New Mesa Boogie Mark amp?

[narad]

 

[Grindspine]

The one thing I'm worried about on the 525 is the volume. I see lots of guys saying that it's really hard to keep it at bedroom levels, because the taper goes from nothing to ungodly loud, and that the V90 has a much better MV for bedroom playing.

I was using the 525 at 25 watts for quite a while, dropped it down to 10 watts this weekend and upped the volume and EQ a bit. I was only playing through my EarCandy 2x8 and my Recto 1x12 (Vintage 30) though. With a 4x12, you can definitely move some air with it. Still, drums are loud.

View attachment 122361

Guess that's gonna be a JP2C for me

No red head for the Mark 525?

 

[MatrixClaw]

No red head for the Mark 525?

Alright, you convinced me

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I wouldn't sweat the absence of the Shred Mode on the Mark VII too much. Shred Mode is just a clean boost at the amp's input with a low cut to keep things tight. It's nothing you couldn't 100% replicate with a graphic EQ pedal or something..

But I want it *in* the amp lol. Something I can recall via midi for less clutter and noise.

Having Shred mode on board would have made sense for Mk7 mode especially.

im just so fuckin glad that the 2C+ and IV preamps are not recycled from the MkV. It is very apparent here.

Or maaaaaybe it’s the same preamp, but removing the master output volume and solo boost from the circuit really opened up the sound?

Eitherway, huge improvement over the V90.

It just sounds like there's more everything compared to the V's ch3 modes. More gain, aggression, etc etc. Something definitely did change with this amp. That fat transformer doing some heavy lifting.

 

[Jon Pearson]

The more I listen and play the VII, the more it seems like the most aggressive Mark amp. I really wish I still had a IV to compare against, because I just can't remember getting sounds this punchy and gnarly out of any of my Marks. I'll be very curious once I get my III back to compare. Since it's a blue stripe, it ought to be the most aggressive sounding Mark out there, but so far I'm still thinking this VII has it.

 

[technomancer]

Or maaaaaybe it’s the same preamp, but removing the master output volume and solo boost from the circuit really opened up the sound?

I will literally guarantee you this isn't it.. you're talking about removing a pot so unless they had the worst routing / solder jobs in the history of amps aside from making the volume less controllable it would change nothing. 99% of the "pure signal path" bullshit you read on the internet is just that: bullshit. Especially when you're talking about a PCB amp where there are no wiring variances in the circuit due to hand wiring.

 

[protest]

WTF!? I wouldn't have sent you that pic if I knew you were going to post me on the internet.

 

[Shorts_Mike]

I suspect that the difference between the Mark V and the VII will be negligible on the borrowed modes when compared side by side, regardless of transformer. Maybe the slightest difference in eq for the new modes or power amp response. I'd honestly be shocked if any minor component changes made a noticeable difference.

 

[sakeido]

I suspect that the difference between the Mark V and the VII will be negligible on the borrowed modes when compared side by side, regardless of transformer. Maybe the slightest difference in eq for the new modes or power amp response. I'd honestly be shocked if any minor component changes made a noticeable difference.

a minor change to the Mark V is all it takes to move the tone from "decent" to "excellent"

the V was weird. Always felt stiff and boxy, almost like the mid band on the EQ wasn't centered in the same spot as it was in the other Marks. Moving those mid EQ points just a couple semitones would make a huge difference to the overall sound of the amp

 

[Shorts_Mike]

a minor change to the Mark V is all it takes to move the tone from "decent" to "excellent"

the V was weird. Always felt stiff and boxy, almost like the mid band on the EQ wasn't centered in the same spot as it was in the other Marks. Moving those mid EQ points just a couple semitones would make a huge difference to the overall sound of the amp

You could be right and it is possible, but I'm, personally, highly skeptical. People said the same thing about the Mark V:25/35 when they came out. You would've thought a completely different amp was released. People still say they're significantly different amps. In reality, they're essentially the same amp but the V:25/35 is just a smaller/lower powered EL84 version of it. Using the same settings, they sound pretty much exactly the same with the exception being that the V:90 has slightly more low end response, heft and less/no high end EL84 fizz (as one would expect when comparing 90w 6l6 to 25/35w el84). Theres some really good youtube videos demonstrating exactly this. Same thing with the JP2C. People swear that its tonally a night and day difference when compared to the Mark V. If you sit down with them side by side using the exact same settings, though, its a completely different story and they're even closer if you slightly adjust the EQs for the difference. As any good side-by-side youtube comparison between the two shows, yes, the two iic+ modes will sound slightly different with the same settings (with the V sounding more focused on the upper-mids/treble). Adjust the EQ slightly to account for the difference, though, and they're almost indistinguishable (the JP2C is naturally slightly looser). Go to the V's iv mode and compare it to the JP2C using the same settings and its essentially the same sound (again, the JP2C will be ever so slightly looser but its almost unnoticeable). Then, the same thing happened with the JP2C itself when they changed production transformers. People made a big deal about how much it would change the tone of the amp. Nope. Sounds pretty much exactly the same. Now the same thing with the VII. The reality is that all of these modern Marks share a tonne of similarities with one another and minor component changes just, generally, don't equate to much of a tonal difference (especially when you're directly borrowing modes). What ends up being more important than anything else, really, is the feature sets more than anything (whether you want/need the availability of cabclone, headphone out, master volume, more/less channels, multiple 5-band eqs, boosted modes, smaller/lighter housings, etc). Thats what I see/hear here. I'm open to changing my opinion if proven wrong, though, and am more than willing to give this thing a chance in person if somewhere nearby gets stock anytime soon.

