Mesa/Boogie Mark 5, Owner'S Manual, Page: 36 / 70

power tube overdrive. For recording Blues and Classic Rock styles it is hard to beat the raw, urgent clip of the 10 Watt setting when
it’s combined with all Modes in Channel 1 and the lower half of the GAIN control settings (10:00 – 1:00) in all of Channel 2.
The Single-Ended output also holds up surprisingly well to the higher gain sounds in Channels 2 and 3. It allows you to achieve
ridiculous amounts of saturation at very low volume levels and still retain focus and definition. The low-end tightness will eventually
start to soften a bit and feel slower – especially if you are dumping huge amounts of bottom into the mix with the Graphic EQ - but
there is plenty of room to experiment volume-wise before this becomes an issue.
Make sure you check out the TWEED Mode in Channel 1 maxed (GAIN all the way up, TREBLE 2:00, BASS 8:30 – 10:00, PRES-
ENCE 10:00 – 12:00) in combination with the 10 Watt setting for some outrageous clipped old-school rhythm sounds. This is one
of the coolest urgent, raw, Rock sounds that feels just juicy enough - yet still has dynamic punch. In fact, this sound works great for
those who don’t like footswitching and don’t use tons of gain for their solo sounds… simply roll back on the guitar’s volume knob for
chording and crank it up for a great vintage style lead sound. TWEED in 10 Watt is a whole amp in itself!
NOTE: The 10 Watt Mode is not really intended as a viable part of the Footswitching matrix of the
MARK V due to its limited volume
capabilities. While it is plenty loud to play with others, there are huge internal voltage changes that occur when you switch to - and
back out of – the 10 Watt setting from the other two power settings (90W & 45W).
These voltage changes across the power tubes and related power supply create noise (pop) during the instant that the voltage is chang-
ing and though there is an entire circuit that mutes many places in the signal path, this pop is still audible. If you insist on switching
between some Channels that are in 90 Watt or 45 Watt and others that are in the 10 Watt Single-Ended mode, you will have to overlook
the “pop” in favor of achieving the exact sound you need. This is unavoidable, normal and will in no way hurt your amplifier.
Regardless of how you assign the power throughout the Channels to achieve your favorite sounds, the
MARK V
offers performance,
awe-inspiring power-matching for your preamp sounds and a new plateau of versatility previously unavailable in one amplifier. Now
you can smile when you see guys dragging around a fleet of “boutique” amps of different power ratings to get their groove on… the
MARK V
gives you all that and much more with one trip to the car!
Now let’s take a look at the individual controls and learn how they interact to create the sounds you want to hear.
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