DV Mark amps 2024

[TC 57]

Does anyone own or did own, DV Mark amps? mainly known for their bass amps & cabs, their guitar heads look interesting too. I thought they were fully solid state but the Raw Dawg head features a 6205 tube in the pre amp ..this is an Italian manufacturer.

 

[58Telecaster]

curious here as well - the DV Mark Jazz 12" anyone?

 

[Jakedog]

I owned a Frank Gambale combo for several years. I eventually passed it on to a friend who was ampless and in need. I had nine amps and he had no amps. So it seemed like the thing to do.

I loved it. It was a great sounding amp, super reliable. Never hiccupped the whole time I had it, and I gigged the hell out of it. It was extremely lightweight, and had more volume on tap than I could ever possibly need. The thing was like a tactical nuke. Tiny, but ridiculously powerful. Also, unlike my tube amps, sounded great, and pretty much exactly the same at any volume from quiet to “time to level the Kmart across the street”.

 

[Jakedog]

curious here as well - the DV Mark Jazz 12" anyone?

I have a friend in MI who used the Jazz 12 on the road for quite a while. He was really pleased with it. I think he still has it, but we haven’t talked gear in a while.

 

[corliss1]

*6205 tube, just for clarification.

 

[TC 57]

*6205 tube, just for clarification.

correct. it's a scaled down tube

 

[TC 57]

I owned a Frank Gambale combo for several years. I eventually passed it on to a friend who was ampless and in need. I had nine amps and he had no amps. So it seemed like the thing to do.

I loved it. It was a great sounding amp, super reliable. Never hiccupped the whole time I had it, and I gigged the hell out of it. It was extremely lightweight, and had more volume on tap than I could ever possibly need. The thing was like a tactical nuke. Tiny, but ridiculously powerful. Also, unlike my tube amps, sounded great, and pretty much exactly the same at any volume from quiet to “time to level the Kmart across the street”.

It's a kind of neutral tone from what I've heard, how would you describe it ? I'm not sure they sell as well as other brands. and there's plenty out there.

 

[generic202]

I thought they were fully solid state

They used have a full blown tube amp line but I think they are now just focused on making lightweight portable products.

 

[TC 57]

I owned a Frank Gambale combo for several years. I eventually passed it on to a friend who was ampless and in need. I had nine amps and he had no amps. So it seemed like the thing to do.

I loved it. It was a great sounding amp, super reliable. Never hiccupped the whole time I had it, and I gigged the hell out of it. It was extremely lightweight, and had more volume on tap than I could ever possibly need. The thing was like a tactical nuke. Tiny, but ridiculously powerful. Also, unlike my tube amps, sounded great, and pretty much exactly the same at any volume from quiet to “time to level the Kmart across the street”.

It looks like he had a couple of signature amps with DV and they are now discontinued ..

 

[Holy smokes]

I own a maragold -el 34s. It’s a clean slate. no problems 10 yr

 

[Jakedog]

It looks like he had a couple of signature amps with DV and they are now discontinued ..

I had the FG121C. Really sweet amp.

 

[Jakedog]

It's a kind of neutral tone from what I've heard, how would you describe it ? I'm not sure they sell as well as other brands. and there's plenty out there.

I’m kinda weird when it comes to tone. I’m an oddity amongst guitar players in that I’m not trying to get ANY tone but mine. I don’t look for vintage sounds, or high gain sounds, or specific kinds of clean or dirty sounds. Just sounds I like.

It had very nice cleans and LOADS of clean headroom. But with the separate gain and master you could put some dirt on the clean side as well. Without getting fired. The dirt side kind of picks up where the clean leaves off. I wouldn’t say it’s got enough gain for serious metal stuff, but plenty for everything from blues, to classic rock, and fusion stuff. Took pedals well. I used my board in front of it the whole time I had it.

If I had one complaint it would be that the reverb is pretty “meh”. I don’t know anyone who’s been particularly impressed with their reverbs. But that’s easily remedied with a decent pedal in the loop.

 

[stormsedge]

I have a DV Mark Micro 60 Jazz head. It is SS with reverb and an fx loop. It is a great clean amp and does well with pedals. I have no complaints about the reverb and it will nearly do a chorus effect when maxed.

I use DV Mark cabs with it. I have two Jazz 0208s and a Neo Small 12”.

 

[Twang-ineer]

I own a pair of the DV 60 Watt CM heads with the same tube (a full featured Raw Dog basically). I also have the Little 250M and a pair of the 2x8" cabs. I think they are the cats pajamas. Clean as can be. And I never use the drive channels, I have pedals for that. The tube is there in the sound, but to be very transparent, that is always a marketing thing. The rock solid build, great tone and portability are way more important than a mild overdrive effect you can sorta hear, under the right conditions.

