To those who played a Mark 5

[Aart]

Is it still a Mark series in feel and controls?

it has a simpler control layout and I'm worried that they made it easier to dial in and therefore made it somewhat less tweakable, like the old marks where.

Does it sound good with all the controls at noon like a recto or do you still need to keep the treble up and the bass low for a good high gain sound?

 

[cho]

Is it still a Mark series in feel and controls?

it has a simpler control layout and I'm worried that they made it easier to dial in and therefore made it somewhat less tweakable, like the old marks where.

Does it sound good with all the controls at noon like a recto or do you still need to keep the treble up and the bass low for a good high gain sound?

Well, to say it is a Mark series in feel and control is quite vague... If I had to generalize, it seems that the Mark V has elements of many of their amps: Knobs from Nomad; tweed power switch, Graphic EQ and triode/pentode switch (Ch. 1 only) from Mark series plus contour control from some other mesas; 90/45/10 W settings, tube/diode rectifier switches (Ch. 2 and 3 only) and solo level, similar to Lonestar; voicings from Mark I, IIC+ and IV; independent gain/master/bass/mid/treble/presence, and reverb controls (and power settings) for each channel (unlike the Mark series). As far as cosmetics go, it does look a lot like the Mark IV: same Boogie logo, (wide) cabinet, & grill cloth. I like the layout of the controls on the Mark V better than the Mark IV: Each channel has its own section, with identical (relative) placement of controls, so it is much more intuitive that way.

As far as the sound comparison goes, I would really have needed to A/B it next to the other amps, using the same speaker cabinet. The clean channel did strike me as having more depth, clarity, and tight bottom end than other Marks I have heard, maybe more similar to the Lonestar...The crunch channel Mark I voicing really did remind me of the Mark I (fat and bassy). And the lead channel Mark IV voicing did remind me of the Mark IV....I never played through a IIC+, so I can't comment on that. Unfortunately, I did not play with any of the EQ controls (or notice their settings when I played it), so I cannot say how "tweakable" it is, but given the variety of tones possible using the voicing and power switches, I would not expect you would need so much variablility from the EQ controls....

Remember, I only spent about 10 minutes with the amp, so please take my review with a grain of salt! Hopefully, more in-depth reviews will be rolling out shortly....

 

[Whoopysnorp]

I also only spent about 10 minutes on it, but the tone stack settings that sounded good to me seemed more along the lines of what you would expect from a Mark series amp. I did find myself dialing more bass in on channel 2 than one normally would on a Mark series amp, however. I remember pulling way back on the bass on channel 1 because somebody had it cranked...that channel seemed to need the bass set pretty low. I don't think I touched the EQ on channel 3...well, on second thought, I think I did dial the treble down somewhat.

 

[dodger916]

Knobs from Nomad;

****...I hated those knobs! Difficult to see even in good lighting.

 

[phyrexia]

The amp at the Hollywood store is a prototype. The description of it is different than what's in the 2009 price list. I talked to my rep and he told me it was a proto.

 

[guitarmaster]

:!:

 

[cho]

The amp at the Hollywood store is a prototype. The description of it is different than what's in the 2009 price list. I talked to my rep and he told me it was a proto.

Are you willing/able to post the info on the price list (incl. the price)? If so, please do!