I am looking to see if any of the existing Neural plugin options can get very close to the tone of the lead channel on a Mesa Mark IV. Also, the Wizard MCII is the other tone I am chasing.
I am planning on getting a Quad Cortex once available, but the Mark IV is missing from the amp model list and this has been my go to tone forever. The Mark IIC+ is on the list for the QC, but I have found a fairly noticeable preference for the Mark IV over it in the models in my Axe FX III & II. On the other hand, the Wizard MCII is something else that has really jumped out to me in the demos that I have seen.
I am basically looking for that aggressive, punchy, tight, mid focused tone with a good amount of crunch/bite/bark/growl (whatever you want to call it) that you get out of the Mark IV (Pete Loeffler’s tone from Chevelle has had a big influence on the vibe I go for a lot of the time, even when I turn the gain down for more post grunge and classic rock kinds of stuff). The Wizard MCII seems to check a lot of these same boxes with a little more low end that is just as tight but a touch smoother and is more versatile.
I could probably find a way to live with the Mark IIC+, or eventually get a real Mark IV to create my own captures/profiles with. But I am really curious to see if there might be an even better solution in any of the existing Neural plugin options.
some people said that Plini’s 3rd amp (Black) sound like Mesa Mark series.
However it’s a Friedman HBE100 & 5150 hybrid.
The Nameless has a tight yet aggressive gain structure, which could be close to Mesa Mark tone.
I would suggest to download the trial version of the plugins and test it yourself.
Thanks. Appreciate the input. Was planning to give the trials a go. Helpful to have a little input like this before jumping in.
I was also a little upset about this. I saw 3 or 4 totally different effect lists pop up and the earlier ones really got me interested. As time went on it seems the stuff I really wanted was taken off for whatever reason. I was hoping some stuff will come back. The Mesa Tri-Axis preamp, the Mesa Mark series and Dual Rec series, the mesa cabs, the Diezel amp list got shorter and they removed channel 3 which is the only channel worth having on one. I dont know I just hope they bring those back because there’s a lot of people that came from Fractal and are going to want those classics.
Let me also say Mesa Boogie makes pedals. In particular the Flux Drive, which is the Mark Series gain channel. They also have the Flux FiveEQ which gives you the famous Mesa preamp and the pedal in one unit. I own all the Mesa pedals. They are great! The Throttle Box is the rectifier gain channel. They also have a tube screamer version they call the Grid Slammer. All great pedals I use in a loop. Cause if I cant get a mesa crunch on an amp, I can kick on one of these!