Question about Channel Volumes vs. Master Volume

[Elliot Twist]

What's your opinion and reason about running the Channel Volumes high and the Master Volume low ?
What do you think sounds better ? What do you think is more appropriate ?
I like my Channel Volumes high and the Master Volume low.
Is that driving the Channel preamp tubes more and Power tubes less, if so then I'm glad I like the Channel Volumes high and the Master Volume low.
I'd like to hear what you think, and if you can also say why you choose one over the other.
I want to honestly admit that I'm running Channel 1 at 45 watts and on Clean and the Channel Volume is on 10. The Other Channels are at 90 watts.
My rig sounds perfect to me the way it is now.
I'm running a Mark Five amp head and a Mesa Vertical V30 2X12. https://boogieforum.com/threads/post-your-mark-v-photos.86781/post-542309

 

[rarebitusa]

My rig sounds perfect to me the way it is now.

That's always good news to start there. The V:90 allows the player many options to explore.

What do you think sounds better ? What do you think is more appropriate ?

IMHO it depends in large part on the overall volume and the balance between preamp/power section. Running the "Channel Volumes high and the Master Volume low" will deemphasize the power section contribution a bit.

Curious are you running tube or diode with the 45W Ch 1 setting? What are the chan master levels? the global master level?

 

[DECEMBER]

With my Mark V, there's a limited usable range of the channel volumes. If they get any more than 2:00, it starts to sound overloaded. All the channel volumes are kept around noon (except clean ch1, which is used for clean, and the volume is much higher to match chs 2 & 3) and master sets the volume of the speaker.
That's the typical use-case: channel volumes are used to set equal levels between channels, for consistent levels when switching channels on the fly, and the master is for setting the output volume.
Gain determines how hard it's driving the preamp tubes. Ch volume probably affects the last preamp tube (driver/phase inverter).

 

[bandit2013]

You can select the hard bypass on the back which will bypass the global master and FX loop. Just note the amp will be much, much louder in doing that. Set the channel masters down before you hit the standby switch.

When using the FX loop in active mode, all it does is adds in the FX loop and global master/solo boost feature. Matters not how you dial in the channel masters as that signal level gets attenuated and the FX recovery stage brings it back up. Perhaps it allows for fine adjustments so you do not blow out your ear drums in the process. This too allows for better matching of the volume of the three channels. I much prefer to use the FX loop so there is no way to avoid the global master. I actually felt the Mark V90 sounded better in hard bypass mode though (at least the one I have anyway). That circuit was borrowed from the Dual Rectifier models. It is not bad but in some ways I feel it robs some of the amp's characteristics, but at the same time allows you to adjust volume to meet your needs.

Other Marks like the JP2C and Mark VII do not have that option. However, they do not bypass the FX loop either. So, instead of one global master you have three. the Mark VII is the exception as you actually have six (each channel runs a ganged dual pot for the channel volumes. That addresses the pre fx loop volume level and post fx loop volume at the same time. I think it would be better to have a separate control though as it limits the usable low volume settings. Wonder how a concentric dual pot would serve in that application? Not willing to try it but it could be an option down the road.

For me, it does not matter as I barely ever run at bedroom levels to start with. Once in a while I will though. Depends on how late at night or early morning I decide to make noise. When the drums and bass are thumping the room, need to have more volume to keep up.

 

[shredgd]

Volume controls are often criticized by purists. However they’re not necessarily a bad thing, if well implemented.

I never tried running the output master volume at max and setting the channel volumes low in my Mark V, so I can’t speak from direct experience. However, not only you would lose the purpose of having an output master control (i.e. allowing for balancing the three channels volumes and forget about it), but you would also feed the effects loop with a weaker signal and relying on the recovery stage too much, probably adding noise. So running the channel volumes higher and the output master volume lower is generally the way to go.

A different question is: is it better to run the volume channels “a little bit” lower to allow “a little higher”output master volume setting? Or viceversa?

In this case, I would say running whatever volume pot extremely low means using it at the lowest extreme of its range, probably ruining your tone, as you have almost all the pot resistance in series with your signal and very little resistance (a few Kohms) to ground. So generally the most important thing to avoid is putting a volume pot at nearly 0 just to be able to say you’re running the other volume high*.

On the other hand, volume controls often have consequences when run high or at max: they saturate the following stage. In some circuits the master volume set high can help giving you more gain as it saturates the following tube stage. In the Mark V, the volume channels feed the solid state graphic eq, which is never fully bypassed even when not engaged. Again, I still haven’t made the experiment myself, but someone already reported things get overly saturated with the volume channels dimed.

The output master control instead feeds the phase inverter tube. Mesa Mark amps are not known to take advantage of power stage saturation to achieve gain, as their preamps are deigned to do that. So I assume that diming the output master is not necessary, and that using a healthier channel volume setting is preferable.

The most scientific answer to the question, however, would be recording a track with two different volume settings per volume control, once by dialing the channel volume, the other time by dialing the output master, normalizing all the audio to the same level and hearing the results back. The most linearly acting (i.e. no difference in tone between the low and high settings) volume control would be the one we can get along with setting it very low to achieve the desired listening level. The most “coloring” control (i.e. tone changes between the low and high setting) would be the one we should be careful with, carefully avoiding a very low or a very high setting.


Giulio


*nothing in the electric guitar world is fully forbidden, so this sentence doesn’t mean you really shouldn’t do it: you might get a good result nevertheless, with or without some other tweaking in the equation controls, etc.