Mesa TA15 or Mark V25

[chimaera1982]

Hi All

Would like to get some inputs on which head to get to complement my rectoverb 25 and Cornell Romany plus (fender tweed/blackface). Plan to use it through the straight 1x12 Recto Cab.
I play a Mish-mash of styles from funk-jazz-blues to heavy rock and dream theater. So variety of tones is always good. Am using fender telecaster and prs.

I tried both at a local dealer, the Mark V I guess am not used on the eq always sounded very middy to me. Actually I chose the rectoverb over it. But I keep reading on the MarkV and I kept trying to get it to work. I actually tested it through my Tele but not fully satisfied, need tweaks. My wife who also vetted the tone ( she will be the one listening it day in and out) also chose the rectovern saying it was quite muddy (please don't flame me maybe am not used to the tone stack). I'll keep trying to make it work maybe.

Then the TA15/TA30 caught my attention, had a chance to test TA30 briefly, lovely Vox chime, the drive channels not too bad as well, marshally sound but too loud for my liking. No more TA15 as its all sold out.

Any thoughts?

 

[Nicklotsaguitars]

I've the 90watt Mark V. Had it 15 months now. Still finding different ways to get what I want. Still finding some incredible sounds. Yeah the tonestack is hard to work. It's almost a case of set the graphic first and then refine tonal content through the treb/mid/bass. Although that doesn't quite work either as you have to do both sections in small increments. I think with the way the gain channels work in particular, the tone controls should be labelled differently. If you're an old un like me, you probably remember the Peavey Bandit. It had a squelch control on the gain. The mid control on channel 3 (mk 2 and 4 modes) works more like that. Where that incredible amount of mid frequency needs to be dialled out at the eq. The treble dial should be called bite and the bass should be called body.
I like a load of mids, a shed load. I dial Marshalls in by maxing the mid control and balancing the bass and treble to it. Yet find myself dialling out way more than I ever thought I would on the Marks geq. The 750 slider usually sits around the second to last line.

The amp is a journey

 

[IronSean]

I can't offer any comparisons to the TA15, aside from that it should be a little more user friendly to dial. But I can offer some pointers on dialing the Mark V.

The Mark V:25 should be simple enough on Channel 1: Clean, Fat, and Crunch should work like you expect for dialing tones.

However, Channel 2 with Mark IIC, Mark IV, and Extreme will work differently if you're not used to Mark series tone stacks. The tone controls (BMT) happen before the gain, so they don't shape your sound so much as change the character of what you're feeding into it (like an EQ or other pedal in front of your amp). The Graphic EQ is your final sound shaping tool.

So what this means for first starting out is:
Gain adds Gain

Treble adds gain, and bite. Lots of people like it higher around 7-8 (2:00-3:00)

Mid adds a touch of gain, and girth or texture. Depending how you like it to feel, the mid can be used anywhere from 0 to 10. This won't scoop your sound.

Bass adds fullness, and flub. If you're running higher gain, you might find anything above 2-3 (10:00) is too much and just makes things muddy/flubby. You get a tighter bass by using the graphic EQ.

So you might want to try something like this on Channel 2 to start with:
Gain 2:00
Treble 2:00
Mids 11:00
Bass 9:00
Presence 10:00

 

[chimaera1982]

Thanks for the tip, am still looking around on this and the reason am considering is the summer sale the local Mesa Dealer has. Seems no more stock for the TA15, so if I bite it will be the MkV 25. Am also gonna try a Dr Z the Monza for a left field selection as well...

 

[DarkAndy]

I had a TA-15 for a while. It was an ok amp. It was pretty generic sounding. Almost voxy almost Marshally. Not quite either. That's probably what they were going for. Maybe not the generic part it very Brit flavoured. I ended up trading it for a Mark IV. That is one of the Amps for me. I'd go mark v35 route. The mark series compliments the rec series really well. There is a crap Ton of mids in the marks it Fills out the slight muddies of the red.

FYI I love the muddies. Not knocking recs at all.

 

[chimaera1982]

Got it, yeah considering the MKV 25 closely, depends what items/stocks that they have on sale..