika_gd. What details does the hard bypass provide that would get lost in a live mix?

Thanks for your replies everyone.

 

[rika_gd]

the feeling with the amp of course wouldnt be the same with a band, besides I feel the sound smoother and pure in hard bypass and with a band I cant notice that, with the loop engaged that compensates with more treble or gain, or master..

 

[Patrickt69]

I use a Roland Space Echo in the loop and it sound very sweet also I use a Maxon AD9 Pro thru the front on a clean channel sounds very sweet too But my main FX is my G System I use that in a 4 cable Setup FX loop and that is the best sounding delay out there IMHO

 

[satch4u3]

the feeling with the amp of course wouldnt be the same with a band, besides I feel the sound smoother and pure in hard bypass and with a band I cant notice that, with the loop engaged that compensates with more treble or gain, or master..

Yes. You are probably right. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

 

[satch4u3]

As for the distorted delay repeats and very subtle delay on channel 3... I have seen the light! I did what another thread around here suggested. I can't remeber the exact thread as I went though a bunch.

With the Effects loop actived via switch on the back, I dialed in the Master Output up to about 11 o'clock and dialed in my channel master volumes to taste and that did the trick. No more distored delay. And I can hear delay in channel 3 just fine now.