NAD: MESA/Boogie Mark V

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Well, it was really Saturday when I got her. I wasn't really intending to buy an amp, just try some out... Didn't even think for a minute they'd have a Mark V Combo at my local GC, but damned if they didn't, and damned if I could stop myself from bringing it home.

I have wanted a Mark-series Boogie for about... 20 years or so. I've been looking at the Mark V, reading lots of reviews, watching the few shitty videos available, watched some people buy the amp and flip it days later, so I decided to roll the dice and see what happens.

Here's my mini-review...

Channel 1: Sounds good so far. It's clean, or mildly distorted. I lost interest in this pretty quickly. Basically I dialed in a nice clean tone and moved on.

Channel 2: I'm struggling with this one. Not getting a good tone, but getting a really good REALLY HEAVY tone. I'm not sure it's in there, but I'm still trying.

I never cared much for the Mark I tone as a "core" sound I'd use, but I can get some fun 70's Aerosmith-ish tones out of the Mark I mode. So far I just flat-out don't like Edge mode, it's less of what Crunch Mode is, but again, I have not given up on it, as the tone knobs actually work on a MESA/Boogie.

But Crunch mode flat out rocks, it's not exactly a Marshall tone but it's in the ball park. Great rock and metal rhythm tones. Not Master of Puppets metal rhythm tones, more like 80's metal. Especially cranked up a bit, it would do very well for less "extreme" metal type tones.

Channel 3: Holy shit.

Channel 3 is insane. This is the MESA/Boogie tone I have always wanted, and then some.

There is a lot of bullshit and controversy over the "labeling" of the modes as Mark IV and Mark IIC and people whining about how they don't sound like the originals.

While I do personally agree this might have been a bad decision on MESA/Boogie's part, I admit I have never heard a IIC or Mark IV in real life that I know of (though I've obviously heard them on recordings) and I personally do not care at all if this amp accurately reproduces the exact tone that Joe Corksniffer gets on his vintage Mark IIC+.

What I care about is, it has 3 modes on Channel 3, and does it sound good. And what I do know, is that it sounds GOOD. Both the Mark IIC and Mark IV modes make some good sounds. And, the Extreme mode will satisfy all but the drop-tuningest of 6-string bass players. I could still hear the pick slapping the strings and I had gobs of tight floor-shaking bass.

I'm still getting it dialed in. It's very versatile, which is nice, but the important thing is if I can get "my sound" out of it, and I'm 99% there on Channel 3 and mostly there on Channel 2. Of course I've got 30 days to take it back... I don't think it's going back though.

I'm having so much fun playing through an amp instead of headphones, and this amp really sings, has loads of sustain, even at "bedroom" volumes.

[toxikdeth]

good to know I agree that there are no good youtube clips

[Spivonious]

I'm having so much fun playing through an amp instead of headphones, and this amp really sings, has loads of sustain, even at "bedroom" volumes.

Can you even believe you were considering a modeling amp a few days ago?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Yeah... I still kind of wonder if I went the wrong direction there.

I mean, I definitely think the Axe-FX makes some great tones, but by the time I got a power amp and cabinets or FRFR it would have cost a lot more, and a rack + speakers or cabs isn't really any more luggable than a 75 lb. combo. Then there's just the whole thing of how I always wanted a nice Boogie amp...

Plus, I'm not one to use a lot of different tones. I have a good idea of what "my sound" is and I pretty much stick to that.

The only possible caveat to this setup for me, is recording, and I think I can work that out with a direct box... I have an old Hughes & Kettner Red Box Mark II Cabinetulator G (that's a mouthfull...) I used to use with my Marshall Studio 15 years ago. That sounded good aside from what I'd call a not-so-great tone from the amp itself. I am pretty sure it still works, so I'll see how that works recording-wise.

[atdguitars]

A customer of mine just got his Mark V head a couple weeks ago and absolutely loves it. He brought it by the shop to demo it and I was really impressed it does so much so well.
Congrats on your new Mark V.

[jk2171]

Congrats and good review. Thanks for the info!

[Bert]

Congrats! I'm still waiting for my damn Splawn Competition head, which I ordered 4 months ago now, and extremely jealous!

[toxikdeth]

Congrats! I'm still waiting for my damn Splawn Competition head, which I ordered 4 months ago now, and extremely jealous!

That's wired splawns are supposed to take 10 weeks 15 max. That sucks the wait must be killing you

[Bert]

That's wired splawns are supposed to take 10 weeks 15 max. That sucks the wait must be killing you

Really? Where did you hear that? They don't seem very forthcoming with me when I ask when it might be ready, so I gathered they are pretty backlogged ....

but yeah, the wait *is* killing me.

[lefty]

Really? Where did you hear that? They don't seem very forthcoming with me when I ask when it might be ready, so I gathered they are pretty backlogged ....

but yeah, the wait *is* killing me.

