ugly tone

[guitardude05]

does anyone else ever feel their mark iv has a rubber-like feel to it? the best thing i can describe it as is, when you have a gate or noise suppressor turned up too much and it just kind of cuts the notes out and makes the tone rubber bandy i guess. except the amp squeals like a ***** :x its like the notes are being forced through and not being completely saturated tonal heaven.

i suppose this is why people describe the amp as tight? boxy is another way i would describe it... i bought a ts9 overdrive and that helps, but its just not what i would expect. i want the chug, but i dont want the flub of a rectifier. :?

what can i do to loosen it up more?? maybe i need a different amp, but everytime i go looking i just cant help but miss that mark "twang".

 

[Platypus]

My Mark IV does not sound like that. It's very tight yes but I would not call it boxy.. the notes also just ooze out, they don't sound forced.

Can you post your settings?

It should not be squealing either..

Part of the issue is that you just might not like the sound of the open back cabinet and the speaker.. try connecting it to a closed back cabinet and see how it sounds. You really need to move some air!

 

[AustinK]

Trow an eq in the loop to get the chug.

 

[guitardude05]

well, it only squeals when the guitar volume is all the way up and the amp volume is more than master 4 and ch vol 4.

my settings are:
drive & gain 8 pulled
treble 8.5, mid 4, bass 1, pres 7 pulled or 6 pushed, harmonics, pentode, simul, tweed power.
small V on the EQ but only the 6600 goes slightly above the middle line.

i know my drive, gain, and treble are pretty high, but i can't get a very thick distortion unless they are all that high. (even then its not too thick, i get that rubber feel to the tone still)

 

[Platypus]

That's pretty close to how I run mine except my bass is 2.5 and my mid is 4.5. I run my volume on 3 and use simul/triode/tweed/harmonics.

I also run a different GEQ, try this:

but bring the last slider down a bit

 

[fatoni]

get a cab

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

^Second that....my Mark IV is nothing but mean and chugging to all hell with a 4x12 traditional cab.

 

[trem]

Either 4 x 12 trad or thiele cab.

~trem

 

[guitardude05]

i definitely need and have been looking for a cab. ive been looking into Vader as a cheaper alternative to Mesa, but i havent been convinced of any specific cab yet... then theile keeps popping up, but it wouldnt fit right with my widebody.

i just plugged in my gibson sg faded in drop C and it sounds so much better than my ibanez. big open chords are just soooooo saturated and fulfilling, riffing leaves something to be desired though. they are both mahogany bodies, i guess pickups do make a much bigger difference than i had thought.

 

[MrMarkIII]

This is all so subjective, but if I ran that much treble, presence, and gain, I would describe my tone as "thin", not "thick".

 

[chris_EIT]

Push the presence, 3.5
Problem solved

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

^Agreed on that....I hate what pulling the presence does to the Mark.

 

[Living_justice]

Do not pull out the drive at high volumes mate, the manual says this as well, thats why its squealing, have you tryed placeing the gate in the fx loop, works great there, well for me anyway.

 

[guitardude05]

well like i said, unless i pull both the gain and drive around 8, then there isn't enough saturation. if i have either of the gain or drive pushed then i get basically what reminds me of r2 with gain all the way up. i like a nice bite to my tone as well, pushing the presence at 3.5 is definitely wayyyyy wayy too dark for my taste.

 

[mrd]

well like i said, unless i pull both the gain and drive around 8, then there isn't enough saturation. if i have either of the gain or drive pushed then i get basically what reminds me of r2 with gain all the way up. i like a nice bite to my tone as well, pushing the presence at 3.5 is definitely wayyyyy wayy too dark for my taste.

Turn it up then?

 

[guitardude05]

what do you guys think of avatar 4x12's? i was looking at the ones loaded with v30's and its only like $450 after shipping! it seems to be a little smaller than a mesa cab, will that make a huge difference or is there no substitute for a mesa?