Mark v (90) Setting Sounds For Each Channel

[Charvel1975]

Hi Guys, I have a new Mesa Mark V 90 watt head runningthrough new Harley Benton 4x12 angled cab with factory Celestion Vintage 30's. I also have a Mesa Tremoverb that was my main amp for a lot of years.

I am going for:

Ch1: something nice & clean, sparkly clean to edge of breakup.

Ch2: Crunch and vintage low gain through mid gain and lower high end gain. AC/DC through 80's heavy metal. I would mainly use Ch2 and go for Marshall type of tones. Needs to have some beef and be able to cut through the mix with a band.

Ch3: Use for high gain solos/alternate high gain sound.

 

[GuitarStv]

It's very difficult to suggest ideal settings for someone else. The settings of your amp need to work with your guitars, your pedals (if any are used), your playing style, and in the rooms that you're playing.

My suggestion would be to queue up some song examples of each sound you're going for on speakers next to the amp. Start with all the knobs at noon and then play around with your guitar and amp until you've got similar sounds happening - comparing regularly to the sound that you're aiming for to be sure you're not going off track.

 

[PFDarkside]

On a Mesa, reading the manual several times over is beneficial. A Fender or Marshall always sounds like those amps, but a Mesa has a lot of settings that might not be great. Remember to use your ears and not your eyes, on my Mesa the treble is always well under noon, where a Fender for me would be at 6.

 

[allbutromeo]

As PFDarkside said, the manual is you friend with the MkV. One thing I did when I got mine is watch the tone samples MESA released on YouTube, it provides some good starting points and then tweak from there. I've had my MkV for 10 years, and I still find new tones all the time.

 

[Charvel1975]

Tweaked some more on the Mark v head and Harley Benton G412A cab with the DigiTech RP360XP running through the loop for effects only and Solo boost on the pedal on the DigiTech and I'll try to post pictures I took of the settings I had it at before I tweaked it some more last night.

 

[Charvel1975]

Settings last night before I started tweaking the Mark V

 

[Charvel1975]

Settings after adjusting some more

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Honestly, I wouldn't even dream of having the bass knob high and the GEQ flat on a Mark's distorted channels, but each to his own.

There was a video where Petrucci goes through his settings on the Mark V. I thought his settings made sense.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Settings after adjusting some more

Oh, yeah. That's more like it!

 

[Rex_Rocker]

 

[Charvel1975]

:yourock:

 

[Charvel1975]

Oh, yeah. That's more like it!

Yea those adjustments made a BIG difference and it was the first time I used the 5 band EQ which is on, on channels 1 and 3 and the preset EQ knob is used on channel 2.