So... Mark V or JP-2C?

[Racerxrated]

JP, although like you I really liked the Mk V 25 a lot more than its big brother. That is a great low wattage rig.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Go with the JP. I've owned most of the Mark series amps and bought the V when it first came out, sold it quick. I have a IV now, the lead channel on the IV is better than the V..IMHO.

I know you said no to the IV, but if you see one for $900 that's clean you may want to check it out again.

 

[errrrrl]

Go with the JP. I've owned most of the Mark series amps and bought the V when it first came out, sold it quick. I have a IV now, the lead channel on the IV is better than the V..IMHO.

I know you said no to the IV, but if you see one for $900 that's clean you may want to check it out again.

Holy shit that Mark IV sounded nice in that clip. I never tried one before, but did see one at the local shop just sitting. So $900 is fair price for one? I'm gonna check it this Friday.

btw how do they sound at low/bedroom volumes? Does it have to be cranked to get the good tones?

 

[GJgo]

Beyond what these guys have said here's an important consideration. The V has a fast attack. The JP has a soft attack. Beyond the features, this is huge in whether a guy will prefer one over the other.

Another thing, I never felt like I could really get that many distinct & different tones from the JP since many of the push/pulls are fixed. I think the V has a lot more versatility.

I sold my JP. It would be AWESOME for a guy who gigs a lot, but for home / recording it just couldn't keep up with my IIs, IIIs and IV. For as little as I gig the IV is awesome for me there.

Guys ask more, but ~$900 is what good IIIs and IVs actually sell for.

All Marks can sound good at low volumes. I play a half stack when my daughter wants me to play while she falls asleep. The JP does shine here however due to the gradual volume taper and the headphone jack.

 

[errrrrl]

Beyond what these guys have said here's an important consideration. The V has a fast attack. The JP has a soft attack. Beyond the features, this is huge in whether a guy will prefer one over the other.

Another thing, I never felt like I could really get that many distinct & different tones from the JP since many of the push/pulls are fixed. I think the V has a lot more versatility.

I sold my JP. It would be AWESOME for a guy who gigs a lot, but for home / recording it just couldn't keep up with my IIs, IIIs and IV. For as little as I gig the IV is awesome for me there.

Guys ask more, but ~$900 is what good IIIs and IVs actually sell for.

All Marks can sound good at low volumes. I play a half stack when my daughter wants me to play while she falls asleep. The JP does shine here however due to the gradual volume taper and the headphone jack.

Thanks for the info! I hope the IV is still there this Friday.

 

[Chris6870]

Beyond what these guys have said here's an important consideration. The V has a fast attack. The JP has a soft attack. Beyond the features, this is huge in whether a guy will prefer one over the other.

Another thing, I never felt like I could really get that many distinct & different tones from the JP since many of the push/pulls are fixed. I think the V has a lot more versatility.

I sold my JP. It would be AWESOME for a guy who gigs a lot, but for home / recording it just couldn't keep up with my IIs, IIIs and IV. For as little as I gig the IV is awesome for me there.

Guys ask more, but ~$900 is what good IIIs and IVs actually sell for.

All Marks can sound good at low volumes. I play a half stack when my daughter wants me to play while she falls asleep. The JP does shine here however due to the gradual volume taper and the headphone jack.

Thanks for the info! I hope the IV is still there this Friday.

Get the Mark IV. It's the best one. The V:25 is close but is lacking the low end thump of the IV. Heres a couple clips of my MArk IV wankery

 

[errrrrl]

Get the Mark IV. It's the best one. The V:25 is close but is lacking the low end thump of the IV. Heres a couple clips of my MArk IV wankery

Dude! You speak my language! *queues Defenders of the faith*... Awesome playing man GAS level is increasing more and more.

"Launch the Polaris!!!, the end doesn't scare us!!!"

 

[NinjaRaf]

Jer, I know I have already told you all about this stuff, but I will post it here, too, for reference.

Owned a V25, full size V, and IV. Played a couple of IIIs. Played a JP.

To me...the ones that I have experience rank as follows.

IV
III
V25
JP
V

But the differences are crazy. The IV is my favorite, and has been the amp I have owned longer than any other, aside from my 5150 212 combo, which I still have and only gets used as a backup these days. These are the only 2 amps that I own other than my 15 watt Peavey Vypyr, which I will never sell because its useful, and my wife and buddy got it for me for xmas one year as a surprise. The IV has this low mid emphasis that is absolutely PERFECT for what I do when combined with active pickups. When I play passives, the low end blooms too much for my liking, but with the Fishmans...I have never heard or felt anything better in an amp.

