New to the forum and Mesa amps

[Mike Lamury]

Hello everyone. I just got my first Mesa Boogie amp a Mark V!(90 watt). I'm using the extreme mode and trying to dial in a mid heavy sound that pushes treble and mids with a solid bass foundation but all the results I'm getting are either too stuffy or too thin sounding. I'm not used to setting these amps so any advice would be appreciated. On all my other amps my settings are around the same areas but not on this amp. I definitely like the extreme mode the best on channel 3. I'm using the amp to play ska and punk. I've got a nice pushed clean sound dialed in on the fat mode and a nice lead tone dialed in on the mark I mode but am having trouble getting 'my' sound dialed in on channel 3 extreme mode. I'll post the settings I usually use on my other amps for reference.
On my other amps (mainly PRS mt15) the settings are; bass-6, mids-7, treble- 7-8, gain- 7-8, presence-5. If anyone has any tips or advice for setting the mark v I'm all ears. Thanks in advance.

 

[sloanthebone]

Gratz and welcome to the forum! Go through the Mark V forum. There are many many threads of tips for settings, tube rolling and speakers. You most likely won’t be using any settings that you use from others amp with this amp, there are way to many other variables built into it.

 

[rarebitusa]

Gratz and welcome to the forum! Go through the Mark V forum. There are many many threads of tips for settings, tube rolling and speakers. You most likely won’t be using any settings that you use from others amp with this amp, there are way to many other variables built into it.

Yea Sloan is right... lots of posts and the search engine is easy.

What speakers are you using?

 

[Mike Lamury]

Yea Sloan is right... lots of posts and the search engine is easy.

What speakers are you using?

Currently 2x12 with V30'S. About to upgrade to the 4x12

 

[rarebitusa]

Currently 2x12 with V30'S. About to upgrade to the 4x12

Just one mans opinion.... a 4x12 will most likely address the "thinness" in comparison to the 2x12, but an EVM12L mixed with a v30 may widen the sound. The V is really versatile and the EVM is a good match as it's flatter response reveals the overall amp character a bit more. With my V I started off with the recto 2x12 but ended up building a vert 2x12 cab with the EVM + V30 pairing which is preferred now. YMMV

 

[Jay Omega]

Hello everyone. I just got my first Mesa Boogie amp a Mark V!(90 watt). I'm using the extreme mode and trying to dial in a mid heavy sound that pushes treble and mids with a solid bass foundation but all the results I'm getting are either too stuffy or too thin sounding. I'm not used to setting these amps so any advice would be appreciated. On all my other amps my settings are around the same areas but not on this amp. I definitely like the extreme mode the best on channel 3. I'm using the amp to play ska and punk. I've got a nice pushed clean sound dialed in on the fat mode and a nice lead tone dialed in on the mark I mode but am having trouble getting 'my' sound dialed in on channel 3 extreme mode. I'll post the settings I usually use on my other amps for reference.
On my other amps (mainly PRS mt15) the settings are; bass-6, mids-7, treble- 7-8, gain- 7-8, presence-5. If anyone has any tips or advice for setting the mark v I'm all ears. Thanks in advance.

Give the Mark IV mode a shot and drop the bass to 9 o'clock and boost the 80 a fair amount and the 240 a bit in the graphic. Drop treble to 1 o'clock, mid and presence to 11 o'clock. Drop the 750 fader down until it sounds right and boost the 2200 and 6600 a bit. Tweak from there, you may want to increase the gain. Also keep in mind that sound and feel will vary with loudness, those settings should be pretty massive when the master is at 11 o'clock, which is loud. At lower volumes you may wish to increase the gain and presence and tweak the graphic to your liking.

One other thing I'll mention, if your cabinet does not have the Boogie V30s, experiment with cutting the 240 Hz fader rather than boosting it, and you may dial back the presence and the two highest faders a bit. The non-Boogie V30s sound quite different. If your cab is not very deep, open the back and throw a bunch of pillow stuffing from a craft store in there to make the speakers think it's deeper.

I tried getting my Mark V to sound good with 12Ls and was never satisfied with the high gain sound, there was a midrange honk I could never dial out. The clean was magic though.

 

[Mike Lamury]

Give the Mark IV mode a shot and drop the bass to 9 o'clock and boost the 80 a fair amount and the 240 a bit in the graphic. Drop treble to 1 o'clock, mid and presence to 11 o'clock. Drop the 750 fader down until it sounds right and boost the 2200 and 6600 a bit. Tweak from there, you may want to increase the gain. Also keep in mind that sound and feel will vary with loudness, those settings should be pretty massive when the master is at 11 o'clock, which is loud. At lower volumes you may wish to increase the gain and presence and tweak the graphic to your liking.

One other thing I'll mention, if your cabinet does not have the Boogie V30s, experiment with cutting the 240 Hz fader rather than boosting it, and you may dial back the presence and the two highest faders a bit. The non-Boogie V30s sound quite different. If your cab is not very deep, open the back and throw a bunch of pillow stuffing from a craft store in there to make the speakers think it's deeper.

I tried getting my Mark V to sound good with 12Ls and was never satisfied with the high gain sound, there was a midrange honk I could never dial out. The clean was magic though.

Does Mesa still make cabinets with the Mesa V30's?

 

[Jay Omega]

Does Mesa still make cabinets with the Mesa V30's?

Indeed, and they sell their speakers through their factory store

 

[rarebitusa]

I tried getting my Mark V to sound good with 12Ls and was never satisfied with the high gain sound, there was a midrange honk I could never dial out. The clean was magic though.

Yea I could see that... kinda why I mixed in the v30 with the EVM.

 

[Jay Omega]

Yea I could see that... kinda why I mixed in the v30 with the EVM.

I’m kind of setup like that, dry center cab has two boogie V30s and my wet cabs are 12L 1x12s. When I turn on chorus in the wet cabs it sounds huge

 

[domct203]

Welcome to the Forum, enjoy your Boogie!

Dom

 

[Mike Lamury]

I have another question. I'm sure this has been asked by alot of people but how does the slave out work? Can I use it to go into my UA Volt then on to my DAW if I use a can sim?

 

[Eevil]

….

I tried getting my Mark V to sound good with 12Ls and was never satisfied with the high gain sound, there was a midrange honk I could never dial out. The clean was magic though.

I struggled many years with EVM/Thiele tried to make it work as it was “what Marks works best with” - I was learning the guitar and everything.. Had the Mark III back then

Later on changed to V30s and bigger Mesa cabs and the tone I was chasing was there. Everyones’ ears are different so one should be willing to experiment and explore and not take everything written in forums as truth or any way related to one

 

[rarebitusa]

I have another question. I'm sure this has been asked by alot of people but how does the slave out work? Can I use it to go into my UA Volt then on to my DAW if I use a can sim?

The Slave Out is a direct tap off of the speaker out... typically it is used to slave another amp to the main one. If you run it into a DAW as you mentioned you will need a cab emulator. The amp vol setting and slave out level adj work in tandem, experiment a bit with the levels to find something that works well.

FWIW I use the Slave out often with silent recording and a reactive load and a cab sim.