need advice from MARKVI or DR owners

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
S

savageshredder

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
HI everyone!


Im a newB to this board.for the past couple of months Ive been wondering to get either a dual rectifier(or maybe a roadster if the price is right) or a mark IV head on the bay.its gonna be mostly for melodic death metal purposes with clean interludes, some groove riffs and of course some nice lead tones.I live in south america so I can never try a mesa boogie.Thats why I wanted to know what people who actually own these amps (or played on them extensively) can advise me what to get.my budget is close to $1400 maybe $1500 , but if possible cheaper would be better.Im trying to get good tones for rhythm like KSE, God Forbid, Arch enemy wages of sin album, In flames everything before reroute to remain.I hope I gave enough info to understand my situation.

pls feel free to give me advice now.....
 
Every band you posted there is using 5150's.
Are you sure that's not what you want?
 
thats very true, but I personally prefer the voicing , thicker and heavier bottom of the Mesas.I like those bands but I dont wanna copy their tone exactly.I wanna get close using one of these amps cause I really dig their voicing www.netmusicians.org is where I heard most of the clips
 
It's a toss up, but here is the fundamental sound found in each amp:

Dual Rectifier: lots of bass/lows, and lots of low mids. The cleans are average unless you get a roadster or road king. A rectifier excels at sounding fat and chunky. It does the nu-metal sound very well. It's more for big fat powerchords than it is for tight aggressive riffing. In addition, the solo lead tones are not very creamy or smooth. Many users (such as KSE) boost their rectos with an overdrive pedal, such as the maxon od808, to get the sound to be tighter and the solos smoother. Think of Godsmack or Linkin Park or KSE.

Mark4 (or 3, or 2c+): lots of sweet mids and highs. Lots of available bass, but it's not very usable. This amp is VERY tight, unlike the rectifier. It excels at fast aggressive riffs. The cleans are excellent and the solos are very smooth and creamy. It gets all this without a pedal. Think of Metallica. The chords can sound fat as well, but they don't have the deep bottom rectifiers do.
 
ok tnx for the info

so the leads on the markIV > DR
and deep bottom DR > mark IV

petrucci does get good leads out of his RK though is the lead channel that different from the DR?
 
Hmmm... Stab in the dark. I'm gonna vote for heaps or rack gear to help the tone such as OD pedals and the fact that it's John Freaking Petrucci :p
But mostly the OD pedals :p
But in its own IMO, any Rectifier amp sounds horrible for leads without a boost.
My .02
 
first of all kse in the studio have for a while used rectos, marshalls, and framus... they just started on the splawn wagon too

for a buget consious player looking for that type tone i'd look at maybe a dc-10 because to me it bridges the gap between the rectos thump and the marks leads.... in actuallity you can get plenty of thump and gain from the mark its just not as saturated which in your case might be a good thing.... look at the stilettos too because arch enemy uses some marshalls
 
So the DR in conjunction with a OD pedal will get it some good lead tones?but good is hard to define as some people think good of a line6 spider....
so will a DR + OD get me as close as this lead:
http://www.netmusicians.org/index.php?value=Mesa%20Boogie%20Roadster&section=amp

the 4th clip from top down
82-Roadster lead.mp3
 
jdurso said:
first of all kse in the studio have for a while used rectos, marshalls, and framus... they just started on the splawn wagon too

for a buget consious player looking for that type tone i'd look at maybe a dc-10 because to me it bridges the gap between the rectos thump and the marks leads.... in actuallity you can get plenty of thump and gain from the mark its just not as saturated which in your case might be a good thing.... look at the stilettos too because arch enemy uses some marshalls
Click to expand...

cool tnx for words of wisdom
I like saturated tones so I guess no mark IV for me.

So while were a bit on stilettos now also.Can the stiletto get as heavy or maybe even heavier than the splawn quickrod 3rd gear OD2?

this quest for tone is mighty getting harder and harder....how should I know which?
 
savageshredder said:
cool tnx for words of wisdom
I like saturated tones so I guess no mark IV for me.

So while were a bit on stilettos now also.Can the stiletto get as heavy or maybe even heavier than the splawn quickrod 3rd gear OD2?

this quest for tone is mighty getting harder and harder....how should I know which?
Click to expand...

Go to a good music store that has all three amps and try them out. Most likely this is not going to be Guitar Center because they never seem to have a Mark IV in stock. Honestly, you're not going to find an amp that does them all. the Roadster might be something to consider too because it gives you better clean channels, an EL34 option, which would vary the sound of the recto channels. Its also a very expensive amp.

Just like every decision in life, each has its own tradeoffs and you might find that your not happy with your first choice sometime down the road. This happened to me...had a roadster, found that I was only using 2 of the 4 channels and wasn't real thrilled with the recto sound. Sold it, got a 2 channel Stiletto and I'm much happier.
 
whoa, hold on...I think we're talking about 2 different things in regards to saturation. A mark4 can get very saturated and thick with gain. However, it will not be as compressed as a rectifier.

The mark4 will nail that lead tone you posted right out of the box. A recto may or may not...can't say for sure without trying it. Do not rule out the mark4!!

the rectifier excels at this sound: http://music.aol.com/video/follow-you-home-aol-sessions/nickelback/1419813
notice how it's deep and loose.

the mark4 excels at this: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=147856&songID=5028503

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2pIjHeBbRtY

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t_X1ipipG_A
it's thick and tight and is great for leads
 
"Just like every decision in life, each has its own tradeoffs and you might find that your not happy with your first choice sometime down the road. This happened to me...had a roadster, found that I was only using 2 of the 4 channels and wasn't real thrilled with the recto sound. Sold it, got a 2 channel Stiletto and I'm much happier".

