OFFICIAL MARK V TONE SETTINGS THREAD

[SirBoye]

 

[Metallicaseeker]

Okay, finally had a chance to try mine out with my band the other night. Sounded great. Settings were pretty different from home playing, but I expected that. Found I had to crank everything to 90 watts to cut through. Sliders were for lead only, which was in triode. The only thing I might do differently next time is turn the channel masters up more so I have more available solo boost.

In case you can't see from the pic, R1=tweed (bold); R2=crunch; R3=Mark IIC+ (bright).

Hi, i found very intresting and important what you said about the home playing and playing with the band...cause here on this boogie board, i see that everybody put on the EQ zero mids, and when i playing at home i think that i have the best tone of world but when i was playng with my band the bass desapear, my sound desappear too, i do not know why but i'll do i hope!!!

 

[SteveO]

Hi, i found very intresting and important what you said about the home playing and playing with the band...cause here on this boogie board, i see that everybody put on the EQ zero mids, and when i playing at home i think that i have the best tone of world but when i was playng with my band the bass desapear, my sound desappear too, i do not know why but i'll do i hope!!!

In a band situation the trick is more mids and less gain, you're only trying to fill a narrow part of the spectrum.

 

[Metallicaseeker]

Hi, i found very intresting and important what you said about the home playing and playing with the band...cause here on this boogie board, i see that everybody put on the EQ zero mids, and when i playing at home i think that i have the best tone of world but when i was playng with my band the bass desapear, my sound desappear too, i do not know why but i'll do i hope!!!

In a band situation the trick is more mids and less gain, you're only trying to fill a narrow part of the spectrum.

More mids i understand, but why less gain ?

 

[eudaimonia02912]

Hi, i found very intresting and important what you said about the home playing and playing with the band...cause here on this boogie board, i see that everybody put on the EQ zero mids, and when i playing at home i think that i have the best tone of world but when i was playng with my band the bass desapear, my sound desappear too, i do not know why but i'll do i hope!!!

In a band situation the trick is more mids and less gain, you're only trying to fill a narrow part of the spectrum.

More mids i understand, but why less gain ?

Gain sounds mushy in a mix. More gain = less articulate = harder to hear.

On albums, most of the heavy, high-gain riffing you hear comes from overlaying multiple tracks, each track using less gain than you'd expect. This adds saturation without sacrifice articulation. (Sorry for the rhyme.)

Live, most bands use less gain than you'd expect, too. Or, if they don't, they're hard to hear. (Children of Bodom has this problem.)

When you're playing at bedroom levels by yourself, you can scoop the mids and max the gain without any problem (at least with a Mark, you can).

 

[pathos45]

Here are my settings. Channel one "fat, 90 watt, Bold" is shared by both my jim root in drop b and my s7320 which i have in 8 string tuneing F-Bb-Eb-Ab-Db-Gb-Bb. Channel 2 "crunch, 90 watt" is dedicated to my jim root tele to get a "All Hope Is Gone" tone. And my channel 3 "Mark iv, 90 watt, Normal, pent" is for my the 7 string to get a nice tight attack, or what some may call "djenty". Its very "Nothing/Catch 33" era meshuggah tone. Solo is at 3 oclock dont ask why i just think it sounds best there. Eq is off on the clean, and constantly on with both channel 2 and 3. Use the GEQ unless u want the uber scooped sound then use the pre set. And turn it UP! Some may ask why my vol is low its because i like to first warm up the amp at a lower setting before cranking it up...probally more so for my ears than anything :lol:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5302219&l=d99916df73&id=501252637

Playing through the two cabs in my sig, with a maxon od 808 infront set at gain- 9 oclock, vol-max, tone- 11-12 oclock. This is constantly on and is very key to getting some good pregrit. Useing mesa el34 447's not the best el34s probally get a much richer tone through wing cs or even the 450s. All mesa pre amps just the normal ones nothing too fancy. Again probally sounds a lot tighter/articulate with tung sols ect.

 

[RocknRory]

Adam Jones obviously has a pretty complicated awesome guitar tone consisting of a VH4 Blueface and his prized Marshall Superbass along with other weird voodoo magic but can anyone give me a ballpark tone for some Tool such as Vicarious and Lateralus kind of tones. I'm using a 212 with V30s.

