Guitar Gear Forum

Practice with Mark V: honeymoon and all, but I think this is an end game amp.m. My band mates don’t usually have much to say about my amp shenanigans but even they were blown away

Far exceeded my expectations through the 1x12. Sounds unbelievably huge. I’ve also redeemed my mark IV soze mismatch from being an idiot and thinking I was buying a thiele

I love the Mark V too. I think it's a great amp and very underrated when compared to the other versions, but it's a great sounding amp. They are usually cheaper than the III, IV and VII versions (let alone the IIC+) , which makes it the one of best deals in the Mark series.

How would you generalize the differences between the whole Mark series with the Rectifier series?

You mean Mark vs Recto? Or each individual Mark?

Generally...The recto does the recto thing. Massive, loose low end, lots of highs, relatively scooped. Mark is ALL mids, basically, until you add in the graphic EQ. Then you can shape it to do almost anything. The pre gain stage controls let you shape it to be tight as fuck or loose as your balls on a hot day. The Marks have a cleaner distortion character, and are, to some degree, modded fenders so you tend to end up with great cleans out of them, too.

For my uses, a recto absolutely needs a boost, and still doesn't quite get as tight as I want. A Mark series does not need one at all.

Guitarbilly wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 4:56 pm I love the Mark V too. I think it's a great amp and very underrated when compared to the other versions, but it's a great sounding amp. They are usually cheaper than the III, IV and VII versions (let alone the IIC+) , which makes it the one of best deals in the Mark series.

Yeah, it seems like prices are coming down on them too. For a while they were holding at $2k + but now 1800 seems the average and I've seen them as low as 1500


I paid $1350 for my roadster so definitely very pleased with the value I got here. Dude I traded with was super chill too. He said he knew the Marks go for more but didn't care he just wanted the roadster

bonano wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 5:53 pm How would you generalize the differences between the whole Mark series with the Rectifier series?

Raf summarized better than I could. What he said

Also moving forward with a custom headshell build for the IV now. A localish cab builder did a killer looking wood 4U rack and custom faceplate for a buddies JPIIC, and much to my surprise they quoted me about $100 less than the other person I was talking to. Local deal saves on shipping obviously too. Lead time is about 5-6 weeks

Trying to get the IV in to have the OT rewired for the 120v tap, if I could get any techs in the area to answer the phone...

How about this: Would you say there's a common denominator through the whole Mark series from I to VII? Do they all have some Fender DNA in them? Or is it more of an evolution in which today's Marks are not much like the ones from 40 years ago?

bonano wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 8:41 pm How about this: Would you say there's a common denominator through the whole Mark series from I to VII? Do they all have some Fender DNA in them? Or is it more of an evolution in which today's Marks are not much like the ones from 40 years ago?

Yeah the original platform was the Bassman head. The Mark I was pretty much a hot-rodded Bassman. There's definitely a common denominator between all of them, they're all capable of Fender cleans and the Mark I tone (Santana etc), but they've been built up from that quite extensively in the later versions and can do many different tones.

But they' can all do the original core tones.

Guitarbilly wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 9:20 pm

bonano wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 8:41 pm How about this: Would you say there's a common denominator through the whole Mark series from I to VII? Do they all have some Fender DNA in them? Or is it more of an evolution in which today's Marks are not much like the ones from 40 years ago?

Yeah the original platform was the Bassman head. The Mark I was pretty much a hot-rodded Bassman. There's definitely a common denominator between all of them, they're all capable of Fender cleans and the Mark I tone (Santana etc), but they've been built up from that quite extensively in the later versions and can do many different tones.

But they' can all do the original core tones.

I thought the Mark I was built off of a Princeton? Or was that just the pre mark series stuff he did for santana?

spawnofthesith wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 9:22 pm

Guitarbilly wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 9:20 pm

bonano wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 8:41 pm How about this: Would you say there's a common denominator through the whole Mark series from I to VII? Do they all have some Fender DNA in them? Or is it more of an evolution in which today's Marks are not much like the ones from 40 years ago?

Yeah the original platform was the Bassman head. The Mark I was pretty much a hot-rodded Bassman. There's definitely a common denominator between all of them, they're all capable of Fender cleans and the Mark I tone (Santana etc), but they've been built up from that quite extensively in the later versions and can do many different tones.

But they' can all do the original core tones.

I thought the Mark I was built off of a Princeton? Or was that just the pre mark series stuff he did for santana?

That was the pre Mesa stuff. The Mark I prototype was a modded Bassman.