Mark I mode... What the Hell is it for?

[Hendog]

I love this amp, LOVE IT. But what the hell is Mark I mode for? It's so **** thick I cant seem to use it for anything. Give me some ideas for settings and whatnot.

Thanks!

 

[MrMarkIII]

Maybe it's there so you can get your amp to sound like a Mark I.
Maybe it's not too thick, maybe the other modes are way thinner.

 

[Scary]

I love this amp, LOVE IT. But what the hell is Mark I mode for? It's so **** thick I cant seem to use it for anything. Give me some ideas for settings and whatnot.

Thanks!

Turn the bass of the preamp almost off, maybe 5:30 or so. Try the Presence strait up, and the Treble at 2 or 3 o'clock depending on the volume. Mids between 10 and 2. When dialing in the gain, try and pay attention to the harmonics/feedback. You don't want to choke the awesome harmonic spectrum with too much gain.

Other notable posters here have mentioned that turning the master up to 3 is a great way to unleash the beast of the Mk 1 mode.

 

[Hendog]

I love this amp, LOVE IT. But what the hell is Mark I mode for? It's so **** thick I cant seem to use it for anything. Give me some ideas for settings and whatnot.

Thanks!

Turn the bass of the preamp almost off, maybe 5:30 or so. Try the Presence strait up, and the Treble at 2 or 3 o'clock depending on the volume. Mids between 10 and 2. When dialing in the gain, try and pay attention to the harmonics/feedback. You don't want to choke the awesome harmonic spectrum with too much gain.

Other notable posters here have mentioned that turning the master up to 3 is a great way to unleash the beast of the Mk 1 mode.

Isn't 5:30 the whole way up???

Anyway, thanks for the other ideas. I'll check them out.

 

[JOEY B.]

Quoted from my friend "lesterpaul" about the Mark I settings:

All are in o'clock except for Bass and Treble. Output and FX send level are at 12:00 noon. :twisted: Hell yeah, it's loud. 8)

the monster Mk 1-
90 watts mk 1 mode/thick
gain -2:00
chan vol 11:00
pres. 2:30
treble-maximum
mid 9:30
bass minimum

eq sliders- 80 was **** near bottomed out...(+5 is top line...-5 bottom line..for those who cannot read my mind..its a lefty thing..we have fuc*ed up ways...)
240 -2.5
750 0
2200 +1
6500 +3

This mode does not play nice with any other mode (sliders activated) on the amp when the graphic EQ is dialed in this way, FWIW.

 

[dmcguitar]

im going to guess that scary probalby ment 630, and hit the wrong key.. which would be pretty much off.

 

[iFreedom]

ya mark 1 is it's own beast. You can cut down the bass and get a wicked setting, but not very usable with the others. IMHO, it's a tone on it's own, not ment to be switch witedh the other channels, except maybe, ch1 with some sort of clean. Just my thoughts though. And yes, I own a V and love it.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Anybody using a pedal EQ to scoop bass out when in MK1 Mode?

I love the channel but it does not play well with others when foot switching. I have gain low, master high, bass out, mid, treb, presence up. When cranked loud as hell, it sounds great. Thinking maybe of getting the floor MXR 10 band to handle cutting bass on the floor instead of on the EQ, so it does not screw up all the other modes.

 

[fuzzgod]

Oh man, it's awesome for a fat, thick Sabbath tone! Get it as thick as you can and hit it with a wah.....mmm, chewy.

 

[Scary]

im going to guess that scary probalby ment 630, and hit the wrong key.. which would be pretty much off.

Whoops. Yes, I meant around 6:30, although it's probably closer to 7:30 now looking at the amp. Having a little signal go through the bass control makes it sound better to me.

 

[igfraso]

I love this amp, LOVE IT. But what the hell is Mark I mode for? It's so **** thick I cant seem to use it for anything. Give me some ideas for settings and whatnot.

Thanks!

It is the Santana sound. You need to set it differently than later Marks because of the different architecture.

As far as I know (and maybe I am wrong):
- the BF Fender vibrato channel and the Mark I input 2 channel have a First Gain-Tone/Volume-Gain makeup-Gain architecture
- the Mark I input 1 channel has an Extra First Gain-First Gain-Tone/Volume-Gain makeup-Gain architecture
- the Marks II, III and IV have only the First Gain before the Tone Stack and have a fifth gain stage and a fourth volume control added in the signal path.

While in later Marks the cascaded gain is after the tone stack, in the Mark I you have it before the tone stack.

 

[Hendog]

I love this amp, LOVE IT. But what the hell is Mark I mode for? It's so **** thick I cant seem to use it for anything. Give me some ideas for settings and whatnot.

Thanks!

It is the Santana sound. You need to set it differently than later Marks because of the different architecture.

As far as I know (and maybe I am wrong):
- the BF Fender vibrato channel and the Mark I input 2 channel have a First Gain-Tone/Volume-Gain makeup-Gain architecture
- the Mark I input 1 channel has an Extra First Gain-First Gain-Tone/Volume-Gain makeup-Gain architecture
- the Marks II, III and IV have only the First Gain before the Tone Stack and have a fifth gain stage and a fourth volume control added in the signal path.

While in later Marks the cascaded gain is after the tone stack, in the Mark I you have it before the tone stack.

So how do you compensate for this?

 

[Gizzorge]

I use it for leads over nice clean loops and it is creamy goodness all the way. Love it!

 

[igfraso]

You can compensate it with the settings Joey B. posted.
Cut down the bass and raise the treble.

And then, if you want the Santana sound, bring down a little bit the presence and raise the mids.

 

[niilz]

crank gain and channel volume and dial treble/middle/bass to minimum. set presence somewhere at around 9:00h and play your geetar...


LOL!!!

 

[niilz]

...and later flip the mode switch to EDGE and forget about MKI ;-)

 

[lesterpaul]

MkI mode with el 34's is simply brutal,set up correctly :evil:

 

[litesnsirens]

Mark I is to be used if you want a huge guitar tone, start with the settings that have been mentioned already, they will get you in the ball park and then you can do some minor tweaking from there to get something you like. I actually just used the preset EQ as opposed to the sliders and got a massive tone with great bottom end. Use the sliders and you can take some of the bottom out. You really can't get that sound from any of the other modes. I wish I could use Crunch and Mark I modes, but I am using crunch because it fits more applications... I just use Mark I mode at home when I feel like having fun.

 

[tminus3]

Normally I just play Crunch, never dug the Mark I mode due to its dark character. But based on this thread, I just spent about an hour trying to tweak the Mark I mode. OMG!!!! I love this mode now. The tone is thick and full. Has the right amount of crunch and fits the bill for most of my bands songs. But here is the kicker...roll off the volume and it cleans up amazingly!

I just rekindled my love for my Mark V! =)

 

[phyrexia]

it is for thick syrupy lead tones, for gigantic wall of sound distortion, for mid gain crunch, for edge of breakup sounds. :lol: