Mesa Boogie Mark Five 25

Funny but I never think of this amp as a "practice amp" - this thing will blow your doors down!

A short and sweet overview with no fluff, plus a shoutout to another channel with more information? You, sir, have a new subscriber.

Mr. McKnight, you should make more videos..you get to the point nicely and you elaborate on the things that matter...good job.

25 tube watts is NOT a practice amp! It's a fire breathing monster that will be way more than loud enough for any drummer and any club.

the mini rec looks badass !

You said Ola's name right. Sweet review. I'd love to have a Mark V:25 as my go-to. It's brilliant

I'd like to share my experience, and hopefully it may help some one who's trying to decide on this amp. I owned a Mark V 25 for 2 1/2 years and it was my main recording/gigging amp. I LOVED it! It was the most versatile small amplifier I've ever seen. However. I recently went back to using a Dual Rectifier with matching oversized 4x12. For me, the MV25 just didnt quite cut it in a full band setting with 2 guitar players. Our other guitar player uses a Road King through a 4x12 and what I noticed it is that even when I matched his volume, the higher wattage amp always sounded fuller, and filled the room more, even when he turned his volume lower than mine. It's like a garden hose vs a Super Soaker squirt gun, both might shoot as far, but one delivers WAY more water. The higher wattage amps have more sound to them in a full band setting. And more headroom on the clean. I LOVED the MV25, and in maybe a different band situation I would have been fine, but in my 4 piece rock band where the other guys have high wattage amps, it always struggled to fit in.

Sounds killer! Wish I could afford it!

Watching this years later and hearing you mention Ola cracked me up. He really blew up since then.

You said that it can do any tone you want at low levels. While I agree that it can do pretty much every tone, this amp, as well as most mesas, sound WAY better when they're cranked. I love this amp and its fun at low volumes, but the amp really shines at higher volumes. It really opens up. Especially in 25 Watt mode.

Hi Phillip. Since you've got 50w and 100w amps as well, do you think one could gig with the Mark V: 25? I play mainly progressive metal/rock, such as Dream Theater, Rush, etc. I mean, can this amp stay tight and articulate, and be loud enough to be heard in a full band context (say, rehearsal)? When we rehearse with the band we don't mic our instruments, but when we play live we always do. Thanks a lot!

Playing starts @ 3:39

Great demo man

Hey Phillip, these are some nice vids you make, love specially the comparison between the 5150iii 50 and the Archon. Any chance you could do a simillar thing for the mini Mark and the 5150 50w? It would be great to see what's the different "room" feeling we get from the 25w vs the 50w, on some higher volume settings.

Hi Phillip, thanks for making these videos! I wanted to give my opinion about what you thought of Ola's demo. I love that guy and he has inspired me to learn recording and to try to get a good tone out of the distortion from an amp. I have been following for years now. That said, I actually didn't like his demo of the Mark V 25. I don't think he really captured the potential of the amp. I mean, yes he made it sound awesome but I think he's done better tone capture of an amp. It actually surprised me when I heard his demo, again it was good compared to other people's demos but comparing to his own videos and recordings, I thought it lacked punch and that "in your face" sound that he has been able to achieve in other recordings. I'm not sure why that was but that is my impression. I'm expecting a Mark V 25 this week and can't wait to try it out and attempt to record with it. Like I said, Ola's got me spending money and learning about recording a real amp since 2010 and have express him how much I've learned from him and how much he has inspired me and others. Love your videos, very informative!

It always confuses me how people say "if you're micing it." I've never played a gig in my life where I haven't been mic'd, and the only shows I have been to where guitarists weren't were basement shows that 25 watts would cover fine.

The Fillmore in the rectoverb combo remind's me of Pre Rola's !!.......they should make a 2x12 and 4x12 with those chewy speakers

Bought one about a year after you made this video, I had owned a V-Twin, which is VERY different, but the control philosophy is similar. so I was ready for the 5:25 I use an EVM-12L in a Theil cab, with that efficient a speaker, I could play with a loud drummer, won’t fill the air of like a 4 x 12, but on beam it’s every bit as loud. 105db is as high as I’ve ever played it, but I play it at home with a big speaker system at about 85DB (masters low, preamp high) and it still gets you those big amp tones, think Santana in a 16 lb tiny box! Problem is it’s kinda a one of a kind sound, after I put 5000 hours on it, a pre amp tube started to fail, Boogie service is really hard to find, I found a guy …60 miles away, the idea of being without it for 6 weeks……so I bought another 🙄. But I was moving to a stereo rig, 2 sound fab, old one stays on the fat setting clean, (old Altec 12) and the new 5:25 is the dirt channel, the mix is great for both Larry Carlton & Santana type stuff, but works well with horn and piano jazz on the neck PU as well as rock on the bridge PU. Definitely the best sounding Amp I’ve ever owned

Nice video, thanks. I have a Marshall 4x12 cab and was looking at buying one of these two Mesa amps. My cab is only 16 ohms. The mesa amps have 4 and 8 ohms outputs.  How are your cabs set up? Would I be ok to use a Mesa with my Marshall or do I need to buy another cab? Thanks, William

Hi Philip! what cab were you using?