Unbelievable Mark V Impasse. Help!

[Brianiac5150]

Unbelievably to me - as I've waiting near 30 years to own a Mesa Boogie amp and, when I bought it, found the Mark V to be everything I had waited for, until...

Months after playing with the amp and loving every minute of it, although, sometimes miffed that what was incredible tone the night before just sounded OK the next day; the Wife and I were blessed with our little man and - in order to continue to play and record - I purchased the incredible Eleven Rack. Having spent the better part of the last 13 months with it and the occasional chance to crank up the Mark V, I've found that I'm much more intrigued with the Eleven Rack - especially when I want those EVH & Bonamassa-type, role off the volume cleaned up tones. Many of the Eleven Rack's amps (models) bleed these tones and its Mark II amp even gets it really good, but I - for the life of me - cannot get it with the Mark V. In the same speakers with the same guitar. Have I, all this time, been a closet Marshall person? I'd like to think I know what I'm doing when it comes to dialing in the amp. I've tried many of the settings shared here and elsewhere and, while I can get crazy good tones out of the amp, I just can't get this one, very much desired, almost required tone. I've gone as far as ordering a vertical 2x12 Boogie cab (V30's) to see if it helps. It should be here tomorrow.

Any ideas, thoughts or (unfortunate) words of consolation that it's just not gonna happen with the Mark V would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mister Joshua]

Trust your ears my friend. If the Mark V ain't making you feel a little chubby in the britches then it may not be the right one. The eleven rack is indeed awesome and i can see your conundrum. But if you aren't in love with the V after all this time you may never be. I had a similar issue that led me to the Marks. Maybe it's leading you away.

Peace,
Joshua

 

[screamingdaisy]

Unlike emulators, tube amps have to be turned up loud to achieve certain tones.

 

[Brianiac5150]

@Joshua...I fear you may be right.

@Screaming...agreed and I think I've been working from that perspective (loud), but will press on for the moment.

I guess maybe I should've asked point blank: Is anyone able to accomplish this capability with the Mark V? If so, would you mind sharing your settings?

The amp does "cleanup," but it also loses the higher end tones, kinda as if I were pulling down the tone knob some (and I'm not).

 

[TremoJem]

I don't have a MV or any Mark.

I have two Tremoverbs.

If you search TremoJem you can find my last post entitled "Do I want a Lonestar" .

In there I provide a hi-level summary of my tone quest...you should read it.

But for the purposes of your post and question, I agree that letting the puppies run make a world of difference in tone.

Oh, and yes, I started to freak out because I thought I was a closet Marshall guy.

Turns out you just have to really go for it and exhaust all possibilities, I still have not gotten to the speakers yet, but when the funds are available, I will.

Good luck.

 

[Brianiac5150]

Well...I've hooked up the vertical 2x12 cab this evening, as well as made a few adjustments recommended by ave in this forum post: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=60609 - mainly cranking the master volume - and I'm getting a lot closer to what I'm after. Screamingdaisy's comment was very helpful toward this thinking, as well. I guess next is to hook up the Mini Amp gizmo with the POD HD500 attached and see where to go from here. If only the individual modes within the channels were foot switchable...but that conversation's been had here before and makes perfect sense why this just couldn't be.

 

[Heritage Softail]

This is how I view the axefx an 11. They give you the end result sound of the cranked amp and pushed speakers as an output. It is the mixed down sound. When you play your amp, it is not that end result tone. This is very dramatic at low volumes.

Yamaha makes a little 299 practice unit that is iPod friendly and has a few onboards. It is for that "as it was mic'ed at full tilt" tone.

And there is nothing wrong with having a few brands of amps. I like my latest addition, a DSL 100. Sold my old Rectifier in getting it. My bandmate is now "officially" buying the MKV I have lent him for the last 5 months. I never bonded with it. I did find an old MKIIC, and that thing is my all time fav amp ever....

Congrats on adding to your family.

Maybe you just need a cheap used beater Marshall?

 

[Brianiac5150]

Yes...modeler vs. real amp present polar opposites of "amp thinking" for me and I'm sure many others. A beater Marshall may still be a future purchase.

I did just learn several things:
1-I like the Mesa cab (V30's) better than my Mills cab (V30 & G12T75) with the MKV.
2-Once you RTFM for the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo it's a great little device.
3-The tones I've been getting with the 11R by rolling off the volume are closely accomplished with the MKV (and my current settings) by simply picking lighter. A bit of info discussed in the MKV vs. ED thread TremoJem alluded to.

Still tinkering, but getting close to what I'm after. Another great example of the tone I'm talking about is the opening guitar in Tesla's "The Way It Is."

Thanks for all the communication here.

Edit: Another interesting thing I've found is I now have the treble lower, around ten or eleven, as opposed to one or two before. This seems to open some doors for utilizing the preamp aspects of the HD500, which BTW is connected in 4CM.

