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[laxu]

Then a question for Mark V:90 owners. How much gain do you have on channel 2 Edge or Crunch mode?

I've been watching some Mark V videos, and it seems as if mine has quite a bit less gain even with my highest output guitar (Fenix LP custom with Mastertone active pickups). Like Crunch mode with gain maxed on my amp still seems like less gain than I see people getting with gain at about 2-3 o'clock.

I need to find my tube stash and try some preamp tube rolling this weekend.

I would not be surprised to find the amp still has original Mesa branded preamp tubes. Maybe some of those aren't in the best shape, or just plain suck in the first place. It's hard to find concrete info what relabeled tubes Mesa 12AX7s are as they seem to have changed over the years.

 

[EOengineer]

Then a question for Mark V:90 owners. How much gain do you have on channel 2 Edge or Crunch mode?

I've been watching some Mark V videos, and it seems as if mine has quite a bit less gain even with my highest output guitar (Fenix LP custom with Mastertone active pickups). Like Crunch mode with gain maxed on my amp still seems like less gain than I see people getting with gain at about 2-3 o'clock.

I need to find my tube stash and try some preamp tube rolling this weekend.

I would not be surprised to find the amp still has original Mesa branded preamp tubes. Maybe some of those aren't in the best shape, or just plain suck in the first place. It's hard to find concrete info what relabeled tubes Mesa 12AX7s are as they seem to have changed over the years.

Not a V owner, but it’s not uncommon for Mesa owners to swap a 12at7 or 5751 into the preamp - definitely worth taking a look if you’re getting atypical results.

 

[laxu]

Not a V owner, but it’s not uncommon for Mesa owners to swap a 12at7 or 5751 into the preamp - definitely worth taking a look if you’re getting atypical results.

Yeah, with the preamp tubes hard to access even in the combo and covered by tube covers I didn't want to tear it apart yet.

 

[la szum]

That said, the things I'd truly miss if I went from V -> VII would be the variac power, tweed mode and global master volume. I'm glad I got the V just for cost reasons, but also because it's more like tons of amps in one - even if you have to reconfigure a lot of stuff to make that happen.

It's definitely the broadest Mark in terms of tonal variation and feel. I'd throw in the
Rectifier options on the V that the VII doesn't have as essential for me. Bold/Spongy.

The VII is certainly a more condensed and streamlined Mark.

 

[la szum]

Then a question for Mark V:90 owners. How much gain do you have on channel 2 Edge or Crunch mode?

I've been watching some Mark V videos, and it seems as if mine has quite a bit less gain even with my highest output guitar (Fenix LP custom with Mastertone active pickups). Like Crunch mode with gain maxed on my amp still seems like less gain than I see people getting with gain at about 2-3 o'clock.

I need to find my tube stash and try some preamp tube rolling this weekend.

I would not be surprised to find the amp still has original Mesa branded preamp tubes. Maybe some of those aren't in the best shape, or just plain suck in the first place. It's hard to find concrete info what relabeled tubes Mesa 12AX7s are as they seem to have changed over the years.

I'll snap a pic of my settings tomorrow when the light is better.

 

[newholland]

Not a V owner, but it’s not uncommon for Mesa owners to swap a 12at7 or 5751 into the preamp - definitely worth taking a look if you’re getting atypical results.

argh. 12ay or 5751s makes sense, but the idea of a 12at in any tone generator makes me cringe. a pi, maybe... but never ever a gainstage. its like using a chainsaw to drive nails.

 

[EOengineer]

argh. 12ay or 5751s makes sense, but the idea of a 12at in any tone generator makes me cringe. a pi, maybe... but never ever a gainstage. its like using a chainsaw to drive nails.

I don’t like them either but I see it all the time.

 

[Orvillain]

How much gain do you have on channel 2 Edge or Crunch mode?

Oh, loads. Almost as much as what I can get out of channel 3 on Mark IV and Mark II C + channels.

 

[laxu]

Oh, loads. Almost as much as what I can get out of channel 3 on Mark IV and Mark II C + channels.

Yeah I definitely need to check them tubes then. I had the ch2 gain on max and still felt that wasn't excessive on Crunch mode. Ch3 has way more than I'd ever use by comparison.

My guess is the previous owner may have changed some of the tubes to lower gain ones, or maybe there's an issue with the V2 gain stage or something.

I read the boogieforum for a bit and there's this one guy who posted a shitload over the years, and all the more technical, tube swapping or speaker swapping discussions are straight up dominated by him due to the sheer amount of posts. So a lot of that "put this and this tube in this spot" advice came from basically one guy and people either liked it or not. Seems he's moved over to the Mark VII now.

 

[Orvillain]

I read the boogieforum for a bit and there's this one guy who posted a shitload over the years, and all the more technical, tube swapping or speaker swapping discussions are straight up dominated by him due to the sheer amount of posts. So a lot of that "put this and this tube in this spot" advice came from basically one guy and people either liked it or not. Seems he's moved over to the Mark VII now.

Kill him.

 

[la szum]

I read the boogieforum for a bit and there's this one guy who posted a shitload over the years, and all the more technical, tube swapping or speaker swapping discussions are straight up dominated by him due to the sheer amount of posts. So a lot of that "put this and this tube in this spot" advice came from basically one guy and people either liked it or not. Seems he's moved over to the Mark VII now.

 

[la szum]

I swear I didn't even see @Orvillain 's reply until after I posted that GIF.