Dez
Rock Star
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It is a pretty cool tool to use the amp in an fx loop and not use its actual fx loop lol - guitar > modeler or pedals > amp & cabclone > modeler > DAW or monitors or whatever
TGF Official Amp Mesa Boogie Mark series. Join the fun and get one today!
- Thread starter CorrosiveMatter
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I’d never played a real Mk I, and I’m amazed at how much I like that mode in the V. For some reason I always assumed the Mk I was like the clean channel of an early II. I sure got that wrong. Mk I mode is great for everything from cleans to snotty, compressed distortion (and it’s taken up permanent residence in my channel 2.)
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The MKI mode is cool if you're willing to dedicate the GEQ to shaping it. I don't like it without some extra sparkle and bass cut from the GEQ, but it requires such radically different settings that it really compromises the other channels IMO. So I just mess around with it every now and then.
I use Fat on channel 1, Edge/Crunch on channel 2, and MKIV on channel 3.
Yep, I got one of those, and it works for my Recto as well!
newholland
Roadie
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- 879
its been twenty five years since i played a mark i- but when they released the king snake- some of the demos of that thing were fantastic. i was hoping my mark iib would be more akin to it- but while its more modern mesa than that, i still like it... but the midgain sounds of a i are REALLY good.
noting the preamp at 6 and the master at 10 makes it kinda a duh.. and totally unusable.. but it sounds good.
i cant even imagine how brutally loud that was.
noting the preamp at 6 and the master at 10 makes it kinda a duh.. and totally unusable.. but it sounds good.
i cant even imagine how brutally loud that was.
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laxu
Rock Star
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This is how I run it. I use Preset EQ for ch3 and dedicate GEQ to ch2. Putting it on an upward slope type curve works well for all the modes in this channel actually. Mark 1 just needs added bass cut.
I think Mark 1 can work without the GEQ, but it is a weird channel to dial in. Treble needs to be high, bass low, but for lower gain tones it can work without GEQ. It also has unexpected amounts of gain on tap so running the gain lower is a totally valid thing to do. It definitely benefits from the headroom of the 90W mode.
Pretty much the same for me. I do like ch1 Tweed and all the modes of ch3. The Clean setting is the least useful because it's not that much different from Fat, which tends to sound better.
How straightforward is it? I've been meaning to get one but I'm kinda happy with the big ass clunky footswitch that comes with the amp.
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Reasonably so. Connect phone to it via bluetooth. Setup presets on phone. Send the thing program change messages from your controller. The only thing with using the Recto version with my Mark, is the button labels in the UI have different text on them. But easy enough to figure out which is which.
Although I will say, I am mostly tap dancing with my board and the big ass clunky footswitch, at the moment.
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I’ve been dialing in at relatively low volumes, with no other instruments in the room. Just chasing whatever’s most fun to play. (Not necessarily what’s most useful or versatile, ultimately.) I wound up selecting Tweed, Mk I, and Mk IIc+.
The “Preset” EQ has been a happy surprise for me. My Mesa Express has a similar feature: a “Contour” knob that’s supposed to compensate for the absence of a graphic EQ. But Contour is much more subtle and unpredictable. The V’s Preset EQ works exactly as advertised. In fact, in a lot of cases I struggle to get slider settings to sound as good as Mesa’s Preset. So I don’t really mind throwing Preset at channels 1 and 3, and sculpting channel 2 with the sliders - or even throwing the Preset EQ on all three channels for reliably tasteful “hype”.
(All of which may change once I bring in a band, and volumes come up to suit…)
The “Preset” EQ has been a happy surprise for me. My Mesa Express has a similar feature: a “Contour” knob that’s supposed to compensate for the absence of a graphic EQ. But Contour is much more subtle and unpredictable. The V’s Preset EQ works exactly as advertised. In fact, in a lot of cases I struggle to get slider settings to sound as good as Mesa’s Preset. So I don’t really mind throwing Preset at channels 1 and 3, and sculpting channel 2 with the sliders - or even throwing the Preset EQ on all three channels for reliably tasteful “hype”.
(All of which may change once I bring in a band, and volumes come up to suit…)
- Messages
- 7,356
its been twenty five years since i played a mark i- but when they released the king snake- some of the demos of that thing were fantastic. i was hoping my mark iib would be more akin to it- but while its more modern mesa than that, i still like it... but the midgain sounds of a i are REALLY good.
noting the preamp at 6 and the master at 10 makes it kinda a duh.. and totally unusable.. but it sounds good.
I had completely forgotten about this amp (King Snake.)
EOengineer
Rock Star
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- 4,325
What I’d like to know…when is Mesa going to start paying us a commission??
