See and I disagree with you, i have tried the Mark IV serveral times and it sounds like crap at low volumes even in class A. Yeah it still solo's fine, but for rythem at low volume, yuck!
I guess I use the recto without the loops so the master is always cranked and I dont get the buzziness. Plus I do know how to EQ and amp like you wouldnt believe, I guess after 22 years of playing i have learned many tricks.
Also please read my post before my long post, I also suggested the Mark IV because he already had a recto, and that is what i voted for. However if he was going for his first mesa, I would have first asked him what style of music he is going for, what groups and tones does he always seem to like better.
As the the Mark IV being more verstile besides the roadking, i disagree. The 3 channel rec's are very verstile, the pushed on that amp is one of the best tones I have heard, between raw, modern and vintage you can get many sounds. Go between tube or diode rec's, please hands down it is super verstile!
As to lead sounds, I will go up with my rackmount recto against a mark IV any day and you know what, most people will not even be able to tell the difference between the two amps. i can make my dual scream, actually i love to solo through my dual rec more then i do through my bogner XTC!
Like you said, you just couldnt tweak the amp to your liking and obvious by the amps you have now the recto is just not your thing. HOWEVER it does not mean the Mark IV is a better amp and more verstile, it is just better for YOUR liking!
If you truly want me to be a dick, I can just say this, take a look at the number of recto users compared to the number of all the Mark Series amps put together, and the recto still crushes them with mighty numbers! But that doesnt mean it is a better amp, just a amp that most people prefer, however it does not take anything away from the Mark Series.
But alot of people on this board have that attitude, just because i dont like that amp and couldnt tweak it, that it is obvious the amp I am playing is better.
What alot of people on this board realy need to learn to do is express there opinions better. IN YOUR Opinion the Mark IV is a better amp for YOU, however that does not mean it is a better amp then anything out there for everyone else!
Once again I think both are great amps, just tired of people on here saying that the Mark IV is such a better amp, when it really is not! Just a different amp then the recto and depending on your style of music it might be a better choice.
Platypus said:
siggy14 said:
I dont think the Mark IV has a better gain, and i think alot of people on this board get talked into thinking the Mark IV is a better amp.
What it comes down to is, what music do you mostly play when deciding on an amp and also where you gonna mostly be playing?
I can tell you now for the bedroom/home player a rec will do you better, it just sounds better at lower volumes, where a Mark IV needs to be cranked!
But also like i said depends on music style, both are suited for different styles, you will never get a Rec tone out of a mark IV and you will never get a Mark IV tone out of a Rec.
As to problem, I see just as many problems with the vintage amps as I do with the rec's. And alot of problems have to do with the fact that alot of people that play rec's are of the younger generation and they make a mistake and screw it up!
As to the honeymoon period. Well right now the Rec's just arent really in favor, they were used for so long most people now turn away from them. I see alot of bands going back to more of a classic sound and EL34 driven amps.
disassembled said:
I think the MK IV is the best of the bunch. I am just not a fan of the Recto drive for the long haul but it is cool to have around I will admit. If you look at the trends here it seems many people get excited with their Recto series amp but after the honeymoon there are second guesses not to mention PROBLEMS. Wouldn't it be terrible if you bought a RK and it was just plagued with problems? There are a few people that I remember who didn't mesh with the Mk IV but I can only think of a few.
I think you can be rest assured with the R&D that went into the MK IV (since the 70's and finally settling down to its current incarnation in the 90's with the introduction of the B version). I think that speaks a lot but is just my biased opinion.
These posts keep coming up lately and the results are always the same. The people from the vintage section recommend the MK series and the people from the modern section recommend the rectifier series. There needs to be a new hybrid amp with a roadking 2 and mark iv welded together so we can end this debate!
Can we get a photochop of this anyone?
Greg
You're entitled to your opinion Siggy14 so don't take this as an attack of that but I think a few things should be clarified.
If anything, the Mark IV sounds far better at low volumes than a Rectifier does simply because you can scale it down to Class A and get huge power tube saturation. There's no way in hell you're doing that with a Recto without a power soak or cranking the piss out of it. Low volumes on a recto without utilizing the tone robbing master output control sound like a swarm of angry bees inside a hand saw factory.
The Mark series is classic, the tone inspired a whole generation of amplifiers... just like the Recto did by breaking these same molds when it came out.
The Mark IV covers far more ground with way more versatility than any rectifier to date except the Road King series. If the OP already has a 3CH DR and wants something else, it's safe to assume that he's looking for something different.
I spent almost 3 years tweaking basically everything I could on the Recto and could never get a tone I was happy with except the recto sound. I spent forever trying tubes, settings, etc. It does the Recto thing really well but it just can't hold a candle to the cleans and leads of something from the Mark series. This is not a fault of the amp at all, it's just made for people who like that sound. I found out while I dig the recto crush, the Mark just provides so much more it's astounding.
I have been turning knobs on my Mark IV for about a month now and haven't found a single bad tone once.. with the Recto it was like months of frustration with my tone yielding one 'holy grail' tone that would sound different the next time I came back to it.
There's my two cents on the matter, people are bound to disagree but that's what it's all about
