New Mesa Boogie Mark amp?

[DarkstarII]

Really? Maybe I'm thinking the combo 25 - that came much later.

Yeah, like Deadpool says; the combo : 25 came out just in the last year. I think the bigger :35 was due to complaints the :25 couldn’t keep up in a band setting, not quite enough grunt.

 

[Jon Pearson]

Well I received mine in the mail, just hooked it up for about 30 minutes to have a quick play before going back to work.

My impression so far:

Channel 3 is gold. All 3 modes sound fantastic, it's been a while since I've been in the room with a IV or a II of any variety, but regardless of how close they sound to those amps, these modes sound really excellent. Clean channel set to fat mode is really nice, will need to play that with my Strat later.

Mark VII mode - this one is going to be divisive. First off, the usual Mark settings of pulling out all the bass on the front end and pushing treble up is NOT going to yield good results. I did that and more or less got a Voxish kind of overdrive sound, cool but not crushing. I dialed everything to noon and started working from there - with bass at noon, mids pulled back a bit, treble around 1PM, presence around noon, it was starting to shape up. I activated the graphic with a soft V, not the usual deep V, and that was getting me what I wanted. Definitely more thumpy, chunky rhythm types of sounds than the usual Mark high gain. I used my Guptech Grindr boost and that really got it going.


All this was at a pretty mild volume, wife and baby were getting ready for a nap, but so far it's a good sounding amp. I think I'll need more volume for everything to really come alive, but so far they got channel 3 RIGHT, and I think after reading the manual and dialing VII mode in some more, that's going to be a really fat rhythm sound.

 

[tayistay]

Mark VII mode - this one is going to be divisive. First off, the usual Mark settings of pulling out all the bass on the front end and pushing treble up is NOT going to yield good results. I did that and more or less got a Voxish kind of overdrive sound, cool but not crushing. I dialed everything to noon and started working from there - with bass at noon, mids pulled back a bit, treble around 1PM, presence around noon, it was starting to shape up. I activated the graphic with a soft V, not the usual deep V, and that was getting me what I wanted. Definitely more thumpy, chunky rhythm types of sounds than the usual Mark high gain. I used my Guptech Grindr boost and that really got it going.

Ok, so if you have to use a soft V on the GEQ to get a good crushing tone on the VII mode, then you're stuck with crazy mids on channel 3. Doesn't seem good.

 

[Jon Pearson]

Ok, so if you have to use a soft V on the GEQ to get a good crushing tone on the VII mode, then you're stuck with crazy mids on channel 3. Doesn't seem good.

Yeah, I need to find a way to get around that. I did actually find that I was pushing mids higher on channel 3 than I normally do, so I'm hoping there is a compromise.

 

[Grindspine]

I will say that all of this discussion on Mark modes made me revisit my 525's Crunch mode. I had previously left it on Fat as my preferred clean sound as it is similar to the Fat clean (rhythm green) on the Triaxis. The Crunch sounds really open and dynamic, nice and raw with the gain and mids pushed just past noon. I am really liking that sound and see why people like it so much now. It fits really well with the Xtreme mode on that amp too. The only downside is that you have to give up any clean sounds to utilize crunch properly.

So with the eight modes on the Triaxis, four of which are duplicated on the Mark 525, adding Crunch and Xtreme gives me a nice, even ten Mesa sounds, including the fat Recto sound on the specific version of the Triaxis I have.

I doubt I'll turn down grabbing a Mark V 90 watt head in the future if I get a chance, but Tweed and Edge are the only modes I am missing from that. The IIB sounds I have heard from the VII have not impressed me so far. That just leaves the Mark VII mode--Jury is still out on that one.

 

[tayistay]

clean sounds

What are "clean sounds"?

 

[tayistay]

Yeah, I need to find a way to get around that. I did actually find that I was pushing mids higher on channel 3 than I normally do, so I'm hoping there is a compromise.

You could use some MIDI controlled EQ in the loop (I'd use my HX Stomp I guess). Not exactly satisfying though.

 

[SalsaWood]

I have pretty much made up my mind that IDGAF about Mk7 mode. Maybe it's an IRL only type of thing, but I'm just not digging how it sounds so pumped full of air in these clips.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

What are "clean sounds"?

exactly. onlybrootz

 

[MetalDestroyer]

@tayistay show me on the doll where the amp you’ve never played hurt you

 

[Shorts_Mike]

@tayistay show me on the doll where the amp you’ve never played hurt you

Meowwwwww!

 

[Deadpool_25]

Well I received mine in the mail, just hooked it up for about 30 minutes to have a quick play before going back to work.

