Bardic Audio Devices designs the perfect Mesa Mark V style Preamp Pedal with a little help from yours truly - the Rival Amp Distortion / Preamp

As part of that article, I recommended Preamp / Pedal equivalents for each of those iconic amps (2nd visual above), where I wasn't fully satisfied with the options for the Roland JC-120, or the MESA/Boogie Mark V. I picked the nearest match equivalents at the time - and while the Hoopla Pedals Tinnitus Distortion was an OK stand-in for the Mark V - I thought there was a better way to tackle that amp!

My favourite Opamp Muff Fuzz - the Bardic Audio 2-Stroke Beaver - with its 5-Band EQ, seemed very suggestive of the kind of format that I would use for a proper Mark V style Preamp :

So based on that template I ran through a series of visualisations and name options, until I got to the eminently suitable GPX Deviation 'Rival' Prototype below. I'd done the due diligence on the necessary settings, and I even included Mesa style knobs, and Mesa speaker grill graphic in my visualisation :

The above is then the visual I sent to Tim at Bardic Audio Device as inspiration for said derivation - and he then just ran with it! So while I kind of conceptualised the pedal originally - Tim did all the heavy lifting along with designer Dale Atkinson (@a_cautionary_dale) who's responsible for the magnificent crossed-swords artwork. The sound-design was based on a JFET / Opamp circuit replication of the original Mesa Mark V tube amp topology - on which I feel Tim has done some real sterling work. I feel the non-Solo mode needs a little more Volume when powered at 9V - which is why I run mine at the higher 15V level - where it's very nearly perfect! And particularly with the Solo Footswitch engaged.

Controls - Gain, Solo, Presence, 5-Band Graphic EQ ±15dB : 80Hz | 240 Hz | 750 Hz | 2.2 kHz | 6.6 kHz, Volume, Gain Footswitch, Solo Footswitch.

For that essential Mark V sound you're kind of creating somewhere between a shallow V and an acute V really on the Graphic EQ - in fact I've personally settled on a kind of tick mark with the 80Hz down a bit, and everything else fairly elevated - each of those sliders are finely honed and calibrated and deliver plenty of sweet-spots up and down the Frequency and Gain range. There's few preamps / distortion pedals that are quite this granular or versatile - while I do think the pedal could have done with a little more on the volume side - that's my only niggle really!

It looks, functions and performs quite superbly - and so the $200 ticket price is really very fair. This is a pretty unique pedal all-round and a worthy addition to any distortion pedal collection. Of course available for order right now on the Bardic Audio Devices Webstore.

Specifications :

• Power: 9-15V center-negative power supply 
• Input Impedance: 1MΩ 
• Output Impedance: 1KΩ 
• Soft-touch True Bypass Switching 
• Top mounted jacks 
• Handmade in Niles Illinois

The Rival is my 4th Distortion Pedal from Bardic Audio Devices - all 4 are some of my very favourite takes on those genres - HM-Demon (HM-2), Thunderclap (Rat), 2-Stroke Beaver (Opamp Muff) and the latest - Rival (Mesa Mark V).

The HM-Demon and Rival are generally more available, while the Thunderclap, and 2-Stroke Beaver - the latter of which is also called Shelob's Lair - those are produced rather infrequently - you need to check in with Tim if you're interested in the latter 2. And of course keep checking in on the Bardic Audio Devices Webstore!

And then here as the final visual we have the revised Iconic Amps & Pedals Visual - with my proposed Boss JC-2W pedal (hoping Boss will make that some day!), in the Jazz Chorus slot, and this Rival in the MESA/Boogie Mark V slot (I'm still waiting for Brian Mena to send me his updated MenaWatt and Wreck'T pedals - after which I will have near enough a full set of these!):