New Member of the Mesa Mark V 90 watt club!

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DanL

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Messages
14
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Location
Enfield, CT
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kqy40vp8p33ant6/IMG_3292.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jt64396vgh4u5t/IMG_3287.JPG?dl=0

I just nabbed a 2014 Mark V 90 watt head on eBay about a week ago for a fair price. The amp is literally in "like new" condition. It was advertised as such on eBay, but I didn't think it would actually look brand new, but it does. Unreal.

I've been playing it non-stop since it arrived a few days ago thru my 8 ohm Mesa Boogie 2x12 closed back vertical cab with Celestion V-30s. I'm very impressed! All 3 channels sound great. I did not expect the clean Channel 1 to sound so good. Channel 3 is killer high gain territory. Channel 2 is my favorite so far. If I start gushing about Channel 2, I won't stop typing for a couple of hours. Just amazing. All 3 toggle voice settings (Edge, Crunch, Mark 1) simply sound fantastic. I sorta think of Channels 2 and 3 as having the ability to choose between 6 great sounding overdriven amps. How cool is that? Even the reverb sounds good in this amp (way better than my old 90's era Mesa Boogie DC-5 50 watt head. Much more prominent and it seems to mix in better with my direct guitar tone.

I'm blown away not only by all the options (I'm a tweaker, so I'm in heaven), but I'm blown away that all the options ALL SOUND GREAT. Not a lemon in any of the "9 amps". Last night after I decided on where to leave the EQ and toggle switch settings/voicings for each channel, I experimented with the toggles in the back for triode/pentode and tube vs diodes. Tough to choose but I settled on triode and tubes for now. The only clear cut choice to my ears was the tube setting at 45 watts for Ch 2. I noticed a huge difference when listening to the tube vs. diode setting on Ch 2. I'm running all 3 channels at 45 watts right now. Seems to work best for me. I also hooked up a 1x12 closed back cab loaded w a 16 ohm Cel V30 and that cab sounded even better than my 2x12 cab. Probably cuz it's lower to the ground....less speaker beaming than the 2x12 vertical cab.

Tricky to get to that V1 preamp tube though. Wow!

Speaking of preamp tubes, I plan to replace the preamp tubes at some point (no reason to now, no noise or issues of any kind). So I normally use JJ tubes for all of my amps, but I'm thinking of replacing the tubes w Mesa tubes. Anyone have better luck w another brand of preamp tubes in their Mark V? (Sorry. I know I should ck the forum threads for that info... and I will.)

Dan
 
Congrats!! Fellow tweaker here as well and this is definitely the amp to have for that affliction...haha.
With that said, after going through a few EHX, Mullards, JJ's, and Tungsols, I've settled on the Mesa branded pre-amp tubes.
I might experiment again someday though, but I'm close enough to take a drive up to the Hollywood Mesa shop so needing new tubes becomes a excuse to go in to see what's up...hehe.
 
Yeah I decided to get the v1 and v2 spax7 preamp tubes from Mesa. While I was out on their web site I also got a new v1 long tube shield which I mangled the other day trying to reinstall it. Once I used a small flashlight and a small dentist type mirror I could see how the shield nubs were supposed to align w the small cutouts in the panel. I won't make that mistake again! That little mirror and flashlight also lets me see the pin layout for each preamp tube as well. Required tools for this amp 😀

Then I went out to Eurotubes to get the other 5 preamp tubes. Been using JJ's in all of my other amps for years without issues. If I get new power tubes some day, I'll probably get them from Mesa.

Yesterday I ran my Tele and 2 different strats thru the Mark V. All sounded really good. The strat w the full size SD JB in the bridge sounded brilliant. Can't wait to try my Les Paul and ES-335!
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kqy40vp8p33ant6/IMG_3292.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jt64396vgh4u5t/IMG_3287.JPG?dl=0
I just nabbed a 2014 Mark V 90 watt head on eBay about a week ago for a fair price. The amp is literally in "like new" condition. It was advertised as such on eBay, but I didn't think it would actually look brand new, but it does. Unreal.

I've been playing it non-stop since it arrived a few days ago thru my 8 ohm Mesa Boogie 2x12 closed back vertical cab with Celestion V-30s. I'm very impressed! All 3 channels sound great. I did not expect the clean Channel 1 to sound so good. Channel 3 is killer high gain territory. Channel 2 is my favorite so far. If I start gushing about Channel 2, I won't stop typing for a couple of hours. Just amazing. All 3 toggle voice settings (Edge, Crunch, Mark 1) simply sound fantastic. I sorta think of Channels 2 and 3 as having the ability to choose between 6 great sounding overdriven amps. How cool is that? Even the reverb sounds good in this amp (way better than my old 90's era Mesa Boogie DC-5 50 watt head. Much more prominent and it seems to mix in better with my direct guitar tone.

I'm blown away not only by all the options (I'm a tweaker, so I'm in heaven), but I'm blown away that all the options ALL SOUND GREAT. Not a lemon in any of the "9 amps". Last night after I decided on where to leave the EQ and toggle switch settings/voicings for each channel, I experimented with the toggles in the back for triode/pentode and tube vs diodes. Tough to choose but I settled on triode and tubes for now. The only clear cut choice to my ears was the tube setting at 45 watts for Ch 2. I noticed a huge difference when listening to the tube vs. diode setting on Ch 2. I'm running all 3 channels at 45 watts right now. Seems to work best for me. I also hooked up a 1x12 closed back cab loaded w a 16 ohm Cel V30 and that cab sounded even better than my 2x12 cab. Probably cuz it's lower to the ground....less speaker beaming than the 2x12 vertical cab.

Tricky to get to that V1 preamp tube though. Wow!

Speaking of preamp tubes, I plan to replace the preamp tubes at some point (no reason to now, no noise or issues of any kind). So I normally use JJ tubes for all of my amps, but I'm thinking of replacing the tubes w Mesa tubes. Anyone have better luck w another brand of preamp tubes in their Mark V? (Sorry. I know I should ck the forum threads for that info... and I will.)

Dan
I find myself on Ch 2 most of the time as well. Ch 3 for some lead.
 
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