custom tone stack taper

[HelpingFriendly]

I have my mark iii open currently and was dialing in the tone stack when I thought of something. As I'm sure mark owners know these amps are very touchy on the tone knobs. The slightest move makes a huge difference. What I would like to do is customize the pot taper around my magic value. Let's say you use the bass knob at 3 for instance. And you know you will never have it over 4 or under 2 that is a waste of pot range from 4-10 and 0-2. I think the amp uses a 200k pot (or 250k) so if I measured the value of the pot when it's on 3 and it came out to 70k just for example, wouldn't it be cool if the pots travel from 0-10 was a total of 80k. But the pot starts at 60k (on 0) and ends on 80k (on 10)? I'm pretty sure I understand how to achieve this but I'm just not 100% sure. I think for that senerio you would have to install an 20k pot and put a 60k resistor right before the pot so it "starts" at 60k and the pots travel (20k) would make it finish at 80k. So you magic value of 70k should be #5 on the pot. I think this type of mod would be awsome on all the pots. As long as you are sure of your desired settings and know you won't' stray far from them. I just really hate that if I'm traveling with my amp and a knob gets moved than I'm all out of wack. Not to mention the play on the knobs on the purple stripe. This type of mod would make dialing in your sweet spot so much easier and very precise! If anyone wants to chime in on the best way to achieve this let me know. Is there a way to do this with the existing pots and just use resistors some how maybe? Anyway thanks for reading. I love this forum!

 

[Markedman]

Man, I wish I never read this post. I had a nightmare last night that my Mark lll's controls didn't work and the only sound I could get no matter how much I fiddled with the amp was a weak sounding "White Room" tone. In real life I constantly mess with the tone stack and GEQ. Everyday brings something new. Each room or speaker selection calls for a slightly different approach to equalization for me and after being and Fender/Marshall guy, the Mesa tone stack is sweet ear candy. Tonight for instance, I used two Boogafunk thieles driven by a Mesa studio pre-amp/Simul-stereo 295 set up. At practice this week I had the GEQ set for a mini smile for boosting leads and enhancing clean tones, but after the curtain was raised, halfway through the first song, Led Zeppelin's "Achilies Last Stand", I had to adjust the lows on the stack and drop the middle slider to set the guitar better in the mix. I was using a Jackson with a Dimebucker for that song and switched to a MIM strat the next song and I kept the controls the way they were, grail tone, it was literally sofa king great!.
I do have an over inflated head presently, what a gig and crowd tonight, but I go to work in 5 hours and reality will sink in that I'm still a no hit wonder.