New from Mesa/Boogie - Mark V 25-watt. OMG.

Bucket

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/mesa-boogie-unleashes-the-mark-five-25-mini-head-607205

Was dead set on an Express 5:25 but this throws a major spanner in those particular works. I'll definitely need to audition one of these.

guitarfishbay

It was due. I'm surprised it took this long, there have already been two versions of the mini Recto (normal, and with reverb).

fretmeister

The mini recs don't sound like their big brothers at all.

spacecadet

Looks good but I want a Mark I mini head. Like right now!

ThePrettyDamned

fretmeister;354606" said:

The mini recs don't sound like their big brothers at all.

I tried the mini rec with a friend with more money than me.

I actually didn't like it much at all - didn't sound much like the big daddy, but it didn't really sound all that amazing despite that either.

It was nice enough, but a lot of money - custom amp money.

I thought much the same about the bogner atma though - maybe I'm just not a fan of low power amps!

(I love a tweed deluxe though...)

I really hope these sound like santana in a smaller box though.

ChrisMusic

Oh YES  !

Duration 14:54

grungebob

Yeah I was all set to get the mini recto verb but this looks great

guitarfishbay

This includes the cab clone too

ThePrettyDamned

ChrisMusic said:

Oh YES  !

Duration 14:54

OHMYGOD That tele clean sound, and the crunch at 7.50.  Crikey.  

*drools*

ThePrettyDamned

I don't like that they double tracked for the heavy demo - I want to know what the amp sounds like, double tracking makes anything sound massive. 

Edit: And they boosted it with a gridslammer.  Not cool mesa, I wanna hear the mode by itslef as well as boosted!

richardhomer

And bearing in mind the Cab Clone is included - dare I say it - the list price looks fair. Presumbly the 'street price' will be just over £1000?

grungebob

Pre order has it at £1399, which yes is a fair bit of money but less than I feared. I wonder if the recto and recto verb will reduce in price?

ThePrettyDamned

grungebob said:

Pre order has it at £1399, which yes is a fair bit of money but less than I feared. I wonder if the recto and recto verb will reduce in price?

Not bad, but a bit much for me unless it was really what I wanted (which it could well be).  

Obviously, it's nice and small (which is great), has the DI which is useful, and sounds the tits.  So I guess it's not necessarily overpriced to hell.  I just hope it's reliable (Mesa generally are?).

welshboyo

Mark Series + EL84 doesn't compute to me sorry....having played MK's for more years than I care to remember, I just can't see how an EL84 poweramp section will sound the same as a 6L6 Simul Class poweramp section.

Hopefully I'm wrong..

richardhomer

welshboyo;354669" said:

Mark Series + EL84 doesn't compute to me sorry....having played MK's for more years than I care to remember, I just can't see how an EL84 poweramp section will sound the same as a 6L6 Simul Class poweramp section.

Hopefully I'm wrong..

No I don't think you are.

That effortless sense to power and bass extension is a real characteristic of Mk Series Boogies.

I have a Lonestar Special with four EL84s in the power stage. It has a very different 'feel', even though the pre-amp is derived from the earlier Mk Series amps.

It's still really good - but definitely different.

Catthan

I don't think it will be less of a Mk 'cause of the el84s. after all, not all Mks have been 4x6l6 simul although they ve all been big-bottle power sections.

having no need for less wattage, I would have liked if they offered the big MkV in a small head version like this, sans ch.2. Just because I find the older Mks short-heads sexier and you can't convert a big MkV into a short head unless you ditch one channel.

Good job Mesa did imho

sweepy

Seems to be more of a replacement for the old Studio 22 with EL84's, still a very nice amp, but very different in character to the Mark Series

woody

welshboyo;354669" said:

Mark Series + EL84 doesn't compute to me sorry....having played MK's for more years than I care to remember, I just can't see how an EL84 poweramp section will sound the same as a 6L6 Simul Class poweramp section.



Hopefully I'm wrong..

woody

Havent got my head around that quote button yet..im with welsh boyo here but for a different reason..dyna-watt technology!! What a piece of junk..same as 5-25 and 20:20 power amp..imho two of the biggest pieces of poop to have ever seen light of day..horrendous poweramp section in this amp..passable at few hundred quid, but 1379 stg..lot of people gonna disagree with me id say but I found its predecessors cold, one dimensional and flabby sounding..

welshboyo

A "cranked" EL84 powerstage will sound totally different to a "cranked" 6L6/EL34 powerstage, the smoothness of the clip with the larger bottles IMO adds to the overall character of the MK series...however, in saying that, the chances you get to crank a MK in real-life gig scenarios are very few and far between...

At bedroom levels, its the preamp giving the tone, as soon as you get to louder levels, that EL84 crunch will take over, not a tone I relate to MK's, and probably why they used a gridslammer in the demo.....

The idea is good though, if it had a real MK style powerstage, I'd love one.....surely keeping in the "vibe", they would have been better using 6V6? the best tone I ever had was with 6V6's in my old MKIV...

grungebob

I have a PRS SE 20 with 6v6's and it can't generate the amount of gain shown in these vids with similar pre amp tubes, OK well it has less of them but still nowhere close.