New Mark V owner and I have questions

[BrentSSL]

So I did a bad thing I have had a Mark V a little over a year now and missed my recto tone so while trying the Throttle box and The Triple Wreck Wampler and I boosted my Mark V with the mesa tone burst(sounded good). I was trying to get it into early recto territory because I wanted to see what it could do with a boost(not that it needs it btw). Here is the thing before I got a Mark V I was using actives EMG of course like there is any other kind. I also had a few dual and triple rectifiers my 2 favs were a rackmount 2 channel (really sounds almost better then a pre 500 IMHO) and a early 3 channel that I EQed 10 band MXR effects loop. Well now I have a Mark V and passives 2 new things for me I am not sure about passives yet because when I switched to MKV I switched to passives. I also moved into an apartment at that time so I really havent been able to turn up the MKV until recently. To me actives are more clear and a little more to the point then passives plus with passives I feel like end of the note is not as strong as it is with a EMG 81 in the bridge. I am now realizing that all the years using a Dual rec I was basically boosting because I had EMGs which I also believe may have made up for a tiny bit of signal loss with my old school ew100 sennhieser wireless.

So boost or go back to EMG's to make up the small bit of signal loss and the slightly weak points of the passives. Keep in mind I am not looking for an active sound just the advantages of the tightness of the sound and to make up for the slight lack of signal loss I just want to squeeze more power out of the passives. Because lets face it with the MKV you could play a first act guitar through it and it would still sound awesome as alll Hell :twisted: Also when I say the passives sound a little weak it not bad I feel like it just fizzes slightly towards the emd where actives don;t let me know guys thanks :mrgreen:

 

[fretout]

Well, yeah, that's a tough call since you're using a new amp, you haven't got it cranked up yet, and you are using pickups you aren't used to.

I had a similar situation when I started playing a Mark III. I was used to the Rectos, and my main guitar had '57 Classics in it and I was used to my EMG 81/85s. I ended up keeping the EMGs over boosting.

The reason was because of the noise the pickups were putting out. I like my tone to have a percussive attack, and even if I just boosted to make the input hotter, it was missing a little "something" that I've grown to expect from my EMGs.

Now, I really, REALLY like the overtones I was getting out of my passives, and I love how uncompressed they sounded, but there were these little "artifacts" that would show up from time to time that I didn't like, and now matter how hot I ran the OD, I couldn't get the feel of the EMGs.

I'm not giving up on a passive pickup solution, but I don't know what to try next. I've heard that I should check out a Seymour Duncan JB and a BKP Painkiller, and a Motor City Afwayu, but I have no access to actually try one.

 

[blackba]

Sounds like you are trying to get a mark V to sound like a recto. Why not just sell it and get a recto, versus using dirt boxes to try to coax the tone out of it? The mini Recto might be perfect for your current Apt situation.

 

[skoora]

The Mark V changes a lot with volume. You get more dirt and rawness with the channel masters high and getting the master up is money. I actually use an attenuator with mine so I can keep the volume apt friendly but set the amp to get the tone I want. Ch 1 and CH 2 work great as non master type channels. Crank the Master and the have the channel Master at least 3 O'Clock and bring up the preamp like an old Marshall. Sounds killer, especially with EL34's. You might be able to get a recto flavor out of the MK1 setting on channel 2 but you need to kill the bass, set the treble and presence high and probably use a separate EQ to cut lows a little going into the amp but it is fat and nice. Dip the mids on the graphic.

 

[Erock4455]

Try putting an eq in the loop rather than boosting it. I use am mxr 10 band and it makes the amp sound huge especially when playing it at lower volumes.

 

[BrentSSL]

I am not trying to pull a recto sound out of the mark five just trying to get the best out of it which I know it has a variety of tones but I am just so dial silly on this thing and emgs really I dialed to them I just want power and tone and a big sound especially for live I knew exactly what to do with a dual recto live this mark five I am still tryiyng to find its vibe and still thinking about selling it lol

 

[BrentSSL]

fretout what amp are you using? If it's a Mark series amp try dimarzio x2n or the deactivator i'm finding those to kick ass lately in a Mark series amp once i've had more dial tone time I'll let you know what i come up with.

 

[dpeterson]

marks dont do rectos... i'd get a recto an the mark and have best of both worlds.