Anybody use a DV Mark Micro 50 amp? Thoughts?

I have the Mark DV 250

 

I was just reading this thread from 'muddy ditch' featuring the Micro 50 - sounds terrific
http://www.tdpri.com/threads/heres-a-great-guitarist-i-had-never-heard-of.894994/#post-8742098

 

@estreet has a DV 250 GH , maybe can give you his thoughts .

 

I had a Micro 50 II for a month or two. Plenty loud, drive and clean sounded great except for the reverb, which was awful. To me it sounds like several effects at once: delay, verb, and chorus. I am very picky about reverb though (Strymon Flint, Surfy Bear, Mr. Black Deluxe Plus...) so as long as it has an effects loop (and the Micro 50 II does) no big deal.

I also have a Quilter Overdrive 200, which is now my favorite amp. It costs twice as much as the DV Mark, but it's 200 watts and has a bit more options for drive sounds (it's like a 3-channel amp.)

I would have to honestly say that if you want to save money and get the DV Mark you'll probably be happy, but now that I have the Quilter I just can't go back FWIW I played both heads through the same 2x12 cab.

 

I’m a huge DV fan. I’ve been gigging the FGC121 combo for a year now, and I have no desire to own or play any other amp anymore. If I do buy more amps, they’ll probably be other DV models.

This amp just floors me. I have toyed with the idea of getting a 250GH and a 2x12 cab, but I honestly can’t see ever needing that much power. DV’s SS watts are very close to equal to tube watts. I’ve never had my 120 watt combo up past “2” on the master. Not even outside with a loud band. I can’t think of a gig I do that a 50 watter wouldn’t be enough power for.

 

I had the DV Micro 50 II for about a week or so. It had a great clean sound and the built in drive was okay for light to medium gain. Reverb wasn’t great. It also has near infinite headroom, I truthfully couldn’t get it to break up no matter how boosted the input signal was. The dealbreaker for me was that this amp produced a terrible top end fizz with pretty much every type of dirt pedal I threw at it (and I have a wide variety of drive, distortion and fuzz pedals). People kept reporting how these amps were good with pedals but that was the exact opposite of my experience. I have never had an amp hate my pedals more than this one did. I had a Quilter prior to the DV Micro 50 and I quickly bought a different Quilter after. While the Quilter amps aren’t perfect either, I found their tone and design much more preferable to my experience with the DV Micro II, and they get along with the majority of drive/dist/fuzz pedals a whole lot better.

Just my personal experience.

 

Yes, I use it with either a Neo Lil Texas or a Swamp Thang.

 

I have the CM version and agree 100% with your assessment. The reverb sucks. The drive was only OK on very low settings. My pedals don't like it. I've been using it for practice and as a bass amp.

JJ

 

Glad to know I wasn’t the only one.

 

I just bought one today...the Ciro Manna 5oW II. I am looking forward to getting it this week. Practice amp through headphones is why I bought it and I received 80.00 off of it at MF today with free shipping. I'm good. Will let you know how it goes. I should say because it also has the headphone capability, not the only reason.

 

What pickups are you guys using with pedals?

I haven’t tried the micro heads, but my FGC is fantastic with pedals. I have a close friend who’s been touring with a Jazz 12, and he was thinking it sucked with pedals. He was using a tele with vintage style singles. He replaced them with some more modern style pickups and it was night and day. Now he loves it with OD’s. I use mostly humbuckers and P90’s, when I use singles they’re modern noiseless style. They all work great and pedals are fantastic.

DV advertises that they have a proprietary input circuit that is specifically designed to work great with pedals. It seems to do the trick for me. But they also don’t market their amps to roots/blues/country players. Granted, that’s what I am, but I don’t like vintage style single coil pickups...

 

Just sold my "Q" after several years of it, TB 201.

A total mud fest. I have no idea how players like these amps...

The EQ is wacky, wonky... and it seems the only "usable" setting is the "Surf" setting, well the Surf setting is, with the Tri knob full right, and Hi Cut full left (off), barely "passable", but not what I would call clear and transparent...dull and muddy, more like it.

That being said, I am looking at these DV Mark micro heads.

I have heard great things about the Eric Gales RD single clean channel.

From YT videos, it sounds very clear and bright. One video of a Fender Deville versus the DV Mark EG, the EG sounds as bright and clear and even better, and that was with a humbucker in the neck of a Tele.

It looks like the DV Mark EG 60 is the new 2020 model, but not available in the USA yet?

That being said, the Micro 50 II sounds similarly, clear and bright and can be had for good deals, $200-$250.

Any thoughts on the Micro 50 II or equivalent models, the clean channel, should be clear and lean toward to the bright transparent tone. I think I will go to Guitar Center (if open now), and try one with my guitar and 10" cab... Thx in advance...

 

Mine is in the shop. While playing it would drop the volume a lot and have a distorted signal.
I did get to like it though.I brought it to some blues jams.Played on the lead channel with the gain on 10 O'Clock. Just back the guitar volume for almost clean chords.
I have a lot of cabinets that I use with my single ended amp that work well with this amp.
This is my single ended amp !

 

speaker selection is critical with the DV mark.. it has a some refer to a jazzy sound.. Bassy, warm mids, not a lot of high mids, and a fairly retained high end.
Most guitar speakers will sound boomy unless you really dial back the bass knob,, as the mid response is warm you can't dial in any high mids with the mid control as the center frequency is low.
Even with a dark speaker (an eminence V12) you can dime the treble pot.
DV marks own 150W neodynium speaker seems to be tailored to the amp,, it is a neutral bright tight speaker which is very different to say a celestion 65 creakback.


Right now I have an open back cab with an eminence GB128 (i have tried breaking in the speaker), and with the DV mark micro 50 II the bass is really woofy, so i set the bass on the amp at 9 o'clock, increase the treble to 2 o'clock, (at high volumes the 2-2.5kHz peak can be a little to much if I dime the treble knob),

The GB128 has no doping and is rich in the low mids, so I really need to lower the mid knob or the sound is not balanced.. The woodyness of the GB128 is great for taming a bright marshall amp which often has plenty of upper mids and harmonic overtones coming from a slightly distorted signal.. or giving some body to a small boxy combo amp like the fender blues junior,, (EL84 tubes and pushing those small pentodes give you a lot of upper harmonics),, but a bad fit with the DV mark amp
With the DV mark amp the eminence' high SPL is not utilized as the amp has little upper mids and a lot of lower mids/mids that you need to dial down..(mid pot at 10 o'clock)

 

I have the Quilter 201...use it/like it a lot. Rarely crank it past "2". Usually have it on 300w neo speaker cabs. I have purchased several three tube amps since (to tinker with), but I do not foresee a circumstance where I'd take the tubers out of the house. Happy hunting!

 

I got my DV back from warranty work and it works great !
I have a bunch of cabs that I use with my SE amp to play it through.

JJ

 

I have one. I really like it. I use it through an Orange cab with Celestion Vintage 30s. Pedals work great with it. Yes the reverb kinda sucks.