RM100 to feel and sound more like a mark 5

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nomad100

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I just left the guitar store for the second time and first time I played a mesa transatlantic 30, today i played a Mark v, and an egnator renegade. I love the loose open bright feel of the mesa amps far better the dark stiff feel of my Randall. I have a blackface, tweed, tread plate and SL+, any suggestions on how to get my RM100 to feel and sound more like the Mark V and transatlantic?
 
Try some modded modules? Also, I remember reading a thread awhile back about how some people's RM100's presence and density controls were not working properly, causing very dark tones. Jaded Faith (www.jadedfaithmod.com) provided some instruction on removing the small board and sending it to him to be fixed. Apparently that works great. Just some thoughts!
 
i don't think my head old enough to have the bad presence board 3yrs, and felt almost just like the egnator renegade.
 
Try one of the Mesa mods. All of the Mesa clones I've tried and own sound pretty close to the real thing and have even fooled some of my friends who are die hard Mesa freaks.
 
Could it just be that rm100 are muddy and dead sounding? Is most of the issue in the power section?
 
I've never found my RM100 to be muddy or dead. They do liked to be turned up and the other bonus with them is you can bias your valves to run a little bit hotter as well as run different types of valves. I use Tung sol EL34's and have them biased slightly hot and the thing rocks.
 
I cooled down the bias on the power tubes a tad, 34 on 6l6's to 31 and 34 on el34 to about 32. and i ran the channel volumes up past half an it helped. Probably to cold, and defiantly to loud for anything with channel volumes up that loud. On of the 6l6's had drifted to 37mv which probably didn't help.
 
Try the patch cable in the loop trick. The link is below.

When the effects knob is up above 2:00, it makes my amp too bright for me. YMMV.

http://mtsforum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=15408
 
Loop in the parallel loop did sound really good a little noisy but good. I found the problem, running both el34 and 6L6's was crazy thick. Went back to 6l6's biased at 32mv sounds good. Still dreaming about the mark v though. If I had a schematic I could mod the power amp and supply more easily.
 
If you like the MTS system and can see yourself sticking with it you can always get a RM4 and pair it with a Mesa power source.I Run my Rm4 with a Mesa 20/20 and it definitely adds some Mesa flavour to the tone.
Also get yourself Jaded Faiths Mark X mod as it is based on the Mark 5
 
I've had my rm100 for about 3yrs now, I've seriously been considering getting the rm4 and a 20/20, mostly because the rm100 stupid heavy. What got my attention was the last 2 times I was at Sweetwater I plugged into Mesa combos and without touching a thing my guitar sounded amazing expesially with the mark v. Even with the emg 81's loaded in my les Paul. The tweed mode sounded clearer and not so dark and bassy, the blackfaceish clean on my old Mesa nomad amp sounded honkier in a good way. Though I modded the power amp demudded it, I kind of started he nomad moding crazy over in the Mesa forum.
 
When I first had my RM100 I thought is was too dark and muddy as well. At the time I had just stock modules and the tubes that came with the amp.

Modded modules make a HUGE difference. Also, roll some tubes thru the V1 spot until you find one with a brighter sound. I love NOS Raytheons there. Using EL34s helped as well. The Svetlana EL34s were highly recommeded to me as they have a very aggresive midrange perfect for guitar amps. The recommendation was dead on - they are great in the RM100 for cleaning up the mud.

I cant even remember what the amp used to sound like. I do know that it absolutely kills my Mark IV and I love that amp.
 
I just took jj el34 out, cranked every module sounded the same with only 2 el34's. I'm debating modding modules or swapping amps. Money is a factor, so is the exsessive weight of the rm100 and the fact the rm100 to wide to sit on my Mesa wide body theile cab. Rm4 not out of the question and building a tube power amp.
 
OK i'm pretty convinced to stick with mts after listening to some clips. I just bought a car so it will be a couple weeks which mark module has the most options and sounds the closest? Do people trade rm100 for rm4's?
 
I will say it again, MTS 100 and 50 watters want to be turned up. No store demo will allow for the volume these things need to sound good.
 
LockStock said:
I will say it again, MTS 100 and 50 watters want to be turned up. No store demo will allow for the volume these things need to sound good.


I would have to agree with this. My RM100 sounds better with the master above noon than it does below 11. It's not just a volume thing, it changes personalities. I am running a 6L6 set at 34mv.

I tried the loop jumper last night.

WOW!!!!!

Why is that not a sticky? It definitely added some needed brightness to my amp. Kudos to the one that figured that out.
 
wyd-open said:
LockStock said:
I will say it again, MTS 100 and 50 watters want to be turned up. No store demo will allow for the volume these things need to sound good.


I would have to agree with this. My RM100 sounds better with the master above noon than it does below 11. It's not just a volume thing, it changes personalities. I am running a 6L6 set at 34mv.

I tried the loop jumper last night.

WOW!!!!!

Why is that not a sticky? It definitely added some needed brightness to my amp. Kudos to the one that figured that out.

Will it also work with preamp volume @ 1 or lower?
Sucks living in a condo can't play out loud! :cry:
 
Anomaly said:
wyd-open said:
LockStock said:
I will say it again, MTS 100 and 50 watters want to be turned up. No store demo will allow for the volume these things need to sound good.


I would have to agree with this. My RM100 sounds better with the master above noon than it does below 11. It's not just a volume thing, it changes personalities. I am running a 6L6 set at 34mv.

I tried the loop jumper last night.

WOW!!!!!

Why is that not a sticky? It definitely added some needed brightness to my amp. Kudos to the one that figured that out.

Will it also work with preamp volume @ 1 or lower?
Sucks living in a condo can't play out loud! :cry:


Honestly I don't know. I have never tried to run the amp that quiet. All of my preamp volumes are between 11 and 2 o'clock. I would assume that the loop jumper would make a difference even at lower volumes. After all, you are blending another tube in with part of the signal. If I have to keep it down, I will use my Vox Valvetronics 15w combo that has an attenuator or headphones with a multi pedal. A halfstack at half volume is the norm for me. :lol:
 
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