Tell me about the Mark V...

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Great amplifier overall, especially if you want to emulate tones in a cover band. It has just about any tone you could want, easily accessible. I have a Mk. 535, similar but smaller, I love it for cover band shit.

My son was working with a national act and when they were in the area they stayed at my house and slept in my studio. The guitar player loved his Mark V so much, he wasn't even interested in playing my Mark IIC+, Mark III, or Mark IV.

Their bassist however was floored by all 3 OG's. To each their own.
 
If you've never owned or played an earlier Mark series amp, the V is cool. If you have, you'll likely consider it a jack of all trades and a master of none. I couldn't sell mine fast enough, but to each their own.
 
jeff5 said:
This intrigues me and maybe someday I'll get a Mark VII. While I liked the 90w Mark V when I had it, I love my Mark V 35 too. I miss some of the headroom and the middle channel for some things.

What is the Mark VII mode like? Is it more mid gain, or Marshall voiced? Is it a fire breather like the Mark IV and IIC+? I love the full size Marks for the versatility for sure.
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VII mode is interesting and I think it got an unfair rap from the typical youtubers trying to squeeze really high gain sounds out of that mode. It really doesn't seem like it's voiced to do that. A lot of them tried to dial up some high gain rectifier sound and it's just not really what it does very well. Like.. it kinda can but it didn't come across as what it was voiced to do.

It's more like a fatter boosted crunch mode. Less open and a bit more compressed but a smoother structure with a bit more gain and low end. Also, the tone controls react like a rectifier in VII mode rather than how they operate with the rest of the modes, a la traditional mark tone stack shenanigans.

I dug into VII mode and compared it back and fourth with crunch mode and boosted crunch mode in my initial VII video.



I've gigged with channel 2 set to VII mode and crunch mode and they both work exceptionally well for the low to mid gain 70's, 80's and 90's rock covers we play. Crunch mode handles stacking drives from my jackson golden boy pedal a bit better than VII mode but just because it's a tad lower gain overall. I prefer to just use a clean boost with VII mode. Plenty of nice high gain non-metal drive from that channel and nicely flows into the higher gain settings on channel 3.

The real twist with the VII though is that IIB mode. I think this is more where your tigther snarling upper mids are hiding and feels more like an old Marshall type thing than anything else in the amp but it still very much has that distinct Mark midrange. I actually like it the most for the mid-gain crunch sounds but because they put it on channel 3 with the other 2 high gain voices, that kinda ruins the fun there. IIB should have been on channel 2.
 
FastRedPonyCar said:
VII mode is interesting and I think it got an unfair rap from the typical youtubers trying to squeeze really high gain sounds out of that mode. It really doesn't seem like it's voiced to do that. A lot of them tried to dial up some high gain rectifier sound and it's just not really what it does very well. Like.. it kinda can but it didn't come across as what it was voiced to do.

It's more like a fatter boosted crunch mode. Less open and a bit more compressed but a smoother structure with a bit more gain and low end. Also, the tone controls react like a rectifier in VII mode rather than how they operate with the rest of the modes, a la traditional mark tone stack shenanigans.

I dug into VII mode and compared it back and fourth with crunch mode and boosted crunch mode in my initial VII video.



I've gigged with channel 2 set to VII mode and crunch mode and they both work exceptionally well for the low to mid gain 70's, 80's and 90's rock covers we play. Crunch mode handles stacking drives from my jackson golden boy pedal a bit better than VII mode but just because it's a tad lower gain overall. I prefer to just use a clean boost with VII mode. Plenty of nice high gain non-metal drive from that channel and nicely flows into the higher gain settings on channel 3.

The real twist with the VII though is that IIB mode. I think this is more where your tigther snarling upper mids are hiding and feels more like an old Marshall type thing than anything else in the amp but it still very much has that distinct Mark midrange. I actually like it the most for the mid-gain crunch sounds but because they put it on channel 3 with the other 2 high gain voices, that kinda ruins the fun there. IIB should have been on channel 2.
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Really great video review, well done! I REALLY need to play a VII in the near future here.

