I feel the Mesa Mark IV may be the best amp ever made.

[Chubtone]

You forgot Petrucci.

No, I didn't.

 

[gibson5413]

Awesome amp, that's for sure!

 

[Ultron]

I have a III blue and IIB, and eventually I'll get a IV....the only amp that really has my interest peaked is Cameron's, but I'm hardcore Mark series....it's all about the feel...the amp practically plays itself....

 

[MrDan666]

I absolutely love my MKIII Blue stripe head!!! One thing that i found interesting though is i can dial it in to sound very much like my Cameron Marshall.

I switched the tubes to all Sovtek 5881's and JJ's in the preamp, and i run it unboosted into a 4x12 with greenbacks. It gets a killer sound!!

 

[shredi knight]

You forgot Petrucci.

No, I didn't.

Then any opinion you have on tone must be thrown out because you obviously have severe hearing damage that was most likely caused by years of Marshall abuse.

 

[Jakem]

I think the same way about my Triaxis, Dave. It can do it all and more which is the case with the Mark series amps too, I think.

-Jaakko

 

[Chubtone]

You forgot Petrucci.

No, I didn't.

Then any opinion you have on tone must be thrown out because you obviously have severe hearing damage that was most likely caused by years of Marshall abuse.

Hah!

Listen, I'll tell you the problem with the Mesa Mk series amps and this is I think a fatal flaw. When you turn the bass, mid and treble knobs on the Mesas, they actually change the amount of bass, mids and treble in the amp. WTH is up with that? My Marshalls and Marshall type amps only have this small range of changing the eq. Turn off the treble and presence knobs on a Marshall and there is normally still plenty of treble and presence. Crank the bass, or turn off the bass, it doesn't matter, there's not enough low end either way. It's an amp designed so that even dumbasses like me can't screw it up too much.

The MKIV I had, I started with Gainfreaks suggested MKIV settings and it sounded pretty darn good. Then, I wanted to change things just a little, a little boost here, a little cut there, turn the gain knob just a little, touch the EQ and pretty soon I'm playing through the worst sounding amp ever. Go back to Ralph's settings and it sounds good again. Start to dial it in to exactly what I want to hear and 3 minutes later, playing through my PodXT starts sounding exciting to me. Sorry man. The MKIV is an amp for people who aren't mentally challenged.

 

[Meathead]

Here follows a list of heavy rock players who got equal to or better tones from Mesa's than EVH, Lynch, DiMartini, Le Tekro, Schenker, Hoffman, Takasaki, Wylde, Joe Holmes, John Norum, Gary Moore, Aldrich, Malmsteen, Bettencourt etc etc etc did with Marshalls:

John Sykes and........


















John Sykes and..........

















John Sykes and........






















Well...... just John Sykes. And I believe this is the same John Sykes who is now using Marshalls again.

I love seeing Mesa fanboy love-in threads get destroyed by Marshall fanboys.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

One thing that suprised me about the Mark IV was that it could do the 80's cock rock right out of the box more convincingly than some of the more conventional signal chains of the era

 

[Chubtone]

One thing that suprised me about the Mark IV was that it could do the 80's cock rock right out of the box more convincingly than some of the more conventional signal chains of the era

Convention schmentional. What you need to do is play through 10 Marshalls and try and find the 2 that don't suck. It's not supposed to be EASY to find a good tone. What is so hard for Mesa to understand about that?

 

[Shiny_Surface]

One thing that suprised me about the Mark IV was that it could do the 80's cock rock right out of the box more convincingly than some of the more conventional signal chains of the era

Convention schmentional. What you need to do is play through 10 Marshalls and try and find the 2 that don't suck. It's not supposed to be EASY to find a good tone. What is so hard for Mesa to understand about that?

Mesa made it easy with the Mark IV, what can I say Don't get me wrong though Chubtone, I'm also a fan of the other side as well

 

[Chubtone]

I'm also a fan of the other side as well

Oh....... I see. Great Seinfeld episode. Are you a shortstop?

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I'm also a fan of the other side as well

Oh....... I see. Great Seinfeld episode. Are you a shortstop?

 

[Greazygeo]

Mesa amps just suck, I don't even think Sykes tone is anything to get excited about. Thin and bright with a ton of FX....it just makes anything he plays harder to figure out. He's got some cool riffs here and there though.

 

[JamesPeters]

I feel the Mesa Mark IV may be the best amp ever made.

Oh the Mark IV...I've heard of it. That's the amp someone local just sold to buy a Chimera from me.

 

[Gainfreak]

Here follows a list of heavy rock players who got equal to or better tones from Mesa's than EVH, Lynch, DiMartini, Le Tekro, Schenker, Hoffman, Takasaki, Wylde, Joe Holmes, John Norum, Gary Moore, Aldrich, Malmsteen, Bettencourt etc etc etc did with Marshalls:

John Sykes and........


















John Sykes and..........

















John Sykes and........






















Well...... just John Sykes. And I believe this is the same John Sykes who is now using Marshalls again.

I love seeing Mesa fanboy love-in threads get destroyed by Marshall fanboys.

Destroyed my ass

You can't use half of the guys on Curts list as playing Marshalls..... They are either playing modded marshalls or had a preamp in front of the amp which takes the marshall name out of the equasion.
Akira Takasaki also used a Boogie MKIII coli head and when he was using a marshall, he had a preamp in front of it.

Nice try though fellas

And Sorry George but Your dislike of mesas is clouding you judgement. Using thin to describe Sykes' Boogie tone is mind bending to me. His tone is thick as hell. Have you ever heard Blue murder?



FWIW, I absolutely love both Marshalls and Mesas. I think its great to have both.

 

[Digital Jams]

All I know is that PsychoDave WAS a diehard Marshall guy and the look on his face when he heard the boogies slaved was priceless

 

[Chubtone]

All I know is that PsychoDave WAS a diehard Marshall guy and the look on his face when he heard the boogies slaved was priceless

That's because he was intimidated by all you east coast Boogie guys in one place and the smell of pepperoni was overwhelming his ears.

 

[Chubtone]

You can't use half of the guys on Curts list as playing Marshalls..... They are either playing modded marshalls or had a preamp in front of the amp which takes the marshall name out of the equasion.
Akira Takasaki also used a Boogie MKIII coli head and when he was using a marshall, he had a preamp in front of it.

This may take the Marshall name out of the equation for you, but it doesn't take the Marshall logo off of the amps those guys used.

And Puhleeeeeze, a Marshall with a little mod or boost in front of it combined is still 1/32nd the circuitry inside the mark IV.

 

[noseminer]