FINALLY...Mark III in my possession. I'm STOKED!

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Neptical

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Hey All!

Well, after a wait of 2 months since I traded my last Boogie ( Single Rec Solo 50 ) in for a down payment on my Mark III...I finally have it!!! I just picked it up earlier today.

It's a fully loaded head version with cream tolex--- Simul-Class,GEQ, Reverb, footswitches...the whole works.... and purple stripe. Excellent condition to-boot.

After playing it for the first 10-20 minutes....WOW! This head sounds excellent! For years ( and I've been playing 23+ years), I've owned and been through numerous amplifiers of all brands and the Mark III HAS to be one of the best sounding amps--ever. This amp sounds HOT,literally--real tight definition, true clearity in notes, real thick and chunky in the ultimate 'V', crystal sharp cleans that I agree could rival with ANY Fender (even my own Fender combos)...tons of tonal options all over the place.

I play everything from hard jazz,metal,fusion,finger pickin' (love artists from Wes Montgomery to John Scofield to Chet Atkins right into artists like Candiria,Bad Brains to *some* newer material)--and I truly believe this amp can capture everything for me. I'm using an old JCM 800 1960 4x12 cab with the Mark III..and plug into my cream colored PRS Standard 24, which has 3-way toggle, push/pull tone control which also gives me a variety of tonal options...hot (and I mean HOT!) single coil goodness, to sweet smooth sustain of the neck pup.. right down into dirty low bottom chunky humbucker territory. Also...the Mark III will sustain for days by itself..it's **** sweet!

With all the reading I was doing being concerned with which STRIPE to be looking for, I decided to just throw down on the purple stripe and give it a shot. I'm glad I did..and now I truly know the true meaning of "...Don't let anyone pass on a bunch of bullshit about one being better than the other. They represent snapshots in time of the development of an amplifier line. If the amplifier gets you the tone you want, the jiffy marker is nothing more than a mark of its vintage".

The fella I bought it from is a local guitar/amp seller I know who's been doing it for years. He told me he thought the amp was the best Boogie tone to come through his shop since the IIC+ he sold a few years back. After playing this amp tonight, I have no problem believing that for sure. This is the Boogie tone I remember years back that made its initial impact on me in my early teen years (late 80s).

I was only able to get a small time to play it tonight because it was getting quite late..and since I live in a small residential neighborhood, this can be heard from blocks away even on 3. This amp is LOUD! I was surprised that even at a volume of about 1.5 that it can sound surprisingly good...but the true beast of tone will happen when I get it to my practice location out in the neck of the woods where I can really push it hard. I'm probably going to kill someone..

All the Best,
~Nep~
 
Congrats! I agree, I've had mine quite a while and still find new things with it. Fantastic amp. I keep getting very good (money wise) offers to trade but I can't bring myself to do it knowing I'd have seller's remorse soon after. You think you are happy now? Play for a while with her cranked up LOUD and let those tubes really get cooking.
 
congrats!!!! I am looking to possibly get a Mark III myself sometime soon.
you should definitely post pics!!


you didn't happen to get this from chrisguitars.com?
 
Awesome--thanks so much for the replies all! I just got done playing the Mark III for another hour or so...man--I'm in tonal heaven! I'm really starting to think that I should grab another one as a back-up for when I hit the road this summer. I can't believe just how pure this amp sounds. I know where all you Mark III owners fall now--I see the light,finally!

I'm going to post some pics probably in a little while..if I don't get side tracked playing again when I step in the room. :lol: :wink:



Sp3ktral said:
congrats!!!! I am looking to possibly get a Mark III myself sometime soon.
you should definitely post pics!!

you didn't happen to get this from chrisguitars.com?

Sp3ktral-- that is correct my friend, I did pick this up from Chris! Did you see it listed? I was hoping to use his pics to post but he took them down after I called him last week.

All the Best everyone!

~Nep~
 
Well, here it is folks...my newly purchased Boogie Mark III. Sorry for the dark pic (thanks to cell phone pics) but at least you get to see part of my rig. :D

markiii.jpg



This rig sounds absolutely amazing--definitely the best tone in all my 23+ years of playing. I dig the "twins" combination (cream Boogie III/ cream PRS Standard 24--both rare colors on each piece of gear).

With the way the stock pick-ups sound on the PRS through the Boogie--they are staying in. I had a thought to change them out with Seymour's or Dimarzio's before I purchased the Mark III, but after plugging in--it seems like this combination was totally meant to be together. The Mark III is loaded with Tesla 34's on the outside and Boogie 6L6's on the inside. It's the sound of heaven! The lead channel alone is well worth the investment to begin with--and I find myself using it as my main rhythm channel anyways..so R1 &R2 will just have to wait--Haha! I find that I REALLY like the sound of the Celestion GT12-75's alot.. which is an old broken in JCM800 1960 cab. I removed the casters some time ago to keep the bottom end more tight which works great. This amp sounds great plugged in dry with no effects, which is what I've been doing. The reverb on the amp sounds good to me..with a touch on 3 it adds alot of character to the tone. I'm not big on the 'presence' and find I don't need it at all. I have enough bite in the tone as it is. I have an abundance of effects pedals I haven't even hooked up to the amp yet. I'm looking forward to getting my EHX delay,small stone,chorus,flanger and octave plugged in to add that layer of analog god-liness. :wink:

All you need for tone (at least with the combination I'm using anyways..and *my* hands) is right in this amp. I was playing tonight and caught a very nice Allan Holdsworth tone...with my volume down a bit--very smooth, very rich..pure tube. All those well known great tones are here without a doubt---Vinnie Moore, Petrucci, Anastasio, Santana,etc. Even using lead as main rhythm--your still able to obtain a very nice rich chunky tone with no problem. This amp is seriously meant for any style. She's definitely a keeper and staying for a long time in my collection. I'm already looking into buying another!

All the Best,
~Nep~
 

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