What Pedal/Gear to Increase Mark V: 25 String Sensitivity?

[italianoman12]

Hi guys, I'm not sure if I'm even wording this right or what it's called, but having played crappy SS amps for so long, I'm used to a certain level of ease/effortless playing, wherein light, ultra-fast and accurate picking makes the notes just jump off the strings. With the Mark V: 25, even with the gain and treble dimed (and every increment below that), I feel like I have to work a bit harder (pick harder and fret harder) to play the same fast passages. My pickups are pretty hot (Air Norton and Tone Zone on one, Liquifire and CrunchLab on the other), cables are all good, tried all the tone settings in the manual and various others from el internet and demoed a different head in store before purchasing mine, with the same results. No doubt, the increased difficulty will make me a better, cleaner player, but screw that, heh. What pedal should I put in front of the head to give me that same ease of playing? Clean boost? Overdrive? Compressor?

Thanks for any and all info.

 

[LesPaul70]

I believe a compressor pedal is the correct answer to your needs. There are other options, too, like an OD, but they will color your tone. A compressor, OTOH, will do exactly what you're trying to do - change the amp behavior and feel so that very light picking produces uniform quality notes and notes sustain longer. Without coloring your tone. In some ways, it will indeed make your amp feel more transistor amp like.

But if you are anything like me, once you get used to your V and its behavior, you will eventually ditch the compressor and never look back. Its response to your playing is fantastic, and a compressor will take away a lot from that. You just need to get acquainted with your amp and its feel to make it sing for you.

 

[elvis]

Try turning up the presence. That will add more dynamics and give a stronger attack.

 

[ryjan]

Practice.
You SS amps have taught you some bad techniques.

 

[elvis]

+1000

SS amps generally have WAY more gain than tube amps (thought the Mark has an awful lot), plus way more scoop. It's very easy to get lazy with SS. A Line 6 Spider has an unbelievable amount of gain and many players struggle to move to a tube amp.

Most pros use very little gain (even Petrucci is running gain at like 1-2 o'clock), at the least they use as little gain as they possibly can. The recording sound like more gain because they are multitracked with several guitar tracks, and the amps are very loud when recorded.

 

[italianoman12]

Thanks a bunch guys! Will definitely give it a few more weeks before committing to anything...I find that each time I power it on, it's less of an issue. Funnily enough, my crappy previous combo was a Line 6, heh! You know what, I noticed that exact same thing about Petrucci and his preferred patches and I couldn't believe how fast and accurate his picking was with his gain levels set so ordinarily. Guess it's really 99% technique.

 

[ryjan]

That amp will make you a better player.
i remember my first tube amp and I felt exactly how you do. Just give it time for you and your amp to figure each other out and in a few days/weeks I'm sure you'll be very happy.

 

[OldTelecasterMan]

Tube amps have a thicker tone than Solid State amps. With solid state amps the controls are pretty non dynamic. I used them years ago and to me they lack dynamics when picking harder or lighter the sound/tone pretty much stays the same. Little to no emotion.

Don't forget that with a tube amp the volume control just became your best friend and his cousin the tone control. There are lots of different tones to be found turning them to more positions than 100% one way or the other.

And I just bought an SP Compressor by Xotic. I have a Mark V and as directed (by the Mesa guys) I put it on the front of the amp. At the front of the amp does make more sense. Get the sound you want into the amp. Big, Big difference. It evens everything out, sounds a little more punchy and the sustain seems to be warmer, more growl to it. Highs are more defined, everything just sounds clearer in both the clean channel and the driven ones.

 

[discordance_axis]

Hi guys, I'm not sure if I'm even wording this right or what it's called, but having played crappy SS amps for so long, I'm used to a certain level of ease/effortless playing, wherein light, ultra-fast and accurate picking makes the notes just jump off the strings. With the Mark V: 25, even with the gain and treble dimed (and every increment below that), I feel like I have to work a bit harder (pick harder and fret harder) to play the same fast passages. My pickups are pretty hot (Air Norton and Tone Zone on one, Liquifire and CrunchLab on the other), cables are all good, tried all the tone settings in the manual and various others from el internet and demoed a different head in store before purchasing mine, with the same results. No doubt, the increased difficulty will make me a better, cleaner player, but screw that, heh. What pedal should I put in front of the head to give me that same ease of playing? Clean boost? Overdrive? Compressor?

Thanks for any and all info.

From what you describe, a clean boost / OD / Compressor will all give you what you are after all with slightly added different flavours from each. Cranking the amp will also get you there but we know that's not always an option.

I use the CL / Liquifire combo and although they are fairly hot, I also like to play with an added boost sometimes. Not for extra gain, just more output to give me that feel you describe.

I have a BB-Preamp, RC Booster and Tube Screamer. All of which work well in front of the Mark V. My favourite probably being the BB-Preamp since it's very transparent and doesn't change the tone of the amp, it also sounds nice over the clean channel for extra dirt as a bonus. The RC Booster is nice as well but the bass seems a little less tight than the BB, and well the Tube Screamer is a Tube Screamer, very nice and has that classic signature mid hump which some like and some do not.