Mark IV sounds question urgent!!

[muramasa]

I'm going to be moving out here soon and I feel that me triple recto and 4x12 might be too much for an apartment so I'm selling it on craigslist. I have a guy coming over later today to buy it. With the money I get I was going to buy a Mark IV combo and use the recording out to play silently. I'm just worried that I won't be able to get the sounds I'm after. I play some Tool, Seether and Rise Against. I looked around the net and listened to some demos, but I can find really any that playing any of the bands I like. I just want to know if I'd be better off keeping it and using a pod or something to play silently?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[ryjan]

Howdy, I'm in Northglenn. I would highly recommend the Mark IV for versitile low volume playing and silent recording. Is that your two channel triple recto on Denver CL? I've had my IV for almost a year now and It's never leaving. It's not going to be the same as a recto but the metal and rock tones are incredible.

 

[muramasa]

Yes that my Recto. I'm just a little worried that a Mark IV might me too smooth.

Whats really funny is that if you screen name is your full name just shortened mine woud be ryjen. LOL

 

[ryjan]

Funny. Yeah the IV can be smooth but dialed in right you can get a fair ammount of grind from it. All the bells and whistles on this amp make it a great practice, studio, and live amp. I have yet to find a youtube video that does this amp justice. Listen to Metallica's black album or any Lamb of God song to get a better idea of what this amp can do.

 

[emperor_black]

Totally, what ryjan said. I did a mic-recording of mk iv through a 4x12 with a Boss MicroBR and the tones are just like off a CD. I cant believe it! However, I'm embarrassed by my playing and am not going to put it on youtube. Lot of mistakes and sloppy playing.

And about the silent recording, if that's going to be most of what you're interested in, I would skip it. It so happens, I tried the silent recording just yesterday. Fed the recording out into the Boss Micro BR's guitar input and used its COSM cab modelling. There are very good tones, but frankly I feel a GT-8 or POD might be able to reproduce those through headphones.

if you're gonna play it loud, that's when the Mark really shines (obviously!). But the mk iv has been known to sound good at even bedroom volumes. I live in a house and so I dont have to turn down. But I used to live in an apartment just one year ago and I feel your pain. Good luck!

 

[babow2]

+1 on the pod for home silent playing. If you love the sound of your amp, keep it. If you are trading it out so you can get a silent play at home rig, then get a rig "designed' for that use. A Mark IV is designed as a live rig that also happens to have the capability to play silently, but that isn't its sweet spot. I have a Mark IV and other Mesas, but I use a POD for silent home playing. I can dial in any tone on the POD and it sounds monsterous through headphonese. The mark sounds okay through headphones. Keep the amp you love and just get a silent rig for home. You'll be happier when you do play out with YOUR amp.

 

[muramasa]

Well the guy came over and bought it earlier this evening. I'm looking at mark iv's now and I get a call from him about the rectifier tubes not lighting up. So I call Mesa and Rich told me that if the rectifier tubes were not working that it would not work. I relayed the message to him and gave him the number to call to confirm. I asked him to call me back but its been like 4 hours now. Kinda sucks, now I feel like I need to hold on to this money to make sure hes happy with it instead of buying a Mark IV. I dunno, maybe hes got buyers remorse.

I hope he likes it.

I dunno, I liked the live sound of my recto but it never recorded well. I think I really want to give a Mark a try.

 

[primal]

I initially started off with a recto and loved it. I then found a Mark IV for a killer price and was able to buy it while keeping my Road King. In the end after trying the Mark IV, I noticed I was almost never playing my Recto anymore.

I have since sold the Road King and picked up an Electra Dyne. Now I play the Mark IV and ED fairly equally. Though I probably play the ED a little more. Some of that is probably based on the newness factor (and the Electra Dyne kicks ass).

As far as the silent recording, it's not bad. What I have done to make it sound better is instead of running it directly into my mixing board, I run it through a digitech RP250 which has cabinet simulation. It sounds pretty good.

However, I think the IV would sound better miced at bedroom level then using the silent recording. And it sounds really good at bedroom level.

Of course like any tube amp it gets it's full body at loud volumes. My new favorite setting is on the lead channel. To set it up I crank the main output to about 8 but keep the channel master real low. I set the gain so it is slightly less then I prefer. I then use the channel master like a gain knob and turn it up till I get enough power amp distortion to get the remaining gain. Of course it is real loud at this point. BUt you can set the power section all the way down to 30 watts so it dirty's up quicker.

Get the Mark IV. It is a classic!

 

[muramasa]

thanks for all the replies!

I'm going to get a Mark IV combo. I'm thinking that if I ever want a half stack again I can turn the combo into a head. If I need to use the silent recording I have speaker sim on the nova system. I read some of the mark IV thread and I was wondering is there a sound difference between the A and B?

nevermind^ after READING I found an answer.

 

[ryjan]

Right on. You'll love it. When I use silent recording I just eq it a little because there is a speaker sim already built into the amp.

 

[muramasa]

ya I just bought a Mark IV Wide body combo off of HC. I can't wait to get it.

 

[Platypus]

You might look into a thiele or 2x12 closed back extension cabinet for the Mark IV. If you're used to a 4x12 you might be missing a lot of 'thump' and balls going to an open back 1x12. Just something to think about. Then again, that's apartment living for you.

 

[emperor_black]

You can also add a GEQ in the loop and reduce the level further. and with some good equalization, you can get terrific tones at bedroom level.