Why do most people only preamp volume at 3-4 on Mark IV?

[myqqy]

Does anybody else besides me think it's kinda lame to have 4 dummy 4x12's on stage? :roll:

 

[Captian Chaos]

I have to kinda agree it is a tad lame have dummy 4x12's.

maybe he spent so long stuck in a dark room all alone practicing (which is incidently why he is so much better than me ) something didn't grow right. If he needs a bit of an extension then fine he's good enough to pull it off. (the extra speakers that is)!!!

 

[trem]

Does anybody else besides me think it's kinda lame to have 4 dummy 4x12's on stage? :roll:

*cough*malm*cough*steen*cough*

 

[bryan_kilco]

I honsetly cannot imagine playing any sort of show with the Master Output on 4. That just seems WAYYY too loud.

My individual channel volumes are all between 4 and 6, so it might not be as loud as you're thinking. And remember--Triode, Class A into a single 12.

I dunno man, that just seems insanely loud...but you did say a single 12" speaker...so....

I gotta keep my individual volumes at about 3-4, Master at 2 and nothing higher. and that is LOUD! I forget exactly what my poweramp settings are. I know Im Simul-Class and Triode....and I think Harmonics.

 

[Octavarius]

Does anybody else besides me think it's kinda lame to have 4 dummy 4x12's on stage? :roll:

Not if you're John Petrucci. :wink:

But seriously, he does have the money for it, hell, it's even possible he gets those for free. And it would look kinda dumb on stage to have only two 4x12" cabinets next to THAT rack:

Don't you think?

 

[Whoopysnorp]

He could have a rack twice that big and still not make any music I'd want to listen to.

 

[tiktok]

I gotta keep my individual volumes at about 3-4, Master at 2 and nothing higher. and that is LOUD! I forget exactly what my poweramp settings are. I know Im Simul-Class and Triode....and I think Harmonics.

Simul vs. Class A makes a difference, even more as you open up the power section.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I gotta keep my individual volumes at about 3-4, Master at 2 and nothing higher. and that is LOUD! I forget exactly what my poweramp settings are. I know Im Simul-Class and Triode....and I think Harmonics.

Simul vs. Class A makes a difference, even more as you open up the power section.

so, tonally Class A is the same as Simul Class? only half the wattage?

 

[Octavarius]

He could have a rack twice that big and still not make any music I'd want to listen to.

Ok. Good to know.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

He could have a rack twice that big and still not make any music I'd want to listen to.

Ok. Good to know.

Had to say it but all in good fun. It's hard to be a Dream Theater hater on a Mesa board!

 

[tiktok]

so, tonally Class A is the same as Simul Class? only half the wattage?

It's more complicated that that--Simulclass has two tubes operating in the usual Class AB push-pull configuration, and the other two doing...something else. There's so much marketing spin around "Class A" these days that it's technically over my head, but basically the other two tubes run in a less efficient configuration than AB push-pull, which yields a tonal difference. Combining these two modes of operation together yields, to my ears, a more complex tone, and more volume and headroom.

 

[mr_fender]

so, tonally Class A is the same as Simul Class? only half the wattage?

Not really. Simul-Class has a deeper bass for me and more headroom. Class A sounds a bit more middy and breaks up sooner. Both are still crazy loud.

 

[fpoon]

Why not louder? Get more preamp saturation!

To me power amp saturation sounds better but I'll probably end up experimenting with it some more.

 

[JOEY B.]

Preamp volumes also determine the level sent to the reverb section and FX loop. If you run them too high, you can run into clipping issues with stuff in the loop.

There's the best answer that I've seen so far.

 

[fatoni]

Why not louder? Get more preamp saturation!

To me power amp saturation sounds better but I'll probably end up experimenting with it some more.

the balls are in the power tubes cranked. most of the badass marshall tones are like that. the gain stacking feature of mesa hi-gain models forces them into preamp gain and not so much power amp distortion. that, in addition to the non-adjustable bias, is why i don't have any mesas any more.

when i had my mark iv, it wouldn't make much of a difference once your turn the master and output past 50%...

so you dont like mesa anymore because you dont have to max the volume to have good tone? :lol: but seriously i cant think of many amps better than the mkiv, wanna let me in on your little secret?