MarkV:35 and midi

Fernando · Nov 15, 2015

hi all!

I just "discovered" the MarkV:35 and was reviewing how it would fit into my rig scheme that i am designing. I have looked at both the V:25 (not enough "power" and not a combo, no midi ) and the full-on V:90 (heavy, a bit too loud for my purpose and pricey, worth it, of course) and now have the V:35 from which to choose. Kinda of the "middle" ground.

My question, or rather dilemma, is that my rig will be controlled with midi, so at this point it looks like the V:35 has the distinct disadvantage of no CV jacks to control the foot-switch functions, no 1/4" jack for channel switching, and since I was planning on using the RJM mini amp gizmo to control those footswitch tasks, there looks like there is no 5 pin cable, vs the 8 pin for the V:90, offered by RJM. At least at this time. I'll post on the forum there to see what feedback i get directly from RJM.

Probably no one has yet received a V:35, but has anyone heard of any other ways or have any ideas as how to be able to control the V:35 with midi? I know that there probably is some way to mod or hack the 5 pin din connection to interface with midi, but i would rather have a "off-the_shelf" solution vs "tearing" into a brand new amp. Thanks for reading and any input!!

Fernando · Nov 15, 2015

so i posted this question to the RJM board and they answered, on a sunday no less....lol talk about customer service! righteous!

Mesa has sent them the specs and they will have a cable available soon!

no word on price or date, but for me, anyways, there is no rush since i'm still pretty much in the planning stages. But this clears up some aspects of what i can and can't do. Hope this info helps somebody else!

peace!

alezuniga · Jan 22, 2016

I want to know if the Mark V:35 work with the traditional relay switching
In that case the job is to explore what pin activates what function and make a custom cable from any relay switching capable FX pedal, like G system, Fractal FX8

The question is if with the right cable the Mark V:35, can be controlled by FX units like FX8

kmoed · Mar 22, 2016

Fernando said:
hi all!

I just "discovered" the MarkV:35 and was reviewing how it would fit into my rig scheme that i am designing. I have looked at both the V:25 (not enough "power" and not a combo, no midi ) and the full-on V:90 (heavy, a bit too loud for my purpose and pricey, worth it, of course) and now have the V:35 from which to choose. Kinda of the "middle" ground.

My question, or rather dilemma, is that my rig will be controlled with midi, so at this point it looks like the V:35 has the distinct disadvantage of no CV jacks to control the foot-switch functions, no 1/4" jack for channel switching, and since I was planning on using the RJM mini amp gizmo to control those footswitch tasks, there looks like there is no 5 pin cable, vs the 8 pin for the V:90, offered by RJM. At least at this time. I'll post on the forum there to see what feedback i get directly from RJM.

Probably no one has yet received a V:35, but has anyone heard of any other ways or have any ideas as how to be able to control the V:35 with midi? I know that there probably is some way to mod or hack the 5 pin din connection to interface with midi, but i would rather have a "off-the_shelf" solution vs "tearing" into a brand new amp. Thanks for reading and any input!!

Have you actually tried a V 25?

Through a 4 X 12 , the half way mark of the volume control would blow the roof and windows out of your house, It's louder then my ENGL preamp through the MESA 2:100 power amp.

Don't get me wrong , I am sure the V 35 is as equally as awesome, but I could not believe anyone saying the V25 is underpowered that actually plugged it in and cranked it up..

Voodoo Labs Control Switcher - They have made cables for nearly every amp on the market that uses a proprietary type connected for channel switching, the V35 is fairly new , so they might not have one out as of yet, but shooting them an email could not hurt. that would handle all your midi switching needs.

Fernando · Mar 22, 2016

thanks for he reply... sorry, didn't mean to sound like i was doubting that the v:25 was not up to the task, it just appealed to me that the v:35 has more headroom for clean and that it come in a combo package, something i really like. my days of lugging a 4x12 cab are over...lol....not that i ever really had one. i've used them as back-lines and they definitely move air and give a sound that's hard to replicate with a 1x12, although a ev loaded thiele gets pretty close...lol.

i just have a thing for boogie combos, having owned a mkiii in the past, but i need something not so loud, if you can believe that. i never used that mkiii past 3 all the years i had it, it was so loud! the ev it had helped it get loud.

also, since my dual amp rig is also going to have a lone star special combo, the v:35 combo is a logical fit, watt and physical size wise. and my arms won't get huge lugging that stuff around...lol...

just to give kudos to the v:25, it was the demos i heard of that amp that convinced me that the v:35, being essentially the same circuit in a bigger wattage amp, would be the amp for me....

i've also decided i'm going with the rjm amp gizmo since i can control the v:35 switching functions with a 5 pin din cable which uses only 4 cv signals from the amp gizmo, leaving 4 others to use with the lss and other cv equipped stuff in my rack...

peace

Nicklotsaguitars · Mar 23, 2016

I use the amp gizmo, have since October. After looking into how to program a G-System to change amp channels without using the Gizmo, recently. I'm very glad I got the unit early into using the G-System.
Things a dream, you'll love it. No headaches, just pay attention when you first hook up the gizmo that it's set to receive on the correct midi channel. It's all in the book and super easy to do.