 

[GreatGreen]

You could be right and it is possible, but I'm, personally, highly skeptical. People said the same thing about the Mark V:25/35 when they came out. You would've thought a completely different amp was released. People still say they're significantly different amps. In reality, they're essentially the same amp but the V:25/35 is just a smaller/lower powered EL84 version of it. Using the same settings, they sound pretty much exactly the same with the exception being that the V:90 has slightly more low end response, heft and less/no high end EL84 fizz (as one would expect when comparing 90w 6l6 to 25/35w el84). Theres some really good youtube videos demonstrating exactly this. Same thing with the JP2C. People swear that its tonally a night and day difference when compared to the Mark V. If you sit down with them side by side using the exact same settings, though, its a completely different story and they're even closer if you slightly adjust the EQs for the difference. As any good side-by-side youtube comparison between the two shows, yes, the two iic+ modes will sound slightly different with the same settings (with the V sounding more focused on the upper-mids/treble). Adjust the EQ slightly to account for the difference, though, and they're almost indistinguishable (the JP2C is naturally slightly looser). Go to the V's iv mode and compare it to the JP2C using the same settings and its essentially the same sound (again, the JP2C will be ever so slightly looser but its almost unnoticeable). Then, the same thing happened with the JP2C itself when they changed production transformers. People made a big deal about how much it would change the tone of the amp. Nope. Sounds pretty much exactly the same. Now the same thing with the VII. The reality is that all of these modern Marks share a tonne of similarities with one another and minor component changes just, generally, don't equate to much of a tonal difference (especially when you're directly borrowing modes). What ends up being more important than anything else, really, is the feature sets more than anything (whether you want/need the availability of cabclone, headphone out, master volume, more/less channels, multiple 5-band eqs, boosted modes, smaller/lighter housings, etc). Thats what I see/hear here. I'm open to changing my opinion if proven wrong, though, and am more than willing to give this thing a chance in person if somewhere nearby gets stock anytime soon.

On one hand, yes I'd agree that most Mark amps are mostly extremely similar sounding per mode. I have a Mark IV, Mark V:25, and a Triaxis. I love the Mark sound and will be the first to admit how similar they all are.

However, at the same time, with the Mark VII, we're talking about people willing to spend north of $3500 on a tube amp. Those subtle differences, however small, are extremely important to this kind of musician. In these kinds of cases, one man's "eh it's so slight that it really doesn't matter" is another man's "this one is absolutely more suited to what I want for X reason so that's where I'm going to spend my money over anything else on the market."

 

[ExMachina]

On one hand, yes I'd agree that most Mark amps are mostly extremely similar sounding per mode. I have a Mark IV, Mark V:25, and a Triaxis. I love the Mark sound and will be the first to admit how similar they all are.

However, at the same time, with the Mark VII, we're talking about people willing to spend north of $3500 on a tube amp. Those subtle differences, however small, are extremely important to this kind of musician. In these kinds of cases, one man's "eh it's so slight that it really doesn't matter" is another man's "this one is absolutely more suited to what I want for X reason so that's where I'm going to spend my money over anything else on the market."

By musician do you mean middle aged guy who plays his les paul in his man cave 2 hours a week?

 

[Shorts_Mike]

By musician do you mean middle aged guy who plays his les paul in his man cave 2 hours a week?

This hits too close to home haha

 

[technomancer]

By musician do you mean middle aged guy who plays his les paul in his man cave 2 hours a week?

I resemble that remark

That said it's way more fun than when I was a much more "serious musician" gigging and hoping my shitty job paid the rent while trying to see which A&R reps were in town and trying to get them to a show

 

[GreatGreen]

By musician do you mean middle aged guy who plays his les paul in his man cave 2 hours a week?

lol

Quite a few of them sure, but there are also more serious pro guys who take their sound seriously too.

 

[Jon Pearson]

By musician do you mean middle aged guy who plays his les paul in his man cave 2 hours a week?

Hey! It's an RG....

 

[PuckishGuitar]

I resemble that remark

That said it's way more fun than when I was a much more "serious musician" gigging and hoping my shitty job paid the rent while trying to see which A&R reps were in town and trying to get them to a show

Back when I was playing out I was too concerned with just making sure the show went smooth, everything worked, and I didn’t fuck up too much while playing, to worry about muh tonez. Now that I sit and play for *3* hours a week tyvm, I can browse forums and cork-sniff amps for those notes of blackberry and oak. Tone chasing is basically a luxury past time for me now; I fear what retirement will do to me when I don’t even have the day job to worry about

Anyway, I’m finding myself more and more drawn to the Mark series and feeling like it’d work for me, although I’ll probably look at snagging a used V:25/35 as people offload them to fund their VII purchases.

 

[Xaios]

Who needs shred mode when you can have extreme mode?

Nuno Bettencourt in a can? I'll take it!

 

[ramses]

By musician do you mean middle aged guy who plays his les paul in his man cave 2 hours a week?

Dude, WTF is wrong with you? There is no need to be disrespectful.

It is: ONE HOUR A DAY!

 

[odibrom]

Dude, WTF is wrong with you? There is no need to be disrespectful.

It is: ONE HOUR A DAY!

... you mean one hour per month?