I love the III because it gets that gnarly old school scratchiness that the old Metallica albums have. For that alone, it gets second place. But I would never be able to replace my IV with a III because I need the switching and versatility of the IV. However, I do want a III.

The V25 is different, and I probably like it almost equally to the III, but its definitely different. It has a nice juiciness and feel to it. Gets really saturated. Definitely one of my favorite amps. Being 25 watts and using EL84s, though, was its down fall for me. Its perfect for playing at home and recording at home, and because of that, I would love to get another one...but it cannot hang with a metal band. Not in any way at all in my experience...so I figured I would trade it for a full size V...

Aaaaaand, I was SEVERELY disappointed with the V. Definitely lacking in tone, gain, saturation, and low end. It sounded weak in comparison to other amps I have played and owned. Just not a great amp in anyway. I struggled with the clean sounds and heavy sounds for 6 months before selling it and getting the IV.

I played a JP through a couple of cabs at GC, and it sounds great. I think this is the amp that you want, Jer. Sounded great, felt great to play, really fun. I couldn't get the low mid heavy tone out of it that I like, but I also didn't have a ton of time with it. Tons of gain and saturation, good amount of low end, but just a frequency centered a little bit higher, in general, than the IV. Best thing on the amp for me was the clean channel. Fuck. Me. Its perfect. And the features and midi and switching and all of that is like a dream come true. If I ever have problems with my Mark IV again, I will consider buying one of these to replace it...I definitely would love to spend more time with one.

 

[Chris6870]

Aaaaaand, I was SEVERELY disappointed with the V. Definitely lacking in tone, gain, saturation, and low end. It sounded weak in comparison to other amps I have played and owned. Just not a great amp in anyway. I struggled with the clean sounds and heavy sounds for 6 months before selling it and getting the IV.

My experience with the V as well. First thing I did was a full retube,it just sounded anemic like it had worn out tubes. No balls, no guts. I planned on replacing my Mark IV with it but that plan was scrapped within the first few hours with the V.

 

[NinjaRaf]

I was able to get the MV sounding pretty solid for recording. Ironically, this is my old Kiesel SCB6, too haha.

The V25 still sounded way better, though...

I dont have any videos of the IV yet, though...at least not like these. Just cam mic stuff.

Not sure why I cant get the second video to show up.

Anyway...this MV video is not representative of how it sounded in the room, and this was the best I could get it to sound for recording. Just not good enough.

 

[EvilBatman]

V vs. JP2C? JP2C

And I'll add to the others voices saying buy a used IV.

As a two decade long Mark series lover, the V was disappointing. There are good and great tones in the amp, but it just doesn't stand on equal footing to the rest of the line to my ears. The JP sounds much better and I really like the way they implemented the Gain and Lead Drive dynamic over the V. Mesa nearly lost me as a customer by ditching the separate controls for those two on the V. IMO, having those two separate is the key to the amp. The JP's gain knob is really a Lead Drive and the Gain is fixed internally. You can pull the gain knob to get a boost on the internal gain amount.

I'd still prefer separate Gain and Lead Drive, but you still get a fairly wide range over channel 2 and 3 this way in the JP. Factor in the dual EQ and it becomes an easy choice in my eyes.

My ultimate advice though?

Buy all three. And then get ready to start looking for IIC variants.

 

[harddriver]

I love the tones other players get with them. But every time I get one I find I just don't gel with them. Had an early 2000 Recto and Mark IIIC+ modded by MB and found they weren't for me. I always thought the Mark V 25 amp did a better Mark IIC+ mode than the Mark V C+ mode hands down. I have no idea why that is but there are plenty of YT vids out there and the little Mark V25 buries the big Mark V.

 

[boornhaard]

No way the Mini Mark sounds better than its bigger brother.
The Mark V is a really great amp, much better than its reputation. Especially crunch or light overdriven sounds are non existent or really bad in the IV and JP2C.
Also the Mark V can be tailored to a better sound with a 12At7 tube in V4 or V6 position instead of the 12AX7, thats a saturation mod, just go to the Boogie Board and read up.
Listen, in the MarkV you get lots of different shades of this whole Mark history, and even if the sound is not an exact copy , its still in the same ballpark.
When i listen to these Petrucci videos, i think the MarkV has a big bulldozer sound, but has this articulate creamy overdrive in the mids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbPgr63aaQ4
There are tons of other good comparison video files on youtube.

Here is some lower gain stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KcLV5Bmp3I

Here with EL34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9WWlvDdNFM

And here the 12At7 mod in V6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLozNfO13U&t=148s

I love the Mark V head, its really versatile and it delivers for punchy rhythm and creamy mids, the notes jumps out of the speaker, no need for overdrive pedals.

