Clark Kent's FW18 Mesa Mark IV John Petrucci Guide

Vitor Mancini said:
I run the bass in all Boogies between 2 and 3.. more than that and it flubs like hell with the JP6..
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Right - Those Petrucci settings have always struck me as odd with the bass control at 4 (they are live settings from several years ago, from DT's "Systematic Chaos" tour). Every picture I have ever seen of any of his Mark Boogies, the bass has never been higher than 2. Same goes for when he has given settings in interviews, he always says bass is set anywhere from 0 to 2 - Higher than that and things get flubby.


For the lead channel's bass control, 2 seems to be the most common setting (by far) among Mark Boogie users, so I would start with setting the USA Lead models bass at 2.00 and adjust from there if needed.
 
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Clark Kent said:
Well try lowering the bass knob on the amp first. Having it like Petrucci was way too much for my PRS also. The low res is actually not a huge tweak from the stock settings IIRC.
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Well, I'll speak as a n00b but also as a bad engineer who passed some signal theory exams some time ago :ugeek

I think the Low Res Freq IS the issue, because 110Hz is exactly the frequency of the A on the 6th fret and correspondingly to this exact frequence (Low Res Q) the signal is boosted (Low Resonance).

Narrowing this peak (raising Low Res Q) and boost it (raising Low Resonance) we enhance the issue.
 
shasha said:
You know it's just funny to read these types of posts by Clark because I can remember very vividly just how much crap he was given in the early years when he would come on here and be excruciatingly critical of the tones and stuff he was getting. The only agenda he ever had was to get the best tone he could get and personally I really questioned whether he was just wasting his damn time because there is good, there is great and then there is exact and depending on the individual each one of those mean different things. My point is that if you are new here or wondering about the hype surrounding the AxeFXII and you read something like this post you probably cannot appreciate how significant it is to have a real hard core tone chaser and brutally honest dude post something like this. Basically I've been happy for years and don't really give a damn what Clark says because it doesn't do anything to affect my tone, but I honestly never thought that he'd be satisfied.
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Agreed
Having Clark around is like having our very own resident Andy Sneap. I think Clark has got a great ear for tones.
 
You guys <3 ... sadly there will be a time in the near future when I will have to change my name... turns out everyone knows I had superpowers and they even made movies about me. Lois was quite pissed when she heard about it.
 
dtpancio said:
Well, I'll speak as a n00b but also as a bad engineer who passed some signal theory exams some time ago :ugeek

I think the Low Res Freq IS the issue, because 110Hz is exactly the frequency of the A on the 6th fret and correspondingly to this exact frequence (Low Res Q) the signal is boosted (Low Resonance).

Narrowing this peak (raising Low Res Q) and boost it (raising Low Resonance) we enhance the issue.
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You are correct. However the Mark series preamp is in a different position than on other amps and having less bass significally removes these issues. This also happens on the real amp if you have too much bass.
 
Guys, my guitar is a whole step down and then dropped on the bottom string (drop-c) - how can I optimize my patches for this?
Is it to do with the Low Res settings?

I find the chug is nice on the A string (tuned to G) but on the bottom string its not tight at all :(
 
I find it strange that setting the low res amount from 6 to 7 is causing so much problems. Like I said before. That bass setting from Petrucci's picture is very high. F.ex. we recorded our new songs with bass on 0 on the real amp and it sounds huge. So try lowering the bass knob first.

Obviously those settings worked for Petrucci's gear during that time. I don't think I've seen him having bass that high ever. I have bass at 2 and I think it's perfect with my guitar. I play in C standard.
 
Clark Kent said:
I find it strange that setting the low res amount from 6 to 7 is causing so much problems. Like I said before. That bass setting from Petrucci's picture is very high. F.ex. we recorded our new songs with bass on 0 on the real amp and it sounds huge. So try lowering the bass knob first.

Obviously those settings worked for Petrucci's gear during that time. I don't think I've seen him having bass that high ever. I have bass at 2 and I think it's perfect with my guitar. I play in C standard.
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Well, the problem is there already, I saw. With your tweak you just increase it a little bit. Then, with the bass at 4 and above all with the boost in the bass on the GEQ, you amplify it definitively.

I tried other mesa patches and despite different intesitives the problem was always there.
 
I never really touched the Mark series amp sims, but this guide helped me get a really great USA Lead patch, and I applied the same settings to the IIC+ Normal and have a great patch for that sim as well. First time I can personally say I love these amps and I've played them IRL as well. Such a hard amp to tweak if you don't know how to get everything out of it.

Bass knob was definitely kept at 0 for both amps and I'm totally okay with that.
 
Can I say a thing? Right now I'm new to the axe fx, and my ears are not so good so the only thing I can do (while I keep learning) is "copy" from the masters, guitar masters like JP and forum/axefx masters like you Mikko.
So after grab patches, follow guides and try to tone match videos, everytime I listen my tone I'm not satisfied, especially when I compare it with JP's ones.

Even after trying this guide I watched JP Mark V settings videos again and his tone is so much better to my shitty ears. It seems to have more gain, ferociousness, chords literally scream and a more plastic, tight and fast attack with palm mutes.

What's wrong? I have the same guitar, the best amp modeler, the right patches, good IRs, etc. Why even tonematching a video I struggle to have exactly the same tone?
 
dtpancio said:
Can I say a thing? Right now I'm new to the axe fx, and my ears are not so good so the only thing I can do (while I keep learning) is "copy" from the masters, guitar masters like JP and forum/axefx masters like you Mikko.
So after grab patches, follow guides and try to tone match videos, everytime I listen my tone I'm not satisfied, especially when I compare it with JP's ones.

Even after trying this guide I watched JP Mark V settings videos again and his tone is so much better to my shitty ears. It seems to have more gain, ferociousness, chords literally scream and a more plastic, tight and fast attack with palm mutes.

What's wrong? I have the same guitar, the best amp modeler, the right patches, good IRs, etc. Why even tonematching a video I struggle to have exactly the same tone?
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You'll gonna kill me.. but that's technique..
I also have the same guitar and modeler (basically the same equipment you have) and found out that tone changes A FUCKING LOT with technique..
That's why I watch JP's videos as crazy, to understand when and why he plays like this or like that.. I mean, pick position, pick strenght, legatos and vibratos, and ESSENCIALLY muting.
And if you're like me, who copies basically every JP setting ever captured in video or picture, you will see how different they sound on our hands/equipments..
But seriously, basically his tone is Mesa + gain + cab + technique.. even the Music Man JP plays a less significant role here..
We definitely have 3 of those elements.. now we NEED to have the 4th..
But if it helps (for rhythm):

IIC+
High gain, low bass (1-3), 3-6 mids, 5+ treble.. bright switch is nice too..

IV
High gain, I hit the input trim a bit (1.5-2) really low bass (0-2.5), low mids (seems like mids adds too much bass in the IV), 5+ treble.. also found that the Fat switch works really nice and helps with gain and thickness..

And A-L-W-A-Y-S (can I highlight it more?) use the PEQ page in the "V" shape for Mark series.. for basic settings, 7, 2, -7, 2, 7 works well..
And of course, Cab Pack #7 (couldn't resist to help my budd as always ;) )..

JP's tone WILL be in there, you might need some tweak, but it SHOULD work..
If it doesn't, trust me.. it's technique..
 
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