John Petrucci Mark Five vs Mark IIC+ Comparison

Dream Theater Guitarist John Petrucci took a day off from a busy touring schedule while en route to their San Francisco gig to stop by the Mesa factory for some hanging out and general tone summit. One of the subjects that came up was how one of his favorite Mark IIC+ heads stacks up to the C+ Mode on the Mark V.

When it comes to the Mark IIC+, John is truly one of the worldwide experts on the Mark IIC+, next to Founder Randall Smith, Tone Boy Doug West and Mesa Chief Technician Mike Bendinelli. In this video, John explains how the Mark Five’s C+ Mode was designed around the best and most prized of the Mark IIC+ amp configurations available (since there are many different configurations of Mark IIC+ out there) while playing a few riff examples from the song “Enigma Machine” off the latest 2014 album titled after the bands name.

The playing examples were recorded via John’s personal SM57 and Shure KSM 313 Ribbon Mic from his live shows into a Rectifier 2x12 switched back and forth with a cab switcher. Played through John’s signature Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty 7 string guitar through a Mark IIC+ 100 Watt, Graphic EQ and Reverb hardwood head in Lead Mode and a Mark V head in Channel 3 on the Mark IIC+ Mode.

Our thanks to John Petrucci, Tech Maddi Schieferstein and the Dream Theater crew for their efforts to make this video possible.