Axe FX vs Mesa Mark IV 12" combo

papaflann

papaflann

Inspired
So i haven't used my woodgrain late 90's/early 00's Mesa mark IV combo in a while. I've been really into the axe fx. So i took the ol combo to rehearsal last night with my little project thing. Man I really missed the Axe Fx. It just sounds so much better to me. Our genre is Alt/Blues/ Rock type of stuff and I was missing a nice mid gain rhythm tone that I liked. I did enjoy channel 3 of the Mark with some mediocre lead playing though.....:pride:

So, I just wanted to say man I'm sold on the Axe Fx (used with K12's). I'm leaning towards selling the Mark cause I just don't see myself going back (at least for a long time).

Not to mention the versatility of the unit with the pedal board and exp pedals etc....

Cheers to all
 
I've said it before in threads like this; If you can afford to and have the room, keep the tube equipment (esp. your woody Mark IV!): it's art. I love my AxeFx II as well, but when the modern DSP stuff breaks, more often than not it's off in the mail to the supplier for repair (not conjecture, my actual experience). Tube amps are easy to repair and you can keep one going for decades - I have not changed tubes in my amps for many years. Besides, the finicky, glowing, hot, funny-smelling tube amps represent the legacy of what we are doing; it's where we've come from musically.

for your consideration,
boogie
 
Boogieman said:
I've said it before in threads like this; If you can afford to and have the room, keep the tube equipment (esp. your woody Mark IV!): it's art. I love my AxeFx II as well, but when the modern DSP stuff breaks, more often than not it's off in the mail to the supplier for repair (not conjecture, my actual experience). Tube amps are easy to repair and you can keep one going for decades - I have not changed tubes in my amps for many years. Besides, the finicky, glowing, hot, funny-smelling tube amps represent the legacy of what we are doing; it's where we've come from musically.

for your consideration,
boogie
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I dunno man. I'm pretty much over it. My backup is a POD. A new one would be cheaper than a repair or retube of any traditional device. A lot of that romantic nostalgia mojo talk just doesn't work for me anymore. I'm down to two units with glowing bottles in them and I never even powered them up last year. It's like keep an old CRT TV set.... not even sure why I have them at this point.
 
I like the idea of keeping a tube amp or two around the studio as art pieces or just as toys to fiddle around with every now and then. Tube amps can be aesthetically beautiful, and it's always fun to tinker with hardware that's basically designed to be constantly tweaked.

But for consistence and the ability to dial in exactly what I'm looking for, I'll stick with the Axe, lol.
 
I have a Marshall JMP-1 rack pre that I have had since the early 90's.
I absolutely love it and will never sell it.
It was my tone for years.

That being said....whenever I fire it up, I'm waiting for the magic to happen and I get that feeling of "oh man, nothing beats tubes"....but it never happens.
Usually I just think....god this 4x12 cab is so beamy....I wish I was playing through FRFR.

Another side note...I have an 80's Randall Rack Pre (ala Dimebag) that I've been using in my basement recently.
It's solid state, but I used to love it because it was very close to Dime's tone. (as it was what he used to use....along with a few other components).
Using that right now sounds absolutely horrible compared to the Axe. It's funny when you fire old gear up sometimes and think...I used to love this??
 
I was just thinking earlier how the lead tone in my Mark IV covers more ground than any other tone I've heard. The right 2x12 makes all the difference.
 
i love the mark iv . i would keep both, but i love the axe's tone better. I also love the pods tone
 
Same story, different amps - I have 3 full Marshall 30th Anniversary limited edition Brass 6100 stacks (only 300 made!)personally autographed by Jim Marshall himself, and they have sat virtually untouched for the past 2 years while I've had the AxeFxII.

I frickin LOVE my AxeFxII.

Still, I thought, "I should probably plug in the Marshalls for old time sake and push some air", even though it may put a bit of a tarnish on my view of my beloved AxeFxII.