If you want a pedal platform, or a power amp for a guitar cab, they are flat out ideal. If there is anything folks complain about, it is that the reverb has modulation on it, and is not a spring reverb. Otherwise folks may say they lack character.... which, yes they do.... they are clean, salt and pepper to taste. It's not an imitation of any amp at all. If it reminds me of anything it is a Polytone, and that is the height of a compliment IMHO.

Most of my pedal boards are built to sound good through those amps (4CM) and those 2x8" cabs. I use Quilter and Blues Cube amps as well, they all have their place. I am a solid state kinda guy through and through.

I will also say that I go heavy on their Bass gear as well, for the price, nothing (new) competes.

 

[TC 57]

I own a pair of the DV 60 Watt CM heads with the same tube (a full featured Raw Dog basically). I also have the Little 250M and a pair of the 2x8" cabs. I think they are the cats pajamas. Clean as can be. And I never use the drive channels, I have pedals for that. The tube is there in the sound, but to be very transparent, that is always a marketing thing. The rock solid build, great tone and portability are way more important than a mild overdrive effect you can sorta hear, under the right conditions.

If you want a pedal platform, or a power amp for a guitar cab, they are flat out ideal. If there is anything folks complain about, it is that the reverb has modulation on it, and is not a spring reverb. Otherwise folks may say they lack character.... which, yes they do.... they are clean, salt and pepper to taste. It's not an imitation of any amp at all. If it reminds me of anything it is a Polytone, and that is the height of a compliment IMHO.

Most of my pedal boards are built to sound good through those amps (4CM) and those 2x8" cabs. I use Quilter and Blues Cube amps as well, they all have their place. I am a solid state kinda guy through and through.

I will also say that I go heavy on their Bass gear as well, for the price, nothing (new) competes.

maybe the single microtube tube makes a difference when you plug an overdrive unit into the FX loop . I notice the Eric Gales signature Raw Dawg has no gain channel, just the one channel with loop for any pedal you like.
I have a speaker cab and I'm looking to buy a Quilter Superblock, quite likely the UK one ..

 

[thatkeithmorris]

Happy Jazz 12 user here. Solid jazz tone but tweak the eq and you get a nice scooped clean, which works well with single coils and my Tech21 Plexi OD. There’s a little bit of hair on the input with humbuckers but still a clean sound with plenty of headroom. Reverb is a hybrid with a bit of doubling as you turn it up, and past noon it goes into modulation, so it’s 3 effects on one knob.

XLR out is very good and you can choose to have the speaker on or off.

It’s very light.

 

[bigben55]

I saw Eric Gales last month. Killer show, hes just a ridiculously good guitar player. Had his signature DV Mark amp and sounded awesome.

 

[stormsedge]

Most of my pedal boards are built to sound good through those amps

I actually have a board with six Joyo amp sims…great rig.

 

[bottleupandgo]

My first DV Mark acquisition was the little tube combo, Gen 15 Silver (or something). A bit of a one-trick pony, but it sounded really, really good. A bit boxy because of the small cab, but into a seperate, larger cab it was amazing. Took pedals very well. It has digital reverb, and it sounds fine up to a certain point when the modulation kicks in. That's just annoying. I used a reverb pedal instead. The amp does great cleans (Blackface direction) and nice, light OD. Fully saturated it's a mud fest. Farty, no definition.

The combo wasn't quite loud enogh, and I got tired of tube maintenance, so I got -

- the Micro 50 head and a custom built cab (not from DV Mark) with a DV Mark speaker in it. The clean sound is very neutral, I'd say. Not sterile in any way, but you can't really say it's Fender- or Vox-like. I found the EQ section a little limited, so to get my desired sound (Blackface-inspired), I used an EQ pedal. The reverb is OK, like described above. The OD section (more like a built-in OD pedal than a seperate channel) sounds good, but not at the extreme settings.

The amp is loud, especially when you kick in the OD, but not quite loud enough for loud cleans. And when you turn up the volume high it gets a bit noisy. It takes pedals very well, though, and has plenty of headroom, so with a clean boost in front, it can get very, very loud, if you need that.

The size and weight were a great bonus. The amp fit in a pocket in my gig bag, and the cab weighed almost nothing. Great, portable setup.

I bought the Frank Gambale head on a whim, just to get more power and headroom and two seperate channels. It was tuned far too mid-heavy for my liking, and I couldn't dial that out enough, even with an EQ pedal, so I sold it.

I eventually sold the Micro 50 and cab because I took a break from playing electric. I kind of regret it, because the sound and build quality are hard to beat for the money (when bought used at least).

 

[Robert H.]

I’ve a DV Mark 12 Jazz. Fly weight - can be carried with 2 fingers. Pretty powerful and voiced to be deep and bass sounding. I’d play a fairly trebly sounding guitar for a clean, Jazz sound. I use it at home and get some great tones.