Yo Adam!
Nope, I sold the MKIV and the Express heads about a month or so ago. The MKIV was making me nuts with it "never sounding the same way twice" and the endless tweaking, options etc. Nonetheless, I still think that it is a fabulous amp. The Express was outstanding clean and very good on crunch, but just didn't cut it on the blues/burn channel, regardless of what pedal I used. Soooo, I sold both and picked up a DC-10 from Andy (Monsta-Tone). So far (two weeks into it), I really like it. To my blown out ears, the cleans are much warmer than the MKIV's and the overdrive channel is about 90% compared to the MKIV's, but not as tight. Getting it to do the "low gain" is tough, but Andy gave me a few tube swap ideas. I may just invest in a BB Preamp for those type of sounds or use my Seymour Duncan Twin Tube on the clean channel. I can say this about the DC-10 - it is freaking LOUD!!!!!!! Again, Andy suggested that I consider a Triode/Pentode switch or a Cathode/Fixed Bias switch to lower the output. I think that the later DC amps had 60/100 switches on them stock (at least based on the manual that I downloaded). I guess to put it in a nutshell, the DC-10 seems to have the best DNA of the MKIV, with a clean Fenderish chime like I found on the Heartbreaker's clean.
Prior to the DC-10, I had picked a mint condition 2007 Marshall TSL100 head which lasted about three weeks, until I came across JCM800 4210 combo from the guy who sold me the TSL. I'll pick up the JCM800 tomorrow and swap him the TSL. Heck, I've been drooling over owning a JCM 800 since high school (break out the hairspray and spandex, cue up Iron Maiden) :lol:
I would give the DC series a test drive before you return to the MKIV (and that is not knocking the MKIV). Andy did mention to me that the DC-5 is not as clean as the DC-5 (i.e. less headroom and earlier break-up). I found this to be true when I briefly had a DC-5 combo (my very first Boogie), which was why I sold it.
Also, I had asked Andy to compare the DC series to the MKIV (he owned both) and here's what he said.......
" This is based on a shootout between my DC-10 & Mark IV A.
Cleans:
Mark IV - sterile, not enough bass
DC-10 - Very close to my Twin II, but with a little more sparkle and less bass
Reverb:
Mark IV - Not much there, very fast decay and very fast repeats
DC-10 - Very full with longer delay times. Not as lush as the LSS or my Twin II, but very nice
EQ:
Mark IV - not very powerful, but did have a lot of control over tones
DC-10 - Extremely versatile, but more present than the Mark IV. I actually use it for a lead boost and boost the volume and frequencies that I want for solos
Distortion:
Mark IV - R2 - I hated R2. I could only seem to get Rolling Stones tones, which I love, but it felt sterile
Mark IV Lead - Great tones, but too "Tweaky," if that makes sense. I never seemed to be able to dial in the same tone twice, using the same guitar, cable, cab, exact placement, etc.
DC-10 - Very easy to dial in. I used it in a Country band with the gain on 3 and it was sweet and crunchy.
With the same settings, but gain on 6, you can do any classic rock tone you want by adjusting the treble, bass, mid, and your guitar's volume.
Gain on 7 is Santana territory.
Gain on 9 is metal-ville or late 90's Santana depending on guitar and tone stack settings.
All in all, here is how I see the DC's:
DC-2 - Great practice at home amp but no EQ. Contour only works on lead channel.
DC-3 - Great blues & classic rock amp. More Marshall tones than Mesa. Not much clean headroom, so bluesy cleans are all you will get without a Thiele. Great ZZ Top to Santana distortions. EQ needs a little tweaking to make it more effective. Really hard to install a bias pot without re-working the circuit.
DC-5 - Great blues & classic rock amp. A little darker than the others. Very little clean headroom, so loud cleans are hard to achieve. Distortions are fat, anything from Dire Straits (Money for Nothin') to Santana to metal. EQ works very well. Reverb not as strong as the DC-10.
DC-10 - The best of the bunch. Deep reverb, seriously sweet cleans. EQ works the best on this one too. The DC-10 also has the deepest bass of all of them. In my opinion, it is far superior to the others.
At one time, I owned a DC-10 combo, Roadster head and Mark IV combo. I chose the DC-10 over all of them because I felt like it was superior in every way. Easy to dial in, very stable as far as getting the same tones each time, great sounding and it seemed to like tube changes the most."
Good luck and happy GASSSSing! 8)
Matt