Dude I cant afford to make a dull decision, I'll be stuck with the amp for the rest of my life probably cuz people here arent that interested in top notch amps.Its really some sick hobby or obsession I have.So what kind of music do you play on your stiletto ? is it a phase 1 or 2? do you have soundclips of it?

"whoa, hold on...I think we're talking about 2 different things in regards to saturation. A mark4 can get very saturated and thick with gain. However, it will not be as compressed as a rectifier.

The mark4 will nail that lead tone you posted right out of the box. A recto may or may not...can't say for sure without trying it. Do not rule out the mark4!!"

Dude thanks for the amazing clip. mark IV tone rules!!!It sounded super huge on that soundclick clip.

I do like more compressed sound because it gives a more aggressive character or growl to the tone...like maybe the Engl Powerball growl.

I also very much like this tone I found
http://www.netmusicians.org/?value=Splawn%20Quickrod&section=amp
5th clip from top down 56-InFlamesOnTheQuickRod7.mp3

So I think this clip kind of proves that playing someone else's music on a other type of Hi gain amp might sometimes get you even better results.I think this tone is more badass than inflames itself for that matter

Im definitely still considering the markIV now.I think maybe the DR is not the way to go.Im also kind of considering the powerball or the splawn quickrod or nitro

whats really killing me is that the markIV is really well balanced but on the other hand I can get a more aggressive sound out of the powerball or a quickrod but these others will maybe get boring after a while?

atleast I know Im not going DR anymore so thanks all
 
There always seems to be the Mark IV vs Recto issue no matter HOW it pops up. Time for Mesa to make an amp that takes care of this hehe!

Ok well. Ill try to make this a little clearer for you do, sorta sift through what's already been said.

Basically if you're going to do more chugging and big power chords then the DR will sound huge. Now if you're going to be riffing heaps and do some solos and what not then the Mark IV is definitely going to beat the DR hands down. As for the powerball. It is aggressive but not as thick sounding as a Mesa, IMO anyways! But it DOES have a nice pallet of tone with a fair few channels. I say check out the ENgl Invader, it's the NEW poerball so to speak. 4 seperately voiced channels! Great sound on each! Sounds KIND OF mark IV ish but has more balls to it and sounds more modern :)

Hope that helps!
 
"Basically if you're going to do more chugging and big power chords then the DR will sound huge".

o.k but from what I understand Black Dahlia Murder also used rectos and they def had some fast crammed together riffs that came out sounding very tight and super aggressive recto style.

So that what your saying is maybe a little misleading?

I guess theres just no substitute for that recto wall of sound.Maybe I should just take my chances and see if I can harness its powers into something I can work with.
 
When I saw Arch Enemy a few months ago, they were using Randall amps, both Michael and Chris.

For melodic death metal I would go with a rectifier. There are many artist/musicians who use a rectifier for fast/melodic type stuff (i.e. Pertucci, Between the Buried, KSE). Many pros use multiple amps, one album could be rectifer, krank or mark iv and on another something totally different.

Ultimately, it will come down to a matter of personal taste or choice. Try both (side-by-side) and see what suits your style more or sounds more pleasing to your ear. Just don't make a decsion without test drive.
 
"Ultimately, it will come down to a matter of personal taste or choice. Try both (side-by-side) and see what suits your style more or sounds more pleasing to your ear. Just don't make a decsion without test drive."

the closest thing ive tried is my line6 ver2.0 pod
i always seem to prefer the rectifier distortion.i know its no comparison to the real thing but its as close as ill come to ever really trying it.
i also want to go with mesa because of the fixed bias and min maintenance needed

KSE are indeed now going for splawn nitros
kirk and arch enemy get their sig randalls
amon amarth went with krank
I did notice pic of inflames using the mesa dual and their trusty 5150's somewhere on tour in russia.that seemed interesting but I dont know if they used it on the album or it was just the house equipment.
5150 seem nice but the cleans are horrendous from what Ive heard
Shadows fall is also reaching for the randalls now from what I understand
Loomis moved from Krank to Engl
those bands get endorsed easily so I dont blame them for trying out all there is to try out :twisted:
 
The Line6 Pod does an average representation of the Recto sound. It has the basic distortion, but what it does NOT capture is the deep booming bass that gets projected from the cab when running a rectifier. It is this deep boom that many people find difficult to tame when playing fast riffs IF they don't have an overdrive pedal. An overdrive pedal (particularly the maxon od808) is what enables the bands you mentioned to get tighter riffs. However, the mark4 will be even tighter than any of that.

You should maybe look into the single rectifier. It is only 50 watts and lacks some features the DR has, but it does not have as much bass as the Dual Rectifier. It still has the rectifier tone.

I know this is difficult decision to make because I went through it as did many others here. At the end of the day, you have to take our words for truth on a leap of faith because of our experiences with the amps first hand. Forget about "which sounds best" or "which band did this with this amp." Write down what kind of music you want to create with your future amp. Forget about the bands. Once you clarify exactly what music you are trying to write, then it will be very easy to choose the correct amp.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top