 

[niilz]

...that's a friend's setting which I developed further. Works great in extreme, pentode, full power with fx-loop send level at 2.00h

 

[Joeck]

...that's a friend's setting which I developed further. Works great in extreme, pentode, full power with fx-loop send level at 2.00h

Yep - and we had a lot of fun with two MKV and guitars working out the differences between the settings :lol:

Actually I lowered the 80 Hz-Slider for 2 mm - now the tone is a bit more stable, especially in the band context...

 

[pedfoot]

I hope there's someone who can help me..
I have Mark V head with a temporary cab..I'm trying to get Metallica's old tone from my Active Jackson, so can someone please help with the settings to get to? what settings? A pic would be great (CH3+EQ)!!!
Thanks!

 

[BrownieD2W]

I hope there's someone who can help me..
I have Mark V head with a temporary cab..I'm trying to get Metallica's old tone from my Active Jackson, so can someone please help with the settings to get to? what settings? A pic would be great (CH3+EQ)!!!
Thanks!

I can give you a lot of Metallica settings depending on a few things. First it would help me if you defined what you mean by "Metallica's old tone", I am just asking so that I know which tones you are looking for, there are radical changes in tone from Kill 'Em All to Ride The Lightning, Ride to Master of Puppets, Puppets to ...And Justice For All, Justice to The Black Album, etc. I can't help to much with Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning just because I haven't really tried to get those tones much, but I can tell you that with Kill 'Em All and Ride even, messing around in Channel 2 on the Crunch setting is pretty fun for getting in the range of those tones, since Crunch kind of has a more Marshally sound as people have said, and Ride and KEA were recorded with Modded Marshall Heads with Pro Co Rat and Tube Screamer Pedals.

Regarding Master, Justice, and The Black Album I will be completely honest with you and just say that you wont get as close as possible without at least one or two more EQ's in the FX Loop, preferably a Parametric, I know this might sound drastic to some people but Metallica EQs the **** out of their tones. Some guys on here get good tones with just the Mark V, MesaGod666's posts at the beginning of this topic were helpful to me early on for getting in the range of the Master of Puppets Tone, I just tweaked them some.

Anyway before I go on to long, I just want to know a few things...
1) Like I said before, which tone are you looking for exactly? Which album tone or even which song really?
2) What gear do you have? What guitar, pickups, accessories (EQs, pedals, etc)?
3) Since I am not that familiar with different kinds of pickups, just kind of describe what they sound like, you know, are they muddy, crunchy, midsy, trebly, dark sounding, descriptions like that because I have to tweak quite a bit depending on which of my two guitars I am using just because of the difference in sound of the pickups.

Sorry I know this is long, but if you kind of outline what you are looking for and what you have a bit more I think I would be able to help you out a lot depending on which tone you are looking for. MesaGod666 and Frostfield helped me out a ton when I was trying to recreate the Master, Justice, and Black Album tones.

 

[pedfoot]

Well, honestly i don't think i'll get the same sound as.. But, i would be glad to get as close to as possible.
Let's see, Anything could be helpful.. Any kind of settings you got to..
I have Jackson DK2m with EMGs active pickups, those pickups are used by a lot of familiar bands especially Metallica.
I don't really know how to describe them but they have their own "balls". So, a Master of puppets/AJFA / Death Magnetic.
Also, I'm trying to get the melodic sound of lamb of god in the songs Walk With Me in Hell, Laid To Rest.

Thanks for helping!!!

 

[BrownieD2W]

Alright well I am familiar with EMG's, well the 81 in the bridge position at least. For Death Magnetic I haven't messed around to much other than turning off my other EQ's and just going with the Mark V alone. DM doesn't have that super scooped sound that Justice, Master, and The Black Album have.

Before I get into the settings I do want to preface all of this by saying I know its impossible to get the exact tones, but I do enjoy trying to get as close as possible with what I have available.

Those settings should get you in the range for Master of Puppets.
- Tweak the Master/Output Knobs to your liking, I just think it sounds cool with the Master knob above 3 o'clock.
- Try the Mark IV voicing if you want just a little thicker tone and maybe a bit more loose or giving feeling if that makes sense, with the EMG's I find the Mark IV voicing has a better feeling.
- Also try increasing the 80 Hz and 6.6 KHz sliders on the Mark V's Graphic EQ up close to the edge of the top line.
- Battery, Leper, Damage Inc, and Disposable might need a little more presence to tighten up the tone. Master of Puppets itself is a little more muffled/fuzzy than the others, so you might want to drop the presence on that song in particular.

