High Gain Heads

[roboboticus]

I'm a long time player, but these forums have shown me that I'm a total noob when it comes to gear.
I haven't heard of a lot of the amps I see mentioned, and I was hoping you guys might steer me in the right direction. I'm looking for a good high-gain tube head. Tone-wise, think Master of Puppets, Lamb of God, etc.
I've tried plenty of Marshalls and never found one I really cared for, and the same goes for Mesa, though I haven't tried as many. I believe the guys in Lamb of God play Mark IV's, and I haven't had a chance to try one of those.
I heard some clips of VHT/Fryette amps that sounded amazing. And boy are they expensive

Anyway, some of the unfamiliar names I've seen are Buzzbomb, Peters, Mako, Wizard, and Splawn. And I imagine there's more.
I've been playing a B-52 AT100 head for a few years, and it's been good to me, but I'd like to upgrade.

Thanks!

 

[Dropped_2_C]

I'm a long time player, but these forums have shown me that I'm a total noob when it comes to gear.
I haven't heard of a lot of the amps I see mentioned, and I was hoping you guys might steer me in the right direction. I'm looking for a good high-gain tube head. Tone-wise, think Master of Puppets, Lamb of God, etc.
I've tried plenty of Marshalls and never found one I really cared for, and the same goes for Mesa, though I haven't tried as many. I believe the guys in Lamb of God play Mark IV's, and I haven't had a chance to try one of those.
I heard some clips of VHT/Fryette amps that sounded amazing. And boy are they expensive

Anyway, some of the unfamiliar names I've seen are Buzzbomb, Peters, Mako, Wizard, and Splawn. And I imagine there's more.
I've been playing a B-52 AT100 head for a few years, and it's been good to me, but I'd like to upgrade.

Thanks!

If you want the lamb of god master of puppets tones, then I would try a mark III/Mark IV by Mesa.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Sounds like what you want is a Mesa Mark series

 

[some dude]

If you're experience with Mesa is with the Dual Rectifier than try giving a Mark amp a go. It's a totally different experience.

Just be advised that Marks don't dial in like a standard amp... so if you can, try getting ahold of the manual and dial in their suggested settings during the demo.

 

[Mudder]

The Mark III is a great amp, very good cleans, decent if unspectacular crunch, killer high gain. And it's not a cash cow either, under $1000 all day long. Great amp.

 

[Spaceboy]

So, what exactly is the tonal difference between Mark III, VI, and V? I've never played any of these amps.

 

[some dude]

So, what exactly is the tonal difference between Mark III, VI, and V? I've never played any of these amps.

The III starts off somewhat similar to a Mark IIC+, transitions into something more raw, then transitions into something that's basically a IV with a shared EQ. The IV is more refined than the earlier IIIs, has cool midrange note, sits a little lower in the midrange, has more depth to the bottom end and can do the negative effects loop bypass/modern high gain thing.

 

[threadkiller]

I'm a long time player, but these forums have shown me that I'm a total noob when it comes to gear.
I haven't heard of a lot of the amps I see mentioned, and I was hoping you guys might steer me in the right direction. I'm looking for a good high-gain tube head. Tone-wise, think Master of Puppets, Lamb of God, etc.
I've tried plenty of Marshalls and never found one I really cared for, and the same goes for Mesa, though I haven't tried as many. I believe the guys in Lamb of God play Mark IV's, and I haven't had a chance to try one of those.
I heard some clips of VHT/Fryette amps that sounded amazing. And boy are they expensive

Anyway, some of the unfamiliar names I've seen are Buzzbomb, Peters, Mako, Wizard, and Splawn. And I imagine there's more.
I've been playing a B-52 AT100 head for a few years, and it's been good to me, but I'd like to upgrade.

Thanks!

Welcome to the world of gear whoring. All of the amps you mentioned have killer tone. This website can have a killer effect on your wallet.

 

[CaseyCor]

Mesa Mark IV, easy.

 

[Spaceboy]

So, what exactly is the tonal difference between Mark III, VI, and V? I've never played any of these amps.

The III starts off very raw, but transitions over time into something that's basically a IV with a shared EQ. The IV is more refined than the earlier IIIs. The V lead is similar to the IV lead, but with an improved clean and rhythm channel.

Why do some people seem to prefer the IV over the V? I think there's a V at the local shop I might go play around with tomorrow, but I've been looking into clips/vids of it lately and it sounds great. I would rarely use any channel but the lead, most likely, so which in this series has the most aggressive lead channel?

