New amp day!

[t2mike2]

Going to pick up my combo here in nothern VA in a few hours!

And my guitar new guitar from rondomusic which i will have plek'd today will be here too !
HOT ****!

When i get the combo, ill try to record some clips asap! and with out all the widdly widdly. Just straight sunstained chords so ya'll can hear the TONE.

~mike~

 

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! just be carefull driving :wink:

 

[DaveDaveDave]

Going to pick up my combo here in nothern VA in a few hours!

And my guitar new guitar from rondomusic which i will have plek'd today will be here too !
HOT ****!

When i get the combo, ill try to record some clips asap! and with out all the widdly widdly. Just straight sunstained chords so ya'll can hear the TONE.

~mike~

Hey Mike... UPS dropped off my Mark V combo on Thursday in Falls Church,VA, so I beat'cha to be the first guy in town . Unfortunately, I'm in brooklyn all weekend, and decided not to lug it all the way through Penn Station and on the subway through the sky...

Picking it up at GC? If so, I saw your order on the computer screen a few weeks ago. Mine is #73.. yours?

Cheers, and congrats! You're gonna LOVE it!

Dave

 

[t2mike2]

Going to pick up my combo here in nothern VA in a few hours!

And my guitar new guitar from rondomusic which i will have plek'd today will be here too !
HOT ****!

When i get the combo, ill try to record some clips asap! and with out all the widdly widdly. Just straight sunstained chords so ya'll can hear the TONE.

~mike~

Hey Mike... UPS dropped off my Mark V combo on Thursday in Falls Church,VA, so I beat'cha to be the first guy in town . Unfortunately, I'm in brooklyn all weekend, and decided not to lug it all the way through Penn Station and on the subway through the sky...


Picking it up at GC? If so, I saw your order on the computer screen a few weeks ago. Mine is #73.. yours?

Cheers, and congrats! You're gonna LOVE it!

Dave

Actually im picking mine up from melodee music in sterling. Guitar center never even called me back even tho they put me on their pre order list or whatever. melodee called me the second it came in so i went with them.

Hope you get to enjoy yours soon!

 

[DaveDaveDave]

Hey, that's good to know that Melodee is so cool - I'm going to have to check that place out. Haven't been in a decade....

Dave

Going to pick up my combo here in nothern VA in a few hours!

And my guitar new guitar from rondomusic which i will have plek'd today will be here too !
HOT ****!

When i get the combo, ill try to record some clips asap! and with out all the widdly widdly. Just straight sunstained chords so ya'll can hear the TONE.

~mike~

....
Cheers, and congrats! You're gonna LOVE it!

Dave

Actually im picking mine up from melodee music in sterling. Guitar center never even called me back even tho they put me on their pre order list or whatever. melodee called me the second it came in so i went with them.

Hope you get to enjoy yours soon!

 

[iFreedom]

Going to pick up my combo here in nothern VA in a few hours!

And my guitar new guitar from rondomusic which i will have plek'd today will be here too !
HOT ****!

When i get the combo, ill try to record some clips asap! and with out all the widdly widdly. Just straight sunstained chords so ya'll can hear the TONE.

~mike~

Congrats man, got mine last night, haven't stopped playing it! It is a wicked amp!

 

[Johnnyboii]

Going to pick up my combo here in nothern VA in a few hours!

And my guitar new guitar from rondomusic which i will have plek'd today will be here too !
HOT ****!

When i get the combo, ill try to record some clips asap! and with out all the widdly widdly. Just straight sunstained chords so ya'll can hear the TONE.

~mike~

Congrats man, got mine last night, haven't stopped playing it! It is a wicked amp!

C'mon iFreedom, lets here some clips :lol: And Congrats on the new amp mike

 

[t2mike2]

check the im in agony thread for updates.

cant post clips anytime soon since my anniversary is tomorrow.

But long story short

Good cleans but not as good as the Mark III imho.

