Experimenting with my Mark V:35 and DSL20

[Mikael Dez]

Shit’s getting crazy here tonight. I toggled the speaker off on my Mark V, and sent its preamp out from the fx loop into the return of my DSL20 to hear how it sounded with a Marshall power amp/el34s. I love the sound.

What’s weird is I read that the master volume on the Mark V is in the power amp section, but it must be at the very end of the preamp section because adjusting that changes the volume as you would expect as if you were using just this one amp. The DSL’s volume control is also in the preamp, so you have to control master volume with the Mark in this situation.

Again y’all - the Mesa’s speaker is defeated and internal load engaged per the manual, and the Marshall is going into a loadbox.

 

[Mikael Dez]

Overall - the sound has more punch to it and it’s obviously the power tubes. I’m not sure why Mesa doesn’t put full sized tubes in here considering it’s basically the same size as the DSL20 (and the chassis is bigger, the Marshall just has a stupid thick head shell)

 

[paisleywookiee]

Overall - the sound has more punch to it and it’s obviously the power tubes. I’m not sure why Mesa doesn’t put full sized tubes in here considering it’s basically the same size as the DSL20 (and the chassis is bigger, the Marshall just has a stupid thick head shell)

Totally agree. I’d own a Mark V:35 (or whatever it’d be called) if it were two 6L6 or EL34’s. It’s a nice amp, no doubt. But four EL84’s irks me.

 

[laxu]

What’s weird is I read that the master volume on the Mark V is in the power amp section, but it must be at the very end of the preamp section because adjusting that changes the volume as you would expect as if you were using just this one amp.

That's pretty normal, since the Mark V:35 doesn't have the Mark V 90's output control which comes after the fx loop.

So the Mark V:35 has the channel masters, which are located right before the GEQ.

Overall - the sound has more punch to it and it’s obviously the power tubes. I’m not sure why Mesa doesn’t put full sized tubes in here considering it’s basically the same size as the DSL20 (and the chassis is bigger, the Marshall just has a stupid thick head shell)

I think that's reducing the poweramp differences to one thing. It could be simply that they are voiced differently. Are you volume matching them?

Mesa is likely being deliberate about this to keep the V:25 and V:35 as seeming like cheaper options. Sure, they don't have all the bells and whistles of the V:90 but all the best core sounds are there, so maybe they felt that with a proper 6L6 poweramp they'd be cannibalizing their sales.

When they eventually make smaller versions of the VII, they have less features to pare back. Maybe drop the IR loader for just the Slave out, make them 2 channel with Fat/Crunch/MkVII and Crunch/IIC/MKIV modes.

 

[Stone]

Very nice setup Michael, Love the Lego X wing too

 

[Mikael Dez]

Very nice setup Michael, Love the Lego X wing too

It’s an old Father’s Day gift my daughter gave me!

 

[HomespunEffects]

Ex

Totally agree. I’d own a Mark V:35 (or whatever it’d be called) if it were two 6L6 or EL34’s. It’s a nice amp, no doubt. But four EL84’s irks me.

You should hear the preamp plugged into a Marshall effects return.

 

[Mikael Dez]

That's pretty normal, since the Mark V:35 doesn't have the Mark V 90's output control which comes after the fx loop.

So the Mark V:35 has the channel masters, which are located right before the GEQ.


I think that's reducing the poweramp differences to one thing. It could be simply that they are voiced differently. Are you volume matching them?

Mesa is likely being deliberate about this to keep the V:25 and V:35 as seeming like cheaper options. Sure, they don't have all the bells and whistles of the V:90 but all the best core sounds are there, so maybe they felt that with a proper 6L6 poweramp they'd be cannibalizing their sales.

When they eventually make smaller versions of the VII, they have less features to pare back. Maybe drop the IR loader for just the Slave out, make them 2 channel with Fat/Crunch/MkVII and Crunch/IIC/MKIV modes.

I do suspect that they kept the el84s in the 35 despite it being bigger than the VII is more to do with design “laziness” i.e. they basically expanded on the 25w design with debatable upgrades (I don’t use the solo boosts at all) while keeping R&D down and also not presenting an amp for a grand cheaper than their flagship model that has the same power tubes. Business is business, I get it. I have a lot more to play with this setup, this was all just my first impression with 10-20 minutes of riffing last night haha

 

[laxu]

I do suspect that they kept the el84s in the 35 despite it being bigger than the VII is more to do with design “laziness” i.e. they basically expanded on the 25w design with debatable upgrades (I don’t use the solo boosts at all) while keeping R&D down and also not presenting an amp for a grand cheaper than their flagship model that has the same power tubes. Business is business, I get it. I have a lot more to play with this setup, this was all just my first impression with 10-20 minutes of riffing last night haha

Oh absolutely.

The Solo feature seems to be really an alternative master volume, so I wouldn't ignore it. Even if you don't use it as a solo volume boost, it could be useful for setting two different volume levels for whatever reason you can think of.

I dislike the Solo boost on the Mark V 90 because it's always "Output knob position + Solo knob position" which gives you no understanding of the two knobs' relationship. All you know is that Solo is louder but it's hard to figure out by how much without measuring it.

I think it would've been much better as switchable masters like the Mark V:35 so you can set them visually to a different volume level. Like say main master at 10 o'clock, solo master at 12 o'clock.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Ex

You should hear the preamp plugged into a Marshall effects return.

Oh, I have.

I've ran the preamp out of the V:25 while it was loaded down with a Suhr RL, into the return of a Badlander 100w, then played Master of Puppets.

 

[Mikael Dez]

This is my favorite tone I’ve ever gotten, it’s making me eye a Marshall power amp lolll