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lockbody

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Back in 2006 I decided that I was tired of my Mark IVB. I thought that ch1 was too clean and stiff, ch2 was too middy and muddy and didn't have enough gain, ch3, while the shining star of the amp, wasn't enough to make up for the "deficiencies" of the first two channels, and the reverb was a disapointment on such an expensive amp. I had owned the amp for three years and had used it for everything from practice to stage to studio for myself and bands that came into my little home studio without a decent amp, so I knew how to coax the best sounds out of it, but basically, I was wanting something else.

So I made a trade for a full blown Triaxis setup with a TC G-Force and everything. Oh, how I loved that thing... the control, Rhythm Yellow clean, IIC+ and Mk IV rhythm and lead... I was in heaven... for a while. Then I noticed that it didn't really sound as "organic" as I remembered my old amp sounding, the Dynamic Voice option didn't always give me the exact sound I wanted, and the G-Force, while the best processor you could buy, just got used for simple chorus and delay most of the time. Interest waned with every passing programming session.

Then, I walked into our local Boogie dealer to see the new amps and there was the Roadster. Oooo, I thought, here's the cure for my Ch1 and 2, and reverb woes from my Mk IV. So out went the Triaxis and in came the Roadster. True enough, Ch1 and 2 of the Roadster along with its reverb allowed me to get some of the finest clean, mid-gain, and crunch tones out of an amp I've ever had. Compliments wherever I went. But channels 3 and 4... man, they sounded great in the store, but in the end, that "Recto" sound just didn't work with my band at the time, which depended on tight, locked-in, rhythm (the kind that Mk's are good for).

Feeling a tad dejected, I was back at my local dealer when I noticed the new Stiletto Deuce II. Whoa mama! There you go! Great cleans for an EL34 amp and I loved all three modes on ch2. Bye bye Roadster, hello Stiletto. I played Marshalls in the late eighties and ninties, so I felt at home with the Stiletto. Then my bandmates asked where did all my "***" go. Oops. Well, it is an aptly named amp. I started hearing about KT-77s, but after dropping coin on the STR-450s I didn't feel like swapping to a chinese tube just to try and get a little more low-end. So I was looking again.

Reading about the DCs, I decided to take a chance on a DC-5 sight unseen. From the picture the guy sent, I thought I was getting a DC-5B, but it turned out to be an A. I really dug it, however, as I generally like my cleans a tad "pushed" and that's how ch1's cleans are on the A. Ch2, while darker with a decidely low-mid flavor to the tone, had a lot more gain than the Stiletto and had that missing low-end thanks to the 6L6s. When a DC-10 came up for sale I jumped on it to have even "more", and more it gave me. You can just dial in a MASSIVE bottom, and it stays tight and brutal with a ton of punch.

A while back a Mk IVa came up for sale locally at a price I couldn't resist. I bought it thinking it would be a good idea to have a combo for when I didn't want to schlep around a halfstack. After a while however, I began to notice some things. First, wow, was it a bright amp! But it didn't sound thin like the Stiletto, or fizzy like the Roadster when the highs are turned up, but just full and present. Second, Ch1 and 2 sure do sound a lot better than I remember them sounding on my IVb. Ch1 with a touch of the (also much better sounding to my ears) reverb is just full of warm, sparkly deliciousness. Ch2 is just big and bold and wrapped in a touch of overdrive, and it doesn't seem to care it's not a chugging crunch channel like many want it to be. I've heard ch2 called "the Marshall channel" before, but I'm calling this one the Hiwatt channel.

I was worried, though, that I wasn't going to be able to replicate my DC-10's lead channel with the IV. I've read on here that the IV can cop the DC-10's sound (but not vis-a-versa), but it can't. The DC-10 just has soooo much more usable gain and its low-end can't be be matched by the IV. However, I'm not in a metal-type band any longer, I find myself needing gain tones with less.... um.... brutality these days. There's a lot that can be done to tame the gain on a DC, but I always ran into compromises. Plus, I've always found the DC's to get a tad muddy and wooden when the gain is backed down too much. Baby likes to rock, and there's nothing wrong with that. But with the IV, you can back off the gain and the amp still cuts and punches right through. I think this A's ch3 is no where as smooth as my old B's, but in an 180 degree turn from an earlier statement, ch1 and 2 and the reverb totally make up for it. Ch3 of this amp is rawer for sure. Whatever circuitry changes Mesa made to the B, I'm pretty sure I like the A better, although the differences are small, to be sure.

