Hi Guys, I just got a Mark V about a week ago. I am not in love with this amp. I'm playing a Gibson SG with Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Specials. I have watched many videos of this amp and I have also gone through some of the post on the forum about suggesting tone settings, tube changes, etc. I'm in the same camp as a few others, I feel like this amp is boxy, wet blanket, ice picky. I've tried many different speaker cabs and speaker combos. I did make some progress on channel 2 in the Crunch mode. As it was suggested to run the channel volume up around 2 o'clock I did notice the wet blanket effect go away. I'm still not getting a tone that I love. The cabinet that I am using is a EVH 212 with a WGS Reaper 50 and a ET65. Here is a picture of my settings for this channel.
I decided to try a Mesa 1x12 WideBody Closed Back Cabinet to see if I can get tones that are closer to all of the videos out there. One thing I have noticed is I have my bass dialed way back, which is what is the common suggestion on the forum here and the owner's manual. But if you watch some of the videos, especially the video from Sweetwater the tone controls are all at 12 o'clock and they are getting some great tones! I realize this is the Mark V 25 and they look to be using a Rectifier cab, but I should still be able to get in the ballpark with my rig. I'm not even close. The cabinet sounds fizzy to me and there is no warmth (with either cabinets).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWYrmZtMOA0&t=445s
I guess I'm looking for useful suggestions or guidance. I have thought about getting some JAN12AT7s and doing some tube swapping, but I'm not to sure if I'm on the right track. To me my settings don't have any warmth and thickness with clarity.
I guess I don't know what to do next. I really don't want to sell the amp and take a loss, but I'm not sure if the tube swap will get me to where I want to be. I know that there is a great post about if your Mark V doesn't sound good it's your playing, fair enough. There also is a post that states if you can't find a good tone in five minutes this isn't the amp for you. I hope I didn't just answer my own question.
I decided to try a Mesa 1x12 WideBody Closed Back Cabinet to see if I can get tones that are closer to all of the videos out there. One thing I have noticed is I have my bass dialed way back, which is what is the common suggestion on the forum here and the owner's manual. But if you watch some of the videos, especially the video from Sweetwater the tone controls are all at 12 o'clock and they are getting some great tones! I realize this is the Mark V 25 and they look to be using a Rectifier cab, but I should still be able to get in the ballpark with my rig. I'm not even close. The cabinet sounds fizzy to me and there is no warmth (with either cabinets).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWYrmZtMOA0&t=445s
I guess I'm looking for useful suggestions or guidance. I have thought about getting some JAN12AT7s and doing some tube swapping, but I'm not to sure if I'm on the right track. To me my settings don't have any warmth and thickness with clarity.
I guess I don't know what to do next. I really don't want to sell the amp and take a loss, but I'm not sure if the tube swap will get me to where I want to be. I know that there is a great post about if your Mark V doesn't sound good it's your playing, fair enough. There also is a post that states if you can't find a good tone in five minutes this isn't the amp for you. I hope I didn't just answer my own question.