NAD: Mesa MK5

PurityS.L.G

PurityS.L.G

Well-known member
MK5.jpg


It's nice to have a mark series amp back in the stable. I gotta say though, this amp takes a lot of tweaking to get it right where you want it. Every little turn of every single knob changes the tone drastically. I only have experience with the MKIII and IV and those are MUCH more easier to dial in than this beast, more than I remember. I borrowed one of these from a buddy back in '13 and for some reason back then it was almost plug and play for me. Maybe I'm more pickier with tone these days?

At any rate, amp sounds fantastic through my ENGL pro 412 and Mesa OS. My other cabs....not so much. Don't recall a mark series ever being too picky with cabs. It sounded kind of shitty through my JCM800 cab, Framus Dragon cab (loaded with GB's) and Bogner Uberkab. Orange PPC412 it sounded nice but not as good as the first two mentioned. I'm a bit puzzled.

For now, I'm quite happy but I'm disappointed in the varying results with my other cabs. My nitro still takes the cake in being the pickiest amp of my bunch but this one is bugging me for some reason. Any of you guys have experience or tips to share?
 
Holy switches on that thing o_O I never really noticed they have that much going on. My mark is definitely a pain in the ass, I can understand guys getting annoyed.
 
Congrats! I've never played one; only IIIs and 2C+s. Those and the G or earlier Rectos seem to love every cab I've owned...along with V30s of course. Interesting that the V doesn't like other cabs.
 
PurityS.L.G said:
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It's nice to have a mark series amp back in the stable. I gotta say though, this amp takes a lot of tweaking to get it right where you want it. Every little turn of every single knob changes the tone drastically. I only have experience with the MKIII and IV and those are MUCH more easier to dial in than this beast, more than I remember. I borrowed one of these from a buddy back in '13 and for some reason back then it was almost plug and play for me. Maybe I'm more pickier with tone these days?

At any rate, amp sounds fantastic through my ENGL pro 412 and Mesa OS. My other cabs....not so much. Don't recall a mark series ever being too picky with cabs. It sounded kind of shitty through my JCM800 cab, Framus Dragon cab (loaded with GB's) and Bogner Uberkab. Orange PPC412 it sounded nice but not as good as the first two mentioned. I'm a bit puzzled.

For now, I'm quite happy but I'm disappointed in the varying results with my other cabs. My nitro still takes the cake in being the pickiest amp of my bunch but this one is bugging me for some reason. Any of you guys have experience or tips to share?
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Enjoy. I got the combo version afer a long wait from Mesa in January.

I've been taking my time feeling mine out. It's a good amp, but doesn't sound as close to any Mark I've ever had. And to be fair, that would be a stretch anyway. I think it's more the typical Mesa hype.

But to my ears it indeed sounds different, and that's a good thing. One thing I've gotten away from over the years is trying to make an amp sound like something else familiar. It's got it's own sound to my ears. The most striking thing I notice in my MKV 90W is the muscle and presence in all channels. Haven't gigged it yet though. My MKIV Rev A's are still my go-to's when I want a Mesa Mark.

02k8Ywv.jpg
 
PurityS.L.G said:
Thanks man! And I’m not sure. I haven’t personally seen one and I don’t think Mesa does any mods to the MKV 🤷🏻‍♂️
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Right and I can't imagine why in the hell anyone would.

Unless something has recently changed, Mesa isn't doing mods just routine service and repair. At least that's what Mike Bendinelli told me last year.

You can always ask Mike Bendinelli aka the god father of Mesa MK's. No one has been working on them longer, or knows more about them than Randal Smith. Been dealing with Mike over 30yrs. HE's been my go to since day one (for me 1983).

Michael Bendinelli mbendinelli@mesaboogie.com
 
PurityS.L.G said:
Thanks man! And I’m not sure. I haven’t personally seen one and I don’t think Mesa does any mods to the MKV 🤷🏻‍♂️
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tlp1234 said:
Right and I can't imagine why in the hell anyone would.

Unless something has recently changed, Mesa isn't doing mods just routine service and repair. At least that's what Mike Bendinelli told me last year.

