Non Metal Mark IV users?? Are there any?

[mysterblues]

Nothing against my brothers of shred and hardcore, but does anyone like these amps for other styles??? I play some ramped up stuff sometimes but not usually Metallica and such. Actually in three different bands doing predominately originals, with covers varying from early 60's soul, to reggae, to Hendrix, to Pat Travers, to Steely Dan, etc.... I'm interested in others thoughts about how they achieve sounds "outside" of the "heavy" stuff. I have already found some fantastic cleaner, and border line of distortion tones off the IV that are awesome! Seems a lot of people only know how, or care to, maybe, get hard core sounds from the Mark IV. Any thoughts?

 

[HelpingFriendly]

I also would be very interested to know how many people out there are using these amps for non metal. I just acquired a purple stripe Mark III and dont play metal. There sure is nothing wrong with the genre as a whole imo. I actually dig Metallica's old stuff alot. Just not my thing to play. I'm gona try to get some Jam band, funk, reggae and country tones out of it and hope some Mark users can chime in about this thread. Tonight's actually the first time I get to play my new amp! (1st boogie I have ever played/owned

 

[bgh]

I get 3 basic sounds out of my Mark IV (with some variations in between). None of them are "metal". My main guitar that I use with it is my SG. For some reason, it blows my Les Paul away. Channel 1's cleans are some of the best that I have ever heard. Channel 2 can get some very "almost Marshall" crunch. But, channel 3 is where I stay most of the time. I have it dialed in for an ABB "Blue Sky" tone. The last time that I played metal was back in my early years when we played a few songs from Black Sabbath.

 

[mysterblues]

excellent! Nice to meet ya! I , too , am new to the Mesa family.(Mark IV) Interestingly enough, what I have found effective,(for me), is to actually use channel one as my clean base sound, then I dial in the LEAD channel as actually my SECOND slightly crunchy rhythm position, and the Second channel for my most driven third ramped up tone for leads. I think this works well because of the shared tone controls on 1 and 2. Therefore the actual lead tones I am using are simply based off of the first channel eq'ing. Seems a little backwards but it works for me?? Anyone have some other scenarios? I still have yet to play around with the triode/pentode and tweed positions. I must say, these amps are complex but very versatile if you take the time to get to know how they work. Ya gotta Mesa around! Boogie on!

 

[bgh]

I almost exclusively play in tweed mode, with class A and triode both selected. I do switch to simul-class sometimes, but not a whole lot. I have EL34s in the outer sockets and love the way they sound in the Mark IV. Playing with the amp configured in those modes seems to give me more control with my pick. I can go from clean to grit by varying how I pick. I like that control. It gives me a lot of room for expression. Love the Mark IV!

 

[mysterblues]

I, too have JJel34's on the outside and Tong Sol 6L6's in the middle. Gonna try the tweed, A, Triode like you said you like tonight. thanks for the response!!!!!

 

[mysterblues]

ok, I did the tweed and all that and NICE! Had a practice without the bass player...All was great! I did go back to full power for a bit and it was a really great difference! Also used some of my pedals for the first time with the IV. Not in the loop section but really great tone. next....try the effects loop..... 8)

 

[HBob]

After reading this thread I decided to put some EL3s I had in the closet back in my MK IV and am running them on class A, tweed and triode. (Had been running four 6L6s on pentode.) **** nice. Takes some of the brittle high end out of R2 a little better than tweaking the tone controls and eq. I think I'll be running it like this for quite a while.

 

[mysterblues]

I agree, definitely a great way to run this amp. I dig the full power too, for more chime

 

[major7th]

