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Guitarbilly's review of the Mesa Mark V
I think this deserves it's own thread. This is guitarbilly74s review of the Mesa Mark V.
Sorry guys, I had to stop to take care of the kid.. but here we go:
So I had the chance to play the Mark V today. I could not take any pics of it but it is indeed the amp on top of John Petrucci’s rack. If you have ADD and don’t want to read the whole thing, let me just say this is the best new Mesa amp I’ve played in many years.
I’m a huge Mesa fan and I have owned a bunch of them, Nomad, Recto, F50, Studio Pre, Studio Caliber, Mark IIB, Mark IVb etc… I currently still own a DC10 and a Mark III, which has been my main amp for a few years. So I think I’m qualified enough to make comparisons.
The amp layout is very much like a Nomad head, you have the gain, eq, channel volume and presence for each channel and there are also 3 reverb knobs in the back. Each channel also has a 90/45/10w option and voicing switches. Then you have the GEQ and 3 contour knobs. You can either assign the contour or the graphic EQ to each invidual channel.
In the back there are option to use either tube or solid state rectifiers, but that varies according to the power setting.. The 90w option only uses the SS rectifier, the 45w option can use either one, and the 10w option uses the tube rectifier only. I did not play with the rectifier options so I will not comment on how they sound.
All this stuff sounds very complicated, but in fact, this is one of the easiest Mesas to dial in, I was able to get great tones almost right away on all 3 channels. I’m sure you can spend hours fine tuning it, but if you want to use this amp in a plug and play fashion, you could, the controls, while still very interactive, are not so hard to dial in as other Mesa amps. The front panel layout helps a lot in that regard, I’m happy that they chose to use the Nomad-style layout, since that’s pretty much the only good thing about the Nomad series.
Now let’s go the interesting part, the tones:
Channel one is the clean channel and it has 2 modes, the first mode is a very clean and pristine tone, very much like my DC10. In this mode the tone remains clean pretty much on all but the most extreme gain/volume setting and the amp sounds tight and precise, great for jazz runs or funk rhythms. Mode 2 is more of a LoneStar type of clean. Right away you feel the low end getting saggier and an increase on the mids. This mode goes into a wonderful crunchy tone in the higher gain settings. Think Andy Timmons’ “Electric Gypsy”. This channel is very different from my Mark III clean tones, again more like a DC or a LoneStar.
Channel 2 is the crunch channel and that’s where you finally realize you’re playing a Mark series amp. The classic Mark voicing is there, but the tone is much thicker, this amp has a huge amount of low end, not flubbly low end like a Recto, again it’s a Mark series, the amp remains tight and focused even on high settings. There is a 3-voicing voicing switch for this channel I forgot what the modes are called but basically the amp gets bigger and more aggressive from modes 1-3. This channel has more than enough gain and low end for metal and the low gain settings give you a nice crunch, especially when using the first (softer) mode.
Chaneel 3 is the one with most gain and the 3-way voicing here are labeled “Mark IIC+/Mark IV/Extreme. The first 2 are kind of self explanatory but the Extreme mode is really where it’s at. The best way to describe it is the Mark IIC+ core tone but with more bass, highs, mids, gain, etc…. Like a “supercharged” Mark IIC+. The amount of gain on this mode is simply ridiculous; I did not have to go past 12 o’clock on the gain to get a extremely aggressive metal tone, even at moderate volumes you can feel the low-end thump on the speakers. The lead tone has all the fluidity and incredible sustain that the Mark series is famous for and it’s so easy to shred on this amp. This mode also has an incredible fast response to your pick attack, you feel the amp responding to your playing almost immediately. I was playing at a low volume so it’s hard to tell but the amp showed no indication of getting muddy or flubby.
That’s the coolest thing about this amp, yeah it has a bunch of features and innovations, but it still is very much a Mesa Mark. The Mark core tone is there in spades. If you love the Mark III like I do, but need something more versatile, this is it. Compared to the Mark IV, I’d say this amp is miles ahead in terms of tone AND versatility. I also think it took the Mark tone to the next level, especially when it comes to more aggressive and modern tones.
I will be definitely buying one soon, to me it will be a free amp because I will sell my Mark III and my DC-10 to cover it’s cost. I ‘m confident that this amp is good enough to replace both amps. Easily.
As far as when it’s going to be released, they told me probably right after NAMM, price is around 2k.Again I could not take pics or clips and in fact was asked not even to post anywhere about it. But I don’t see why not, since this is a highly positive review so hey…
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2202037
