Well, you all know me and Gas by now!
Got my fender, had it a while but cant seem to get the tone I want out of it, it just doesnt have enough gain really, even with some high gain pedals it doesnt quite get there for that singing sustain.
Ive been playing the JVM lately and love the lead tones but I know I will want those crisp cleans as well. Ive sort of decided to splash a bit and have narrowed down the field to replace my amp(s) with something a bit special, a Mesa mark V combo.
It seems to be the only one that can claim to cover all the bases and subsequently deliver on those claims, I know a lot of guys and gals (Rok!) use/have used Mesa marks and such on here so I was looking for a bit of honest feedback (No pun intended!).
thanks guys!
Great amp. NOT worth the European price by any means!!
2945 Euros = 2659 GBp for a Mesa Mark V combo in Europe
~2100$= 1400Euros= 1250GBP for a Mark V in the United states!
You can either try to import a combo from the states and use it with an adaptor for electricity (which only makes sense if you can avoid the import taxes and have a low shipping rate, otherwise you get close to the store price in Europe)
-OR-
You can get a far better sounding amp for 3000 Euros!!
http://www.thomann.de/de/diezel_einstein_50_combo_6l6gc.htm
Hey man! Before You consider a new amp, switch the pre-amp tube (and change the other as well, but the pre-amp tube is the most significant one...and there's only one...) to NOS tungsram or philips... I did in mine, and now its a completely different amp! Fender is probably buying their tubes from china and then put their own logo them... and with no offense to the chinese people, chinese tubes is the worst possible for a tube amp....
//Staffay
EDIT: And You might as well switch the speaker, since Eminence's are good for a clean attack but is worse when it comes to distorsion, try a greenback or one of the custom soeakers out there... I've ordered a Weber for mine, and it will lift the amp it to a real vintage sound....
I would do what Staffay suggeste, change the tube and the speaker first, possibly trying some good tube distortion pedals as well. I'm looking for a Tonebone Classic tube distortion pedal, it looks and sounds great, I think this pedal would rock on your amp. Fender has a cherry clean sound, no other amp has it, if you like it, try to upgrade the amp itself.
On the other hand, having 2 amps alltogether is not a bad idea as well. There are many options, I'm not sure if you need a big loud tube amp. If the distortion is all you want, try getting a small HQ tube amp that you can crank and use it like that beside Fender. This way you can use both amps for what they do best using A/B switcher. Just a though to consider. A 10-20W tube amp that you can crank often is much better than anything loud and preamp-based. We often underestimate the sound of power tubes these days, everything is becoming too preamp-based unfortunately.
Right! I totally agree Ivan. In my belief one amp can't does it all anyway, therefore I got 3 by now (soon 4). The alternative would be a amp-sim, but I haven't heard anyone yet that can match the real stuff... Recently I've tried out Digidesign's Eleven hardware amp-sim, and even that the distorted sounds shine and the effects really is top-notch, it's not really competing with my Marshall and Fender tone-wise.....
//Staffay
If we set aside the fact that many amps are being mass produced and made for money, every amp's circuit and the amp itself is an artwork of some sort. Possibly applied art, but still art. As art, if we take one amp of every good amp, we cannot compare them, they are just different, individual, and beautiful in the eyes of a human - the individual that is creating the art out of the amp in his eyes (OK, too much philosophy, stopping now )
The point is, I agree with you as well mate, if we keep it in the tube domain, and want to use several different characters, we will need several amps. If we insert digital devices, audio quality decreases.
I have to agree with everyone here so far Sted!
For the same price you could be looking at some seriously good Boutique gear over here!
Secondly, changing Tubes and experimenting with different speakers is a lot cheaper!
There's also the option of running two Heads through an A/B Box too!
There, I hope that cleared it all up for you!!!
Thanks for the responses guys!
Yeah the cost is excessive, but I really just want an amp that has all my sounds in, hence the mark series sprang to mind, sure I could go down the route of say a JVM as well as my Fender and switch them but it seems a whole lot of hassle just to get those elusive clean/rhythym/lead tones.
I love orange amps but again they are really just a one trick pony (Albeit they do that trick very nicely!) I would prefer a head but really need a combo for practising etc, and I can always run a 4x12 off the mesa or even a line out to a PA.
I'll check out the options a bit more, Ill let you all know what the decision is!
Thanks for all your help guys!
Have you ever played the Mark V? How do you know it's you solution to your amp-problems?
It can do a lot of sounds but like Staffy said, it's still a Mesa and it will sound like Mesa crunch or Mesa clean, not Marshall crunch and Fender clean.
Don't know how close you are to london but have you ever concidered a handwired amp from there? I think if you get the right one you'll have somehing that will kill and humiliate all other amps.
Let us know what you got mate!
I know that this is an amp thread... but have you looked into swapping out your pickups? Perhaps some hotter pickups (or just different pickups) would give you the tone your looking for?
Bob at Eurotubes has a lot of options for the Blues Deluxe... He knows what he's talking about.
https://ssl.eurotubes.com/cart/index.php?page=view_products&category_id=7&sub_category_id=122
Have a listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap6odoC4itw
hey guys, if I did want to add another amp to use with my fender, is there a product that can switch both amps (A-B-Y) but also incorporate my pedal board to use with both amps? If you get me...........
EDIT: forget it, Ive just realised what ive asked, what an idiot, all my effects are before my amps!!
Well, my Boogie mark v combo should arrive tomorrow, weather permitting, bit of a leap with this but hopefully ive made the right decision! I'll let you all know how it goes!
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)