Mesa Boogie Mark IV vs. Mark V

[ultimatemetalguitartones]

There is a reason so many owners are selling their Vs to get the IV...

 

[shadowdevourer]

It could be more useful if everyone also says the type of music they play with these amps. Just a thought.

 

[skoora]

There is a reason so many owners are selling their Vs to get the IV...

...and this is proven how?....lol

I felt below after switching to running 34’s in the V.
To me the V has enough sounds out of ch1 and ch2 that destroy anything I ever got out of a IV, playing clean, rock hard rock and classic metal and even some doomier stuff. The IV lead channel is a one trick pony that even though sounds great gets tiresome when you want to do something else in high gain of a different flavor. I can get all kinds of high gain tones out of the V. Tight, fat, sharp, warm, loose and not even touch CH3. The clean to edge of breakup to rock variety in the amp far exceeds the IV, with no pedals. The V takes pedals very well and also adds to what the amp can do. Plus the power settings for CH3 make the V an amazing power amp for my Quad pre. Extreme mode is huge for this. If I want to get the best traditional Mark lead/heavy rhythm tone I can run it with the Quad in the loop return and just disengage the loop to bring in CH 1 and Ch2 with everything they do.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

MarkIIB with loop mod

Does this have enough gain?

TONS of usable gain Like ENGL levels of gain. Beauty of the one I had was you could dial it in to have the most open raw gain structure ever (similar if not more raw/open that the Wizards) but then you could twist a few knobs and have the most wonderfully saturated articulate gain ever. That amp also had the biggest low end and largest sonic foot print of any amp I've had.

 

[bgh]

... If you compare the Lead channel to RHY2, then RHY2 can sound Anemic in comparison, but that isn’t because RHY2 sucks, it’s because the Lead is so great! If you judge RHY2 based on its own merits, it’s an amazing channel in its own right. I run my RHY2 as my JCM800 channel, and it really works perfectly for this. It’s pretty amazing how I can get my RHY2 on the IV to sound like a modded Marshall. I can pull off AIC Facelift-era tones with RHY2 and tube screamer! Try it! ...

(Context: I use my Mark IV for classic rock and blues). +1000 on RHY2. I love the crunch it gives when I play my SG through it. Reminds me a lot of my old Marshall Mark II Lead I used to have.

If the Mark IV was a two-channel amp, RHY2 would be an excellent 2nd channel. I agree with you. Because the lead channel is so good, it makes RHY2 look pale in comparison. Which is not to say RHY2 is bad. I use it quite a bit.

 

[Norton666]

I’ve owned and gigged with both. Both are killer amps. I have a VERY heavy right hand , so I use less gain than most people and I found both of them to have way more than I would ever use. I’m in the minority, but I love the R2 channel on the MK IV. I have not tried the lower wattage versions of the MK V , so I can’t comment on those , but you can’t go wrong with a Mark series amp.

 

[UltraGary]

There is a reason so many owners are selling their Vs to get the IV...

Whaaat? I don't see this happening in the market much at all.

 

[Beyond Black]

There is a reason so many owners are selling their Vs to get the IV...

Whaaat? I don't see this happening in the market much at all.

I don’t know about the V’s, but Mark IV heads have been selling in very little time for awhile now.

 

[skullfxr]

I didn't read the whole thread (which I usually ALWAYS do) but I was bought the IV when the hype was all over the V. I got mine for like $600 because everybody at the time wanted the V. I played the IV, and knew then that it was more along with my liking than the V. IMO the mkv was a flop for Mesa. They marketed it to demonstrate that it fixed what people thought was wrong with the IV (as all advertising is when new product), and while yes it did fix a shortcoming I just knew that the IV was what I liked.

For me the best thing that came out of the mkv was the mkv 35 watt.

Ironically I don't think the JP2-C lived up to the hype it had either, despite looking great on paper.

 

[UltraGary]

There is a reason so many owners are selling their Vs to get the IV...

Whaaat? I don't see this happening in the market much at all.

I don’t know about the V’s, but Mark IV heads have been selling in very little time for awhile now.

Much like Vs will be selling great when VIs come out. I think that speaks more to new-vs-used pricing than everyone suddenly dropping Vs to get IVs.

 

[glassjaw7]

One cool use of the IV's RHY2 channel is to use an amp in a box type pedal with it. That channel takes a high gain pedal better than just about any other amp channel I've ever tried. For some reason, pedals seem a lot more "real", like an alternate amp channel that is very convincing.