Mark IV...great tones at low volumes, high volumes..ehhh

[6L6C]

the only speaker i'd ever bother with those beam blockers on, is a vintage 30.
but i try my best to keep v30's as far away from my rig as possible. :lol:

I have been using Beam Blockers now for about 2 months (2x12) and yeah I got them for the V30's, usually just point the cabinet in a different direction but there are certain times when i cant. I do think they work very well

 

[alphadog808]

I'm still waiting on my dust cap to come in, but in the meantime, I made a ghetto style beam blocker with a square cut out of a dinner plate...big difference(to me). It doesn't seem as beamy and it's easier to hear a good mix of highs and lows without having to angle the amp to fire at me...

I'm thinking when I move to the rounded dustcap, it'll sound even better!

 

[bryan_kilco]

I'm currently running a Mark IV head thru a 5150 cab.

I always use the Classic V EQ setting, but not as drastic as some.

I use a BBE Sonic Mazimizer in my FX loop, and lately I've been noticing my tone was WAY too treble-y. it sounds good when I am in front of the amp, standing...but when I lean down to hear the real sound being projected, its very harsh to my ears. I am constantly wondering if its killing the audience at shows, and lately have been dropping my presence and high end a lot, while either bypassing the BBE or turning the process way down.

I've had the chance to be in the crowd while a buddy used my head, and I was running up and tweaking the amp after every song, for I was a bit dissapointed. =/

 

[fpoon]

The way I see it is if your gain, treble, and drive is about 8 and as your increasing the volume, drop it all down to 7. This forces you to play tighter but gets you a nice clear sounding distortion.

You shouldn't be playing with your gain close to 10 anyway. My advice is work on your picking technique so you get the most out of your distortion when it's not so high. As you pick harder against the strings you can dial in less gain. This will help alot on higher volumes too.

 

[bryan_kilco]

The way I see it is if your gain, treble, and drive is about 8 and as your increasing the volume, drop it all down to 7. This forces you to play tighter but gets you a nice clear sounding distortion.

You shouldn't be playing with your gain close to 10 anyway. My advice is work on your picking technique so you get the most out of your distortion when it's not so high. As you pick harder against the strings you can dial in less gain. This will help alot on higher volumes too.

so very true. It seems the tube amp is very sensitive to the amount of attack on your strings. I let a buddy play thru my Mark IV and he was a bit sloppy...sounded like ***.