Crunch(ch2),.... really not that great of a channel, no good rhythm sound, decent classic rock sounds. Turning up the gain produces this weird whinny sort of distortion. The Mark 1 channel is WAAAAY too dark.

Lead (ch3) after a few hours i got some pretty rad sounds. the key seems to be almost no presence control usage. Maybe 1.5 at max or you have a jar o bees. I actually do like the IIc+ mode .

Overall, im a little sad, as i just saw MusiciansFriend is blowing out VHT Sig:X's for 1500 bucks brand new.
But in the end so far i give the amp a 7 of 10. I like it equally as good as my Bugera 333xl. Has better cleans, it has more variety in the metal sounds. But the bugera is wayyyy easier to use, and its metal sound is qually good imo. Its crunch channel is also far superior to the mesa's.

One thing is for sure. I am never ever buying another amp. Im so fed up with the stress of looking for the perfect amp. I've owned like 14 tube amps in the past 2 years (crate palominos, blue voodoo, mesa single recto, vht 50/cl, randall rgt100, b-52 at-100, pignose g40v, valvejuour combo, valve junior head, custom made 3 watt hi gain tueb amp from ebay, Bugera 6262, the 333xl, and this Mark V), no more tone chasing for me. Lost too much money, practiced waaaay too little...

My Gas.... is finally cured...

~mike~

 

[t2mike2]

Oh btw everyone, ditching the stock JJ and putting a Tung-sol in V1 seemed to make the amp overall better.

 

[Uncle Muscles]

Oh btw everyone, ditching the stock JJ and putting a Tung-sol in V1 seemed to make the amp overall better.

In what way? Smoother?

 

[DaveDaveDave]

Crunch(ch2),.... really not that great of a channel, no good rhythm sound, decent classic rock sounds. Turning up the gain produces this weird whinny sort of distortion. The Mark 1 channel is WAAAAY too dark.

Lead (ch3) after a few hours i got some pretty rad sounds. the key seems to be almost no presence control usage. Maybe 1.5 at max or you have a jar o bees. I actually do like the IIc+ mode .

Overall, im a little sad,
~mike~

I'm betting you have, but just checking if you read the manual at all.. The Mark I channel is indeed a tough nut to crack - it's very much like a *true* mark series amp, IMHO. If you haven't yet, start tweaking the Mark I mode one with the TMB knobs at the 'ol 7/3/3 as a basis - or T:11o'clock, M:9o'clock, B: 9o'clock, pretty much. Even then, consider turning the mid and bass down from there, depending on your volume and post-EQ. After that, I found the preset/contour knob does a lot for me to make it a palatable sound - but it's still not my favorite. So far my favorite modes are fat, crunch and IIC+. A lot of it does have to do with these modes being easier to dial in though.

I'm not getting so much of the jar-o-bees effect as with my Mark IV, but a hair more presence/sizzling sound than I'd like. In a bigger rooms with a little more volume on and distance between me and the amp this really goes away.

Dave

 

[t2mike2]

actually i just got a pdf of the manual today that i posted here. Mesa somehow forgot to give me a slip cover and manual so now i have to wait for my mesa dealer to argue with mesa over who's fault that is. I called mesa but they told me to call my dealer. I dont know why they cant just go... sorry sir, your slip cover and manual are on its way.... cuz i really shoulnt have to wait 2 weeks for them to settle things.

Anyhoo yeah in the manual it does basically tell me its going to be dark. but wow.

anyhoo atleast its a DIFFERENT sound .

But yeah i agree with you. I like the fat and crunch the best. Actually i sort of like the higher gain crunch sound better than the mark IIc+.

fat is great i just wish they had modelled the mark III's semi fender almost vox sorta sound.


~mike~

 

[Bobby_E]

I had the same problem (not getting my slip cover) and I had to go round and round with Mesa and GC. Eventually, GC said they'd go ahead and get it, and I still haven't seen it.

I'm so glad there's a mom and pop store down the street now that carries Mesa...no more GC for me.

