How are the cleans on the MarkIV, compared to say the Lonestar Special or the Roadster?
I had a LSS for about a month and I just couldn't get it to sound totally clean with anything but a strat. It had a mild but rather pleasant breakup with any guitar with humbuckers which worked great for single note stuff, but any kind of rhythm playing it just kind of sounded like mud. I was fairly unhappy with the lead sounds as well, just didn't sound good unless I pulled out the strat.
So that went back, I figured I'd try a Roadster. At first, the cleans seemed okay, not totally clean, but it sounded cleaner than the LSS with the humbuckers. Not to mention the Brit and Raw settings were great. Took it out to gig, which made the cleans sound much worse, and everything else better. I'm also not finding a good lead sound I like on the roadster, it's taking two OD pedals, compression and an EQ to get a lead sound I can live with, which in my opinion I really shouldn't have to do with a $2500 amp. Along with that it's just not appropriate for me anymore since I'm not really playing a whole lot of heavy music right now.
Roadster is going back, and I'm running out of amps to try, I want to give the Mark IV a shot because I've heard so many incredibly good lead sounds out of it, but I really haven't heard much talk about the clean sounds. Right now for all of my gigs I'm playing rhythm, since nobody else around town does, it leaves plenty of work for me. I find myself mostly playing blues and classic rock stuff, so good cleans and good light crunch are absolutely a must.
So the smart thing would be for me to be done with it and buy a fender twin, or something along those lines. Problem is, I really don't want to play rhythm forever, and I want to be able to pull off a solo with that Petrucci, Satriani, Vai, Timmons type of sound. That and I already play a lot of that stuff at home and at jams.
So can the Mark IV pull this stuff off? Or am I best looking elsewhere?
I had a LSS for about a month and I just couldn't get it to sound totally clean with anything but a strat. It had a mild but rather pleasant breakup with any guitar with humbuckers which worked great for single note stuff, but any kind of rhythm playing it just kind of sounded like mud. I was fairly unhappy with the lead sounds as well, just didn't sound good unless I pulled out the strat.
So that went back, I figured I'd try a Roadster. At first, the cleans seemed okay, not totally clean, but it sounded cleaner than the LSS with the humbuckers. Not to mention the Brit and Raw settings were great. Took it out to gig, which made the cleans sound much worse, and everything else better. I'm also not finding a good lead sound I like on the roadster, it's taking two OD pedals, compression and an EQ to get a lead sound I can live with, which in my opinion I really shouldn't have to do with a $2500 amp. Along with that it's just not appropriate for me anymore since I'm not really playing a whole lot of heavy music right now.
Roadster is going back, and I'm running out of amps to try, I want to give the Mark IV a shot because I've heard so many incredibly good lead sounds out of it, but I really haven't heard much talk about the clean sounds. Right now for all of my gigs I'm playing rhythm, since nobody else around town does, it leaves plenty of work for me. I find myself mostly playing blues and classic rock stuff, so good cleans and good light crunch are absolutely a must.
So the smart thing would be for me to be done with it and buy a fender twin, or something along those lines. Problem is, I really don't want to play rhythm forever, and I want to be able to pull off a solo with that Petrucci, Satriani, Vai, Timmons type of sound. That and I already play a lot of that stuff at home and at jams.
So can the Mark IV pull this stuff off? Or am I best looking elsewhere?
