Any Mesa Boogie Mark 5 25 owners?

Kebabkid

I'm very happy with my amp head (Divided by 13, single channel, clean and I use drive pedals) but I tried one of the smaller head versions of the above this weekend and I was blown away.

I just wondered what current and past users here thought of them? Are they hard to dial in? Any reliability issues? It sounded loud but is there enough clean headroom to use live with a drummer?

It's an attractive package, particularly with its' small cab.

Cheers

Edit: I've had a Studio 22 and an Express 5:50 2 X 12 in the past and liked them, but this model seems like a different beast and so only interested in comments on this particular model and I'm asking about reliability as I believe Bucket had an issue with his - Thanks

Cracking demo vid from Andy Timmons

Beexter

I've got the Express 5.25+ head and it's ace. Our drummer can be fairly heavy handed but clean headroom isn't an issue - never had a problem keeping up. I run it through a 1x12 cab fitted with an Eminence Cannabis Rex which admittedly is a fairly efficient speaker.
Reliability has been faultless. 
Soundwise it's soooooo flexible- a little while back I considered switching to a combo and took trips to both Peach and Coda to try various Dr Z, Bad Cat, Louis Electric, Carr, Morgan amps but found nothing that gave me the flexibility of the Mesa so came away empty handed with the knowledge that I have the right amp for me.
Dialling in is fine if you follow Mesa's guidelines- the controls are pretty sensitive. 

simonk

My MkV:25 is one of the few amps I’ve kept since going all in with modelling. They’re cracking little amps and my favourite of the 10 or so Mesas and Boogies I’ve owned, including the full fat V. I never had an issue with headroom and always found it plenty loud enough for pub gigs. I used it for a few outdoor gigs on big, open stages and it always sounded glorious through my Matrix 2x12 when opened up.

Wazmeister

Cos, download the manual... its a great read for a great amp

Kebabkid

I will Waz - all 52 pages of it!

I like the concept but the sounds??? Oooh

JMP220478

My main amp ...... had it approx 12 mths best piece of kit Ive bought in years ..  2 classic marshalls / axe fx 2 / jet city amps - currently idle as a result ... 

and remember it weighs next to nothing ... 

veldt666

Great concept, great tones, but, I sold mine, as not enough, "Clean" headroom.

Pity, otherwise, a great amp.

Kebabkid

veldt666 said:

Great concept, great tones, but, I sold mine, as not enough, "Clean" headroom.

That aspect was of particular interest to me and so interesting to here that.

My Divided has 2 wattages available of 9 & 15 watts but it's as loud as hell and stays clean at gigging volume.

RandallFlagg

I have the Mark V 35, it has 4 EL84s and a beefier transformer than the 25, while I haven't compared them side by side I would expect the 35 to have a bit more clean headroom. The solo boosts on each channel are excellent too, they can boost or cut volume as required. You can get some more dynamic gain tones at low volume by setting the channel master higher but keep the actual volume down my using the solo boost to lower the volume.

Kebabkid

Thanks RandallFlagg