Got a Boogie Mark V....

Outlaws

Outlaws

New member
...and it is every bit as good as it looks. I was sold before I even left channel 1. Fender cleans with an amazing reverb, crunch mode channel 2, and fuck shit up rhythm or leads all over channel three. V shaped EQ is cool, and it delivers, but this thing is rock monster with the mids intact.

The only thing that would make it better for me personally is if it was 4 channels...giving the Tweed mode its own channel, because it is that good.

Outside of that, this is the nicest amp I have seen on the market. I don't know what Mesa did, but they did it right.
 
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The one I tried out was pretty sweet, but I can't even come close to affording one. Plus I think I would just get frustrated with all those options. I mean, don't get my wrong, it's a sweet amp, I would just get too distracted to actually make music...
 
Tweed is pretty damned sweet on my Roadster, too, though I find that unless I'm playing bluesy lead stuff or Jimi-esq chording I almost always stay on Clean or Fat. That said, hate to fuel the GAS, but the Roadster DOES have that 4th channel. ;)

My problem with the Mark-V is the the way the modes are laid out - there's probably an engineering reason for this, but they're laid out by level of gain more than they are by function. You've got one clean channel, which is cool, and then a second channel with three lower gain modes - "Edge," "Crunch," and "Mark I", followed by a third channel with three higher gain modes, "Mark-IV, Mark-IIC+, and "Extreme."

The problem for me is that in an ideal situation I'd be using Mark-IV for leads and either IIC+ or Extreme for rhythm, but I can't because they're on the same channel. Mark I isn't bad and would do in a pinch, especially with a nip and cut here and there from the graphic EQ, but it's far from ideal.

I had the same problem with my old Nomad, too - Channel 2 was the "medium gain" channel, and neither Vintage nor Modern really 100% did it for me for soloing. Channel 3 Vintage, however, was perfect. Similarly, 3 Modern was an awesome rhythm sound. But, since they were on the same channel, I had to choose one or the other and then solo with it with the volume boost. It worked, but again it wasn't ideal.

the Roadster is the first Mesa I've owned where the layout is perfect for me right out of the box - 3 Vintage and 3 Modern work almost equally well for lead for me (it's kind of a mood thing, they're really quite similar; a surprisingly smooth, articulate Mark-like lead voice), and then 4 Modern is perfect for rhythm. That leaves me 1 and 2 for clean to crunchy sounds, plus a footswitchable solo boost if I wanted to take a lead with any of the channels.
 
This is strange. I actually got a chance to play a Roadster today when I went to pickup my new to me cab. That Roadster is a very nice amp. I didn't realize they had reverb. I actually wouldn't mind having one...but the heavier sounds it does are not in the vein of what I primarily want.....those being more of a GNR appetite sound. (and no, before someone yells Marshall, there is more to it than that. Especially since Slash "can't remember" what he used...and the MKIII that Izzy used sure as shit nails those tones if you ask me)

I put up a pic of the new rig. Found a bottom slant 412, which is the best of both worlds if you ask me. Don't know if they are rare or what but I haven't noticed too many of them around.
 
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Outlaws said:
That would be cool, but in the end isn't the Roadster a Rectifier with a lot more switching options?

I am not a big fan of Rectos.
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I wasn't either, right up until I bought one. Rectos are actually stupidly flexible amps - the problem is, 99% of the guys you see playing them are going for "modern metal" tones, so you miss out how well it handles blues/rock, country, jazz, fusion, et al.

Nice pic of the rig! :D
 
Outlaws said:
...and it is every bit as good as it looks. I was sold before I even left channel 1. Fender cleans with an amazing reverb, crunch mode channel 2, and fuck shit up rhythm or leads all over channel three. V shaped EQ is cool, and it delivers, but this thing is rock monster with the mids intact.

The only thing that would make it better for me personally is if it was 4 channels...giving the Tweed mode its own channel, because it is that good.

Outside of that, this is the nicest amp I have seen on the market. I don't know what Mesa did, but they did it right.
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congrats... but this is home RECORDING and we deserve clips.
 
I can't record it for the time being so you are out of luck. Its sitting at the bands practice space. I just use Amplitube 3 for recording and practicing now. Its so much less hassle. Plus I don't have the ability to turn it up in my current living situation, so Amplitube actually sounds better for that IMO. ...but it sure sounded amazing today at practice.
 
Congrats! I love my Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier and my Nomad 55 combo, although I'm selling the Nomad if anyone's interested. I think the Mesa Boogie stuff is the best.

-MD
 
themaddog said:
Congrats! I love my Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier and my Nomad 55 combo, although I'm selling the Nomad if anyone's interested. I think the Mesa Boogie stuff is the best.

-MD
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As a current Single Recto owner (it's just sitting out in my hallway, sadly) and a former Nomad-45 owner, you have good taste. :D The Nomads are probably the most criminally underappreciated Mesas I've ever heard - I really think their biggest problem was Mesa didn't know how to position them. When they first came out I remember thinking of them as sort of a "poor man's Recto," and then they started that "nomad in the world of gain" campaign which sort of made them sound like a low-gain, bluesy amp. The reality is barring my Roadster I've literally never sat down with a more flexible Mesa - it's one of the few amps they make that can convincingly do smooth Mark-style saturation as well as the edgier Recto-style crunch. Honestly, it doesn't surprise me at ALL that the new Mark seems to borrow heavily from that design.
 
I think my next amp to add to my collection will be a Mesa. Not sure which. I know nothing about the different models. I do like the fact your new one has a graphic eq. I had a Peavey Musician head, I got in 1978 as an early christmas present from my mom and dad and it had a qraphic eq. I like the old slide eq's. Looks nice !!
 
Outlaws said:
(and no, before someone yells Marshall, there is more to it than that. Especially since Slash "can't remember" what he used...and the MKIII that Izzy used sure as shit nails those tones if you ask me).
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By the way, this was posted on another board I read, which you might find interesting:

http://www.slashsworld.com/equipment/the-appetite-amp-story/sweet-marshall-o-mine/

I'm not a HUGE GNR fan and I've never really cared for Slash's tone on that album, but I'd really be very surprised if that's actually a Mesa. The saturation is all wrong - maybe if they were running EL34s and keeping the preamp gain low, sure, but considering Slash evidently tried to steal a rented Marshall head from the Appetite sessions, the circumstantial evidence is very much against that.
 
I read about the SIR thing a long time ago. I wouldn't put it past them to have have used the latest and greatest at the time....the two channel 800 aka the 900. But God forbid one of the holy grails of rock could be recorded with one of the most hated Marshalls ever. :spank: Insert the mythical amp no one seems to know the story on. But either way, it wasn't a stock 2203 IMO, and GNR wasn't anyone special when they recorded that album, so I doubt Marshall gave them advanced prototypes of the Jubilee. I think its fairly well documented that Izzy used MKIIIs on that album almost exclusively.

I don't know for sure what they used. I don't even truly care. But the sound that comes out of an amp and ends up on the record is so processed it isn't going to sound like it did coming out of the amp anyways.

Its nice to see I am not the only person who noticed some tricks that are impossible with a LP. But hey, if I was getting free Les Pauls and Marshall stacks I would keep my mouth shut too. Image is everything.
 
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