Working with a Mesa MkV. Rambly thread of tweaking a bullshit (albeit great) amp

[Daevasmodeus]

I think you should consider that the problem here is you don’t have the Mark IV. No amount of tweaking can alter the miniscule transformers and lack of gain staging in the V.

 

[Drew]

I've never found Mesas that hard to dial in, but then again I've played them for 20 years, so I'm just used to them.

I'm going after a VERY different sound than you though so I'm probably not much help here.

 

[H13]

I think you should consider that the problem here is you don’t have the Mark IV. No amount of tweaking can alter the miniscule transformers and lack of gain staging in the V.

Possibly

But I also refuse to jump on the "buying every version of every Mark amp" roundabout. I'm in Australia and these amps are hideously expensive over here. I like the 5, I'm running it in MkIV mode and I'm gonna stick with it

I've never found Mesas that hard to dial in, but then again I've played them for 20 years, so I'm just used to them.

I'm going after a VERY different sound than you though so I'm probably not much help here.

Hey! Any feedback is welcome!

I don't have a specific "thing" that I'm going for. Basically I tweak, hear how it sounds and think: "COOL, how could it be betterer?" So in the first clip as I said, it was a bit ice-picky and a bit dead in the mids.

Now with the 808, it's a bit sloppy and a bit too much gain.

But at the same time, if there's an overall "issue" that you are hearing with the recordings that I'm not noticing, I would definitely accept the idea that I'm developing tunnel vision and focusing on trees rather than seeing the whole forest.

When I had the Axe-FX, I would sometimes end up creating a tone that had ONE REALLY COOL THING about it, because I would hyperfocus on "fixing" a thing. But in the process of fixing that thing, I had ended up creating an absolutely hideous guitar sound that had precisely one redeeming feature about it

 

[Marked Man]

 

[H13]

Dude, we only up to page 2.

I'm expecting more pages.

I am only a little bit sorry.

 

[Crungy]

I don't have a Mesa of any kind, never dialed one in (aside from Rectos on an AxeFx) and may never own one but I'm here for the posts @H13, I'm L'ing my fucking A off.

Also, if you meant jokes that were shitting on trump I'm all for that

 

[Jon Pearson]

The room mic clip sounds pretty damn good man

 

[H13]

The room mic clip sounds pretty damn good man

I'm PRETTY HAPPY with it.

As I said, I think that the 808 is a bit strong, and I wish I could dial back the mid hump a bit. Also there's a BIT too much gain on some of it, so balancing the gain will be tricky.

WE GETTIN THERE.

I think.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Mids sound haunting to me. I can almost visualize the crystal lattices. Thick bounce. Nice chew.

 

[H13]

Mids sound haunting to me. I can almost visualize the crystal lattices. Thick bounce. Nice chew.

It's like it's simultaneously Dumble-ish, while also being like...Marshally, while also...like...Fender? But it's a Mesa so it's still got that Mesa sorta quality. There's HEAPS of mids but it's scoopy and not fizzy and SUPER articulate. It's not compressed and it's super Plexi but also kinda Blackface-ish?

(The fun part: Figure out how serious I am with the above statement )

I think I need to bring out the crystal lattice more though in order to make the Grumbo a different shape. If I adjust the Chumble, that might make the Dingle Bop.

 

[H13]

TONIGHT'S FUCKERY:



and with the Room Mic (Sort of)



So the 808 kinda enlightened me to the idea that I was after a mid-boosty overdrive.

WHAT A SHOCK. BOOSTING A MESA WITH A TUBESCREAMER? Who'dathunk it?

However as I said, while I think the 808 was close, it kinda blew things out a little bit. Little bit too much mid, hard to gain stage correctly, was a bit smeary up top...Things were pointed in the right direction but not quite spot on.

So I grabbed the Keeley Red Dirt overdrive. As far as I can tell, that's an 808 with the Keeley Mod. That's basically an 808 without the bass cut, a little bit more neutral in the mids (still honky though), cleaner, but with more gain if you go for it.

I also tried a Barber Gain Changer. THAT WAS COOL, and it's kinda funky but wasn't...QUITE it. I needed more mids. That pedal would probably be amazing in something more Marshally...

I also put the LDC Room Mic against the speaker. Better individual sound, but I think a proper "room" sound is what I'm after.

WE MAY ACTUALLY HAVE THIS SORTED. I THINK? MAYBE?

 

[TedEH]

I honestly think people shoot themselves in the foot all the time with their dialing philosophy on Marks. You don't HAVE to go to extremes with every control - and because of how they interact, picking extremes for one control nukes the other controls down the line making it feel like you have to go extreme with those two, so when you back off from any of the extremes the other extremes make things sound bad. You CAN have mid + bass above zero if you're using the treble really high - it just feeeeels like you can't if you started from "neutral" and dialed the bass first.

I think it's also a bit of a shot in the foot to try to make a Mark sound like another amp. Versatility means you can do a lot of things, but it doesn't mean you can sound like other amps. A Mark will never sound like a Marshall or a Recto or whatever else. It will always sound like a Mark. If you're trying to dial away the thing that makes it sound like a Mark, then you probably just don't like the core Mark sound and should use a different amp.

 

[fps]

10/10 post no notes