Mesa V practical use?

[william l stone jr]

Just a few questions. I have a Mark III, green stripe, fully loaded w/STR 415's, Celestions, Mahogony Cab I've been told, w/ matching ext. cab. Just bragging a little. On the curcuit we play, this is way too much amp and was forced by managment to leave it at home. I've been playing thru a Line 6 Spider valve 112. Sounds okay for the job but want better tone. Can I get great tone at low levels with the Mark V or should I consider a attenuator and just use the Mark III? I played thru a Mark V at GC and they didn't know dick about the operations of the Mark, no help at all.
I really like the clean of the Mark III, almost piano like with my Tele w/ Bardons. How close can I get to that sound?
From what I have read, the new Mark would fit the bill with a few pedals. I realize that being close to fifty, my hearing isn't quite what it used to be, but I can still hear good tone. The weight is a small consideration, but I think I can manage that. We have young guys in the band for help.
I read a lot of the posts on this site and have got most of my questions answered just by doing research here, you guys are amazing!
Thanks.

 

[smd24fan]

I currently have my Mark V in a room in my house that is nothing more than an extra bedroom. I find it to be very manageable. It's allot like any tube amp in the sense that it sounds better when played louder, but still sounds great at lower volumes. I had a Dual Recto before this and it sounded like total garbage at low volume, this amp is the polar opposite. I find that using an overdrive helps at lower volumes to give your lead channel a little more guts, being that you are not driving the power section hard. I have a couple of Strats, and had a Tele prior, and the cleans are just great in the Mark V. I use a Keeley 4 knob compressor and it really makes Strats and Teles sing through just about any amp. I think you would be very happy with a Mark V, just a matter of whether you feel the need to get it or not. I tried a THD attenuator with mine and ended up sending it back, felt I didn't really need it and it affected the tone of the amp. Hope this is of some value to you.

 

[MrMarkIII]

Why can't you just :
A) Turn down the Master
B) Run Class A (15 watts)
C) Leave the extra cab at home
D) Unplug the combo speaker and use only the cab speaker (much quieter on stage, if it's a closed-back cab like a Thiele)
E) Use the Graphic to reduce some of the mids so you cut through the band mix a bit less.
I have the same amp and have never had a problem getting The Tone at low/high/whatever volume. It's kind of what they were designed for.
IMHO, all things being equal, a Mark V is still a 90 watt amp (five more than a Mark III Green - an inaudible difference), that you're still going to have to control with the Master. The Five can go down to 10 watts, the Three down to 15. Once again, a virtually inaudible volume difference.
For two grand, you could buy an awful lot of speakers, cabs, tubes, pedals, etc., to experiment with.