 

[some dude]

Why do some people seem to prefer the IV over the V? I think there's a V at the local shop I might go play around with tomorrow, but I've been looking into clips/vids of it lately and it sounds great. I would rarely use any channel but the lead, most likely, so which in this series has the most aggressive lead channel?

The Mark V has a simplified layout. The eliminated the second gain knob (they fixed it internally at what used to be 7.8 on the dial) as well as the pull shift/pull deep functions. It makes it easier to dial in, but it removes some of the tweakability of the Mark IV lead channel. For some people this isn't a big deal since Mesa basically set the Mark V up how they already set their Mark IV up... for others it's a huge deal since they can't pull or dial in whatever it is that they used to dial in on their IV and it makes them feel like something is really missing.

Aggressive is too broad a term. The Mark III had the most raw, which some would say is the most aggressive. The V is much more refined, which I personally feel makes it so that I can be more aggressive. Both the IV and the V can do the heavy 'modern high gain' negative feedback loop bypass thing and some would say that is more aggressive where someone else might say the brighter, faster tracking 'vintage high gain' is where it's at. The Mark V's IIC+ mode sounds thin to some while another thinks it has an edge like a razor blade. It all depends on what you're looking for.

 

[Spaceboy]

Thanks, that's a lot of help. I'm going to wander down to the shop tomorrow and see if I can crank that Mark V.

 

[droptrd]

+1 on the Mark III or IV.....or V

 

[some dude]

Thanks, that's a lot of help. I'm going to wander down to the shop tomorrow and see if I can crank that Mark V.

http://www.johnpetrucci.com/gear.htm

He posted some settings 3/4 of the way down the page. For heavy music I found them a bit more useful as a starting point than the ones in the manual. My regular ones are similar, but with the gain edged down slightly and the mid slider on the graphic EQ edged up a little bit.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Both the IV and the V can do the heavy 'modern high gain' negative feedback loop bypass thing

Explain pls? Negative feedback loops are used to increase the average saturation amount that a gain stage produces allowing you to get more gain per gain stage. Are you referring to the fact that the Mark series amps use more, but cleaner gain stages?

 

[some dude]

Both the IV and the V can do the heavy 'modern high gain' negative feedback loop bypass thing

Explain pls? Negative feedback loops are used to increase the average saturation amount that a gain stage produces allowing you to get more gain per gain stage. Are you referring to the fact that the Mark series amps use more, but cleaner gain stages?

I'm not a super technical guy, so I can't get into the details of how it works and there's a good chance the description you quoted above is technically inaccurate.

The best way I can describe it is that it's similar to the Dual Recto. The Recto has Vintage and Modern high gain. There's something to do with the negative feedback loop and the presence pot moving from it's normal position in the tone stack in vintage to the negative feedback loop in modern. On a Mark is produces similar results in that it changes the character of the amp, gives a big boost to output, makes it sound bigger and extends the bottom end, however Marks don't have the scooped mid thing that Recto's do so it's hardly an instant 'nu-metal' thing like some people are afraid of.

On the Recto vintage and modern were originally split into two separate channels. On the Mark IV they were separated by the push/pull of the presence pot and you had to choose one or the other. On the Mark V it's the same deal, only this time they use the Mark IV/Extreme switch.

For Lamb of God Mark runs his in 'vintage' while Willie runs his in 'modern'. It gives them some more separation and thus thickness in a dual guitar band where both dudes were running the same amp.

 

[SFW]

I would say that you are looking for a Mark IV. Or perhaps, a cheaper alternative that still sounds killer would be a Mesa DC 50 or DC 100. The DC series amps are generally easier to dial in, and have a lot of that Mark series tone. The Mark IV is a killer amp though.

 

[primeholy]

Thanks, that's a lot of help. I'm going to wander down to the shop tomorrow and see if I can crank that Mark V.

Where are you in Tennessee?

 

[Spaceboy]

Thanks, that's a lot of help. I'm going to wander down to the shop tomorrow and see if I can crank that Mark V.

Where are you in Tennessee?

Johnson City, about 2 hours east of Knoxville towards the VA/NC border.

 

[primeholy]

Thanks, that's a lot of help. I'm going to wander down to the shop tomorrow and see if I can crank that Mark V.

Where are you in Tennessee?

Johnson City, about 2 hours east of Knoxville towards the VA/NC border.

So you are prolly about 3.5 hours from me. I got my Mark V in Atlanta. If you were closer, you could try mine out.

Im about 15 minutes from Chattanooga.