Mark IV vs Rectifier...?

[bryan_kilco]

Thing is, you would never have somebody else choose the lady you're going to marry for you, why would you do so for an amp?

yeah but an amp is never going to make it burn when you pee and take all your money

Something tells me this is insight from a man who's been there :wink:

So totally sig worthy!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[kmanick]

I'm particularly fond of DHIADW. For me personally, that's what a good heavy 7 string tone should sound like. That album was actually the reason I bought a 7 string a while back. Never had a desire to own one until then.

:lol: :lol: :lol:
same here, before I heard DHIADW and "Enemies of Reality" I just really didn't see the point. Loomis opened my eyes to 7's.
These days my 2 7's see a lot more play time than my 6's do (even for 6 string material).
these 2 albums are what basically got me into Mesa Boogie amps too.
I had to have a Recto after hearing these.

 

[LEVEL4]

Neither sounds like the other, so that's why I have both. You can't make a MarkIV sound like a recto. And, you DEFINITELY can't make a Recto sound like a MarkIV.

Recto: Best for rhythms. Especially "scooped" rhythms. Too "thin" for leads, IMO. But, really awesome for thumpy-chuggy rhythms.
MarkIV: Best all-around amp. Tight. Far better for leads than Rectos. More versatile than Recto. When A/B/Y'd with a darker, DC-series amp--it's lead heaven.

 

[colemaneuclid]

The other guitarist in my band plays a Madison Divinity II head with everything dimed but the mids (7.5) It does not blend well at ALL with my 2ch DR. I have to crank the presence up just to cut thru and then i end up sounding just as shrill as him. And he thinks the opposite. he thinks the mesa sounds blurry. i told him to take his f'n ear plugs out when he eq's his amp and back up at least ten feet...
I like my lead tone on my 2ch DR orange vintage setting. Smoothest sound on my amp.
I would love to own a Mark III or Mark IV to blend my sound live. Best of both worlds.

That's why I'm always preaching to take opinions with a cautious ear. Tone is so subjective that one man's trash truly is anothers treasure. One guy hears something as "boomy," the other hears it as "massive." One guys hears something as "brittle and shrill," another hears it as "punchy and full of attack." One guys hears something as "thick and full," another hears it as "middy and tubby." The only way to truly know is try it for yourself and let your ears decide.

Opinions are great to get, but it's like I mentioned above, you rarely find unbiased opinions on the 'net.

 

[CoG]

"An amp is never going to make it burn when you pee and take all your money"

or at least while the amp is taking your money, it's still in your house and you can have fun with it :lol:

Though seriously, folks, I'd take at least one Mark III to bed with me every night and both on the weekends if I didn't have a Spanish soprano there already, but I do know that if my bandmate and best buddy didn't have a Roadster I'd unload a bunch of gear to get one for myself. It's taken us almost a year and some tube rolling to get it sorted, but damn, is that a fine sounding amp as long as you can crank it (otherwise you need to boost it.) Good EL34s and a good V1 solve the lead problems quite nicely and it's a very different lead voice from a Mark. He doesn't use it for any "recto" tones at all, actually he uses Ch4/Raw for his "crunch" tone. :shock: None of the Bass knobs are over 10 unless for some reason we have to turn down, in which case Ch3/Vintage bass gets turned up to noon and then we boost it to thin it a little bit (hard to describe but it works.) Anyway, yeah, big thing, scary versatile amp.

Funny thing, though, I have tried doing the "blended" thing with one of my Mark III's and the Roadster and it actually is more trouble than it's worth. The thing with the Mark III, especially the lead channel, is that it's really, really, really unsubtle. It sounds like a Mark III no matter what you have plugged in, no matter what tubes you have in it, no matter how you have it dialed. It'll sound different, but not a whole lot different. The only real influence you can force is how much midrange gain you hit it with from your pickups or V1. It's very midrange-focused and horribly unforgiving as a player. It's a great sound, but as a lead it jumps to the front of the mix and everything is right there. The Roadster is actually pretty nuanced-- if you keep gain and master around noon you hear fingers, fretboard, pickup, pick, etc. very subtly in a way that's pretty surprising for a high-gain amp, there's more depth. If you blend the amps the Mark tends to just stomp over the Roadster in a way that's actually kind of irritating when it's all in unison. The amps sound great together but not, like right together.

We play harmony stuff or ping-pong/interlocking rhythm parts with opposing fills and it sounds really good because the tones shelve in together but the blending/bi-amp rig is not all it's cracked up to be. Maybe with a IV it would be better because it's a little less in-your-face than a III.