Mark VII vs IV

[GJgo]

I spoke to the engineer at Mesa responsible for setting the bias in the Badlander after also seeing that mine was around 17mA with EL34 GRY tubes, which are fairly warm for the Mesa scale. He said that this is where they felt the circuit had the best tone.

Something that I've fought for years & didn't come to accept it until I was able to reamp with a good close mic setup, level match in post and hold everything literally the same is that, at least with the amps I have that get their tone from the preamp section, power tube type & bias doesn't matter at all to tone. Maybe it matters to feels? ..but we can't measure that yet. So for now, amps like these that run colder power sections just have tubes that will be more reliable.

Maybe if I get my hands on another Marshall some day I'll try the test again.

 

[Techdeth]

Great deal on a MarkIII Purple Stripe https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/thre...-and-fuchs-triple-drive-supreme.280568/unread

 

[kmanick]

Keep the IV , in 2012 I thought I was "hanging it up" when the band I was in broke up and left such a sour taste I decided "I'm done"
I sold my Mark III red stripe and my IVB (and some beautiful guitars ) and here I am 11 years later kicking myself every time I think about it
because I'm still gigging with another band that I fell into 4 years later

 

[Jdub]

Echoing the sentiment. Keep the IV. I listed mine for sale recently and damn near sold it, but thankfully the "buyer" was pain in the ass, flakey tire kicker so I pulled my ad. Reminded me why I don't like selling gear these days unless it is to someone I know is solid. The Mark IV is one of those amps that is simply a keeper!. New stuff will come along, but the Mark IV is a classic and will always be in demand for very good reason.

 

[anomaly]

To my ear, the IVa and IVb was the gradual step transition between the raw organic II and III, and the compressed V and JP. If you were to A/B the well, A and B, the B starts the slide towards more compression & it's also a bit darker. Keep in mind the difference really is small, though. Personally I prefer the IVb and if the IIB+ Coli didn't exist the IVb would be a desert island amp for me because it does this metallic chug thing that no other Mark can do, records well and sits well live (for a Mark). See chug here-



However the loop modded IIB Coli does exist, and mine sits tonally closer to a IV than any other Mark- neither of them have the boxy mids of the IIC+, III, V or JP. Think of a IV with more rawness and double the power, and there you go.

The Rev B is actually brighter than the Rev A. Believe it or not.

 

[anomaly]

Strum the IV on CH3 lead (1) near the bridge/tremolo and (2) as you would regularly. Do you hear a discernible difference? Is there a thinner tone as you strum near the bridge?

No. No dynamics. Too much compression. That’s partly why I got rid of mine.

That really depends on how it's set up. I feel the IV has a more open sound with the gain up high and the lead drive lower vs the other way around, also Harmonics mode is much more open sounding than Mid-Gain. You gotta experiment, the IVb is compressed, but not overly so. It's much more open than a modern high gainer. Set up right, and a guitar with a JB or something in it will give you a nice decently open punchy sound that will work with your guitars dynamics, and if that's not good enough for you, then boost the R2 channel.

 

[VHTStark]

That really depends on how it's set up. I feel the IV has a more open sound with the gain up high and the lead drive lower vs the other way around, also Harmonics mode is much more open sounding than Mid-Gain. You gotta experiment, the IVb is compressed, but not overly so. It's much more open than a modern high gainer. Set up right, and a guitar with a JB or something in it will give you a nice decently open punchy sound that will work with your guitars dynamics, and if that's not good enough for you, then boost the R2 channel.

Agreed. I remember my old Mark 4 as having a really nice balance of open punch and saturation. And like you said, with the lead/gain and switches, you could tweak that. Pretty easy to dial in a tone with good attack and feel.

Now, my Mk5 90w on the other hand, felt and reacted MUCH more compressed and smooth than a real deal mk4, and there wasn't really alot you could do to tweak that.

 

[gibson5413]

I sold my IIC+ as I felt that my Mark IV was every bit as good and more versatile. I sold my IV hoping the V would be what it was and more. I received one of the very first Vs and I was so disappointed. It sounded nothing like my IV and it had a really buzzy/fuzzy tone. I worked with it for almost 2 months and it got worse for me. I sold the V and found another IV. I read that some improvements were made on the V but I never wanted to try it again. The VII looks intriguing but the Mark series isn't my tone anymore.

I say keep the IV! It is an amazing amp!!

 

[anomaly]

Agreed. I remember my old Mark 4 as having a really nice balance of open punch and saturation. And like you said, with the lead/gain and switches, you could tweak that. Pretty easy to dial in a tone with good attack and feel.

Now, my Mk5 90w on the other hand, felt and reacted MUCH more compressed and smooth than a real deal mk4, and there wasn't really alot you could do to tweak that.

Ya, a Mark IV is a much more open sounding amp than a Mark V. The only way you can approximate a IV with a V is on the extreme mode, and even then it's not quite there. The Mark IV mode on the V is VERY compressed.

 

[Markedman]

And a few months back I bought one of the newer Mark 535 amplifiers. I love it for what it is but it’s what it is but it’s not an older Mark sound. I had a 90 W mark five and many mark IV’s and I borrowed a buddies Mark 525 which I liked but I found the mark 535 was a step up from both the 90 W and the 25 W as far as the gain structure and use. But when you put one up side-by-side with an older mark in the room the Mark 535 is like the student not the master.

I have my eye on an older mark. I’ll post it up if I do buy it, it’s in the 2C+ family of marks. I’m not limited to Boogie’s as I’ve been trying out a lot of amps lately and I’ve been leaning towards amps from the 1980s.

Here’s a laugh for everyone. The lab 5 Ampliers made by Gibson and some of the Acoustic brand electric guitar amps are mind blowingly great. They have the thump of a tube amp and the immediatcy that you can only get from solid state. Much different than the solid-state sound of today’s solid-state amps.