Diezel D-Moll vs Mesa Mark V 90?

[LaXu]

Thinking of buying either a Diezel D-Moll or the 90W Mesa Mark V amps used. For the record in my country the Diezel is a lot cheaper even used than the Mesa but I can afford either used so that is not a huge concern.

The question is, which one should I go for? I play a variety of styles from blues to metal but my main genre is in the hard rock department, think 1980s stuff from Gary Moore to Whitesnake and Skidrow etc.

I already own a Bogner Goldfinger 45 Superlead which is a great Fender clean, Marshall overdrive voiced amp for this sort of thing. So from the Diezel or Mesa I am looking for a different voicing to complement this with more emphasis on the metal tone side. The Bogner is more vintage voiced in terms of feel and sound and covers Plexi to boosted JCM800 tones.

I get that the Mesa is a lot more complicated to operate but that to me is part of the fun. I have never played the real thing but do use the ML Sound Labs ML5 plugin as my late night headphone practice amp sim so I am familiar with operating the amp from that. The plugin was so good that I started considering getting the real amp.

I used to own a Diezel Einstein that I liked if it wasn't for its stupid channel setup where the lead channel was a one trick pony and you needed to choose between different modes on the first one. The D-Moll seems more sensible in this regard and to my understanding is somewhere between the Herbert and Einstein in terms of voicing. Built in MIDI control is another pro for the D-Moll, for the Mesa I would need the pricy MIDI Matrix addon.

Does anyone have experience with both amps and thoughts on their voicing? Would the D-Moll be too far into the Marshall territory that it would have overlap with my Bogner?

 

[Nick2027xl]

I can only talk about the mkv which I owned (,and recently sold).

Its a great amp no doubt at all. It will do any type of tone you need so if you are playing a variety of styles I cant see yiu being unhappy with it unless yiu just don't get on withbthe high gain character (full walker mode engaged) of the amp, which iscwhy i sold mine.

Its really really tight and laser like for high gain tones. I much prefer the dual rectifier approach to high gain so that amp suits me better, im also mostly just playing metal all the time.

Its also not complicated to operate, it just has a million switches because it has 9 modes. You will be fully familiar with general operation in 10 mins. It takes a while to get used to howvits eq works as its counter intuitive when compared to other amps but again, notvrocket science like some would have you believe.

 

[dirtyfunkg]

Thinking of buying either a Diezel D-Moll or the 90W Mesa Mark V amps used. For the record in my country the Diezel is a lot cheaper even used than the Mesa but I can afford either used so that is not a huge concern.

The question is, which one should I go for? I play a variety of styles from blues to metal but my main genre is in the hard rock department, think 1980s stuff from Gary Moore to Whitesnake and Skidrow etc.

I already own a Bogner Goldfinger 45 Superlead which is a great Fender clean, Marshall overdrive voiced amp for this sort of thing. So from the Diezel or Mesa I am looking for a different voicing to complement this with more emphasis on the metal tone side. The Bogner is more vintage voiced in terms of feel and sound and covers Plexi to boosted JCM800 tones.

I get that the Mesa is a lot more complicated to operate but that to me is part of the fun. I have never played the real thing but do use the ML Sound Labs ML5 plugin as my late night headphone practice amp sim so I am familiar with operating the amp from that. The plugin was so good that I started considering getting the real amp.

I used to own a Diezel Einstein that I liked if it wasn't for its stupid channel setup where the lead channel was a one trick pony and you needed to choose between different modes on the first one. The D-Moll seems more sensible in this regard and to my understanding is somewhere between the Herbert and Einstein in terms of voicing. Built in MIDI control is another pro for the D-Moll, for the Mesa I would need the pricy MIDI Matrix addon.

Does anyone have experience with both amps and thoughts on their voicing? Would the D-Moll be too far into the Marshall territory that it would have overlap with my Bogner?

Never played a Mark V. I do own a D-Moll. It really doesn't feel like a Marshall to me at all, so if that's a concern I wouldn't worry about it.

D-Moll has one of the best clean channels in a high gain amp.

 

[Speeddemon]

Never played a Mark V. I do own a D-Moll. It really doesn't feel like a Marshall to me at all, so if that's a concern I wouldn't worry about it.

D-Moll has one of the best clean channels in a high gain amp.

I can wholly agree with the above.

I once went to try a used D-Moll with the plan to buy it, but it was the drive channels that kept me from pulling the trigger.
Clean=one of the best in a high gain amp, really.
But the drive channels -to me- have this almost congested, thick, saturated, almost fuzz-like quality in the low-mids, that you cannot seem to dial out.
This means that in no way the D-Moll would sound like a Marshall. Way thicker, more modern.

Having owned a Mesa DC-5 (and a Mark IV, and still owning a Mark V:25), that DC-5 had a similar thing going on. Now, a lot of folks say the DC-5 is sort of a halfway station between a Mark and a Dual Rectifier, when it comes to the drive channel. With that said, the D-Moll is probably also closer a Rectifier.
The Mark V will probably give you some Marshall-y flavour in Channel 2, Crunch mode (make sure to replace V4 tube with a 12AT7), but with the overall options you can tweak it more than the D-Moll and while a Mark is no beginner's amp in setting up, once you know what you're doing, it's easy to dial out the 'flub'.
This is something that I struggled with on my DC-5, so I sold that one. The clean of that amp was huge and gorgeous as well. I like my lead tones still liquidy, but tighter and a bit more raw.
Hence my preference for the Mark series (and some Engls) and the Soldano SLO30 is also on my shortlist.

 

[LaXu]

I once went to try a used D-Moll with the plan to buy it, but it was the drive channels that kept me from pulling the trigger.
Clean=one of the best in a high gain amp, really.
But the drive channels -to me- have this almost congested, thick, saturated, almost fuzz-like quality in the low-mids, that you cannot seem to dial out.
This means that in no way the D-Moll would sound like a Marshall. Way thicker, more modern.

Having owned a Mesa DC-5 (and a Mark IV, and still owning a Mark V:25), that DC-5 had a similar thing going on. Now, a lot of folks say the DC-5 is sort of a halfway station between a Mark and a Dual Rectifier, when it comes to the drive channel. With that said, the D-Moll is probably also closer a Rectifier.
The Mark V will probably give you some Marshall-y flavour in Channel 2, Crunch mode (make sure to replace V4 tube with a 12AT7), but with the overall options you can tweak it more than the D-Moll and while a Mark is no beginner's amp in setting up, once you know what you're doing, it's easy to dial out the 'flub'.
This is something that I struggled with on my DC-5, so I sold that one. The clean of that amp was huge and gorgeous as well. I like my lead tones still liquidy, but tighter and a bit more raw.
Hence my preference for the Mark series (and some Engls) and the Soldano SLO30 is also on my shortlist.

I think I am starting to hear what you mean about the fuzzy low mids listening to the various demos on YouTube. Checking out Diezel's own demo, the clean channel sounds absolutely stellar but the fuzzy character comes in on channel two.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

But the drive channels -to me- have this almost congested, thick, saturated, almost fuzz-like quality in the low-mids, that you cannot seem to dial out.
This means that in no way the D-Moll would sound like a Marshall. Way thicker, more modern.

This^

I owned a Dmoll and sold it within a week. It's nothing like a Marshall IMO. Slow in attack/response, tubby/wooly on the low end, low mid dominant. I played the Mark V a couple times (never owned one) and thought it was pretty cool. I didn't find it to be difficult to dial in. Maybe a Mark III would be worth looking into? I had a blue stripe and it was great for hard rock and metal.

 

[stanz]

I've always loved the look of the Diezel knobs. Very cool!