Did you order direct from Splawn? The typical wait for a factory order is
supposed to be 12 weeks. I ordered from an authorized dealer, and was
quoted a wait of about 2 months, and got it in 6 weeks! Sorry to hear
you're having a long wait. But if your Competition is anything like mine,
you'll forget the wait the day you plug into it. Yours has the FX volume
control, I take it?

[Rupe]

Very cool, glad you found something that you like. Most of the Mark V "haters" are basing their opinion off of the IIC+ mode. Once you get past the fact that the modes don't really sound like their namesakes, you can begin to enjoy the amp for what it is...a cool, flexible, 3 channel tube amp with its own voice. I dug the one that my buddy has in his store (1x12 combo).

[Grandturk]

Welcome to the family...



Nice review - short and to the point. Did you take a day off from work to play it all day? I'm considering doing that tomorrow...

[Bert]

Did you order direct from Splawn? The typical wait for a factory order is
supposed to be 12 weeks. I ordered from an authorized dealer, and was
quoted a wait of about 2 months, and got it in 6 weeks! Sorry to hear
you're having a long wait. But if your Competition is anything like mine,
you'll forget the wait the day you plug into it. Yours has the FX volume
control, I take it?

Yeah I ordered mine direct. Wonder if that was a bad idea. I don't remember anything about a FX volume control! Mine hsa custom tolex & ordered with the KT88s. I'll have to give them a call and ask what's up again....

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Welcome to the family...



Nice review - short and to the point. Did you take a day off from work to play it all day? I'm considering doing that tomorrow...

Well I did not see much need to go into the features since MESA has the manual online & you can clearly see all of the switches and knobs.

I didn't take the day off... Hell, I haven't even gotten the speaker properly broken in yet! I have actually only gotten about 2 - 3 hours of "play time" with it so far, and only at "reasonable" (i.e. no cops on the way, wife is home) volumes. I experimented with the variable power settings and the different modes and dialed in Channel 3 how I liked it and that's about it!

I'm still discovering things...

For example, there's something they don't really discuss in the manual at least that I saw, which I found out from another forum; when you have the "loop" active (not hard bypassed) you have a Master for each channel, an overall "Output" and the "solo" boost feature. The manual states you set the Master to balance the channels and hints that you can set the Gain and Master as you like to "get different sounds" but they don't really say what those sounds are.

Now what is interesting there is that, it turns out when you have the amp set up this way, the "Master" for each channel is another gain stage. I read about this yesterday and decided to try it out last night... WOW, that really made all the difference on Channel 2.

I mean, I really LIKE the tone of the amp on the Crunch mode of Channel 2. Generally I like lots of distortion, and I was able to get plenty gain out of Channel 3 before, but Channel 2 was more like "very heavy crunch" with the gain maxed and, though I was loving the tone it just left me wishing for "a little bit more" so I could get that 80's thrash tone.

So experimenting with this new info, I put Channel 2 in Crunch mode, maxed out the gain and the master, set the tone and presence controls to 12:00 and bypassed the EQ, and adjusted the volume with the Output control to get a "reasonable" bedroom volume.

What do you know... It was actually TOO MUCH distortion for me. I backed it off just a little and played with the tone knobs/EQ a bit and there it was... It sounded heavy as hell; a great late 80's "thrash" kind of tone.

I played with Mark I Thick voicing this way a little too (dropped the bass to 0) and it too sounds heavy as hell, like early Sabbath kind of tones.

Though I play a lot of different kind of music, generally I like metal of about any kind and those are the kind of sounds I wanted. I respect musicians who play Jazz and Blues and Country and who knows what else, it's all good, and you can get those sounds out of this amp, but you can get them out of a lot of other amps, too.

But given the Youtube videos I'd seen, people playing single-coil Strats through it, raving about the clean tone, hell even the ones of people supposedly playing "metal" I wasn't really hearing that classic heavy Boogie tone and I wasn't too sure about this amp, even Channel 3, until I heard it myself and dialed it in!

[Grandturk]

I played with Mark I Thick voicing this way a little too (dropped the bass to 0) and it too sounds heavy as hell, like early Sabbath kind of tones.

But given the Youtube videos I'd seen, people playing single-coil Strats through it, raving about the clean tone, hell even the ones of people supposedly playing "metal" I wasn't really hearing that classic heavy Boogie tone and I wasn't too sure about this amp, even Channel 3, until I heard it myself and dialed it in!

Not having played it myself, I imagine the "thick" switch to be much like the Gain Boost on my MK II - basically, it opens up the bass and middle tone controls and lets all that signal go through to the preamp. The result is a louder, thicker signal, and "Instant Santana" sound. Which, to me, with humbuckers sounds like flubby shit, but it actually makes a decent lead sound for single coils.

What I like most about Boogies is that they have a shitload of sounds in them. With other amps (in my experience, Marshalls) have is a single sound, and its just a question of how much of that sound you want. Neither is better or worse - its just what you want. I'd love to get that Mk 5 - but part of me says "too many options." The other part says "you'll never have to buy another amp no matter what phase you're in."

Anyway - hope you dig it and keep it! T-minus 5 hours until I get my Adrian Smith.