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As have many others, I've been on a search for the Grail. The trip has taken me to Fender, Soldano, VHT, Matchless, Two Rock, Bogner, and many more that don't come to mind. While all of the above mentioned have a good sound, a quality build, and a worthy trademark, they eventually became a one or two trick pony at best. Although I was reticent about acquiring the Mark V, and having read the many reports about the difficulty of obtaining "the sound" one was seeking, I have to report to the contrary. Yes, the amp is more than a plug and play. You need to spend a little time with it. But since you are crafting your own palette of colors from the beast, you might as well have fun doing it. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have NINE different and varied tonal flavors at your disposal. It's got a cranked up Tweed sound. It's got Santana's original Mark I sound. It's got shimmering Fender cleans. Also you get pummeling heavy grind, chunk and soaring Dream Theatre leads. Once you get the feel of where to tweak, it's quite easy-even live. There's a powerful and useable multi floor pedal, runs tube or solid state rectification, run 10 to 90 watt output, separate reverb for each of the 3 main channels, EQ on each channel-PLUS Fader EQ to shape the overall tone on the fly. It's self-biasing if you want to run EL34 tubes instead of the 6L6's, there's a quiet fan that you can turn off if desired. The entire cabinet is small to medium sized and the weight is manageable. The only - the ONLY thing I would change is to make the control knobs on the top row a little farther from the top edge of the cabinet so I could get my oversized fingers in there a little easier......but I quibble All in all, you couldn't and wouldn't do wrong getting one of these heads-they are phenomenal! Also they have these beautiful wood cabinets available. Mine is the stock black boring one-but if I paid an extra $1000 for one of those nice ones, I probably wouldn't be taking it to gigs-I'd be protecting it in the home studio-but what good would that be? A waste of 100 watts for sure!Read full review
All 3 channels have quite a bit of versatility built in. Great chimey clean channel with lots of headroom. Channel 1 has a good crunch and a nice creamy mark 1 mode. Channel 3 tries to reproduce the 2c+ but its a bit underwhelming. The Mark iv modes shines for great rhythm and lead but the Extreme mode is definately the hardest hitting. Great versatility and plenty of power modes make it a great practice amp as well as a stage amp. Graphic eq is essential for shaping your tone but would be nice to have one more like the JP2C.
Verified purchase: No
If you are into Mesa amps (as I am) you will likely enjoy this one. It seems very versatile tonally but is known for its metal sounds. However, I would say I prefer my Road King Rectifier series. The Mark V does give you some good tone combinations though but be ready to spend some time getting it dialed in. I also find benefit from putting an overdrive in front to saturate the distortion a bit more and help fine tune the EQ. It's a great amp for a fair price. Just be aware it may befuddle you a bit out of the box. I would recommend this amp for studio musicians more than I would for live situations.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I purchased this Mark V amp twice and the first time, I did not know the amp and could not get good sound that time. However, now I got more information on this amp, I did use correct voltage and I could get right sound from the amp. As you may know this amp has lots of tones so very versatile amp and it has selection of output, 10w, 45w and 90w so I can enjoy it in home and concert stage. Otherwise, this kind of amp has not so good clean tone like marshall plexi or fender amp, however, this amp's clean tone is not so bad, just reasonable. One more stuff is it has too many knobs so user has to study all knobs how it related each other and needs to find out sweet point. In addition, one of the very bad thing is its weight. Too heavy for gig!! :) Whatever, like this amp is all in one and can be used from jazz to heavymetal.Read full review
I bought this head to complement my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL head (which is also great BTW). It's built like a tank. Every knob and switch feels good with great mechanical feedback. The tubes are well protected by the cool looking removable grill. Sound-wise this amp is fantastic to get lots of sounds. I love the clean channel, it's very snappy and shimmery. It's a lot more neutral compared to the Marshall clean. On the crunch side you can get great rhythm or chunky sounds. Channel 2 is also great for soloing! It's a superb amp for very tight rhythms. The bass is not muddy at all. For lead sounds, well, you'll be incredibly please. Sustain is amazing as are dynamics and articulation. Note runs are very defined, not blurry at all. All in all a very versatile and top of the line amplifier. Not cheap but totally worth it!Read full review
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