Good day gents,
I’m a proud owner of a Mark V 35 (plus 2x12 recto cab) for about six months now. I like it, but I don’t love it, yet I know I’m at fault for not putting in the time to dial it in correctly. Last night at band practice my amp sounded thin and tinny…which brought me here. I’ve read through the thread, as well as the owner’s manual and I think I see several issues but I’d love to know your thoughts.
For a baseline, I’m a metal player (Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, etc). I play a Schechter hellraiser, as well as a PRS Custom 24. I have a Boss SD-2 OD pedal in front of the amp, and my old Boss GT 8 strictly in the effects loop for delay and a Noise gate.
Currently I have the gain and bass very low, treble and presence fairly high; 10 watt mode, EQ on with all the sliders above the mid line.
After reading annual a few things jumped out:
- Power. It seems like Mesa recommends the 25 or 35 W Pentode to open it up. My drummer insist the 10W would be better as it would allow the master to be turned up more without blowing the house up.
- Volume/Master: I don’t even think I have the master past 9:00. The manual says shoot for 9-12. This thing is loud, how is anyone turning it up that far and not getting blown away? In the past, I’ve always kept the guitar volume knobs and volume pedals wide open for simplicity, to turn the amp up that much would I have to use them to get the output back down? Is there some other simple method I am overlooking?
Power and volume could be two simple things sucking the life out of my tone right now. Getting them right may fix everything, but here are a few other areas I’m wondering about.
- EQ: I was trying to avoid the classic “scooped V” setup as I keep hearing modern players drive home the importance of mids. I have the two low sliders pretty high, the two high ones pushed up as well, and the middle one a bit above the line. I’m guessing this is a problem. Looks like the manual may say I’m driving the EQ too high.
- Effects. My original plan was to build a pedal board from scratch to get the GT8 out of the chain. I was afraid the GT8 would color the overall tone and make it sound too digital. I’m CONSIDERING rerunning it with the 4 CM method would save me some money, and keep the floor cleaner. I have so little activated I doubt its affecting the amp tone much either way right now.
- OD. Like I said, I use the Boss SD-1 to help boost the signal before it hits the amp. If I run the GT8 in 4CM I would just use an OD modeler to get the same effect.
- CabClone. We play though a PA as well, I’m not sure what cabclone setting I’m supposed to use. The manual says for metal use vintage. Any thoughts?
Sorry for the long post, I’m just hopeful someone can help guide me to making this the metal tone beast I know it can be.