Mark V, best tones I've found for high gain "trick".

[user 83127]

I know the ICE is in the preamp. All three channels too. Tweed, Edge, and all voices of CH3. It sounds like breaking glass inside your ear drum. It could be GEQ related, which I believe to be the case. This is what the output looked like on the send jack with a 750Hz sinusoid signal on the front end at 700mV. The green trace is the output. Note the postive sharp peaks on the leading edge of the distorted wave form. the negative signal looks correct, not flat, has some harmonic content and no sharp edges. I had assumed it was V4B crapping out or not behaving properly but it could also be V5A since the phase changes when it passes through a gain stage. Not sure on the phase change of the GEQ circuit (it was turned off but the differential amp is still used to make the FX send signal on its final transistor stage). That is ice pick. What throws me off is the decay rate practically do zero after the first impulse. Look more like a cap discharge curve. The Boss pedal was used in its bypass mode. Also, it can handle the line level signals as I did the same thing with the TC50. IT was also one of the pedals that did not suck in the Mark V90. Figured it was ok to have that in the circuit as I did not want the cable unloaded.

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JP2C under the same conditions looks normal to me. It is an asymmetrical distortion. the positive transition has more of a square shape but the edges are rounded indicating a roll off of upper harmonics. There is some ripple in that as well which is related to the generated harmonics. The only difference, the Send signal does not pass through the GEQ circuit with the JP2C, it is a tube driven circuit. GEQ runs after the FX loop. I will have to look into things a bit deeper. Something must have crapped out in the GEQ or is not properly soldered in the Mark V90. It never sounded good from the start, first thought the ICE was from the power section, sure it was overheating and eating power tubes. I was sort of in a desperate time when I got that amp in the first place. Lets just say I was going through a major change in my life that was difficult to deal with.

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The clean channel has a much higher output level than the gain channels. No compression or distortion. Everything was at noon except for the channel masters, those were dialed out. Did much the same with the V, but had to run the volumes up as they are in front of the FX loop. the global volume was dialed out. Nothing worse than hearing a single frequency through a speaker. Not very appealing even when distorted.

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I am sure of it..the Studio Pre amp I had had the icepick thing...no power section..I know the V you can get rid of it from the output with power tube selection...or at least with mine..power tubes DO make a difference..these amps are kinda quirky..n fact ALL have their own particular quirks AND charm. But the parts of the V you have left are THE best parts of THAT amp...I would pair the first two channels of a V with the lead channel of the IV..THAT would be one HELL of an AMP!!!!!!!!!

 

[user 83127]

I would be curious if a compressor would work in the FX loop. I assume it would have to be line level compliant but may also cut some frequencies out. Probably not a good I ideal. So the compressor/sustainer is not the same thing as a compressor/limiter as you would find for use in a mixdown processing. You can get that in a pedal for bass. Not sure it would be useful for guitar. Also it is used on the front end not in the loop. I am sure it could work in the FX loop. Will have to try it and see what happens.

I also use a compressor/limiter on the front end of my Mesa TT800 Bass rig. A bit different than a compressor/sustainer. Since it runs a Class D power section, it does not sound good if that clips. More of an issue with active bass gear (18V). The Bass amp does have preamp tubes in it. I swapped out the Tung Sol in favor of the RFT 12AT7 and the JAN/Phillips 12AT7. They sound better and bring in a bit more distorted character. I have tried the Strymon OB.1 compressor, Wampler ego and such. Sure it worked better with the actives turned off but did not do what I needed when the signal level was stronger with the preamp on the guitar turned on.

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Yeah...compressor limiters go to 40:1 and higher ratios...more like the rack ones I was using...compressor sustainers are around 4:1, maybe 20:1 maximum...i think the Keeley is higher than that though..its probably more a limiter type..I think the units you would use in a loop are emore stereo so would be rack and limiter types (my GForce was)..but like I said elsewhere...I aint got two pedals and am not going all out to replace my loop setup(I am using lexicon...old but SWEET, I have since found out what I gave up in trading out...oh well...live and learn))

 

[Ascendance]

As for the V taking a nose dive, CH3 is nothing but feedback that ramps up, no sound from the guitar, just noise, Preamp tube changes did not fix it either. Could be a bad or leaking DC blocking cap. Hard to say. CH1 and CH2 are fine. I will fix it sooner or later. If I can resolve the ice pick at the same time, even better. That is all in the preamp as it seems. I found that out early on when slaving into the Roadster, at least that ruled out the Simul-class power section. Maybe this winter I may look into things when I have more time on hand.

I dont know if this will help but this video has schematics for the mark 5 in it. Maybe just screen shot them?



This guy completely makes the mark V sound like total poop though. He sounnds crazy good in his mark IV review though.

 

[woodbutcher65]

My answer when the question is, how can I improve my tone?, is use a 31 band graphic EQ in your loop and tweak every slider one at a time to tweak your tone to absolute perfection.

I have been using an Alesis DEQ-230 for years which is digital, programmable, and stores 30 fully programmable EQ curves in stereo. Plenty for any reasonable needs.

But I just upgraded to the higher DEQ-830D model which is MIDI programmable, and even more capable with 100 presets and 8 audio channels. I can't imagine EVER outgrowing its capability.

 

[Ascendance]

Keeley Comp Plus

I had that and hated it it was a noise machine. All the revuews say its quiet and transparent. Maybe i had a bad one i dont know but it was the worst pedel I ever owned in adding noise into my fead into the amp. Thinking about getting the Wampler or the MXR. People be raving about the wampler though. MXR is the standard classic.

I gonna wait till my para eq from empress shows up b4 buy anything else though.

 

[user 83127]

Tried the MXR the other day..not bad...I hope it isnt noisy...thats why I bought it also...the Maestro I have now is noisy...i was hoping to low comp with the maestro and add more with the low noise Keeley...lol...They do generate some noise...jusyt because of what they do...but the videos I saw showed it DEAD quiet in most scenarios