The Mark IV thread....!!

[EirikBrandal]

my mark IV was shipped from Mesa in California with the tubes in their sockets as well. And when I went to buy new power tubes in a local shop (which I hate), they had everything but mesa 6l6's. I'm going to call mesa and ask them to ship me new power tubes. The extra preamp tube that followed was broken too.

 

[bryan_kilco]

my mark IV was shipped from Mesa in California with the tubes in their sockets as well. And when I went to buy new power tubes in a local shop (which I hate), they had everything but mesa 6l6's. I'm going to call mesa and ask them to ship me new power tubes. The extra preamp tube that followed was broken too.

weird story....my power tubes all busted when I got mine, preamps where fine. BUT....there was an extra preamp tube just floating around inside.... :?

 

[EirikBrandal]

just floating around? Mine was at least taped against the wall. But I didn't like that the power tubes was broken. Never heard a working mark IV in my life. It kinda works, but the lead channel is just blues, no petrucci feel over it at all. But yeah, my preamp tubes work fine. I think.

 

[bryan_kilco]

just floating around? Mine was at least taped against the wall. But I didn't like that the power tubes was broken. Never heard a working mark IV in my life. It kinda works, but the lead channel is just blues, no petrucci feel over it at all. But yeah, my preamp tubes work fine. I think.

i was totally inspired by Lamb of God tone....and after talking with their guitarist and finding out that the MKIV was basically one of the most versatile amps made, I just went with it.
Was pretty dissapointed to find the broken tubes, and never got reimbursed from it. Lead channels independant EQ section still doesnt work, and that is about the only flaw I have with it.
yeah, that extra tube was just rolling around inside.

I heard Mesa tubes are best bet, but I also heard that they use Sovteks and test them and paint the Mesa logo on them.

 

[EirikBrandal]

it's actually a risk to use other tube brands than mesa, because it isn't possible to change bias in Mesas, so if the tube uses another voltage than the amp, the sound will be bad. So all mesa tested tubes do work.

But yeah, it really suck to have an expensive amp and know that it isn't working properly (I'm actually glad that my amp is broken, because if it should sound like it sounds now, I would have been disappointed to the whole mesa thing).

 

[bryan_kilco]

I hear a lot of guys say "I never heard a Mesa I liked"....etc.

how??! I can understand that they take a while to get used to. They do have a bit of extra "crunch" or raunch to them that I could live without, but I hear so many awesome tones on albums these days.
I've only heard 1 Marshall tube amp that I actually thought sounded really good, and I forget the exact model now.

send your amp to mesa, it should be worth it. when I noticed mine was sounding funny, it seemed like the low end wasnt as present, and it sorta sounded really dirty and didnt have the throat-cutting bite to it that I was used to. I replaced all the tubes, and it sounded much better.

 

[EirikBrandal]

yeah, I really like the mark IV tones I hear on albums, but it's just that my mark was broken when I got it, so I've never had a real mark tone out of my own amp, which is quite disappointing...

 

[bryan_kilco]

yeah, I really like the mark IV tones I hear on albums, but it's just that my mark was broken when I got it, so I've never had a real mark tone out of my own amp, which is quite disappointing...

well, can you send it off and have it repaired? or...re-sell it for a low price, and buy a new?
they DO still make these amps, right? like...brand new?

 

[EirikBrandal]

yeay, the mark series is one of the most selling boogies ever. I guess it's just to swap the power tubes.. if not, I'll check the preamp tubes, and if nothing helps, I will send it back to mesa

 

[bryan_kilco]

yeay, the mark series is one of the most selling boogies ever. I guess it's just to swap the power tubes.. if not, I'll check the preamp tubes, and if nothing helps, I will send it back to mesa

what are the symptoms?

 

[EirikBrandal]

the lead channel sounds like channel 2, just a bit tighter. When I pull on the tweed power, it has a drastic volume drop. The overall tone is just bad too.

 

[bryan_kilco]

the lead channel sounds like channel 2, just a bit tighter. When I pull on the tweed power, it has a drastic volume drop. The overall tone is just bad too.

pull on the tweed power? you mean when you just run it on tweed power? tweed = 30 watts and Full = 85 I think.

You should just replace all tubes and see what happens, if problem remains, ship her out. I set my Lead Gain and Drive to 8/10 and its about perfect for me. any more and its too fizzy.