CorrosiveMatter
Roadie
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- 489
I get my payment anally for starting this thread. I would prefer annually but….
László
Roadie
- Messages
- 408
My 2 cents: They're different, one isn't better than the other.
It's more a matter of how you like to mix the ingredients. The V seems to me to lean more into high gain. The VII seems able to do different styles the V doesn't have.
They're each great in their own way; it isn't a matter of one being preferable to the other, they're both terrific. So the choice is more dependent on your style and needs.
The V has cleans based on the Lone Star, and brings the wood on the gainier side with fewer 'crunch' or 'edge of breakup' options. Mine was superb, though I never used Channel 3 because I'm a lower-gain player. That's why I got the Lone Star and sold the V, even though I really dug my V.
It's been quite a while since I had a V, so I don't have as much of a handle on what I loved about that amp - but my overall feeling is it'd be cool to have both!
The VII's Thin mode is a more Black Panel alternative to the standard Mesa clean; the crunch mode is a terrific mid-gain option, and Channel 2 can clone most of Channel 1 so you can set up clean or crunch two different ways. The VII has the added IIB and new Mark VII tones available; I use the IIB mode a lot, and the Mark VII mode can be dialed to be somewhat reminiscent of a Dual Rec to me, though in a way it's also its own thing.
If I was a 'high gain, most of the time' player I might lean more toward the V. It has fewer Crunch choices and it's a very cool amp in its own right. The clean channel is very close to the Lone Star and it also does the Lone Star's Tweed tone (or at least gets pretty close).
The VII is a great choice if you want the spice of a little more variety; for me especially, the IIB mode that can do a lot of things well is a big deal, and I like the Mark VII mode when I want to get somewhere near my old Tremoverb (not exact, of course, but can do that Recto family-ish thing).
For someone who's more of a generalist that needs to access a lot of gain varieties, or wants variations on the same sounds in CH. 1 & 2, the VII's the ticket. But it can also get tremendous amounts of gain.
Take my thoughts with a grain of salt, in that I don't do the clank-clank, very tight high gain thing. But that's my instant reaction to the question.
Being a member of this Forum has made me a true Mesa enthusiast again; it's one reason I added the Mark VII to my Fillmore and Lone Star setup, and I looked into the Split Back cab and have one on order to match my VII head as a result of one of the posts here. So now I'm getting greedy and gas-ing to add A '90s Dual Rec and a Cali Tweed, not because I need them, but because I'm simply liking Mesas that much and I worry about Gibson screwing the pooch at some point. So I want all the Randall Smith designs just to be that guy!
I'm also old enough that most folks would think I'm completely nuts to still be so into amplifiers. I'm up to 5 amps, but down to 3 guitars - just the guitars that give me the different tones I really want to have on hand. There are days I think, "You live once, do what you love and don't worry about it," and days I feel, "How long are you even gonna be around to get your money's worth outta this stuff, crazy man?"
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Thanks for all this. I do spend most of my time on high gain (or what I consider high gain LOL.) So it would seem that the V is the better match, though your points about the VII’s variety and ability to approximate Recto… well, I guess I’ll just have to hear this for myself one day. (Believe it or not, I have never once played through a real Dual Rec or anything in that family.)My 2 cents: They're different, one isn't better than the other.
It's more a matter of how you like to mix the ingredients. The V seems to me to lean more into high gain. The VII seems able to do different styles the V doesn't have.
They're each great in their own way; it isn't a matter of one being preferable to the other, they're both terrific. So the choice is more dependent on your style and needs.
The V has cleans based on the Lone Star, and brings the wood on the gainier side with fewer 'crunch' or 'edge of breakup' options. Mine was superb, though I never used Channel 3 because I'm a lower-gain player. That's why I got the Lone Star and sold the V, even though I really dug my V.
It's been quite a while since I had a V, so I don't have as much of a handle on what I loved about that amp - but my overall feeling is it'd be cool to have both!
The VII's Thin mode is a more Black Panel alternative to the standard Mesa clean; the crunch mode is a terrific mid-gain option, and Channel 2 can clone most of Channel 1 so you can set up clean or crunch two different ways. The VII has the added IIB and new Mark VII tones available; I use the IIB mode a lot, and the Mark VII mode can be dialed to be somewhat reminiscent of a Dual Rec to me, though in a way it's also its own thing.
If I was a 'high gain, most of the time' player I might lean more toward the V. It has fewer Crunch choices and it's a very cool amp in its own right. The clean channel is very close to the Lone Star and it also does the Lone Star's Tweed tone (or at least gets pretty close).
