Zzounds had a blem open-box unit in stock for a pretty strong discount (about what they go for used on reverb) so I jumped on it.
I've owned the Mark V and a couple of studio preamps and spent a good amount of time with MadRyan's RevA Mark IV and about a month and a few shows with the baby 35w Mark V and the baby V really wowed me. I came really close to getting one but felt that it was a bit lacking live in terms of just overall punch when using lots of gain. It worked great DI though running through the OX box and into my Fryette PS2 into a cab for a bit more grunt but I also wanted a 3rd channel.
The VII though has everything I liked about the baby V along with a much louder and harder hitting sound, built in load box so I can just run DI straight out (which I've done several shows now) and I can effectively have a dedicated clean channel to use in addition to a crunch and high gain channel.
Honestly there's very little to dislike about the amp as far as I'm concerned. I usually know within maybe 5 minutes if I'm going to get along with an amp and this amp put a huge smile on my face the minute I turned it on.
The biggest difference with it vs the other marks is that it seems like the amp just sounds good no matter where the EQ knobs are set. Cranked bass control? No problem. Still clear and articulate. It's the first mark amp that I haven't felt the need to take pictures of the controls in case something gets bumped
I've played 7 shows with it now with 5 of them running DI out from the amp into my OX Stomp into the quad cortex for effects and then 1 output from the QC going to the house and the other going into my FRFR behind me on stage and 2 shows with it running to my Mako 1x12 cab and it sounds awesome both ways. Sits in the mix effortlessly.
Anyways, here's a vid. I did another one with the DI out only signal running to a few different devices and another recent one comparing the Synergy IICP module with the 2C mode of the Mark VII (shockingly close).
