Quick tone test vid of my MarkIV

[petejt]

Some of the feedback I received elsewhere.


"nice clean tone man but the chorus with the crunch sounded less cool but still good."


"Sounds nice man, I wish I had the $ to get one."


"i really liked the clean tone"


"Sounded good!!
Awesome amp
I really liked the fullness and warmness in the clean sound !!"


"Hard to beat the sound of a nice Mk series amp. My old Mk III I used to own was and still is the best amp I've ever played. I miss it."


"Mark Morton and Willie Adler of Lamb of God play these, and they sound amazing. I believe John Petrucci is using the Mark IV now as well. I'd love to check that amp out sometime. Cool video!"




I don't mind at all if someone says they don't like the sound of some of the tone, as long as they give a reason why, as long as they back it up.
And, as long as they comment what I asked for critiquing. I explained the situation with the playing, so I wasn't asking for a critique on that, just the tones.



Eg. "That chorus pedal made the tone too burpy, too squawky", or "I'm not fond of chorus with distortion, so I didn't favour the tone very much" or "Cut some of the mids on the chorus pedal, it's mucking up the crunch tone!".


I don't mind if people say things like that, as long as they are honest without being harsh and mean, and don't leave me out in the cold.

 

[petejt]

I get the feeling that people here are just being snobbish and pretentious.

Usually I don't comment at all when I find something bad.

If I really had to be blunt I could've said two things: the playing is terrible and a Roland Cube 20 sounds 100 times better than the sound of your Mark 4 recording.
But since I really don't want to hurt your feelings or burst your bubble or whatever, pretend I didn't say those two things.

I'm not offended by you saying those things, so I won't pretend that you didn't say them.



I'd only be offended if you didn't back yourself up, and would just hound me constantly and be mean and put me down for anything and be harsh and elitist, as I have experienced in the past. You haven't done anything like that here, so there's nothing to worry about.

 

[petejt]

I suggest you get to know the amp better, get a few good riffs together and re-record it. Go to our recording section, get ideas on how to record properly and what equipment to buy with the budget you have to get the best recording possible. Then post another clip.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[petejt]

Sorry, petejt , I have to disagree . You have insistently asked opinions about your videoclip and you have got them . You have told also :

512 people have NOTHING to say???

Do you prefer sincere people or false people that would have told you : your clip is great and so on ? The guys that have done criticisms about your tone, own a MarkIV or have owned it ( I personally owned a Mark IV in 1995). You ask opinions about your tone and if somebody tells that's not excellent , you call him snob ! Many times I have noticed that people here search to encourage members that post clips and few times they have bashed someone with unpleasant comments . I don't want to defend the members of this forum , but before calling snobbish and pretentious a person who expresses a sincere opinion about your tone, please, listen to your clip and be honest with yourself.

I was requesting answers from the 512 people that read the thread but didn't reply to it. I was referring to them as snobs, as I felt the feeling that they thought they were too good to give comment on the video clip. I also felt that the people that did give comment, were being pretentious, since their responses were not really detailed- they just basically said "it doesn't sound good", rather than say WHY it didn't sound good. It's like they felt they were too good for me to put the effort into explaining what they thought.



My personal opinion of the clip? That chorus pedal was junk, and didn't get me the sound I wanted. Likely it was probably due to the rush job of setting it, but it made the distortion tone way too burpy and squawky, almost 'Donald Duck' like. Also it made the amp sound too bright and thin, and took away from the low end chunk.
But I did like the clean tone, that was quite nice.

 

[markivChris]

I have to disagree on the whole snobby and pretentious remark, for one reason really. People who are pretentious very seldom have NO opinion. People with pretention usually have many opinions on something they pretend to know about. SOOO....I would think being pretentious would be haveing a multitude of opinions about said sound clip, such as 'the top end is a bit tinny' and 'low end is a tad fabby at ...etc etc etc' when honestly it's hard to hear anything substantial from a low quality sound clip. I'm sure everyone at harmony central would have an opinion...but then again every review on harmony central seems to be written by 'a pro musician for the last 10-20years' who all think their new b-52 is better than any marshall or mesa they've ever owned (and they've owned them all). As far as the whole 'backing it up' part...why? Backing a statement up is usually part of a debate, whereas one of two opposing parties is right or wrong. This is neither. Why can't someone feel free to simply not like the sound, without feeling obligated to explain themselves? I very often do not like the sound of something without having a specific reason why. I'm not trying to attack you, but really, you yourself said you didnt care for the chorus on the lead tone, so step on it and turn it off. (it was a good enough chorus pedal that it had an on/off switch right) Of your '5 minute' setup, this would have taken less than a second, leaving you app. 4 min, 59 seconds of tweak time on the knobs(which on an amp you own, should be more than enough) I've had a mark iv, and although it had many features in tone shaping, it would have taken less than 2 minutes. Seriously, if you only had 5 minutes to make a video you were going to put out into the world for critique, why not just do it another day when you have more time? And maybe that time not bother even plugging in the chorus pedal, so your 'test' of the cabinet would not have been contaminated with outside elements.