Plugged all the stacks in, fired up the stereo effects I have that connect the fx loops/cabs in stereo, and tried the total Marty McFly power chord,

and....

I ......


was.....




dismayed.

I figured it was because they hadn't warmed up, or maybe I was used to other settings on the Axe, so I started to noodle with all the channels and tried to find a decent sound, any usable sound, anything, and they sound like crap.

My beloved Marshall 30th Anniversary limited edition Brass 6100 stacks (only 300 made!) personally autographed by Jim Marshall have now become coffee tables. I may make them into a cat toy, or gerbil house.

I frickin LOVE my AxeFxII.
 
I have a Mark IV that I have had since 93 and have always loved the amp but truth of the matter it has been in storage for a few years.
Last year around this time I had a possible sale for it, so took it home and ran it through its paces and I was really enjoying it. The sale fell through and I did not care, in the back of my mind, "I will break it out here and there". But it never happened, went back to storage and has not been out since (which is kind of sad). A few weeks ago I had a offer and just basically holding it for a few months and if that sale falls apart, oh well!

The Mark IV sounds great! but to make it sing have to open it up a bit and most of the time, just cant.
The AF II lets me get the tone I want at low levels and under live conditions just allows better control (for what I do). Which just turns into a better experience for the audience.

John
 
You guys are right. I mean it seems like the collective response is to hold on to the Mark. So I'll do it. My father in law just gave me a vintage fender amp (50 yrs old) and i fired that thing up on Sunday. It probably hasnt' been played through in at least 20 years. Man it sounded pretty good. It wasn't super loud (no where near what the Mark can push) but it was super chimey and sexy. I was surprised that it didn't have any issues, but it guess the old saying is true: "they don't make em like they used to". Hope everyone has a pretty good day at their day jobs. Keep grinding it out.
 
Now that we've had our little love fest, let's get back to hammering Cliff for the all the things it doesn't do.... :lol
 
I feel differently, now an amp may be a special piece of art but if the logic of available space applied to all items I don't use I would have my home filled with garbage. The best feeling when I got rid of my amp 2 days ago after 3 years of only taking space. If it's never used or enjoyed, it doesn't matter how good it is :)
 
papaflann said:
You guys are right. I mean it seems like the collective response is to hold on to the Mark. So I'll do it. My father in law just gave me a vintage fender amp (50 yrs old) and i fired that thing up on Sunday. It probably hasnt' been played through in at least 20 years. Man it sounded pretty good. It wasn't super loud (no where near what the Mark can push) but it was super chimey and sexy. I was surprised that it didn't have any issues, but it guess the old saying is true: "they don't make em like they used to". Hope everyone has a pretty good day at their day jobs. Keep grinding it out.
Click to expand...
You might want to consider a cap job for the Fender.
Or at the very least pull the chassi and see if any of the caps are bulging or leaking.

John
 
dukemcrae said:
Same story, different amps - I have 3 full Marshall 30th Anniversary limited edition Brass 6100 stacks (only 300 made!)personally autographed by Jim Marshall himself, and they have sat virtually untouched for the past 2 years while I've had the AxeFxII.

I frickin LOVE my AxeFxII.

Still, I thought, "I should probably plug in the Marshalls for old time sake and push some air", even though it may put a bit of a tarnish on my view of my beloved AxeFxII.

Plugged all the stacks in, fired up the stereo effects I have that connect the fx loops/cabs in stereo, and tried the total Marty McFly power chord,

and....

I ......


was.....




dismayed.

I figured it was because they hadn't warmed up, or maybe I was used to other settings on the Axe, so I started to noodle with all the channels and tried to find a decent sound, any usable sound, anything, and they sound like crap.

My beloved Marshall 30th Anniversary limited edition Brass 6100 stacks (only 300 made!) personally autographed by Jim Marshall have now become coffee tables. I may make them into a cat toy, or gerbil house.

