Confused on Mark III S/N's and stripes

[DW]

On Ian's page he says the stripes on Mark III's went in this order:

None or black
purple
red
blue
green

I have a red stripe head and the SN is 23823. I see an auction on ebay for a blue stripe combo and the S/N is 21825. How can a blue stripe that is supposed to be later have a S/N around 2000 numbers lower?

 

[Bullen]

That seem very wierd. My red stripe serieal# is 191XX and it´s made in oktober 87 and from what I can gather the blue stripe was produced in 88 and 89. The red stripes were produced (I think) mid 86-late 87 (or early 1988). Serial# for the red stripe should be in the 18-20000 range.

The blue serial # is probably correct.
Are you sure your amp is a red stripe?
When was it made?

 

[Ed Mullins]

My blue stripe MkIII is serial number 23818 with a born on date of 12/88. They must be close to the same age and stripe vintage with serial numbers so close. Not sure why yours is a red stripe. Maybe it was custom ordered with the red stripe circuit even though Mesa Boogie had already moved on to the blue stripe design.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Best of luck on this one guys. Remember, they were still custom order and some sat for months waiting to be paid for. You can never tell.

 

[DW]

Thanks for the responses. I'm certain it's a red stripe--well there's a normal looking red stripe above the power cord.

The date on the chassis is 12/88--so it appears that Ed's amp and my amp are closely related in age if not by stripe.

Boogiebabies, good suggestion. I had not considered that possibility.

 

[Bullen]

That date puts it in the blue stripe production timeline. Perhaps it was a custom job like Ed said.
If it was straight off the normal production line it should have been a blue stripe.
And if it had been sitting in wait so to speak, wouldn´t the production date have been earlier, more in the red stripe timeline.

I like the fact that nothing is certain when it comes to boogies.

 

[imbuyaboy]

Hi all. Really enjoy this board, and here is my first post.

Anyway, and to confuse this issue further, here's my Mesa rig.

Early Mark III simulclass short head, serial #16861, blue stripe!, old boogie logo (on head and cab), fan, eq, verb, MB installed footswitchable Channel 2 gain mod (knob and mini toggle in back of head), Imbuya and wicker (w/matching 1x12 EV cab).

I was with MB in Petaluma back in June, 2003, and he said all was stock on the head...and that it was an early one (1985?).

And, blue stripe! Go figure.

 

[Marshall_Fascist]

footswitchable Channel 2 gain mod

please tell me more! I have never got the chance to ask Mike if they can install the Harmonix switch on my mark III.


If I remember right. Their was a point in time when the red, blue and green stripe, were all being made side by side for at least a good 1/2 year. I have seen blue stipes in the year of 91. I have seen a red in the year of 90. I have also seen a 89 purple! You must take in consideration, that because meas moves on to a different stripe, dose not mean that they stoped making the other. Custom orders only add on to the confusion. With this said, the Green stripe is by far the longest run of all the 5 stripes. From late 88, all the way to late 98!!! It is not rare at all to see mix serial # between the stripes, but the order of the stripes is still correct. Black, purple, red, blue, and Geen.
Their is no doubt in my mind that the Mark III's have the most complicated history of the entire mark family.

 

[imbuyaboy]

footswitchable Channel 2 gain mod

please tell me more! I have never got the chance to ask Mike if they can install the Harmonix switch on my mark III.

Not sure what you mean by "Harmonix switch." (?) First time I've seen that term. As far as my MkIII rig, I'm the second owner. The original owner had the "footswitchable channel 2 gain mod" done by Mike before
I got the amp. When I have a moment I will try to upload a photo of the back of the amp. The third pot (in a triangle layout with the presence and verb knobs) and the mini toggle under the chassis for manual operation are both visible. The underside of the chassis is also signed off near the mini toggle (may also include a date, I forget) by Mike when he performed the mod.

If this helps with dating, I forgot to mention that my head also has
the international transformer (square red voltage plate w/ black chicken
knob on back of chassis). I think that option was discontinued by Mesa at some point (date), but others here know far better than I.

When I first got the amp I was living in Los Angeles. I called Mesa in Petaluma to ask about the serial number, and a woman came back to the phone saying it was an early MkIII ('85? '86?). I don't know about the exact history of the stripe color changes, yet mine has a somewhat early serial number (see first post) and the stripe is blue.

I too love the mystery of these hand-built tone monsters!

 

[Marshall_Fascist]

What I mean I mean by harmonix switch, is that the mark IV has one and would be a great mod for the III. So this gain mod gives more gain to R2? How dose it help in getting hot rodded marshall heavy crunch?