 

[petejt]

I have to disagree on the whole snobby and pretentious remark, for one reason really. People who are pretentious very seldom have NO opinion. People with pretention usually have many opinions on something they pretend to know about. SOOO....I would think being pretentious would be haveing a multitude of opinions about said sound clip, such as 'the top end is a bit tinny' and 'low end is a tad fabby at ...etc etc etc' when honestly it's hard to hear anything substantial from a low quality sound clip. I'm sure everyone at harmony central would have an opinion...but then again every review on harmony central seems to be written by 'a pro musician for the last 10-20years' who all think their new b-52 is better than any marshall or mesa they've ever owned (and they've owned them all). As far as the whole 'backing it up' part...why? Backing a statement up is usually part of a debate, whereas one of two opposing parties is right or wrong. This is neither. Why can't someone feel free to simply not like the sound, without feeling obligated to explain themselves? I very often do not like the sound of something without having a specific reason why. I'm not trying to attack you, but really, you yourself said you didnt care for the chorus on the lead tone, so step on it and turn it off. (it was a good enough chorus pedal that it had an on/off switch right) Of your '5 minute' setup, this would have taken less than a second, leaving you app. 4 min, 59 seconds of tweak time on the knobs(which on an amp you own, should be more than enough) I've had a mark iv, and although it had many features in tone shaping, it would have taken less than 2 minutes. Seriously, if you only had 5 minutes to make a video you were going to put out into the world for critique, why not just do it another day when you have more time? And maybe that time not bother even plugging in the chorus pedal, so your 'test' of the cabinet would not have been contaminated with outside elements.

Fair enough. Thanks for your input.


My belief is that there are two types of pretentious behaviour. One is being such a snob, as to think that giving their opinion to someone they believe is of very low value, is not worth their time & effort to speak of.
The other is that they have such a high ego, they will nitpick and talk down to who they believe is of very low value, just to be mean and narcissistic.


At the time of the video, I had just received the amp. I had no speaker cabinet. I visited that music shop, to hear how the amp sounded through the speaker cabinet, and get a chance to play it. As I said, I only had 5 minutes, so I wanted to try everything at once, including effects. I set everything up, including the settings, then played some riffs. Since that day I have not had the chance to play the amp (I now have a speaker cabinet but keep everything in storage, as I don't have my own place to live in, or play my guitar).

I do wish I had more time, even to switch the pedal off. In the future I plan to do many recordings and ask for people to comment on the sound. I also recently bought a mixer, to enable better recording.

 

[KoolAIDMan]

What did you think of the recording, Pete?

 

[dodger916]

Pete: Although the recording quality was mediocre at best, I liked to overdrive sound...tight, clear and violin-like. Good to my ears.

I was requesting answers from the 512 people that read the thread but didn't reply to it. I was referring to them as snobs, as I felt the feeling that they thought they were too good to give comment on the video clip.

I don't believe people are obliged to respond simply because you ask them to. And you're assuming the lack of response is due to snobbery or pretentiousness. Not everyone is willing (or able) to invest the time and energy to respond, or respond in a manner you deem appropriate. Be grateful for what you get, bro.


Frank

 

[estring]

Sounded way too thin... You're using a 4X12..turn it up get some bass response from the cab.
More gain might be useful as well.
Play something with some conviction, some attack...dont be shy let her rip. Believe me noone on this bored is going to care if you mess up in some spots.
What we will care about is asking for input on tone and not having all the basics dialed in for us to make an honest evaluation.
And then, attacking the forum..not good.

So..turn the volume up, get the gain going and play like you mean it.

Then we can go from there.

 

[LnTh]

If you wanna ask people their opinion on your amp's tone, buy cheap but effective recording gear at least. Don't expect much constructive criticism of people when the tone is naturally crap, thanks to the video camera.

Also, think about what you wanna play before you start recording. Unless you're a god of improvising, no one's gonna be that impressed.

Take care.

 

[petejt]

Thanks for the feedback folks, that was helpful. 8)


This thread contains the type of feedback that I was hoping for.

 

[petejt]

Okay, I've made a new video, mainly to test out the recording quality of my camera.

Full Details are on the page.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4orcV-N2-jY



I much prefer the tones in this clip, compared to my previous clip. The thickness and crunch comes through better. Also I am using a better chorus pedal- I've found that I quite like slow chorus effects on distortion tones, although in future I'll be using another amp with the chorus pedal on it, and run this one dry (or I might use pitch shifting in the efx loop...)

The camera doesn't capture the bass too well, especially since in person the bass was VERY powerful, and the whole tone very LOUD. I only had the output on 2!

 

[4nkam]

That sounds pretty cool Pete. I like the clean tone and it seems to be dialed in pretty nicely. Not so much a fan of the chorused heavy tones though but it sounds like what you have going on underneath is pretty good

 

[Mikeandratm]

Seems like everyone is just beating around the bush here.

Dude, spend less time worrying about your tone and what people think of it, and more time on your playing, because that is what's blowing the most.

This kinda' thing actually pisses me off to no end. Guys, who have a **** load of expensive gear but can't play for ****. Guys, who will bombard you with their everlasting knowledge of guitar gear, right down to the finest T, but couldn't hold a candle to Joe Bloggs, the 15 year old bedroom player, jamming on a Line 6 spider. Guys who post tone-tests on YouTube or gear tours. Yes playing music is all about having fun. No ****. But it's like "Look at the size of my cock". Or "Hey, I've got a Ferrari even though I can't drive but that's OK because just having one is worth way more respect and credibility than actually being able to use it".

Shut up and play 'yer guitar.

Rant Over.

 

[estring]

I made that rant bearable by imagining it being spoken with a Scottish accent....also made it kind of entertaining in a William Wallace sort of way!!! :wink:

 

[CudBucket]

I get the feeling that people here are just being snobbish and pretentious.

Uh, no. I'd guess we're being polite. But since you pressed the issue, the tone and playing sucked.

Can I go now?