Mark v 25 EQ

[sawyer]

Hey guys, proud new owner of a mark v 25. As I've never owned a MB before thought I'd share my initial adventure setting it up.

With the clean channel, I fell in love with the FAT mode. Great bassy cleans, with a little sparkle on top, truly amazing imo. Added the graphic eq to make it sound even "bigger", and added a flashback on the fx loop, and started equing. Couldn't get a sound I didn't like! Perfect on all levels.

The real adventure began setting up a high gain sound on channel II.

Switched to channel II, to the mark IV mode, and setted up the EQ like I do on my 5150III 50w:

-gain at 12 o' clock;
-treble at 11 o' clock;
-mid at 10 o' clock;
-bass at 9 o' clock;
-presence at 11 o' clock;
-master loud enough without getting my neighbors to come down and kill me;
- Graphic eq almost like a V, but without cutting the mids too much , 'cause I like me mids on a guitar sound.

Big mistake!

Started playing and it sounded....far from what I've expected, seemed dull and lifeless, like it had a blanket on top... First thing I though was..hmmm I know mark heads aren't known for a hellish amount of gain, but this seems lacking a little gain than what I've seen on the vids, and what's up with the blanket... Then it hit me, there was a user here that had an issue that got solved by manipulating the presence, so there I went, turned the presence to 1 o'clock and away went the blanket, the gain seemed fuller and the channel gained life again.

But it still lacked the gain I've seen on the vids, people with the IIc+ mode with gain at noon, had more power than me with the gain at 4 o'clock so something had to be wrong. So then I started turning the treble knob up, to 1 o'clock and BOOM, gain for days, more than what I'd ever need or use.

Turns out that I should have read the manual first The treble knob controls the signal amount that is feed to the other 2 controls, so when I had it set so low, the gain wasn't flowing like it should. When people say that MB amps require time, patience and experimentation they weren't kidding!

 

[nor]

Welcome to the Mark Club!
You picked up on the secret sauce pretty quick. Some players never get it, and go back to what they are used to.
\m/

 

[Doomeddawn]

Hi there Sawyer, I bought TC Flashback yesterday and planned to run it in the loop. Haven´t had the time to try it yet. Have you got it in buffered or in true bypass mode? Does the buffer color the sound much? I am planning at running relatively long cables with 4 cable method and probably need some sort of buffer in my chain. Or does the buffer build in the loop do the job for me?

 

[primal]

Hi there Sawyer, I bought TC Flashback yesterday and planned to run it in the loop. Haven´t had the time to try it yet. Have you got it in buffered or in true bypass mode? Does the buffer color the sound much? I am planning at running relatively long cables with 4 cable method and probably need some sort of buffer in my chain. Or does the buffer build in the loop do the job for me?

Im using a flashback delay with mine.

I'm fairly certain it is in true bypass (wasn't aware I could change it, I suck at reading manuals)

Im a tc electronics fan. The delay does not color the tone at all IMO. If I disengage it and engage it mid note, I can only tell when I hear the repeat.

This was not the case with my buddies delay which instantly changed the tone.

 

[dbagchee]

The buffer built into the loop should be enough.

 

[sawyer]

@nor, thanks for the welcome, really loving the mark sound.

@Doomeddawn, mine is in true bypass mode, so I didn't feel any coloring in the tone. When I get my mini amp gizmo, I'm gonna use the same setup that I used with the 5150iii, all effects connected to the loops of a G-LAB gsc-3, so that I can control everything with it, channel change included.

When running long cables it's advised to have some kind of buffer otherwise your sound will get lifeless due to the lack of signal strength, so I suppose that you should run it with the buffer mode on with so much cable involved, but in the end it all comes to experimenting and see what sounds best to you. I currently use the Empress buffer+ to boost my signal and avoid the loss by my two 6 meters cables.

 

[Doomeddawn]

Tried the box yesterday @ band practice, seems to work just fine. Does not color the tone when off, there wasn't significant signal level loss either. Didn't try the buffer mode. But I only had short patch cables for the loop. Need to try with the proper 6m cables.

@Primal: Yes there is a switch inside which allows to choose true bypass or buffer. I also hate manuals but normally skim thought them to save some trouble later. :wink:
@Dbagchee: I just have to try which will work for me. Adding a buffer isn't a catastrophe for me.
@Sawyer: Yep, trial and error to see what will work for my setup. I'm also considering going midi since I need my effects but am somewhat frustrated to the ancient ritual of tap dance with the pedals.