Recently, however, I had to make a choice between the two. I think if I was still playing in a thrash or metal-type band I might have made a different decision, but it looks like I'll be giving up my DC-Cartel membership instead. All of my bandmates couldn't make it to practice last night, and it ended up being just the drummer and myself jamming for a few hours. I threw everything at it from light jazz comping to Texas boogie, to hardcore, and it sounded flawless. I'm home again, and couldn't be happier.

I guess the point of this post is just to say sometimes the quest for tone is found in what you've already got. It took five years, and a good amount of money to discover I was happiest with what I had. I didn't know it before, but I sure do now.
 
I can relate to this story fully, except i have actually never let go of my 91' MarkIVa compact imbuya combo. To me, the features are so phenomenal, and it just looks soooooooo beautiful, that that alone has let me keep it. HOWEVER, boy do i fight with its sounds! It's almost like it sounds different everyday. The clean goes from warm and beautiful to dull and shrill (in my head at least), the Rhythm 2 is a battle, and the lead channel goes from being the ultimate lead sound to not having enough gain.

At times, i have heard other amps like say, a Peavey Classic 30, and gone: why can't the boogie sound like that clean?? I have access to a lot of amp due to my job, and i brought a classic 30 home one time just to test it, it turns out i like the Mark better! Oddly enough though, i always find myself changing speakers, processing the amp with para eq's and comps, or switching these knobs looking for some other sound.

I own 5 amps now, and the Mark is still my go-to-amp, and probably want i will never sell. However it keeps me awake at night regularly. Next step is the Thiele set-up everyone speaks of. I have a closed back recto 1x12 with EV12 and that works well, but i am always seeking more bottom-end.

Thanks for your post, it was good to see i am not the only on that battles with... well, the perfect amp?
 
Awesome post :) :twisted: :mrgreen:

The IV I had for a bit was an A, but I spent some time with Bs at work as well. JOEY B. and I have had conversations about the differences. He had a IVa that got "scary close" (i think that is the term he used) to his IIC+. The Bs are smoother definitely, but most people seem to like a B's R2 channel more, also.

The real question: Have you run the 10 and the IV together yet???
 
Yep. I'm right there with you. Sold my MkIVa a few years ago. Tried a bunch of amps (including a DC-2 and DC-3) but never could find anything that seemed to work quite as well. So I went back to the MkV. This one is a very early B with the attached cord. Don't have any plans to let this one go.
 
Noe5 said:
Next step is the Thiele set-up everyone speaks of. I have a closed back recto 1x12 with EV12 and that works well, but i am always seeking more bottom-end.

Do this! A combo (or open back 1x12) + a Thiele cab will really open up your clean tones and beef up you bottom end. Its shocking how good they sound. I understand the PortCity or Dr. Z "Z-Best" cabs are similar too.
 
Thanks for sharing your journey, I really enjoyed reading it. I have been a Mark series fan since I got my IVb many years ago. Although I mostly use the FIVE now, I still enjoy the IV and it's always set up and ready to go. Ch.3 is unreal.
 
First of all, thanks to anyone who made it through all of that. :lol:

phyrexia said:
Awesome post :) :twisted: :mrgreen:

The IV I had for a bit was an A, but I spent some time with Bs at work as well. JOEY B. and I have had conversations about the differences. He had a IVa that got "scary close" (i think that is the term he used) to his IIC+. The Bs are smoother definitely, but most people seem to like a B's R2 channel more, also.

The real question: Have you run the 10 and the IV together yet???

Why as a matter fact I have as my H2o has dual outs. I had the DC-10 going through my halfback 4x12 and the IV going though a 2x12 loaded with V-30s. Just an awesome metalocalypse. Thundering lows and low-mids from the DC with the Mk IV providing the high-mids and cut. If I had another 4x12 instead of the 2x12 I might have just had to sell a guitar instead of the DC-10 (and get in a metal band :twisted: ).

