Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: K-Roll on May 01, 2011, 10:51:26 AM
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hey guys
i'm currently low on money as I've just thrown all my cash on a new boogie mark 5, otherwise i'd just go with a new baby as i usualy do :) ..
In case anyone would like to swap their cold sweat neck pickup in 7 string format for my painkiller 7 string neck hit me with a message pls :)
I need a lower output pickup for the cleans with less low end and the painkiller is just too 'killer' in my guitar consisting of mahogany body/wenge top with ebony plated rosewood neck and ebony fretboard :)
the only way to find out which way to go is to try one :) .. cheers
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sorry kr, no pups to swap, especially 7 string (6 is more than enough)
however i'd be interested to know what you think of the mk 5, it seems like a lot of amp.
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:) sure.. but i warn you its gonna be exhausting ;)
as a previous owner of a mark 4A I must say I knew what I was going to buy and I definitely knew how to proceed with the actual tweaking when I cranked it up in a shop nearby.. i found 'my tone' in about 10 minutes, no major tweaking, nothing like sleepless nights thinking of what I do wrong and so on :) there are so many guys who buy these and then sell these after one week cause it did not work out with them..
I have to admit - if I had to decide only according to youtube clips I would have never bought it, cause 99% of these YT clips reaaaaally suck.. either people scoop the shitee out with the 750hz on the GEQ or they mess up their rotary settings and it sounds boxy...
the thing is that people usually do not know how to set the rotary pre-EQ settings which makes it easy to sound like shitee :)
like with all mark series the more gain you use, the lower the bass needs to go, which with a 7string is underlined twice to keep the sound articulate and tight...
the more trebles and presence you use, the more gain will be on tap instantly ready to be used.. a sweet spot may sometimes be quite tricky to achieve cause there's just so much going on that you cant decide what to set first :)
At this moment I've been using the CH1 fat mode, CH2 crunch and CH3 according to my momentary taste.. The 3rd channel is really great, all 3 modes are completely useable no matter if 2C+, MK4 or extreme..
If someone says - naaah why do you have 3 modes when you cant switch these realtime? it's cause these 3modes work so differently that there is no general pre-EQ setting which would work with all 3 in one time.. with the 2C+ you can use more bass and still get that tight articulate sound.. with a mark 4 you use less bass but may use more of the 'mid' ... with the extreme you'd need the least bass and so on..
What I enjoy most is that channel controls are not being shared by other channels opposed to previous mark4s where you really had to do some tough decisions when you needed a good clean and a good crunch channel due to shared eq controls..
the reverb sounds great, you may decide how much of it you want on every single channel separately..
on CH3, I find myself switching mostly from extreme mode to mk4 and vice versa depending on certain situations, some day I like a little more low end so I use the extreme setting, some day I just go with the mk4 and I'm completely stunned by all the musical sounds..
sound wise, at this stage, I can tell that my old mk4A (which is a little closer to a mk3) sounded a bit rawer with more hair and more fizzy trebles, it was more in your face which sometimes is wanted and sometimes it just jumps out more than you'd like :)
the mk5 sounds a bit more refined, sits more in the band mix but does not get lost at all, it's very present and is almost vocal like, its just all mids and upper mids.. of course, there are so many factors which may have an impact on your tone -guitar and pickups, and a good cab is a must..
someone could say it does not have enough bass resonance or 'thump' but let me tell you one thing, these amps play in frequency ranges they are supposed to- guitar = mids, if you have an amp with too much low end it gets lost quite easily, it sounds great on its own, you can scoop the tone out and sound like directly from a CD, but in band situations you tend to crank the volume up cause you cant hear yourself.. a friend of mine who had a chance to hear the mk5 recently said that its one of the must articulate amplifiers he has heard so far
y signal chain is currently quite simple - guitar- morley tremonti wah- korg pitchblack- phase 90- NS2- amp and a tc repeater delay
oh and to conclude - i was deciding between this and the diezel herbert.. i took the mk5.. with all the respect to diezel amps, this was not what I was looking for.. the sound was almost hifi-like and processed, it must be a great piece of gear for studio applications but i thought it did not just cut through enough.. i could imagine that in a band situation the low end would mess with the bass guys sound and the trebles would get lost in the cymbal hits and you'd just end with a thin guitar sound if you know what i mean :)
there was too much low end even with bass on 0, middles maxxed and trebles set fairly high..
oh and one thing is for sure- the MK5 does many things in a good way.. and I am sure it can deliver good blues, rock, metal and jazz tones but needs to be set with your mind open and ears clean, you must tweak with your ears and not your eyes :)
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thanks very much for your detailed reply, k roll. this amp's clearly a winner and on my list :D
enjoy it