NAD - Mesa Mark V

NinjaRaf

NinjaRaf

Well-known member
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I have talked so much shit about this amp for the last 10 years lol. I owned one for about 6 months in 2015 after selling my beloved Mark V25 for a 90 watt version, and just struggled with that amp the whole time. I am attributing it a lot to speakers. Pretty much none of the Marks I've had really like Legends.

Funnily, that one was delivered with a shattered quad of 6l6s, and this one got delivered with a shattered rectifier tube lolol. What are the odds. I don't think I've had any other shattered tubes show up. Maybe one other time in the last JP2c I owned lolol.

Anyway, I played a combo at GC a few weeks ago and couldn't stop thinking about how big and ballsy it sounded compared to what I remembered from it, so I had to give it another chance.

This was through my Mesa Standard 412, SM57 on a V30 (2003) and a Lewitt MCP240 on a Redback. Going into my RME Fireface. Guitar was my custom Bauer Strat with a Hapas Leviathan in it. Mark V was on the Extreme setting.

https://app.box.com/s/1eo5qexih1lx0d0s4e5m8788v5qaa5s4

I took it to my drummers place tonight and jammed it with him, and it did not disappoint!!




I am totally blown away by this amp this time around! Makes me wonder if whatever drop it experienced to shatter the tubes busted something inside.
 
Had one for 12-13 years. Bought it new. I really think it’s one of the best Mesa’s made. But I liked getting a variety of different drive and clean tones with it. I wasn’t looking for the ultimate, singular metal tone which other Mesa’s may satisfy more, depending on tastes.
That Extreme mode can make it a beast if used as a power amp for a separate rack pre.
Don’t sleep on CH 1 and 2 for high gain. Even CH 1 can rock hard if you set it right. Great when going for a more classic Marshall like tone.
I would also experiment with 34’s in it. I like what that did to the top end of the amp. But that also will depend on your guitar pickups and what you like.
Don’t forget, if you channel change between a channel on 10 watts and a channel that isn’t you’ll get a loud pop.
If you run into manual changing of the loop on the footswitch gets intermittent or sketchy, the pins on the footswitch jack need adjusting or tightening. You might see the loop light on the FS come and go if you wiggle the cable.
Enjoy.
 
Mark V and Mark IV are the only two I've played of the Mark series, but they are both awesome. I tend to use triode mode and class A on the IV I have, as I think it sounds best just running the EL34s. It's like Mark series becomes Marshallized.
 
Hell yes dude, congrats. I bought one like 5 years ago and never really used it but for some reason never sold it. Fired it up about a month ago and was blown away. I actually like it better than my JP2C and MkIII
 
Thanks for checking it out dudes!

I’ve had 3 IVs, a VII, and 3 JP’s in addition to the V25 and V I had 10-ish years ago, and so far this has been the best one. Really impressed this time around!
 
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