Clark Kent's FW18 Mesa Mark IV John Petrucci Guide

On a similar amp, the IIC+ model, i' ve noticed that it got much less gain than its "real" counterpart. To solve this, i turned on the saturation at 3.50. Anyone else experiencing this?


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First off, thanks to Clark for the awesome thread. I had not explored the Mark IV in the Axe really at all, and this was a good intro. I'm reasonably familiar with the amp itself, so this was a cool experiment for me.

Using your suggested settings, for me, the tone was flat and bassy -- which is absolutely not a reflection on your settings, so much as my gear. My assumption is the difference in guitars, as I don't have a JP model, or other similar more modern model guitar. For this clip I'm using a PRS Mira, which I dig because it's half way between an SG and an LP in terms of tone. Being that it's a more vintage-leaning guitar, I found I had to use the following settings, which are slightly tweaked from the original recommendations:

Turn bright switch on
Treble on 8
Mids at 5
Bass 2
Pres 3.5
Input drive: 5.0
Input trim: 1.0
Overdrive: 8.27

In the Amp EQ section, I basically used your original settings, but pulled the 240Hz slider down to -1.00.
I don't have cab pack 7 (yet) so I used: 073: 4x12 Ck USA Trad 57-121 UR

I'm not really a chugga-chugga kinda player, so this is probably a little safe and derivative. Oh well. Here's my clip:

https://soundcloud.com/anthony-ferguson-7/mark-iv-tone-test


Thanks again, Clark!

sounds awesome man.. but i can't understand my tone sounds too boomy on palm mutes if i raise the 80hz on eq like yours...is there any recommendations? I use crunchlab on my basswood ibanez.
 
sounds awesome man..


Thanks!

...but i can't understand my tone sounds too boomy on palm mutes if i raise the 80hz on eq like yours...is there any recommendations? I use crunchlab on my basswood ibanez.

Sure, I can make some recommendations on reducing boom.


IN THE AMP
1. Try to dial it out using the bass control on the amp itself -- this amp can be quite bassy, so I keep it very low. You may have to go even lower. Lots of folks here talk about using this model with the bass almost all the way off, which seems counter-intuitive until you try it.
2. This is going to sound snarky, but that's not my intent at all -- lower the 80Hz slider a little bit. And I mean small increments -- I tend to forget how touchy these Mesa/Mark-style sliders can be. A difference between 2.5 and 2.0 can sometimes be a very big difference.
2. Lower the resonance in the speaker tab and/or adjust the frequency of the resonant peak.
3. Other folks try to adjust the power amp and or transformer cutoffs, but I don't find that those do much for me in regard to tone-shaping. Perhaps they will work with you.

BEFORE THE AMP
1. I've had luck tightening up bassy amps by putting a tube screamer in front. When I use a TS this way, I dial down the drive/dirt (but keep a little!) and keep the level at unity gain for the amp model. I just want to use the pedal as a filter of sorts to back out some of the bass and maybe add a touch of dirt. I generally get enough dirt from the amp, so I don't need to use the pedal to add more, but it's there if I want/need it.
2. Use an EQ. Dial to taste -- you may find that boosting/cutting certain frequencies here, then adding them back in the EQ section of the amp yields interesting tones.

AFTER THE AMP
There are any number of ways to EQ the tone after the amp. Here are some that I've used that are simple and work well *for me*

1. Dial back the low frequency response in the cabinet. This is my preferred method.
2. Insert a graphic EQ after the amp/cab, and set it to the 5 band passive. Adjust low frequencies to taste. I like this EQ because it's subtle and musical.
3. Insert a low pass filter after the amp/cab.
4. Use a multi-band compressor -- this is more complex, and would take a good bit of experimentation, but it could be used.

This is by no means a comprehensive tone-shaping guide, but I have tried all of these things and had success.
 
I can only say OMFG!!!!.
This settings are perfect, the sound is so sweet, thanks for taking the time to make this :D. Dialing this tone really made my day.
I found out that is very important to have an Earnie Ball JP, LOL. This settings do not agree with my 7 string with emgs :p but still so happy that this nails that tone that took me so long to achieve before updating to 18.
A question, when using a gate what settings do you recommend? Messing with a gate is not my world but I find that the gain left when not playing is really annoying through headphones.
 
I can only say OMFG!!!!.
This settings are perfect, the sound is so sweet, thanks for taking the time to make this :D. Dialing this tone really made my day.
I found out that is very important to have an Earnie Ball JP, LOL. This settings do not agree with my 7 string with emgs :p but still so happy that this nails that tone that took me so long to achieve before updating to 18.
A question, when using a gate what settings do you recommend? Messing with a gate is not my world but I find that the gain left when not playing is really annoying through headphones.

Thanks dude! I don't use gates myself but if you really want a gate I suggest a fast attack and release. Ratio also low like 1.5-2. Then the threshold can be bumped up to where it sounds natural when you stop playing.
 
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