Just had an hour, low volume jam on the Mark V..my thoughts

[scott7d]

Well I messed around with the settings for a while but can't get real loud because my roommate has his parents over downstairs.

The cleans are the best on any amps I have ever had. No matter how I set things, the cleans were great. Very sparkly and acoustic-like. The EQ in the classic V-shape made this thing sound like you were tapping on crystal. But doing that also makes it a tad thin, so some more volume is needed if I decide to do it. The fat setting is my favorite, and the Tweed setting with my coils split does great strat-like tones. The lower gain settings on channel two get some great strat-like tones as well.

I am having some trouble dialing in a good gain sound from channel 2 and 3. Even on the 10 watt setting (which is waaaaay louder than the 15 watt setting on a Tiny Terror) I am not getting than nice compressed tone that my buddy's Mark IV gets with ease. My Rectoverb actually sounds better at lower volumes running the full 50 watts, than this does running any wattage setting at low volume. The Rectoverb in general is still sounding better at any of the overdrive stuff. I've learned that the 10 watt settings till needs quite a bit of juice to get that nice overdriven tone.

I still have tons of experimenting to do, so I am not really worried about it. But so far anything with gain is boxy and bright, with very thin bass. Very close to my old Stiletto combo. The exception is the Mark I setting on channel two. The bass is thunderous when running that. I have ruled out the guitar and the cab, because the Rectoverb sounds awesome through it. I think this is one of those amps that REALLY needs the high volumes to shine. The true test will be Thursday when I get to crank it to gig volumes.

Other than having a hard time dialing in a good overdrive sound, the amp is pretty damned cool. Lots of stuff, but easy to use. The reverb is also very sensitive. Running it at 9:00 is about the same as 2:00 on the Rectoverb. So I will have to keep that tamed a bit.

All in all, I think I will end up being happy with the amp. Hard to judge since it has been sitting in my house for about an hour, with minimal low volume playing. I am going to take a good while to read the manual before I play again, but will post progress as I figure things out!

 

[t2mike2]

this amp is no bass monster. While my vht roared through my bass cab with cl90, the mesa does not.

For that smooth compressed sound you will NEED to have the presence down to 1/4 or less. you should find that will do it.

Then crank the gain, switch to MKIV, treble at 1;30 , mid at 11:00 bass at 9:00 and you should have smooth lead city. Preset to about 1/3 for good results.
~Mike~

 

[t2mike2]

oh and make sure its in full voltage mode, variac SUX for low volumes.
~mike~

 

[scott7d]

Thanks Mike. My Rectoverb 1x12 combo even with the 3/4 back has better bass than this running through a closed 2x12.. But like I said, I'll do some tweaking. I don't understand why the manual says everywhere to keep the bass so low, when it doesn't even have any :?
And yeah I always keep the presence at 10:00 or less. Never been a fan of having it above that unless running the clean channel.

I will also try your recommending settings out. Thanks again!

 

[t2mike2]

No prob man. Its good to think of the mark series pre eq like this. The bass mid high knobs are almost like distortion knobs. Where you set them determines where the amps gain gets applied. Thats why if the bass is too high it sounds flubby... because the bass is distorting. So if you want a tight sound you turn down the bass, and then add some AFTER the gain with the GEQ.

If you need more bass than that then i suggest returning the mark v while you can. I really kinda think mesa muffed up on the eq on this boy. No biggie for me since im going to use it mainly to record, but it could be a bigger issue for you.

For big bass metal , i suggest a vht ultralead. or rivera k-tre.
But hopefully you can get what you want from the mark v and enjoy its versatility.
~mike~

 

[danyeo1]

You need to boost the 80hz slider up to get low end. Think of the tone controls as coming before the EQ. That's why you can put the treble all the way up and it adds gain and not high end. I keep my treble up high, presence low, bass and mid almost off, and use the sliders or the preset for your overall tone shape.

 

[scott7d]

Thanks to both of you! It sounds like balancing out the slider and regular Treb/Mid/Bass will be key in getting the sound I want. Keeping the bass low, and boosting it with the 80 makes a lot of sense. Danyeo, you said you leave the treble pretty high, do you keep it relatively flat on the sliders then, or go for the V shape too?

Mike, it's strange you Mentioned that Rivera. When the guy was in the back grabbing my amp, I was strongly eyeballing a Knucklehead sitting in the corner that was the same price. Heard tons of clips and they sounded great! If I had the time, I would have stayed and jammed on it.

But anyways, I will be patient and I have confidence I will get some great tones. I've heard plenty of them on videos and soundclips, just gotta find mine :evil:

 

[danyeo1]

Thanks to both of you! It sounds like balancing out the slider and regular Treb/Mid/Bass will be key in getting the sound I want. Keeping the bass low, and boosting it with the 80 makes a lot of sense. Danyeo, you said you leave the treble pretty high, do you keep it relatively flat on the sliders then, or go for the V shape too?

Mike, it's strange you Mentioned that Rivera. When the guy was in the back grabbing my amp, I was strongly eyeballing a Knucklehead sitting in the corner that was the same price. Heard tons of clips and they sounded great! If I had the time, I would have stayed and jammed on it.

But anyways, I will be patient and I have confidence I will get some great tones. I've heard plenty of them on videos and soundclips, just gotta find mine :evil:

I use a V shape, but that middle 750hz slider really gets the most use for me. Here's a pic of an old IIC+ but i use similiar settings on the V.

 

[scott7d]

Ah, so you still put your 240 and 2200 parameters a tad below the middle line?
Sorry for being picky. I just know on these amps (as with every Mesa I've owned) that sometimes the littlest movements make a big difference.