 

[Jdub]

The Mark V has more starkly different tones. The Mark I sound, Tweed, Edge etc. but if you wouldn't really use tones that are that different then the JP's lead smokes the V...and you get 2 of them.

This was my take too.

 

[Exo-metal]

I'd go with the JP. I had a MK V and did not gel. Offed it fast so, maybe would have figured it out. Just got a JP. My favorite amp to date so far. Bonded right away.

Not sure what advantage of stacking EQ's would be. A single JP EQ has enough range I would see no use in extending that range. Idk? Maybe EQ stacking is a thing I dont know about.

Edit: However, I have used an MXR 10 band in loop in conjunction with JP built in EQ and it was sounding great. So, maybe I do like stacking EQ's.

Maybe one is pre and the other one is post eq?

 

[PBGas]

JP-2C all the way! I loved mine when I had it. Great amp!

 

[Crunchtime]

I'd go with the JP. I had a MK V and did not gel. Offed it fast so, maybe would have figured it out. Just got a JP. My favorite amp to date so far. Bonded right away.

Not sure what advantage of stacking EQ's would be. A single JP EQ has enough range I would see no use in extending that range. Idk? Maybe EQ stacking is a thing I dont know about.

Edit: However, I have used an MXR 10 band in loop in conjunction with JP built in EQ and it was sounding great. So, maybe I do like stacking EQ's.

Maybe one is pre and the other one is post eq?

MXR was in loop and JP EQ is after loop

 

[JerEvil]

Jer, I know I have already told you all about this stuff, but I will post it here, too, for reference.

Owned a V25, full size V, and IV. Played a couple of IIIs. Played a JP.

To me...the ones that I have experience rank as follows.

IV
III
V25
JP
V

But the differences are crazy. The IV is my favorite, and has been the amp I have owned longer than any other, aside from my 5150 212 combo, which I still have and only gets used as a backup these days. These are the only 2 amps that I own other than my 15 watt Peavey Vypyr, which I will never sell because its useful, and my wife and buddy got it for me for xmas one year as a surprise. The IV has this low mid emphasis that is absolutely PERFECT for what I do when combined with active pickups. When I play passives, the low end blooms too much for my liking, but with the Fishmans...I have never heard or felt anything better in an amp.

I love the III because it gets that gnarly old school scratchiness that the old Metallica albums have. For that alone, it gets second place. But I would never be able to replace my IV with a III because I need the switching and versatility of the IV. However, I do want a III.

The V25 is different, and I probably like it almost equally to the III, but its definitely different. It has a nice juiciness and feel to it. Gets really saturated. Definitely one of my favorite amps. Being 25 watts and using EL84s, though, was its down fall for me. Its perfect for playing at home and recording at home, and because of that, I would love to get another one...but it cannot hang with a metal band. Not in any way at all in my experience...so I figured I would trade it for a full size V...

Aaaaaand, I was SEVERELY disappointed with the V. Definitely lacking in tone, gain, saturation, and low end. It sounded weak in comparison to other amps I have played and owned. Just not a great amp in anyway. I struggled with the clean sounds and heavy sounds for 6 months before selling it and getting the IV.

I played a JP through a couple of cabs at GC, and it sounds great. I think this is the amp that you want, Jer. Sounded great, felt great to play, really fun. I couldn't get the low mid heavy tone out of it that I like, but I also didn't have a ton of time with it. Tons of gain and saturation, good amount of low end, but just a frequency centered a little bit higher, in general, than the IV. Best thing on the amp for me was the clean channel. Fuck. Me. Its perfect. And the features and midi and switching and all of that is like a dream come true. If I ever have problems with my Mark IV again, I will consider buying one of these to replace it...I definitely would love to spend more time with one.

Yeah Raf, you know the tones I dial and how I play. The killer clean and MIDI is really attractive especially with the Helix and now HXFX...

 

[Kordoba]

Go with the JP. I've owned most of the Mark series amps and bought the V when it first came out, sold it quick. I have a IV now, the lead channel on the IV is better than the V..IMHO.

I know you said no to the IV, but if you see one for $900 that's clean you may want to check it out again.

The IV sounds killer.

 

[petejt]

Go with the JP. I've owned most of the Mark series amps and bought the V when it first came out, sold it quick. I have a IV now, the lead channel on the IV is better than the V..IMHO.

I know you said no to the IV, but if you see one for $900 that's clean you may want to check it out again.

Damn that MarkIV sounds good.