Who's Still Playing Their Mark V?

[Digital Jams]

The first photo was an older shot. Here's where mine's currently sitting. I brought the low mids down and the bass up a tad. I think I was going for more of a heavy rock verging on metal vibe with this EQ. With Metal I like a brighter sound with an aggressive/punchy/percussive midrange, while for rock I like things a bit fatter, darker and a little more scooped.

That setting works great until you leave the basement and the other guitar player has a marshall and the drummer thinks he needs more cymbals than Terry Bozzio................................

 

[blackba]

I owned a mkiv for over a year and loved the lead ch but sold it, great amp.
Just yesterday i got a 2011 mark v and its the 3rd mark v i have owned, for live stuff i like the layout of the mkv and i also like the cleans and crunch ch better than the iv. The V lead ch gets me close enough to the iv and i admit it doesnt sound as good as the Iv lead ch but i need the versatility and love the mark tone. So i gave up a little tone to get some versatility.

Its too bad you had to compromise on tone to get versatility, I bet there will be a mark VB at some point. For the lead channel on the mark IVA is what I love, I have other amps that do better clean and crunch, so I am not sure I want to give that up to go to the markV and I can't really see owning both. I get good tones from R1 and R2 on the IVA, R2 is the weak point, but I can always add pedals to R1, or boost R2, both of which work well.

 

[some dude]

That setting works great until you leave the basement and the other guitar player has a marshall and the drummer thinks he needs more cymbals than Terry Bozzio................................

You do realize that on a Mark the mids are still boosted in that EQ shape, right?

 

[Shiny_Surface]

That setting works great until you leave the basement and the other guitar player has a marshall and the drummer thinks he needs more cymbals than Terry Bozzio................................

 

[some dude]

Mark EQ for Dummies....

80Hz - Fullness and boom.

120Hz - Fundamental note thickness & mud.

750Hz - Honk and boxiness.

2200Hz - Presence (punch) and crunch.

6600Hz - Brilliance and sizzle.

Marks were originally designed to make the guitar sound more like a saxophone, hence the honky, hornlike midrange.

Most guitarists don't want to sound like a saxophone, hence the 750Hz slider being reduced to get a more normal sounding guitar tone. If you're looking for more cut in a mix you want to boost the upper mids, i.e., 2200Hz. Boosting (or not cutting) the 750 will give you a thicker low mid, but at the cost of clarity and definition. Cool if you're playing jazz solos, not so cool if your playing rock guitar.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

So what's the deal with these "Mark series" amps, going to have to try one out...

 

[Digital Jams]

That setting works great until you leave the basement and the other guitar player has a marshall and the drummer thinks he needs more cymbals than Terry Bozzio................................

You do realize that on a Mark the mids are still boosted in that EQ shape, right?

MK IV owner for 5-6 years and loved that amp until I left the basement with my settings and played with another guy with a JCM800 boosted.


Yes I am aware.

 

[some dude]

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[blackba]

That setting works great until you leave the basement and the other guitar player has a marshall and the drummer thinks he needs more cymbals than Terry Bozzio................................

You do realize that on a Mark the mids are still boosted in that EQ shape, right?

MK IV owner for 5-6 years and loved that amp until I left the basement with my settings and played with another guy with a JCM800 boosted.


Yes I am aware.

I have also been buried in a mix by a mark IVB. In a band I was in previous, the other guitarist had a mark IVB, I had an Orange RV50 mk1 through a CL80 cab, the mark IVB won.

Its hard to compete with most any Marshall in a mix, they are known for cutting through very well. I think your post says more about the marshall than it does about the mark IV, but I get your point.

 

[philb]

I play in a band where the other guitar player uses a Marshall. In order to cut through, I simply had to crank the presence on the Mark V and had no other problem cutting through.

 

[dfrattaroli]

john makes his sound pretty good.

love the chords around 4:06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i24e8icZG1o

I love JP and his tone. I never particularly liked this demo though. Saw him live with the Mark V recently and thought it sounded great.

