Some Mark IV lovin

[primal]

I just had to start a thread about how KICK *** the Mark IV is!

I just got mine back from being serviced and within seconds this amp put a smile on my face. I'm just giddy right now this amp has me so pumped!

The only thing your guitar needs going into it is a patchchord and it is pure bliss after that.

Don't misunderstand. I still LOVE the roar of a dual rec. The Mark IV doesn't do what the dual rec can. It doesn't have that Recto growl when you unleash an open D and let it ring out. But the sound that I have had in my head is right there when I turn on the Mark IV.

R1 cleans have a real tubey fat sound to them. Simply gorgeous.

R2 ... Well OK R2 sucks as far as I can tell. Maybe someone has some good R2 settings they can share, but the channel is pretty useless so far. For me it is just a 2 channel amp.

Lead: OMFG, this channel just blows my mind. Creamy smooth tight as hell distortion. The hell with it, that aint the sound I had in my head, it's better!

For my style I can't say I have heard a better lead channel. Simply awesome.

I even have setup the silent recording to sound very good. Not as good as a miced amp, but very usable for when the wife and child are a sleep.

I set it up like so. I have a Digitech RP250 pedal (it was a gift) that has a mixer/amp output switch that really removes the fizz when you set it to mixer. I run the silent recording signal out to the digitech input. I add some reverb. I then run the left and right output to my Tascam inputs that pan hard left and right. Sounds surprisingly good.

I love this amp!

 

[chapelizod]

honestly I don't understand the complaints about R2. I just picked a mark iv combo up last week and I love R2. It won't get you the high gain metal rhthym of the lead channel, of course, but brutal hard rock is definitely lurking in there. go with the R2 settings from the "agro" selection from the manual and tweak from there. R2 gain needs to be dimed and pulled.

 

[avi8r2005]

R2 channel is actually fairly useful. Just add an overdrive pedal and you have nearly the gain that you do with the lead channel. I didn't like it at first either, but I just put a OD in front last week and bingo, it's all you need to maim and kill.

 

[trickyrick]

I get a really nice compressed bluesy lead tone out of R2, kind of a Timmons thing going on. That's without even pushing the front of the amp. Add a BB or a clean boost and tone just bursts forth. Nice.

 

[primal]

Tried the agro settings, just didn't do a lot for me.

I also put an OCD on it.

The OCD made it usable, but I still wouldn't use it over the Lead channel.

With the lead channel on the Mark IV, only guitar and patchchord is required.

 

[boola]

Use R2 with a vintage marshall cab with greebacks and it'll all make sense!!