New Mark V, why does it sound so bad?

[ShadeOGreen]

I have had my Mark V head with vert slant recto 2X12 for just a few days now, and I think that something must be wrong. I am getting a raspy, fuzzy tone any time I use any gain at all.

Clean on channel one is sounding pretty decent, but otherwise it sounds like a brittle little practice amp! I have checked countless forum threads and youtube videos in the past few days looking for answers, matching tone setting recommendations, reading the manual.... and I cant get my amp to sound at all like the clips I have heard.

I have reseated the tubes, tried multiple guitars and cables, every combination of volumes and settings.

This is my last stop before calling for warranty service and heading out for repairs. Very disappointed in what I know SHOULD be a great amp. Any suggestions?

 

[boogieman60]

Check the FX send knob, make sure it is at least set at 12:00. Make sure the 2 select knobs on rear are set to FS.

 

[ShadeOGreen]

I have both of these settings as you recommended currently. Any chance the output to the speaker is the problem? I am using the proper cable and matched the ohms.

 

[gummx97]

If you feel that you have done everything, call Mesa. You paid top $$$ for the Mark V and should get your money's worth.

 

[eudaimonia02912]

You said you reseated the tubes. Do you have any spares? Could be a bad tube.

My Mark V had 3 pre-amp tubes die within 24 hours of bringing it home. I thought the amp was defective, because I tried replacing each tube one at a time without any results. I took it back to the store, and then replaced all the pre-amp tubes for me. Then the amp was fine.

A brittle raspy sound could be a bad tube.

 

[rabies]

usually it's a tube. unfortunately, mark 5 has too many tubes. are the power tubes lighting up?

 

[ShadeOGreen]

Actually, I should have said I reseated all the POWER tubes... I was a bit intimidated to mess with the pre amp tubes, this being my first tube amp (after 16 year of playing guitar). Unfortunately I don't have any spare tubes to try replacing them.

The power tubes however appear to be fine, all are lighting up the same amount, and I am not getting any sound through the speakers when I tap around on the different tubes while powered on.

I bought the head and cab online because there are no dealers near me that carry mesa boogie, so I cant just drive it back to the store.

I will have to get in touch with Mesa and see what my options are for a local repair.

 

[jmontgomery]

Call Mesa. Their tubes have a warranty. If it's a new amp they'll most likely ship you a set of tubes.

 

[Minty]

just a quick thought, check to see if your tube selection switch matches the output tubes that you have installed eg EL34 or 6L6

 

[ShadeOGreen]

Tube switch is in the correct spot, thanks. I'll update after I talk to Mesa.

 

[ShadeOGreen]

Update:

I talked to Mesa customer service and they are guessing it is a pre-amp tube problem. They will be sending out another (it sounded like only 1) for me to swap out one by one to see if this fixes the problem. Hopefully if this is the cause, there is only 1 bad tube and not several. I also dont have a perfectly working Mark V to compare to, so hopefully I will not just settle for good enough due to ignorance of not knowing what I could have with a full retube.

After my discussion with Mesa, I was looking in the manual to see what the function of the preamp tubes in each spot related to. I figured I could just switch each preamp tube with its neighbor and see if the problem changed. Surprisingly after the second time I rotated each tube down the line, I noticed alot of the buzziness I was getting with any amount of gain had decreased. I am still hearing...something... that seems off, but this gives me hope that a new preamp tube is going to bring the amp to it's full potential!

 

[purpledc]

one thing ive noticed also with the mark V is the graphic is very powerful. Try not to overuse the eq. Its a great sound shaping tool but if you get carried away you can turn your tone to junk. By they things your describing make sure your not stuck in 10 watt mode. Also Ive found that unless im playing at higher volumes the amp sounds much better with the solo and mute functions disengaged. At low volumes they seem to choke the amp. I hope you figure it out man. Because the mark V should be anything but what your describing.

 

[MBJunkie]

All great suggestions provided by posters here......and it sounds like it may be a preamp tube problem.