Justice is essentially the same with less presence as far as the Knob settings go.
- Try the Presence around 7-8 o'clock, that gives it a little more thud rather than sharpness.
Justice is kind of different, I don't know how close you could really get without an additional EQ. Both Master and Justice were recorded with Parametric EQ's boosting/cutting specific frequencies (+6db 120 Hz, -6db to -12db 1.2 KHz, and +6db to +9db 4.6 KHz). So without doing that it might be pretty hard to get the insanely scooped and bassy sound in the Justice tone. I think I read somewhere that Kirk was quoted as saying "Turn the Bass up until the Amp starts to Fart" in regards to the Justice Album Tone, which is kind of what you hear when you listen to that album on some loud speakers, so you might try that, turn the bass up until the amp starts to fart. I just never really tried that, seems like it would get to muddy.

Now The Black Album is a whole 'nother story as it were. Each song is a little different really, I personally was trying to get the Sandman tone and never really got it where I wanted it, but the tone I did get was extremely good for Wherever I May Roam, Holier Than Thou, and then with some help from Frostfield I got The God That Failed tone pretty close. The Black Album tone I feel would be way out of the realm of possibility without at least one more EQ, even with the Two that I have its hard. If you are curious about that tone though, as far as the Mark V settings go, use the settings from the picture above but drop the Mid knob to 0 pretty much and up the 80 Hz Graphic Slider close to the top and the 6.6 KHz a little bit under the top line.

Anyway I feel like this is way to long but hopefully it helps you or anyone else out there. If you do get/have an additional EQ just play around with (+6db 120 Hz, -6db to -12db 1.2 KHz, and +6db to +9db 4.6 KHz) or approximations there of, that should keep you in the range of Master, Justice, and Black, the Black Album has an even more scooped tone than Justice or Master believe it or not, its just that the production is insane so it sounds much tighter/cleaner to me at least, I think others would agree, definitely not as bassy as Justice though.

Hopefully no one looks at all this crap and laughs, I think my tone is pretty good I just lack the necessary stuff to make a good recording, like a microphone for instance, but the holidays are just around the corner. But a HUGE part of my tone shaping is with the additional EQ's. Anyway, good luck with this pedfoot and let me know if you like the settings or need any more info, I'd be happy to help more if needed.

 

[pedfoot]

Wow!!!
You're my hero!!.. Best helped ever!!
Thanks bro..

 

[pedfoot]

Hey again.. Do you know if Lamb Of God published already their Mark V Setting?
Either close to that.. ?
Thanks!

 

[pathos45]

Hey again.. Do you know if Lamb Of God published already their Mark V Setting?
Either close to that.. ?
Thanks!

check the "artist who use mark v" thread, around the 2nd last post theres pictures of mark with his mark iv and his mark v, and theres a picture of willie with his mark v and roadster

 

[pedfoot]

Dude, i can barely understand the settings from there.. only the GEQ
I tried to enlarge with Photoshop, and it was so unclear... Other Ideas?
And Willie's picture , he has there a mark 4 not 5
?
Thanks

 

[pathos45]

pretty sure hes useing mark iv mode, the the gain is at full, master is at about 9/10 oclock, pres at about 3:30, bass at about half maybe a bit less, mids around the same, treb at half. pretty positive he still uses his mark iv live and jsut has a mark v sitting there as the "endorsement" as many artist do. Although their video they have on the bus does have great tone. Willies is about the same jsut its a true "v" in the geq and im pretty sure hes on extreem.

 

[eudaimonia02912]

Lamb of God Tones:

I was listened to Lamb of God quite a bit tonight and wanted to recreate some of the tones I was hearing on the record. I tried this, and it sounded very close to my ears. It called for a somewhat different approach to the GEQ.

Mark IV or Extreme
Gain: full on
Master: set to taste
presence: 3:00-3:30
Treble: anywhere from 12:00-3:00, to taste
Mid: 2:30
Bass: 12:00
pentode or triode to taste
bright on

Graphic EQ:
80 Hz: flat or slightly boosted
240 Hz: all the way up
750 Hz: all the way down
2200 Hz: all the way up
6600 Hz: flat or slightly boosted

I was boosting a bit with my Xotic BB MB, but a TS or another overdrive would work too.

 

[Overture2152]

How would one recreate this kind of tone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O2Aec2o-4w