Mark Five 1x12" 90-watt Tube Combo Amp - Black Taurus Review

A Hell Of A Unit

i am a metal guitarist and tone seeker for 20 years now.. i own a mesa dr, jcm800, randall rd100. with the Mark V i've added on a plexi, a modded jcm800, jp2c+, a mark iv, and fat clean channel that sounds fuller than any other i've seen or played, fender included.. until now i always had my "settings" on my amps and pedals and they would not move. but with the mark v, my god,… read more i have my quad cortex going in directly thru the front of the amp, with all amp and cab sims off, so basically im just using the pedals or captures, and oh my god, the options are so many. i either use the klon pedal or sd1 infront of the mark iv and iic+, with the eq on, and its glorious.. i have a friedman be od infront of the plexi channel (channel 2 edge) and 80s glorious... i have 808 infront of the crunch channel - with a chorus - zakk glorious.... channel 1 fat is 6L6 goodness with alot of head room - just so clean and clear and comes thru, jerry garcia glorious... the built in reverb sounds great in the channels 1 and 2, but with channel 3 i felt the need to add an external reverb pedal.. i purchased this amp so i can have something that sounded good and relatively easier to carry around, a 10 foot speaker cable and i disconnect the internal speaker and hook up to my mesa trad rec 4x12 - and its all the same all over again but with V30s this time.. there s no end to how much different sounds you can produce with this unit. to be honest i haven't been playing with the others since the mark v arrived.. and i never felt bad about dishing out the dough for this unit, its an investment, i felt like i was buying a piece of history.. everyone i love from duane allman to jerry to santana to most of my metal favorites (too many to list) all have or still use one of the 9 amps thats are embedded into this one Mark V. not just another keeper, a work horse....

---

Cancel Comment

This is a keeper

I was on the waiting list for a while in 2021 before a used model became available and I grabbed that. This is an amazing amp! It's got a solid reputation for metal, and it lives up to the hype there (so many options on Channel 3), but all of the options on Channel 1 (clean base and add gain and punch as you require) sound fantastic too (Blues! Funk! Even Jazz!). And channel 2 gives… read more you all the classic Mesa solo tones and rock rhythm tones you could ask for and more. Endlessly tweakable, and handles pedals perfectly. The only downside is that after two decades of gigging this thing is heavy enough to make me think twice about bringing it everywhere, but there is absolutely no beating the sound. I would buy it again in a heartbeat. Easily my favorite amp of all that I've had over the years.

---

Cancel Comment

Still Learning

I purchased my mark 5 from Sweetwater 8 years ago - and to this day I am still learning about it. It's an amazing versatile amp for anything one could think of. My tech Mark was beyond awesome during the purchase - the only minor complaint would be it's weight but that's minimal at best. Probably one of the best amps I've owned to include Marshall , Fender, Line 6 , Lab Series,… read more etc. Thank you Mesa & thank you Sweetwater !!!

---

Cancel Comment

Simply Amazing

After plenty of research I bought this Amp. Simply Amazing. When I read reviews saying the Amp makes you a better player I scoffed a bit. Well I was wrong the Tone of this Amp on any channel demands assertion and nuance. It truly will make you a better player. I played through Deluxe Reverb for decades and love it. I bought this played through each channel connected pedalboard played… read more through each channel, Then read the Owners Manual and said to my son "this might be the best Amp ever made"

---

Cancel Comment

Mesa Mark V

This has been my dream amp for many years. Now I finally gave it.you can get any tone you want from this amp.

---

Cancel Comment