Here are my additional thoughts while waiting for the new tube from Mesa.....

1. +1 on the comment provided above regarding the GEQ. If it is engaged, and the middle slider is bottomed out or very low.....fizziness can occur regardless of preamp tone knob settings. The setting of the middle slider has a huge tone shaping effect to the amp with GEQ engaged. Additionally, if the Preset knobs are active in lieu of the GEQ sliders...very high settings of these can also provide undesirable sounds IMO.
2. High settings of gain, treble and presence at the same time yield terrible sounds IMO. Try settings with gain/tone knobs set at 12 o'clock to begin with and tweak from there.
3. Try to find a nice balance between gain, channel volume and (master volume if loop is active). For example, if your Ch3 gain is set very high, ch3 volume barely cracked open, and master volume (if active) barely cracked open...fizzy sounds are likely to result.
4. Edge mode of Ch2 is inherently very bright and MkI mode is inherently very dark. These 2 modes are the trickiest to dial in on the amp IMO. You might want to start with crunch in Ch2 as it covers a lot of ground and is easier to dial in for instant gratification.

Best of luck......and if there is a problem with your amp.....Mesa will take care of you!

 

[jmontgomery]

Also watch the videos on Mesa's site. I couldn't get a crunch sound I was happy with. There was this raspy sound trailing off of any chords I played. I matched my amps settings to one of their videos that sounded close to what I was looking for. After just a little amount of tweaking I have a killer crunch tone happening.
It wont take long until you can dial in killer tones in every mode. My quick advise to you is to turn down the treble and presence from where you think you need them.

 

[bjoneill74]

There was this raspy sound trailing off of any chords I played.

I'm getting that as well. It's not bad, but it's something I've noticed. I don't really like the extra fizz.

 

[jmontgomery]

Once I somewhat learned to dial in the tone knobs the fizz went away. You need to run the treble and presence knobs lower than you think you need them. Really, you need to run all the tone knobs lower than you think, but I found lowering the treble and the presence smoothed things right out. The Mark V is so full of so many great tones that there's bound to be a few sour tones in there

 

[bjoneill74]

i'm not sure that's the issue as i'm not running any of the tone controls much past 1:00 or 2:00. it should be able to handle that.
it's there regardless of the eq being in or out, it's there regardless of the fx loop (even hard bypassed) or verb being in or out.
admittedly.. i'm runningbthe gain very high on channel 2.
however channel 3 does it and i'm not running the gain very high there.

it's not the tone itself.. it's the fizz/crackle when holding or sustaining chords.
my triaxis/2:ninety does't do this and can take far higher tone settings.

 

[purpledc]

Oh yeah and if you are going to drop the middle slider really low I wouldnt drop it below the bottom line and if you do put it really low I would keep the 240 and 2200 sliders above the middle line. That will keep low mids and high mids in the mix and let you cut through.

 

[ShadeOGreen]

From my (breif) experience, I would say try switching a few preamp tubs around, and take note of the responsibility of each tubes position as explained in the manual. If you notice a change in sound afterwards (as I did) you probably have a bad preamp tube. Make note of which tubes you switched and then swap out the tubes one at a time with a new replacement until everything clears up.

 

[nickyboy]

Keep at it you bought a great amp.I had some tube issues with my new Mark V too. It took me some trial and error to get all good tubes in all the right places but after that it is the best amp ever and have had zero issues for over a year now.
I have had 2 other Maverick and Dual Rec. with zero issues. It is unfortunate but Mesa does warranty your amp for 5 years and thier tubes for 6 months.

I usually don't respond to these because someone who says they are underwhelmed by the Mark V clearly should just buy a Marshall or other simple tube gain machines...Marshall's are great but they do that one thing and all you have to do is turn up the knobs. Not so Mesa and especially the Mark V. it is extremely versatile and diverse, like flying a helicopter really with all the options in tone. If that is not want you want you should not buy the Mark V.