I was a Rhy2 hater with my B. Hater. If you find every negative post about the Mk IV's Rhy2 on this board I bet I agree with a good 90% of them. It had just enough gain to make me want it to have more, plus it just seemed too middy for me. I don't know... I was able to get great mid-gain tones almost immediately with Rhy2 this time around. I'm sure my cab, guitars, and tubes all enter into the equation, but it just doesn't even have the same feel as my B.

Noe5, a story about comparing other amps to the IV. I took in an Ampeg Jet II on a trade once, and while noodling around with it the wife came downstairs and remarked how nice it sounded. I said, "Yeah, it's alright, I guess." She said it was better than alright in her opinion, maybe even better than the Boogie. Then I went over and fired up the Mk IVb. "Oh." She said, "Wow. That makes the Ampeg sound like a toy."
 
I did something similar.

My first tube amp was a Dual Rectifier, followed a year later by a Mark III. I was happy.

Then I started reading internet gear forums. I suddenly felt like I was missing something and went on a 5 year binge of buying and selling different amps. One day I was listening to various recordings of myself when I realized that every recording sounded remarkably the same, and I came to the conclusion that I was basically trying to make everything sound like a Rectifier.

I now use a Dual Rectifier and a Mark V, and I'm happy.

The nice thing about having tried all those other amps is that I'm now more confident that I've chosen the correct amp(s) for my sound, so I have very little interest in trying other pieces of gear these days.
 
kiwi-kid said:
Lockbody - Christ, you are the perfect consumer!

Well, it was either that or let the terrorists win. :wink:

Actually, I figured it up, and after five years of trading, and five completely different setups, I've only incurred a massive $125 loss over my original purchase. Not bad, if I say so myself.
 
lockbody said:
kiwi-kid said:
Lockbody - Christ, you are the perfect consumer!

Well, it was either that or let the terrorists win. :wink:

Actually, I figured it up, and after five years of trading, and five completely different setups, I've only incurred a massive $125 loss over my original purchase. Not bad, if I say so myself.

Wow, even after buying the two new amps from me? Good fuckin' job!
 
phyrexia said:
Wow, even after buying the two new amps from me? Good f%&#' job!


Yep. Made money on the Mk IV trade after selling the Triaxis rack, lost money on the Roadster and Stiletto, and broke even on the two DCs. My back is making me think baaaaad thoughts about that Mk V head you have in the store, though. I bet I wouldn't easily find a buyer for the IV, however.

Yeah, that's it. Too hard to sell the IV first.

:lol: Geez, I'm so bad.
 
I went from a III red stripe to a IV(A) myself.
I had never heard a IVB that I liked as much as my III but a friend of mine scored an "A" combo in really good shape for cheap and he just couldn't get a long with it (true marshall guy to the bone) so I checked it out, and it sounded so close to my III
but with a more usable R1 and R2 that I "took it off his hands" and sold the III.
 
There is just that something about the IV.

I've done similar things. About two months ago I thought well I've had enough of this tube hazzle thing and put my IV up for sale. I hadn't played that thing for a month. Ordered myself a brand new axe fx ultra and a footswitch.

I work alot from my home so I can be away from home for two months at a time. Long story short, when I got home last weekend I decided to hook up the old combo for some farewell playing you giving it a decent send off to it's new owner.

BIG mistake or a huge fortune ?

After about an hour of playing I cancelled the order of the axe fx and decided to keep the amp only using a measly boss me 25 in the loop for reverb and delay.

I love this thing and I always have and if there is any amp out there that's worth selling mine for, it can only be the V and not a digital wannabe.

I've had this amp for a little over two years now and this was my first gas attack since I bought it.

I'm happy ;)
 
Dude, sounds almost identical to my story, except I wish I did as well as you on the money part! I love both mark and marshall sounds, so I go back and forth between the two. I thought my search would be over with the stiletto, but no dice. I started out with a mkiv b, sold it, and went on an extensive amp search.

I've gone through so many amps it's ridiculous! Among others, I've had the rectoverb, f-30, stiletto ace, mk iii and even a mark v recently, but still missed the mkiv. I just feel at home with it, so yesterday I pickup another, but this time it's a version a. I think it's a keeper and if I want another type of tone, I'll either get a pedal or try to save up for another amp. This way I will always have my mark!
 
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