I know Pete swears by his Mark series heads - Mark IV's I believe, but how does he get them to sound so freaking heavy? I didn't think they were made to have that much grind.
actually, i believe the heaviness comes from lots of layering and great mixing with the bass. i say this because i saw some videos of them 3 playing live for one of those aol sessions things (i think it was that) and his rig sounded very very dry. i was quite shocked bc im a fan of his sound also.
I've never really paid much attention to the Mark series. I always thought they were made more for low to mid gain Rock and blues. When I bought my Mesa, I went straight for the Dual Recto.
All of the Marks made after the IIB have a pretty high gain lead tone.
Your assumption was correct for the older ones, which may have been all you have heard.
Loefller was still pretty heavy live, and I think that their new bassist added a whole new dimension to their live sound from when I heard them previously, earlier last summer.
Yeah, my opinion of the Mark series was based on hearing one of the older models. I had assumed that since the appearance hadn't changed much that Mesa hadn't increased the gain on them.
My MarkIV Lead Channel has got a totally awesome high gain, this channel has got such an harmonic distortion, it's perfect for a smooth lead tone a la Petrucci, but it can do anything else too, my perfect amp, and since 1998 !