John Petrucci Mesa Mark Five: 25 'Tone Lounge' Proto Playthrough

John Petrucci visited the Mesa Factory in April 2014 before his San Francisco show to hang out. It was also a great day to have John play through an early prototype of the Mark Five 25 for the first time.

We took the fly-on-the-wall approach to capture the experience and got some epic playing from John, some great tones and a bunch of good times with Mesa Founder, Randall Smith, Tone Boy Doug West, and the rest of the Mesa team.

John played through all the various modes and many different settings through a Mini Rectifier 1x12, a Rectifier 1x12 and at the end, a 4x12 Rectifier Standard Slant with Celestion Vintage 30s. He also played with a few different delays (T.C. Electronics G-Major and Jim Dunlop Carbon Copy) in the loop for singing solo tones.

Recorded with the Mark Five: 25, various cabinets (listed above) and a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 421.

[JAFOpty]

this is probably the best demo/showcase of an amp of any brand I have seen.... unrehearsed, dynamic and honest.... 

[romzysmael]

"Can I use this tonight?" the amp maker must be proud.

[LordAethelstanVODs]

I love that John is still one of the most down to earth and friendly guitar players out there, despite his enormous success. :)

[sduck]

That's it! The best demo of this amp so far. Anyone who doesn't want this amp after hearing this is deaf.

[jared_s]

it is fortunate that they have such a great player to demonstrate the tones, because he knows EXACTLY how to use EACH tone AND he is a virtuoso!  Everything in the tones they demo sounds GREAT.  And I have no doubt Petrucci adds to it.

[DanLokar]

John is like a kid in a candy store. You just can't get enough of hearing him playing guitar.

[themudman]

The marriage between engineer and musician...

[Kyrieru]

There's something really inspiring about a bunch of people just sitting around doing what they love, and having a blast.

[jawsykilla]

This amp never ceases to amaze me, Petrucci's tones here sound like right off the records!

[gtrpimp]

That's so cool he was a huge part of the R&D. He has become Mr. Mesa Boogie these days.

[MrCecilbag]

God I love Mesa/Boogie. Great products, great service, and great tone. The best of the best and made in the USA

[MattiaPanciroli]

I'm really into Mark IIC+/IV tones, but the the channel 1 crunch playthrough is the part of the video that really blows me away

[liampellerin]

Great demo! Those guy at Mesa really know how to pack vast amounts of tone into small packages. Its great how they got all the best sounds from the Mark V, eliminated some of the less useful features, brought it all down to a more manageable wattage but still kept all the wondrous The guys at Mesa Boogie

[JamesSmith-kvjs]

That guy surely listens to a lot of Dream Theater.

[pistonstone]

I bought one and my tone quest is OVER!!!! Fantastic bit of kit, so happy. Thanks guys

[leeanderton]

Wow - that is a monster sounding amp. Chappers & I have a video going up on this amp soon - we both really liked it, but I'm not sure we sounded as good as Petrucci does!! Must be something in the fingers!!!

[PanaMethul]

I love how Randall and Doug looks super excited demoing this amp, you can tell that they're proud of this product, i just got mine on friday with the recto 1x12 slanted cab and been rocking the hell out of it, i spend a couple of hours messing with the knobs and was so pleased with the tones i could dial... until i hit that EQ and was completely blown away!, seriously i couldn't be more happy with this amp, the IIC+ mode alone is worth the money, this is my first Mesa but i'm now a believer, you got a costumer for life.

[TheWuuuuh]

A must watch for every guitar player beyond genre boundaries!

[NinjaTuna]

That tone is godly. True ingenuity instead of churning the same amps over and over. A traight I enjoy about Mesa. Great job guys

[PokeBiyul]

i could watch videos like these all day.