I play in All Star Big Bands, Funk, R&B and Soul, small group Jazz, Chicago/ Tower of Power groups, and Modern Pop groups.
I've played nothing but the Mesa Mark IV the entire 15 years! I can play whisper quiet or take over the entire 20,000 seat venue.
I switch between all 6l6 and el's on the outside. Hell I've done all 6v6 and it's great!(watch the settings)how many amps can do that?
A lot of time spent on top of a Mesa Recto 1x12 and a sanded and stained "metal" grill 2x12. Now the 2x12 is pretty much exclusive......but for small gigs, 1x12.
I pull Rhy 2 fat, lead bright and fat, run the channel volumes between 3-5 and the master between 2-4, full power.
I normally couple a BB preamp with Rhy. 2 when in need straight up Marshal, alone for more vintage crunch.
I control it with a TC G system and play a tom anderson hollow drop top, with the pick up that Randal used to tune the 3rd channel of the Mark IV with, Tom's H3
Here is a little Boz Scaggs,
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YCI5AxNz8xw

 

[swbo101]

I mostly play classic rock (Hendrix, Cream, Jeff Beck, Zep) with some Sabbath, plus originals (and some blues). I usually run 6L6/EL34 combo. Depending on which guitar I use, it can be class A or SimulClass, pentode or triode, tweed or full power. Extremely versatile amp. Can't go wrong with any style of music, from super clean, a little dirt, marshall crunch or tight singing leads. Love this amp.

 

[sduck]

I play mostly prog rock, and this is the perfect amp for that, and I'm not the only prog guitarist who thinks so.

I almost exclusively play in tweed mode, with class A and triode both selected. I do switch to simul-class sometimes, but not a whole lot. I have EL34s in the outer sockets and love the way they sound in the Mark IV.

This is exactly how I have my amp set up, and it's perfect like this!

 

[cradlefish]

I play more alternative rock. I would say my gain and drive are 6.

 

[Markedman]

Walter Trout - Mark IVa channel 3 all night long.

 

[swbo101]

Walter Trout - Mark IVa channel 3 all night long.

+1 for Walter Trout!

 

[mysterblues]

Trout man good!!!!

 

[Vigo1999]

Ana Popovic plays her wonderful blues licks on Fenders Strats through a Mark IV boosted with a TS9.

and yes, she's hot 8)

 

[mysterblues]

I just saw some footage of the Stones using a bunch of Mesa's. And a pic in our newspaper yesterday had Ringo with a wall of Mesa speakers behind him.
8)

 

[halfdriven]

Walter Trout - Mark IVa channel 3 all night long.

Would you mind sharing those settings?

 

[Markedman]

Walter Trout -

Mesa Boogie mark 4


I previously used a Mesa Boogie mark 4. I basically have used the same amp head for years. So I have an older mark 4. Since then I bought a newer mark 4, and it doesn’t have the same sound to it, and they told me this at the company when I called them and said to them that the mark 4 I just got from you doesn’t sound like my older one. They said they had changed some of the circuitry in the amp, so when my broke really bad two years ago and I had to send it back to the factory, they said, “we’ve got to replace the circuitry”. I asked if they were going to put in the new circuitry because it doesn’t sound as good. They said “yea, we have to do that” and I threw myself on their mercy and I said I have a new one and it doesn’t sound the same, it’s more generic sounding and less warm, and they went through their old cabinets and found an old circuit board and put that in, so it managed to keep it’s same sound.
I run that thing through a 4 x 12 cabinet where the two speakers on the top are a Mesa Boogie version of a Celestion, which are in Marshall cabinets. The bottom two speakers in my cabinet are Electro-voice, and the are like a JBL, they are much clearer brighter sounding, not as much kinda crunch to them. So between the two I get this blending of a very clean speaker sound and a very crunchy Marshally speaker sound, and what that enables me to do is run a lot of gain on the amp and play very fast but you can hear every note, they don’t mush together.
I can also tell you that when you buy a mark 4, or any amp new, you get a manual with it, and it has suggested settings for different kinds of music. For Country music set it like this, for Rock music set it like this, and I have my boogie set for Death Metal!!! (laughter) So it’s as overdriven as I can get it, but I control the amount of sustain and distortion by using the volume on the guitar. For instance, when I’m playing the rhythm part on Faithful I have the guitar on like, one, and if you do that you get a very clean, but a kinda beefy clean sound and you can control the amount of sustain and everything by where you set the volume on the guitar. If you set the guitar on five or six you can get a pretty Marshally, bluesy, sound that’s not too overdriven, and between about six and ten, the sky’s the limit.