I frickin LOVE my AxeFxII.
Click to expand...
What do you think accounts for such a dramatic difference in sound? You would think that the Axe and the amp would sound very close if based on the same amp? Is it the amp in the room sound vs the whole signal chain of the Axe? Or just that FA is using better base amp than yours to model from? In a blind amp vs Axe test Michael of U2 Guitar Tutorials had a similar result where about 75% chose the Axe as the real amp over the real Vox amp which surprised me as I would have expected something closer to 50:50 (I personally could hear a slight difference but could not determine which was the Axe vs the Amp).
 
dukemcrae said:
Same story, different amps - I have 3 full Marshall 30th Anniversary limited edition Brass 6100 stacks (only 300 made!)personally autographed by Jim Marshall himself, and they have sat virtually untouched for the past 2 years while I've had the AxeFxII.



I frickin LOVE my AxeFxII.

Still, I thought, "I should probably plug in the Marshalls for old time sake and push some air", even though it may put a bit of a tarnish on my view of my beloved AxeFxII.

Plugged all the stacks in, fired up the stereo effects I have that connect the fx loops/cabs in stereo, and tried the total Marty McFly power chord,

and....

I ......


was.....




dismayed.

I figured it was because they hadn't warmed up, or maybe I was used to other settings on the Axe, so I started to noodle with all the channels and tried to find a decent sound, any usable sound, anything, and they sound like crap.

My beloved Marshall 30th Anniversary limited edition Brass 6100 stacks (only 300 made!) personally autographed by Jim Marshall have now become coffee tables. I may make them into a cat toy, or gerbil house.

I frickin LOVE my AxeFxII.
Click to expand...

lol (i actually did twice reading your post) / had to log in and say thanks / cheers, Mack
 
I'd say tube amps can easily be repaired by those in the know, and often somewhat easily, BUT, there is also a real danger to poking and prodding around in there if you don't know what your doing, the voltages can be lethal. If at all in doubt, take the amp to your local tech. who likely could use the business.
 
Swan1 said:
What do you think accounts for such a dramatic difference in sound? You would think that the Axe and the amp would sound very close if based on the same amp? Is it the amp in the room sound vs the whole signal chain of the Axe? Or just that FA is using better base amp than yours to model from? In a blind amp vs Axe test Michael of U2 Guitar Tutorials had a similar result where about 75% chose the Axe as the real amp over the real Vox amp which surprised me as I would have expected something closer to 50:50 (I personally could hear a slight difference but could not determine which was the Axe vs the Amp).
Click to expand...

The newer versions of firmware actually remove some of the less desirable traits of a tube amp. For example the power tube grid clipping is an important component of the tone but the character of that grid clipping is somewhat offensive. So the Axe-Fx uses a more sonically pleasing version of grid clipping. The virtual power tube grids still clip but they do so in a way that emphasizes the good aspects.

My guess is that people aren't choosing "which is the amp vs. which is the Axe-Fx" but instead are choosing "which sounds better".
 
Swan1 said:
What do you think accounts for such a dramatic difference in sound? You would think that the Axe and the amp would sound very close if based on the same amp? Is it the amp in the room sound vs the whole signal chain of the Axe? Or just that FA is using better base amp than yours to model from? In a blind amp vs Axe test Michael of U2 Guitar Tutorials had a similar result where about 75% chose the Axe as the real amp over the real Vox amp which surprised me as I would have expected something closer to 50:50 (I personally could hear a slight difference but could not determine which was the Axe vs the Amp).
Click to expand...

Could be a few things - I do know that with the AxeFXII, I've grown to enjoy other amps outside of my tube amp collection, and I think i'm so used to hearing those amps, that my Marshalls (which are fantastic amps in their own right) mayber no longer are as good as the Axe and the choice of amps that are in there...... I think I've also gotten used to my sound coming out of a wonderful pair of 10' speakers rather than two 4x12's stacked on top of each other, and I prefer the smaller speakers, spread wide for a larger feel.....
 
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