 

[stephen sawall]

Believe it or not my experience is the lead channel on a Mark cuts better than the Marshall's .... The secret is bypass the GEQ on the Mark. It cuts incredible. I mostly use it for leads....

I tend to use the GEQ on RHY2 .... where it is much more useful for shaping the sound for rhythm playing.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Dear Mesa

Please stop building "British" oriented amps and/or channels in your amps. You are not even close. You can't even nail your own old designs in a newer one, much less an entirely different type of amplifier for that matter.

Sincerely,
Fed up amp buyers everywhere

You know, I've had a love/hate relationship with the Stiletto's but played one today and after some tweaking I liked it more than a JVM, DSL, and a Mark V that I recently played.

And with tweaking? Is this close? I think so.

 

[Heritage Softail]

MKV is just not my thing any longer. I picked up a MKIIC and it does all things Mesa I need.

As far as big time scoopage, and competition with an upper mid focused Marshall with a lower mid focused Mesa.... Gotta be on the same page with sharing bandwidth. If not, to my ears it seems like you have a guitar player on the marshall, a bass player chug support guy on the Mesa, and then a bass player.

Working together, like on Sad But True, now that is great scoopage 101.

 

[thegame]

Dear Mesa

Please stop building "British" oriented amps and/or channels in your amps. You are not even close. You can't even nail your own old designs in a newer one, much less an entirely different type of amplifier for that matter.

Sincerely,
Fed up amp buyers everywhere

You know, I've had a love/hate relationship with the Stiletto's but played one today and after some tweaking I liked it more than a JVM, DSL, and a Mark V that I recently played.

And with tweaking? Is this close? I think so.

I don't put too much stock in such hastily recorded, bad room sound A/B clips that were done at such low volume I can hear the strings over the amp. A bad recording tends to smear out any potential differences there may be in the room.

I think we've all played enough amps that sounded similar enough but felt different enough to vastly perfer one over the other as well.

And the Marshall sounded better than the Stiletto

 

[dgaemc2]

I bought my MkV 3 years ago when they first came out. Still loving it!
I also still own a MkIVb, but rarely play it.....I just prefer the MkV overall. I seriously doubt that I will ever sell my MkV.....it is that good to me.

 

[Jofipe]

The Mark V is a solid and goddamn good amp. Very fun to play, cause its so responsive. It won't do Marshall tones tho, so you need a Marshall aswell

It takes dialing and learning, and still after 2 years, I'm getting tones for
It I didn't even know it would do.
I suggest having a more "standard" amp aswell, to hold it up against when you dial it in.

 

[glassjaw7]

The Mark V is a solid and goddamn good amp. Very fun to play, cause its so responsive. It won't do Marshall tones tho, so you need a Marshall aswell

It takes dialing and learning, and still after 2 years, I'm getting tones for
It I didn't even know it would do.
I suggest having a more "standard" amp aswell, to hold it up against when you dial it in.

It really is a great amp! It sings for days, is super responsive and has features galore. Really a solid amp with a ton of great tones inside...
It's too bad that they didn't nail the IIc+ voicing and feel, only because a fantastic amplifier is now known to many as an "ok" or mediocre amp because it isn't spot-on. Mesa should've named the voicings/settings differently so the comparison wouldn't be there. Shot themselves in the feet.

 

[Jofipe]

Agreed... Nevermind the IIc+. The MKV is better.

The thing with the Mark V is... it SUPER inspiring to play. It's like a toolbox, and when used correctly it will be rewarding and leave a smile on your face. Something my old SLO and VH4 would NEVER do in the same way. In fact, the VH4 is overhyped and has a terrible feel.. sounds good tho.

The Boogie feels awake.. it will punch right back at you. HOWEVER.. for studio recording, I think you need a more loose and saggy amp aswell to mix with it in rythm setup.

Leads.. Mark V has more leadtone than any other amp i'v tried.

 

[spanny]

I always thought you could get much better sounds out of the IV than the V. The functionality of the V is laid out much better though.