 

[phyrexia]

Are you fscking serious? Comparing the Mark V to your Bugera? :lol:

 

[Mark Fore]

I'm still trying to fathom comparing it to a Pignose?!?!?!

 

[Turumbar82]

Are you fscking serious? Comparing the Mark V to your Bugera? :lol:

The Bugera is easy to dial in a decent sound and Marks are more difficult and I can believe that with all the options on the Mark V it's quite tweakable and would take some time for someone without Mark experience.

I'm sure in a few weeks this guy will be changing his opinion on the Bugera and Mark V sounding similar.

I had a Bugera and even though it was a decent amp, it wasn't a Boogie.

Of course he might not be able to tell the difference much because of inexperience but I don't know anything about the guy to say that.

 

[Uncle Muscles]

Why are people so worried about the Mark V being hard to dial in? Why would anyone need

Mark Experience

with this amp? It is probably one of the easier amps to dial in and get great sounds out of mainly due to the new layout. And the manual rocks. For once a great manual. If you are trying to match some other amps tone exactly - then yeah - maybe you'll need to dissect the thing a bit - but come on... Use your ears, be original and crank it up. Use the Mark V to find YOUR own tone. I love this amp because it can do really smooth creamy lead stuff and then get cone ripping nasty sounds a la Jack White. It seems that people here are obsessed with copping a guitar tone that is 20+ years old. No one yet has posted a clip and said - this is my guitar sound - like it or not - and I'm making music with it. But there's lots of people trying way too hard to really nail some other person's guitar sound. Boring.

 

[gibson5413]

Use your ears, be original and crank it up.

+1

One of the best bits of advice (especially in regards to Mark amps). I don't have a problem tweaking Mark amps at all but I will say that it is different from most other amps I've owned. The knobs interact completely different than most. I haven't heard a lot of clips that I love but I can hear the potential. It certainly sounds like a Mark series amp and I can't wait to get it paired up with my beloved Bogner OS 2x12 (already broken in) and tweak away. I know I will be able to find the tones that I love. The manual really got me excited to play the amp. The heads can't get here quick enough!!

 

[t2mike2]

You know it really does bother me when folks try and tell YOU what YOU hear.

I own a bugera. And it sounds awesome, and its high gain sound is JUST AS GOOD as my Mesa. I have finally dialed in some awesome sounds on the mesa, and i do believe it has MORE sounds. But the high gain sound on my Bugera is 100% just as good.
Is the mesa made better? Yes. Is it more versataille? Yes.

Does the high gain sound BETTER to my ears? NOPE.

Now keep in mind that i run my bugera through my exxtra awesome avatar cab, and that i have made a few adjustments to it to get it to sound the way it does. It is NOT stock. I biased it up just right, put my fav power tubes in, put a EH12ax7 in the V1 spot, and i put a 12at7 in the V4 spot. In addition i pulled two of the power tubes and halved the impedance.

Bottom line... it sounds awesome. And i wont be changing my mind on that in a few weeks. The Mesa has more options to dial in, but the bottom line is i have dialed it in to an awesome spot, but my bugera still sounds just as awesome.

I was just telling a buddy of mine,.... dude, why does my 475 dollar amp sound as good as my 2100 dollar amp. Reason? Simple, they used a good circuit for the lead channel. Good circuits dont cost alot of money. They just dont seem to rear their heads in cheap amps very often.

Anyhoo ill make some clips later on.
---

Oh now on the other hand, when it comes to clean sound / sounds, the mesa is lightyears ahead of the bugera. There is no competition there.

~mike~

 

[t2mike2]

oh and its not like i cant dial in an amp. The whole reason i bought the MK5 is because my buddy let me borrow and his MKIII , and in 7 min i had the best semi clean i had ever heard in my life, and a buttkicking lead sound.

I really wish i could get that same edge of distortion sound with the MK5, its this semi fender semi vox, sort glassy sound...

~mike~