The VII is a great choice if you want the spice of a little more variety; for me especially, the IIB mode that can do a lot of things well is a big deal, and I like the Mark VII mode when I want to get somewhere near my old Tremoverb (not exact, of course, but can do that Recto family-ish thing).
For someone who's more of a generalist that needs to access a lot of gain varieties, or wants variations on the same sounds in CH. 1 & 2, the VII's the ticket. But it can also get tremendous amounts of gain.
Take my thoughts with a grain of salt, in that I don't do the clank-clank, very tight high gain thing. But that's my instant reaction to the question.
Being a member of this Forum has made me a true Mesa enthusiast again; it's one reason I added the Mark VII to my Fillmore and Lone Star setup, and I looked into the Split Back cab and have one on order to match my VII head as a result of one of the posts here. So now I'm getting greedy and gas-ing to add A '90s Dual Rec and a Cali Tweed, not because I need them, but because I'm simply liking Mesas that much and I worry about Gibson screwing the pooch at some point. So I want all the Randall Smith designs just to be that guy!
I'm also old enough that most folks would think I'm completely nuts to still be so into amplifiers. I'm up to 5 amps, but down to 3 guitars - just the guitars that give me the different tones I really want to have on hand. There are days I think, "You live once, do what you love and don't worry about it," and days I feel, "How long are you even gonna be around to get your money's worth outta this stuff, crazy man?"
Funny about Mesa’s Tweed modes - I love the Tweed in the MkV but the mode with the very same name in the TA-30 did nothing for me. If the preamp circuits are even remotely similar, then the V’s Tweed is benefiting greatly from the power section (in all of its various topologies.) I might fire that amp up this afternoon and do a little comparison.
Desertdweller
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,678
On the newer Marks, the JP2C and the VII, there is no output master. Each channel has a master knob that controls the power amp volume. The preamp output volume is pre-set except for the clean modes where the gain knob drives the channel volume a bit as well. With the JP2C and VII you basically control 3 independent amplifiers at once that can all use the same EQ sliders, FX loop, and in the VII, the IRs as well. In the VII even the IRs are MIDI-recallable. The JP2C only has the older resistive load CabClone, which begs the question why Mesa doesn't iterate their amps with updated IR tech like in the VII. We should have a JP2C v2 with the Two Notes board in it by now, same with the Mini Marks, and it would be great to see a recto with it as well.
laxu
Rock Star
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- 8,410
I don't necessarily agree with that.
| Amp | Channel 1 | Channel 2 | Channel 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean / Low gain modes | |||
| V | Clean / Fat / Tweed | Edge / Mark 1 | - |
| VII | Clean / Fat | Fat | IIB |
| Mid / High gain modes | |||
| V | - | Crunch / Mark 1 | IIC / IV / Extreme |
| VII | Crunch | Crunch / VII | IIC / IV |
I think it kinda evens out. I threw in the Mark 1 twice because it truly can be both a good lower gain tone as well as a high gain singing lead. While VII allows two of Fat / Crunch settings, the V has a few unique modes with their own character.
IMO either amp can do great for purely lower gain tones, if you just dial its channels like that. Maybe V's IIC mode becomes your lead overdrive etc.
It just comes down to how you'd prefer working with it. Having multiple identically voiced channels can be really useful, but that doesn't mean you can't get kinda similar tones out of e.g the V's Crunch to the IIC/IV modes if dialed right.
Alright cool so basically loop/master disabled but with the loop still working, neat.
For those that have tried both the V and the VII, and prefer the V, is it mostly because of the available modes/features? Or is it the sound as well?
As far as I've heard, most people say the VII has a way better sound of the IIC and IV, so I'm interested to hear what others think.
As far as I've heard, most people say the VII has a way better sound of the IIC and IV, so I'm interested to hear what others think.
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Quick, boring question (and not sure whether it's more annoying to clutter this thread or start a new one.) I want to make a small cosmetic fix to the piping on my Mk V head. It should look about like this:
But it looks like someone disassembled at some point and rushed the reassembly, resulting in this:
The amp is mint otherwise, so this gets my OCD going.
I'm hoping I can just loosen the faceplate and fold the piping down correctly, and tighten things up again. But I want to do as little disassembly as possible at this time. Can I forego sliding the entire amp head forward, and just loosen the faceplate itself by backing off on this hex screw (and perhaps the others like it?)
Thanks in advance!
The amp is mint otherwise, so this gets my OCD going.
I'm hoping I can just loosen the faceplate and fold the piping down correctly, and tighten things up again. But I want to do as little disassembly as possible at this time. Can I forego sliding the entire amp head forward, and just loosen the faceplate itself by backing off on this hex screw (and perhaps the others like it?)Thanks in advance!
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