Mark V and boosting...

[HaggertysMusic]

jeez, people like you annoys me a lot..that video is a tremendous FAKE, next time dont play so gently with the boost off and turn your guitar pot all the way up, I can tell when your are in ch3 ..FAKE again

Not true. The guitar volume was up all the way for every sound clip. Period.

I tried to play both soft and hard, with & without the boost. I strummed those open chords with the boost off quite hard. I think the message of the video is clear, boosting the front end of your amp will give it a different sound and feel. Bottom line.

 

[scoden]

I dont think there was any faking in that video...only time I see him touching volume knob is to quiet guitar after he plays. I enjoy all your videos Don....keep em coming.

Plus I have a Mark V and a Koko boost....and I havent turned it off since I got it....really fattens up tone yet doesnt muudy it....gives everything more power / articulation..just like video shows.

Whats cool is you can play this amp straight in.. no boosts and set up each channel to sound like you kicked on a boost as you go up a channel........or you can do like I do ... since Im not a fan of switching channels live......set it up with one middle of the road sound....say Channel two Edge 90 wats and use one or two select boosts ( just keep gain levels low and low presence to avoid brittle high end) ....leave them on all night and use vol knob, pu selection and picking dynamics to give you a WIDE variety of tones for almost any occassion.

Something inherenly satisfying to me about setting my rig where I can change my tone at the guitar and never touch the amp.

 

[Jonathan Vipond]

The tone of this amp is too good to loose. I use a boost when I use my Suhr Classic-T and I want a fatter sound. I use a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster pedal to help me with that but even then it's more to fatten things up rather than to add more gain. It seems to be a flat EQ boost with this pedal and I'll definitely recommend it as a good add-on pedal to this amp.

 

[kdorsey]

Though I'm a MkIII guy (hey, we're all brothers, right? :wink: ) my Keeley modded TS-9 is my super sauce. And if you're a TS-9 lover but hate the noise, consider the Keeley version that knocks all that noise out of the park. Seriously. Sweet, sweet stuff. It's not that my MkIII can't do high gain, the TS-9 add different character that compliments the MkIII's channels perfectly (especially R2). Now, I'm also adding a Keeley modded DS-1 AND the TS-9 for some freakin' nice stuff. For 20 years I NEVER boosted this amp. In the last 12 months I've discovered a whole new tone that has reignited my love affair for this amp. Very big thumbs up for boosting.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I'll occasionally un-boost the amp.

Basically, I use a Tubescreamer type pedal and run the gain fairly low, but with the pedal's volume set so that there's a slight volume drop against the straight in signal. The net result is that I stack gain stages for more compression, but I don't get that 'driving the **** out of the first preamp tube' effect. I find it smoother and easier to control than 'overdriving' the preamp like a lot of other people prefer.

That said, I usually only use the trick if I find I need more sustain than the amp has on it's own. And it's not even that the amp can't do it on it's own so much as I prefer the way the amp sounds with the lead gain around 2:00, so for the couple of tunes I need that extra sustain for I'll just hit the pedal.

 

[LesPaul70]

Jumping in a bit late, missed this thread the first time around.

I guess there is a difference between boosting and driving the amp. I boost my amp at all times, with a clean boost. To power through my effects and hit the preamp tubes hard at the beginning. I find this is better than adding say a tube screamer to the existing gain channels.

The Visual Sound Route 66 I keep writing about can do either (or both). The compressor side can be used as a clean boost with variable amounts of compression/sustain (and optional tone control which can be switched off). The OD side, OTOH, works like your average Tube Screamer clone - and has an extra switchable bass boost (if the traditional Tube Screamer high-mid emphasis gets on your nerves).

I'm using this pedal simply for versatility. The Mark V doesn't need it - or any other kind of OD or clean boost. Like, Crunch mode alone: good rock rhythm sound. Engage the VS compressor side -> singing sustain for rock leads. Or engage the the VS OD side -> instant classic 1980s heavy rock/metal tone. And so on. Best of all, these sonic extra options are footswitchable in a live situation, unlike mode changes.

 

[HeadlessAxeman]

Agreed...TS made a difference...I have it in my fx loop.
But..barely use it...I use a Compressor to recover a lot of the of the tone that I felt I lost as soon as I flipped the switch from Hard Bypass to FX Engaged.

my $0.02

 

[sevycat]

Adding a boost to the clean channel can be useful at times. I don't need it for the other channels.

 

[Chester]

I will always vote for a boost. It just adds another bit of coloration to the tones your amp already produces, especially something like the suhr koko boost. It doesn't matter what you plug it into, it just makes everything sound better.

I'd rather set the amps gain a bit lower and use a boost to just put it over the edge. It sounds clearer and more responsive to me.

Got to agree - a FDII gives me 2 additional sounds depending on setting, in every channel. Always worth experimenting with a good OD pedal in my view

 

[lesterpaul]

picked up a Fulltone Fatboost III recently and I dig it with chan 1 -gives me added fatback, and chan 1 is all I use(warning:I play clean most of the time in a redneck outlaw band!)-a Fulldrive II for leads (or I step on the MkV solo switch for my fat tone lead)..guess channel 2 and 3 are just for looks!

 

[SBG200]

I usually set Ch1 on tweed with a little bit of dirt (sounds pretty clean with my LP vol on 8 ), but when I turn the guitar on 10 and hit my 808 (drive low, volume high) it really rips. Big fan of teh boost.