 

[bryan_kilco]

the lead channel sounds like channel 2, just a bit tighter. When I pull on the tweed power, it has a drastic volume drop. The overall tone is just bad too.

pull on the tweed power? you mean when you just run it on tweed power? tweed = 30 watts and Full = 85 I think.

You should just replace all tubes and see what happens, if problem remains, ship her out. I set my Lead Gain and Drive to 8/10 and its about perfect for me. any more and its too fizzy.

 

[EirikBrandal]

1/3 of the gain on my old marshall is the same as 8 gain and 10 drive on the lead channel on the mesa.. really hope that's wrong.

But now I got to wait for new tubes, if I don't bring it with me to school and have one of the teachers there to look at it. music line on high school ftw.

listened to your music on myspace btw.. can clearly see your influences in lamb of god and black dahlia murder

 

[bryan_kilco]

1/3 of the gain on my old marshall is the same as 8 gain and 10 drive on the lead channel on the mesa.. really hope that's wrong.

But now I got to wait for new tubes, if I don't bring it with me to school and have one of the teachers there to look at it. music line on high school ftw.

listened to your music on myspace btw.. can clearly see your influences in lamb of god and black dahlia murder

heh thanks dude. shitty recording, done in a garage by drummers dad. kick drum "mic" was actually a computer speaker (you know how you can use the left speaker/headphone as mic?) and it came out ok for what it was.
vocalist had like a week before the recording to get **** down...haha.

right now we currently seek a bassist. we are all 23-27 years old, and currently have a 16 year-old who wants to try out. :lol:

 

[EirikBrandal]

haha! well, in your music style the bass pretty much just accent what the guitar is doing. I'm more into that genesis-stuff where the bass kinda plays around the main theme. But I'm a metal guy as well. Dream Theater, Opeth and Spiral Architect are things I listen to a lot. John Petrucci's tone almost alone made me buy the mark

 

[bryan_kilco]

haha! well, in your music style the bass pretty much just accent what the guitar is doing. I'm more into that genesis-stuff where the bass kinda plays around the main theme. But I'm a metal guy as well. Dream Theater, Opeth and Spiral Architect are things I listen to a lot. John Petrucci's tone almost alone made me buy the mark

word dude....Im into mainly metal/death/tech.

BDM, Into the Moat, Unearth, August Burns Red, Brain Drill, and the list goes on.

I wrote basically all of AoB material, and kick myself in the *** everyday because its too cheesey now that i look back on it.
Trying to more br00tal. :lol:
the bass track is barely audabile in those recordings....the guy could barely play some of the riffs anyway. :?

 

[EirikBrandal]

well yeah, but the bass tightens it ut a lot more than people usually think.

my band: www.myspace.com/hamuemon. No songs at the moment, but it will be one within 24 hours. Just uploaded.. Recorded way too long ago, so we really suck playing. But the mix is quite good, I think.

 

[kbourque]

yeay, the mark series is one of the most selling boogies ever. I guess it's just to swap the power tubes.. if not, I'll check the preamp tubes, and if nothing helps, I will send it back to mesa

I'm interested to see how this works out for you because I know how it feels to get a brand new Mark IV and not have it working right. The problem with mine is that the RHY 1 channel barely has any output. I think everything else works and I was really please by the tones. But I only got to try it for a few hours since I had to bring it back to the dealer. Their tech department currently has it and now I have to do some more waiting.

I really hope it works out for you man.

Good Luck

Kris

 

[bryan_kilco]

yeay, the mark series is one of the most selling boogies ever. I guess it's just to swap the power tubes.. if not, I'll check the preamp tubes, and if nothing helps, I will send it back to mesa

I'm interested to see how this works out for you because I know how it feels to get a brand new Mark IV and not have it working right. The problem with mine is that the RHY 1 channel barely has any output. I think everything else works and I was really please by the tones. But I only got to try it for a few hours since I had to bring it back to the dealer. Their tech department currently has it and now I have to do some more waiting.

I really hope it works out for you man.

Good Luck

Kris

you're sure you had the RHY 1 Gain turned up??

im dissapointed to hear that new Mesa amps are arriving messed up.

and Erik - mix IS good. Those sound like Mesas....?