You can always ask Mike Bendinelli aka the god father of Mesa MK's. No one has been working on them longer, or knows more about them than Randal Smith. Been dealing with Mike over 30yrs. HE's been my go to since day one (for me 1983).

Michael Bendinelli mbendinelli@mesaboogie.com
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I was joking . I just wanted to type V ++ to be stupid . Lol I’m dumb like that. I thought it would be funny . But ya mark v has more than enough . I should have kept it .i needed money at the time
 
Congrats on your new amp!

With those other cabs you probably just have to tweak the GEQ a little more to get the tone how you want it?? I've found Mark's work well with a lot of different cabs and speakers, but with much different EQ settings.
 
Don't forget with the GEQ, every slight movement of the sliders makes a big change. I recommend you take a picture of your settings once you get everything dialed in, so you have a good reference point.
 
I like the mark v with cabs that have mixed speakers. I replaced one of the Mesa v30s in my 2x12 recto cab with a creamback 65 and it smoothed out the response and made the amp ’less pesky/drastic‘ when making changes…. but then again that speaker combo sounds great with just about everything I’ve tried.
 
The main problem I had with this amp when I tried it and wrote it off years back was that I had NO IDEA how to set things up with the Mark series stuff. Now that I know better, I believe I would probably like this model now.
 
Congrats on the mark v.

Not too surprised with your results with some of your cabs. G12t-75 and greenbacks are not what I would go for with my mark Iva. Vintage 30s work very well with the mark Iva.
 
Nice. I’ve had mine for over 10 years now. Switched to EL34’s soon after getting it and have never looked back. The channel masters on 1 and 2 will have a strong effect on drive and punch for rock sounds. I actually use an attenuator with mine so I can crank it up. Overall master at around 11am and channel masters always above noon. Ch 3 benefit is reduced due to the higher gain in the preamp. But channel 1 on tight or fat clean with the pre maxed and channel master at 2-3 O’clock is like a non master Marshall cranked up.
Like Marks of yore, you will add saturation as you raise treble so it’s a balance between the gain knob and where you want the treble to be. The presence control will act very differently depending on channel and channel voicing. Sometimes it adds a body or size to the sound rather than a top end enhancement.
Don’t change to 10 watts while amp is on, you’ll get a pop. Between 45 and 90 no problem. Throw it in standby for changing to 10. Don’t get caught up in CH1 clean, CH2 crunch, Ch 3 lead. Any channel can melt faces and any channel can be clean or edge of breakup. It will also respond to drive pedals really well. Don’t get caught up in If CH3 can do a legit IIC+. It doesn’t. Just enjoy it as a new and different Mark high gain sound.
 
anomaly said:
Congrats on your new amp!

With those other cabs you probably just have to tweak the GEQ a little more to get the tone how you want it?? I've found Mark's work well with a lot of different cabs and speakers, but with much different EQ settings.
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Yeah so each hour that passes by I'm learning more and more about the amp and I've got some good sounds out of my other cabs so I'm feeling better about it now. All of my other amps, except the Splawn Nitro, I'm spoiled with and can link up with any of my cabs and not have to change my settings hardly, if at all. You're 100% right and its just a matter of adjusting the GEQ to get what I want so not the end of the world.

MetalThrasher said:
Don't forget with the GEQ, every slight movement of the sliders makes a big change. I recommend you take a picture of your settings once you get everything dialed in, so you have a good reference point.
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It does man! And I actually have already done that because I found some settings that worked with my GB loaded Framus and it grinds hard without the farty low end and cocked wah mids that at first I couldn't dial out. Still not totally in love with it on GB's which is my favorite speaker but we'll see.

blackba said:
Congrats on the mark v.

Not too surprised with your results with some of your cabs. G12t-75 and greenbacks are not what I would go for with my mark Iva. Vintage 30s work very well with the mark Iva.
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Agreed!

MetalThrasher said:
Congrats! I have a PPC412, and I have no complaints with my III or V hooked up to it.
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Yeah it took a minute but I was able to dial out this unpleasant sizzle I initially couldn't get rid of. This amp has the most interactive controls I've ever dealt with. I feel like a fuckin noob dude LOL! I'm being honest, when I first played this amp years ago, it was easy peasy to dial in and sounded awesome through my EVH cab I had at the time.
 
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