 

[MBJunkie]

Brianiac5150,

I am glad that you are getting closer to what you are after with the suggestions and new cab. My suggestion is to continue to experiment with the MkV. If it doesn't give you what you want or at least some of what you want...then sell it. It will never sound like a Marshall, but does offer excellent sounds. That said, a Marshall will never sound like a Mark either for that matter.

One poster mentioned to also buy a Marshall.....not a bad suggestion considering you like that sound (I do too). Of course, you may already be perfectly set with the variety of sounds offered in the 11 rack.....nothing at all wrong with that either.

Best of luck!

 

[screamingdaisy]

Edit: Another interesting thing I've found is I now have the treble lower, around ten or eleven, as opposed to one or two before. This seems to open some doors for utilizing the preamp aspects of the HD500, which BTW is connected in 4CM.

I do the same in channel 3.

Another thing I found that helped was turning channel 3's master down to 9:00 and turning the overall master up to compensate.

 

[guitarp77]

Whatever suits your ears best should be your choice.

If every amp sounded the same, then there would be no market...

Good luck!

 

[mule#1]

did you try the crunch mode in channel 2? Try that with the gain turned up as far as it will go. Treble @ 2:00, mids @ 10:00, bass @ 6:00 and pres @ 12:00. I think that may be the tone your looking for. I like it at 90 watts as I think you need to have the power tubes cranking to get tone. Try 45 watts and possibly tweed. Modeling amps sound great in a bedroom but I've found you put them in a band and they don't have the tone to stand out.

 

[zakkselvagem]

ch2 on crunch mode and 90w is killer when you have the volume cranked up ...... It is sometimes difficult to accept and find this tone because most people spend too much time messing around with ch3 and forget how rich ch2 can be.

You will need to get loud volumes, master volume at least 1 oclock ..... gain all the way up ....

 

[mule#1]

ch2 on crunch mode and 90w is killer when you have the volume cranked up ...... It is sometimes difficult to accept and find this tone because most people spend too much time messing around with ch3 and forget how rich ch2 can be.

You will need to get loud volumes, master volume at least 1 oclock ..... gain all the way up ....

Yes gain on full! I totally agree that this channel is overlooked. I got the MK V for channel 3 and spend a lot of my time in the Crunch mode lol.

 

[toneseeker911]

Channel 2 crunch and Channel 3 extreme seem to work well for the type of thing you want. Make sure the masters are way up, gain adjusted to taste. Lower down to 45W or 10W if it gets too loud. I get some nice tones which clean up very well with the volume knob.

 

[BrownieD2W]

Sounds like you are moving along in the right direction for what you want with this one. But I was just wondering, unless I missed it, could you give us a really specific example of what you're looking for? I'm just asking this because I seem to have to tweak my Mark V with intentions on a specific tone within a specific song, if I aim to wide I seem to miss the mark completely. (No pun intended)

 

[Brianiac5150]

@mule & @zakk - thanks for your responses. Yes. I am very aware of and equally impressed with Ch. 2 all modes. Short of sometimes feeling the need to dial out nasally tones, there's nothing about the MkV cranked that doesn't bring a smile to my face. I have had the fortune of some time since originally posting to work more with "my rig" and am, on a whole, very pleased with what I'm dialing in. It took a thinking responder to get my head out of me arse and think about the entire process better. My failure was comparing a low volume modeler results to low volume real amp results, which cannot possibly offer equality in the respect at which I was comparing them. This blathering aside, I now have a POD HD500 running 4CM with a Mini Amp Gizmo (MkV cable) into the head and into a vertical (v30's) 2x12 and am completely happy with the results and tones. This is a monsterous (for me) setup with a plethora of tonal options.

I will offer my experience regarding gain, though, which is that I do NOT have it cranked. It's running around 1:30-3:00 on both Ch. 2 & 3 and is wonderful. This does give me the option to add a boost and maintain clarity, while still being able to add another FX if complete saturation is desired. The challenge of the entire setup - which I attempted before with my Eleven Rack, but wasn't patient - is patience and clearly thinking about routing in order to acquire what I was going for.

@Brownie... good examples of the tone I'm talking about are the previously mentioned beginning guitar from Tesla's "The Way It Is," to Eddie's tone in "Hot For Teacher" when it "tones down" for the verse finger pick part and there are numerous Bonamassa (and countless others) songs where he (they) use their guitar's volume to "lessen gain" at some point. Of course right hand technique is also a heavily bearing factor in this game, as well.

 

[mule#1]

Glad to see your finding tonal bliss

Funny my band plays "The Way It Is"......Frank has great tone!

 

[Jim Ed Love]

ch2 on crunch mode and 90w is killer when you have the volume cranked up ...... It is sometimes difficult to accept and find this tone because most people spend too much time messing around with ch3 and forget how rich ch2 can be.

You will need to get loud volumes, master volume at least 1 oclock ..... gain all the way up ....

Yes gain on full! I totally agree that this channel is overlooked. I got the MK V for channel 3 and spend a lot of my time in the Crunch mode lol.

I started playing around more with channel 2 yesterday and I agree that there are some rich tones to be had there.

 

[mule#1]

Glad to hear you like it!