My impression so far:

Channel 3 is gold. All 3 modes sound fantastic, it's been a while since I've been in the room with a IV or a II of any variety....

Blah, blah. STFU and tell me about the fucking Crunch mode, bish!

 

[Jon Pearson]

Blah, blah. STFU and tell me about the fucking Crunch mode, bish!

Honestly didn't mess with it too much yet, for sure more tomorrow though!

 

[c7spheres]

Yeah, I need to find a way to get around that. I did actually find that I was pushing mids higher on channel 3 than I normally do, so I'm hoping there is a compromise.

I ran into this on my old Formula Pre. Try lowering all the eq bands in a specific way. It's not really the boost of the eq but the difference's of the cut bands. Pre/post doesn't matter much in practice it seems in this case because it essentially equals out though it is different it's not some big thing for this setup.
- For example, If you take what's normally your highest Db level band like the treble band on the 5 band, for example, and make it 0db, and then adjust from there what happens is basiclaly the same thing you want but less noise. The difference is made up by increasing the master per channel, then the mid becomes more usable in the higher range and touchy too, at least on the Formula. This way, less noise from the 5 band and more thump from the power section, but what suffers is the cranked volume, which really doesn't matter because it still should be plenty loud too, but if it's too loud just bring the masters per channel down and it'll still be good anyways. If it were a Mark V 90 I'd say from there to adjust the master. In theory it should translate to these amps too. One other thing is this will affect what goes out the fx loop so anything in there needs to be adjusted and may not translate well depending on the gear but normally should readjust fine. Maybe try this and it'll clean it up and focus it in a bit.

 

[GreatGreen]

The impression I get from these videos is, despite the claim in the manual that VII mode doesn't need the GEQ (freeing it up for channel 3), you do need the GEQ for a heavy sound.

I've read through the manual and I think Mesa really needs to cut the shit with the "mysterious" marketing talk and give us specifics about the circuit.

Like, specifically, in the Mark VII mode, where is the damn tonestack located? At the beginning like a standard Mark or at the end like in a Recto? None of this bullshit "oooOOOooo it's a spooky melding of Mark and Recto that"... no. Stop it. Just goddamn tell us. If it's at the end, tell us about the low end filtering at the input. Is there none of it, like in the Recto? A lot? Somewhere in the middle?

 

[MASS DEFECT]

I've read through the manual and I think Mesa really needs to cut the shit with the "mysterious" marketing talk and give us specifics about the circuit.

Like, specifically, in the Mark VII mode, where is the damn tonestack located? At the beginning like a standard Mark or at the end like in a Recto? None of this bullshit "oooOOOooo it's a spooky melding of Mark and Recto that"... no. Stop it. Just goddamn tell us. If it's at the end, tell us about the low end filtering at the input. Is there none of it, like in the Recto? A lot? Somewhere int he middle?

in reality, it is just a recycled Dual Caliber pre amp. Hahaha

 

[Deadpool_25]

Honestly didn't mess with it too much yet, for sure more tomorrow though!

On second thought, maybe I don't wanna know. /unsub

 

[Kyle Jordan]

in reality, it is just a recycled Dual Caliber pre amp. Hahaha

From the clips, I was thinking DC, FC, and Formula pre.

I forget which mode, but one of the clips really hit some Heartbreaker grit tones too.

I may be a bit lukewarm on what I’ve heard, but it does seem like Randall Smith may have made this his swan song. It covers a lot of Mesa history.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

From the clips, I was thinking DC, FC, and Formula pre.

I forget which mode, but one of the clips really hit some Heartbreaker grit tones too.

I may be a bit lukewarm on what I’ve heard, but it does seem like Randall Smith may have made this his swan song. It covers a lot of Mesa history.

I actually quite like it. I watched the Tonewars MkVII demo and I see how I can dial it in to work for me. Sounds like it can do some Cannibal Corpse tone with some eq.

Raw, the VII mode actually reminds me of the first high gain mode in the MI Megalith Beta without the tight switches engaged.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

in reality, it is just a recycled Dual Caliber pre amp. Hahaha

Glad I'm not the only one that thought that lol. When read more about it, combining Mark and Recto as well as having a different tone stack than the rest of the modes... Yeah, they just went back to the Caliber/Studio/F-series. Probably why I'm not too fond of it for rhythm sounds because I never got that amp. I don't really want an in-between. I want either uber tight and dry (mark) or saturated and huge (Recto), not a compromise.

Like I said, though... sounds like it's capable of great leads tones.