Having trouble with high volume tones.

[Cron]

Hi, ive posted before about being happy with my mark v after some tube swapping but lately ive been having trouble dialing in ch3 for gig levels (hard rock/metal-ish sound) My ch3 seems to lose saturation the more i turn up the master. Ive been playing my 5150 a lot lately and love its middy crunch.... Its just too saggy at high volumes and always needs a boost... Which is why im looking to revive my mkv love because of its tight attack.

I dunno, i like ch3's sound at moderate to low volumes but the tone just seems to change more unpredictably as i turn up the master (compared to my framus or 5150). On the other amps i just bump up the presence and lower depth as i turn up but on the mkv it just seems uncontrollable, i can never get it to sound balanced, almost like the geq frequencies are the wrong values for my tastes. I always end up with a sound thats muffled compressed and piercing at the same time (insane right?) I have a mesa traditional and a randall os 4x12 btw. Ive seen people polarized by this amp but lately theres been a lot of love for it.... Im sure i must be doing something wrong.

Ive swapped a lot of tubes lately (gone back to mostly stock tubes after a few saying how happy they were with it) and im kinda lost. Please help!

 

[screamingdaisy]

I suffered from the same problem for a long time. I'd always had something that was kind of bassy and lacked power. A few suggestions;

1) When altering the volume try focusing your re-EQing on the graphic EQ rather than the dial EQ. This will help maintain the preamp "feel" and let you focus on the final product tone.

2) When I up the volume I find myself adding more treble via pushing the 2200Hz slider up. At lower volumes it adds a nasal quality whereas at higher volumes it adds a lot of punch.

3) If you're finding you lack gain saturation make sure you're in bright mode if necessary knock the 6600Hz slider up. This will add top end sizzle which will give you the perception of a more distorted tone.

4) If you want crunchy mids try using Mark IIC+ mode. It has more upper mids and a crunchier sound. With C+ mode you can be liberal with the 80Hz slider and it can get down right mean sounding when you get the graphic EQ right. I put the outside sliders up so they're just below the top line, inside two sliders so they're just above the centre line, and the middle slider wherever I want... it's the one I fiddle with if I want a different tonality for a song.

 

[Cron]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried them but it seems like i still end up with a distant sound thats too harsh. Its like the juicy mid frequencies are missing and when i bring the mid sliders up it sounds honky.

What preamp tubes do you recommend? Ive got v1: mullard ri. V2:jj v3 chinese v4 jj. v5 eh v6:jj v7:sovtek lps

 

[screamingdaisy]

All stock (JJ ECC83s) except for the V1, which is a Tung-Sol.

Another thing to try might be lowering the midrange and upping the bass on the knob. I know when I first started out I was EQing it like an older Mark, where I tended to run the mids around half and the bass way down. I started getting better response when I lowered the mids to 9:00 and upped the bass to somewhere around 11:00.

If you want more juice in the midrange try running EL34s. It hurts the clean channel a little bit but it softens the top end and adds a nice midrange breakup on channels 2 and 3.