The Crunch mode on my old MKV was my favorite/most played mode on that amp. I asked a Boogie rep what it was based on and was told the Crunch was,"Inspired by the vintage high gain mode on our Rectifiers." Obviously a bit less gain and leans a bit more Marshall-ish....but I can see it. So, for the VII mode to be an extension of sorts of the Crunch, that makes sense. Another "inspired by Recto" kind mode.

Not alot of guys/reviewers talk or demo the IIB mode. Most I have seen have used it as essentially a ch3 clean/slightly broken up mode. Gain wise, is it similar to Crunch mode? It definitely sounds bright and open, from what I heard!
 
VHTStark said:
Really great video review, well done! I REALLY need to play a VII in the near future here.

The Crunch mode on my old MKV was my favorite/most played mode on that amp. I asked a Boogie rep what it was based on and was told the Crunch was,"Inspired by the vintage high gain mode on our Rectifiers." Obviously a bit less gain and leans a bit more Marshall-ish....but I can see it. So, for the VII mode to be an extension of sorts of the Crunch, that makes sense. Another "inspired by Recto" kind mode.

Not alot of guys/reviewers talk or demo the IIB mode. Most I have seen have used it as essentially a ch3 clean/slightly broken up mode. Gain wise, is it similar to Crunch mode? It definitely sounds bright and open, from what I heard!
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Yeah IIB mode is brighter than crunch and VII for sure. It can be tamed down and darkened up but it's just a brighter starting point than the other two and sits between crunch and VII in terms of gain amount.

Really does come across as a less high gain IIC which makes sense I guess but MAN I wish I could have that on channel 2 and then kick over to channel 3 with IIC mode.
 
Had a Mk V for many years. It was decent.

Very unreliable imho......never left my house and it had to be repaired twice, plus the footswitch had to have its board replaced!

Sold it, don't miss it.
 
FastRedPonyCar said:
VII mode is interesting and I think it got an unfair rap from the typical youtubers trying to squeeze really high gain sounds out of that mode. It really doesn't seem like it's voiced to do that. A lot of them tried to dial up some high gain rectifier sound and it's just not really what it does very well. Like.. it kinda can but it didn't come across as what it was voiced to do.

It's more like a fatter boosted crunch mode. Less open and a bit more compressed but a smoother structure with a bit more gain and low end. Also, the tone controls react like a rectifier in VII mode rather than how they operate with the rest of the modes, a la traditional mark tone stack shenanigans.

I dug into VII mode and compared it back and fourth with crunch mode and boosted crunch mode in my initial VII video.



I've gigged with channel 2 set to VII mode and crunch mode and they both work exceptionally well for the low to mid gain 70's, 80's and 90's rock covers we play. Crunch mode handles stacking drives from my jackson golden boy pedal a bit better than VII mode but just because it's a tad lower gain overall. I prefer to just use a clean boost with VII mode. Plenty of nice high gain non-metal drive from that channel and nicely flows into the higher gain settings on channel 3.

The real twist with the VII though is that IIB mode. I think this is more where your tigther snarling upper mids are hiding and feels more like an old Marshall type thing than anything else in the amp but it still very much has that distinct Mark midrange. I actually like it the most for the mid-gain crunch sounds but because they put it on channel 3 with the other 2 high gain voices, that kinda ruins the fun there. IIB should have been on channel 2.
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Thanks man, really appreciate your reply and explaining all of that. Great demo of the VII vs. crunch too. Both sound great. I may need to get a Mark VII some day.
 
Great amp.. imo it was the best of the Swiss Army knife amps of its time(JVM,VHT sigX, and MKV) I mean it sounds like a Mark series and was way more user friendly than the MKIV and MKiii I have owned. The V was not as aggressive as the earlier MK series amps but it was better for gigging
 
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