Lead tone question.

[Welcomehome]

I'm really digging the Mark V. I couldn't be happier with the rhythm. The lead tone I have is nice and it's as smooth as butter. But, I have hardly any output for fast high gainy shred stuff - it feels like I can use it for mainly gainy blues or really old rock (on channel 3.) I don't even have enough output to finger tap anything, as an example. I have had a Boss Metalcore for awhile - Metalzone sounds like a fake POS IMO - and I hooked that up and that helps the output a lot and I can get the output for a shreddy tone. But, distortion on distortion doesn't sound that great and if I play it through channel 1, I don't get to use the amp's distortion . Do I need to get a ts-9 or something? 10,000 dollars in rack gear? What has your lead tone questing been like? Also, my DD-3 sounds like **** on channel 3 >_<.

I'm looking for a John Petrucci, Alexi Laiho, Kirk Hammet, metalish lead tone. Actually, any good lead tone from what I have now would be better. A Santana lead tone would be awesome too.

I know nothing about amplifier equipment and it's so frustrating finding a good tone for everything >_<.

 

[DudewithFr0]

Check your tubes. Oh and boss and mesa just dont go together.
Something about sucky pedals and awesome amps. :lol:

 

[SteveO]

Something isn't right. As noted, it's probably a tube issue. Mine is extremely touch sensitive on channel three, even with the gain at 12:00-1:00 where it usually sits.

 

[espmaster1]

Yeah man, time to invest your money into pedals... If you aren't dropping over $100 on a pedal, you mind as well not buy it. BB preamp, Suhr Shiba, TS9 Maxon OD9, that'll boost your lead. You aren't looking for distortion, you're looking for a boost pedal.

 

[lesterpaul]

I'm really digging the Mark V. I couldn't be happier with the rhythm. The lead tone I have is nice and it's as smooth as butter. But, I have hardly any output for fast high gainy shred stuff - it feels like I can use it for mainly gainy blues or really old rock (on channel 3.)

I know nothing about amplifier equipment and it's so frustrating finding a good tone for everything >_<.

..I would suggest gaining a deeper knowledge of mk amps in general-there is no way chan. 3 is just gainy blues or "really old rock"...the manual has a lot of info on how to dial in the high gain stuff..plenty on tap-are you running pentode or triode, for example?have you checked out the MK V settings sticky?your treble and presence,along with the eq/triode/variac-full power/etc is going to have a lot of effect on your "high gainy shred stuff" fer sure -there are a lot of metal heads here,so finding a proper shred setting should be easy ,esp. by perusing the sticky! good luck

 

[benson]

I felt the same at first but hang on in there. The first thing I would suggest is go to the settings topic in this forum and dial in the Petrucci tone, make sure you have the switches set the same as well.

Then, put your five band eq on a full V: Left and Right up full, middle down full and the other two half way. Make sure the eq selector switch is set to 'sliders' and not 'preset'. I then tend to tweak the graphic eq to remove a little harshness. I run this with a Boss GE7 eq pedal in front and its thick liquid sustain perfect for those long legato runs.

 

[MBJunkie]

I completely agree with Lesterpaul. Learn the amp without throwing in a bunch of pedals at first. It sounds to me that you are primarily after a "metal tone". Try the Extreme mode of channel 3, but do not dime the gain, treble, presence, etc....for example. Give the amp a chance with your guitar directly plugged into the amp. Start by sampling sounds by adjusting the main tone knobs without the GEQ. My suggestion is to do this for all modes of each channel to familiarize yourself with the amp using your guitar. Once you have done this...experiment with the GEQ possibilities (sliders and preset) with each mode of each channel. Trust me, the GEQ possibilities are endless...especially for high gain sounds...so you need to experiment using your guitar. If after "learning the amp" you still feel a need to add pedals to achieve the sounds you are after....go for it.

Personally, I don't find any need to boost gain using a pedal in channel 3... and usually find my gain setting to be in the 1 - 2 o'clock range regardless of which mode I have selected in channel 3. I don't usually play metal, but know how to get that sound out of my amp using my HSS strat without additional pedals FWIW!

 

[sted]

I still use pedals with my Mark v on the clean channel because it can recreate classic SRV with a tubescreamer, Marshall-y crunch with an ocd etc all these pedals can add character to your tone.
Trying to push your amp on channel 3 extreme with a boss metalzone will only result in ludicrous amounts of compression, boss are ok pedals but I think the rest of people on here are correct when they say that you can get the tones you are after just by tweaking the amp.
The lead tones on their own are pretty awesome mate, the natural gain of a tube amp is almost always preferable to pedals, try backing off the gin a bit and open up the tone a little more with less eq, find a decent tone and start tweaking from there, I cant beleive that you wont find the tone you crave!
Also dont forget that your pickup outputs have a dramatic effect on the what you hear!

 

[Jim Ed Love]

I'm really digging the Mark V. I couldn't be happier with the rhythm. The lead tone I have is nice and it's as smooth as butter. But, I have hardly any output for fast high gainy shred stuff - it feels like I can use it for mainly gainy blues or really old rock (on channel 3.) I don't even have enough output to finger tap anything, as an example. I have had a Boss Metalcore for awhile - Metalzone sounds like a fake POS IMO - and I hooked that up and that helps the output a lot and I can get the output for a shreddy tone. But, distortion on distortion doesn't sound that great and if I play it through channel 1, I don't get to use the amp's distortion . Do I need to get a ts-9 or something? 10,000 dollars in rack gear? What has your lead tone questing been like? Also, my DD-3 sounds like sh!t on channel 3 >_<.

I'm looking for a John Petrucci, Alexi Laiho, Kirk Hammet, metalish lead tone. Actually, any good lead tone from what I have now would be better. A Santana lead tone would be awesome too.

I know nothing about amplifier equipment and it's so frustrating finding a good tone for everything >_<.

I'm using an AC+ plus overdrive from Xotic effects. It works real well with the MKV IMO. Not cheap though.