Would my Mark IV benefit from a boost?

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Hey guys

I currently run my Mark IV with a Roadster in stereo. SICK combination.

Im just curious if for HIGH VOLUME playing, anyone find a boost helpful/necessary with their Mark IV? I'm going for modern hard rock / sometimes on the verge of metal tones.

Appreciate it!

Eric

 

[ryjan]

I play metal at medium to high volume all day long on my IV without anything in front of my amp except a guitar and I think it's plenty tight enough on its own. Last summer I went through the od/booster phase and really took advantage of GC's good nature and return policy trying every pedal the had in stock from a Boss SD1 to a Maxon 808 and I couldn't see an advantage to using any of them (for Lead channel anyway).

 

[TimeSignature]

Although not necessary from a "gain" perspective, you could lower the gain on the Mark and use the boost to shape your tone to you liking.

 

[Fronzil]

the IV has all the gain / volume you need..but a clean boost is nice for just adding a different flavor..i use my clean boost on the J drive to tighten up my rhythm 2 channel for more aggressive tones..then pop it off for more rockish crunches i guess...also on my lead channel (i use my lead channel for solos..but the clean boost tightens it up for a more metal crunch very nicely too)

 

[chris_EIT]

I like running a TS-9 in front of my mark iv, my gain is set to about 7 and drive to abuot 6.5 when using it though. I like the character it gives it

 

[TimeSignature]

I have found to get supersaturation at low volumes, a TS9 works great!

 

[fishyfishfish]

What I have started doing is lowering the input gain on my amps and use a couple of booster pedals for the other half of the gain stage. Although my Mark III has more than enough gain to kill a rhino, I like the flavor that a TS9 adds. I also swap around a BB preamp and a EP Booster for variety.

 

[primeholy]

I use a blues driver to boost rhythm 2 so I can leave the gain down when I dont use it for more classic rock tone like the Cars. I use a electro harmonix lpb-1 on rhythm 2 and lead only for lead work. It gives a nice thick tone and sustain, but sucks for rhythm.

 

[CoG]

I have recently been using a MOSFET booster that a friend built to slam R2 on my green stripe. R2 on the green has the most gain of any of the MkIII R2s but it's also the "thinnest" sounding. This boost has a lot of bass/low mids and is a little fuzzy so generally it's the opposite of what guys want a boost to do, which is tighten up and focus things-- but R2 on a greenie doesn't need to be tighter or more focused! What I get out of it is this huge thick Orange- or Laney- type roar, kind of a Matt Pike sound, which is not really a Mark tone.

SO anyway, probably not much help for Ibanez4life, but if you have a channel like the MkIII's R2 that has a fair bit of gain but is kind of thin it's worth trying.