Few things beat getting up in the morning and going to try out a brand-new amplifier, plugging in your Les Paul® and, even though they're the first notes you've played all day and your fingers aren't awake yet, hearing the tubes start to thunder.

The variety
There are more and more amplifiers out there, of different sizes, sounds, knobs... But you have to start separating the wheat from the chaff to know which option is best for you. Gear, especially amps and pedals, tends to have a very strong time component; that is, what you loved a while ago may change a year later: you need another tone, or you simply need to broaden your horizons and therefore your sound, and that makes you look for another amplifier.

DV Mark is making its debut in the guitar world. If we say this is the brand behind Mark Bass (bass amplification), we've surely heard of it at least a little, since it enjoys a good reputation down among the lowest notes on the staff. Now it's time to enter the world of six strings, and so they are starting by introducing a 120 W, three-channel head that has nothing to envy any high-end amplifier of its kind. So this is more than interesting, since finding out how a bass amp builder views guitar amplification is always appealing.

Let's start with the technical side and then dig deeper until we've dissected how every solder joint in the amp sounds.

Technical matters
Mark Bass® bass amplifiers have a rugged, almost indestructible look. The Bad Boy is no exception. In fact, it's striking how solid it seems, despite not being an extremely large amplifier, especially for one in the 120 W, three-channel range. The head comes in strict black, with a metal grille finish through which we can see inside and even watch the tubes glow. It also comes with two handles so it can be rack-mounted and placed in our flight case. Let's go over the front panel to see what we'll find:

a) Input. A jack input, common to all amplifiers.
b) 0/6dB switch. A switch that lets you cut the guitar input by 6dB, since sometimes we may have a guitar with high-output pickups, such as active pickups, and need to attenuate them.
c) Gain. Since the amplifier has three channels, there are also three independent gain controls, one for each channel. The gain control not only sets how much saturation we want on each channel; it also works a bit like a tone control. At lower settings it gives a sound with more bass and, as we turn it up, it gives us more high frequencies.
d) Master. Lets you control how loud you want the amp to be; in other words, how much volume we need in the power stage. It's also worth noting that there is a master control for each channel, which lets us choose different volumes for each one. So we have to arrive at the sound we want by working the gain and master controls together.
e) Presence. This controls the highest frequencies, but on each channel we can get different sounds. On the clean channel we can get more attack and higher frequencies. On the crunch channel we can get an aggressive semi-overdriven sound. On the third, if we turn the presence all the way down, we get a very fat sound (especially for single notes). If we turn the presence up, we get sharper notes.
f) Bass. Low-frequency control. Of course, there is a bass control for each channel, but each one responds differently. On the clean channel, the lows respond quickly; on the crunch channel the response is more marked in the low mids; and on the overdrive channel, its output is quite bassy.
g) Middle. The midrange frequencies are controlled by this pot. As before, it works independently on each channel. The mid control on a guitar amplifier has to be very well designed, since this is the frequency range where we can camp out without problems.
h) High. Controls the top end of the spectrum. Same as the previous ones: three pots, one per channel.
i) Solo. Gives us an extra 6dB for when we need that punch in solos or parts we need to bring forward live.
j) Standby. This is the typical control for activating the amp's sound. Unlike its competitors, the amplifier doesn't activate until the tubes have warmed up. All of this is controlled automatically by a microprocessor.
k) LEDs. There are three, and they show which channel is active.

That's it for the front panel, which is what we'll be wrestling with most of the time. Now let's look at the rear panel.

a) Speaker output. The amp's speaker output is very well designed. It covers every possibility: one 4, 8 or 16 ohm cabinet; or two 4 ohm cabinets; or two 8 ohm cabinets. That is, we have five outputs to switch between.
b) Effects loop (Send/Return): The Bad Boy lets us connect effects outside the pedal chain, so we can place them between the preamp and the power amp.
c) Send Level. The amount of effect we want to blend with our original signal. It's a fairly important control, especially if we value our guitar tone.
d) Loop Assign. This is quite a powerful control and not very common among manufacturers. With Loop Assign we can tell the amp which channel we want the effects in the loop assigned to. You can assign them to all channels, to just one, etc. This can be controlled from the channel-switching footswitch or manually.
e) CH Select. With this control we choose which channel we want active, especially when we don't have the footswitch connected.
f) Controller. This is a jack input for connecting the footswitch, but it should be said that you can't connect just any standard channel switcher.
g) FSW. Five jack inputs for control from other switching pedals, so you can use a MIDI pedalboard or any other format without needing the amp's own footswitch.
h) BIAS switch (low/high). The amplifier lets us work in two modes, a high-level one and a low-level one, so we can get more or less out of the tubes and thus extend their life.
i) Service. This connection surprised me: it's an input for connecting the head to a computer to set parameters, such as accessing the tubes.
j) Power input.

That concludes the technical section which, although it may seem relatively conventional, has certain improvements that make the amp quite attractive and refined.

Sound
We now come to the juiciest part of the journey. So what does it sound like? We're aware that many eyes are on DV Mark's Bad Boy 120, since it comes from a family with quite a reputation in amplification. Without beating around the bush, I can say that this amplifier smells of rock, sounds completely in your face and is determined to blow up any speaker you put next to it. It has great attack which, regardless of which channel is playing, will be a common denominator for all of them. On the first channel it has brutal attack, with a slight reminiscence of British sounds, though with extra bass. As we turn up the gain, we find an increasingly angry amplifier that can overdrive quickly. On the crunch channel we can get a full rock rhythm sound right in your face. It sounds just like the others, with great punch and a good amount of mids and lows. The last one, the overdrive channel, is possibly the most balanced of the three and the one you can get the most out of, using the guitar's volume knob to get different tones. We won't fall short on gain, because there's more than enough, but it isn't a dirty gain that gives us over-the-top saturation; rather, it's an overdrive without much grain and not too compressed. On the sixth string it gives us all the body we need for those powerful rhythm parts, especially when we play with the solo option. It gives an extra boost in volume and at the same time adds a few more harmonics, which can be great for some ideas. In fact, if I were recording with this amp, I'd use the solo option all the time; it sounds really big and fat.

It should be said that, like any good amplifier, it depends a lot on the guitar you plug into it. It will enhance whatever the guitar gives it. So it's advisable to plug in a good instrument to get the most out of it. I did the tests with a Les Paul® with P-90 pickups and an Eddie Van Halen® with a maple neck. With the former, the sound is really impressive, big and fat.

Conclusion
What more can we say about the Bad Boy? This is a high-end amplifier and, personally, I think that, although it leans toward versatility, it feels most at home with rock. It can also be very useful for certain funkier things, as its great punch will let you be very precise with timing. In terms of low end we're more than well served, especially on the first and second channels. Being able to get distinct sounds on each channel, as if they were different amplifiers, was a great idea. That's a great approach and will certainly go a long way in multi-channel amps. In addition, it gives us every possibility when it comes to channel-switching pedals. It looks attractive and, above all, it's portable, which is well worth keeping in mind. So if your budget is in that (hefty) range and you also want a rock amp, you can't go without trying this one. It's sure to have a lot, a lot, a lot to say to you.