I finally got my Mesa Mark V 25!!

Sonofabrit123 · Oct 30, 2014

I bought my Mini Mark last night from Bass Central in Casselberry, FL. This is my first Mesa and I'm so thankful to finally own one! I've been wanting to get one since I was like 13 haha!

When I plugged into this I was surprised at how loud it was! It looks so innocent and small. It's about the same size as my Orange Tiny Terror. I'm very pleased with the sounds I'm getting from it so far! I work for a church here in Orlando (C3 Church) and I volunteer at a church at UCF (The Well) so I'll be using it largely for contemporary worship music. I'm also ready into heavy music. This amp is really versatile and it seems to take everything a I throw at it well! I've read that Mark series amps are difficult to tweak but I was able to get some great tones in my first few minutes with it. I'm using the fat mode for my cleans and the IIc+ mode for my drive tones. I'm also running some stuff in my FX loop. CabClone sounds great into ProTools on my MacBook. So far, the only thing I don't like is the noisy fan but it's not that big of a deal.

My signal path:
PRS Mira -> Morley Wah -> DC Klon -> DC Overdrive -> Fender PT-100 Tuner -> Mesa Mark V 25 (Send -> Strymon Timeline -> Mr. Black Supermoon -> Return)

My cabs:
Mesa Recto 4x12
Orange PPC 1x12 (I'll probably be using this one the most for services)
Fender 4x10

I'm really excited to get to use this in a band setting on Sunday!

Those of you who own one of these, please post some of your settings here! I'm curious to try some of your favorites.

Dreamtheaterrules · Oct 31, 2014

Congrats on the new amp !

trialandrews · Oct 31, 2014

Congrats!!! How is the loop? Are you losing any tone with extra fx loop cable lenght ?

Is your timeline on your pedalboard or on top of the amp?

Sonofabrit123 · Oct 31, 2014

trialandrews said:
Congrats!!! How is the loop? Are you losing any tone with extra fx loop cable lenght ?

Is your timeline on your pedalboard or on top of the amp?

I have the timeline on my pedalboard. I don't notice any loss of tone but I'm still new to the amp so I might not notice yet haha. The FX loop sounds great though. I'm running two pedals in it right now.

I would post a picture of my setup here but I'm not sure how haha

gitaryzt1985 · Oct 31, 2014

Don't think of the Mark V as difficult to dial in....think of it more as the process to optimize.

elvis · Oct 31, 2014

Congrats! I hope it serves you well.

The most common reason for tone change in the loop is impedance mismatch, often due to high FX send output impedance in the amp. I can't find a significant issue with my G System in the loop, and most amps have a problem with it. So I think the MV25 has a pretty good buffer driving its FX send. As a result, cable drive shouldn't be an issue.

Now stop typing and play!