New to the Mark IV family

[wastoid]

Thanks to Mesa taking forever to build my Roadster, I got impatient and picked up something else in the meantime: a 1990 Mark IVa combo! It's in pretty good condition and so far it's been a blast to play. It's got some EV black shadow in it but I'm not sure which one.

Initial observations:

- wow that's a lot of knobs!

- Rhythm 1 can produce some pretty incredible cleans-- much better than I had expected. Haven't really messed with overdriving this channel yet.

- Rhythm 2 seems muddy no matter what I do so far, and if I go to higher gain settings it sounds like a fat ball of **** with razor blades sticking out of it. I'll have to work on the settings for this one

- Lead is pretty bad ***. It was pretty easy to dial in those old metallica tones. I was trying to find the Petrucci tones in it but I have a feeling that I won't really hear them well until I turn it way up.

- It's way heavier than I expected! Smaller than my FBDR but definitely more of a back breaker. Now I'll definitely have to buy a dolly.

- I ran it with my 3/4 back cab as an extension and it filled out pretty impressively. My bath that I was filling up actually started to overflow because I got so hooked on this sound I forgot to stop the water.

I still haven't finished reading the manual, but I expect that'll help me understand some of the (very plentiful) features of this little guy. Do you guys have any "must know" tips that you would impart upon a Mark4 owner newbie?

Also, are there any notorious problems with the very early Mark IVAs? Like stuff that may be worth considering getting modded?

thanks!

 

[Bourque]

R2 is the channel that creates controversy. It suits me because in my band situation my rythm requires light crunch with a lots of rich mids. This channel handles that in spades. As far as overdrive it can do old school sounds really well. I've found some really nice early Alex Lifeson sounds in it. It loves to react to different pickups. But if you want to make it more modern sounding you'll have to hit it with hot pickups or buy a boost.

And as you said as you open it up, it only gets better. The amp can sound bold and it can sound loose to with the power options, don't forget that amongst trying to remember how one knob changes the effectivnes of another haha.

 

[JPM90th]

Tips? Read the manual and learn how the different knobs interact with each other. It definitely takes some time. But it's soooo worth it. I totally love this amp!
Lately i've been playing around with the Tweed Power. Sweet tones in there!

 

[wastoid]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty psyched still. Whenever my Roadster finally arrives, it's going to be hard to choose which amp I want to play through!

 

[boogietone]

Tips? Read the manual and learn how the different knobs interact with each other. It definitely takes some time. But it's soooo worth it. I totally love this amp!
Lately i've been playing around with the Tweed Power. Sweet tones in there!

Me too! Tweed is awesome! I really like it on my lead channel.

 

[JPM90th]

Me too! It's awesome! I flipped back and forth when I got the amp and liked the little more punch from Full Power but now the Tweed sounds awesome!! So many possibilities with this amp!!

 

[MarkIVwidebody]

My widebody combo gets delivered tomorrow by FedEx. But check this **** out-I'm getting married Tuesday (1 day after amp). But......we are older and just going to get married at court but I still only get one night with the amp and then I gotta wait another whole day....lol

 

[MesaDCLP]

Tweed compresses much more and that is a good thing when under the pre's gain. Full power will punch, kick and hit all the spots you touch which is good for loud and cutting and especially clean.

However, the power section options will make you revist the knobs on the front. Similclass or Class A ... Triode or Pentatode ... ???

Depending on the mode on the back, Full or Tweed, the power option changes always get me turning knobs/pushing pots.

This is only the beginning. **** I'm still in love with this amp!