heard a Mark III for the first time ever with my own ears...

[bryan_kilco]

last night.

thing sounded AWESOME.

kinda liked it better than my IV because of its more open/aggressive tone.

=/

 

[Elpelotero]

The first time I ever heard a Mark amp in a live band setting was a Mark 3 a year ago at some bar. I knew without a doubt that these were the best sounding things I'd ever heard live.

 

[bryan_kilco]

dude ripped out a solo - liquid smooth and almost the PERFECT tone.

dude said he had one tube that was bad or something too. i couldnt tell.

 

[kmanick]

don't they sound great!
when I had my Red Stripe I was always in tonal heaven.
when I got my IV I actually tried to dial it in to sound like my III
and I did, just a little fuller. I think the IV(a) is closer sounding to a III than the IV(b)'s are.
this "A" I have is the first IV I ever heard that made me want to buy IV.
Until I heard this one I always liked the III's better than the IV's.

 

[CoG]

The III doesn't really have any down sides, tonally, as long as you don't mind the lack of clean headroom in Simul-Class and you don't need TR00 BR00T4LZZZZ.

It's got a ton of usability problems that comes from being a three-channel amp with shared EQ and switching logic from 1984, on the other hand, but that really comes down to how many and what kind of sounds you need without stopping to redial stuff or having some serious tap dancing to do.

 

[silentrage]

I think if you midify your III so that you can have the choice of each channel with and without EQ, as well as another EQ in the loop and a switchable boost, you can have quite a few tones at your disposal at the press of one button.

 

[CoG]

"if you midify your III"

Even if you do get the MIDI switching, you're still stuck with the shared gain and EQ (I mean the volume/bass/treble/mids, not the GEQ) and the compromises this forces you to make, especially when trying to get three volume-balanced channels.

I think the selling point of the Mark III isn't necessarily that it's the greatest amp available, it's that it's a ridiculously good-sounding amp for what you pay for it. There is no, repeat no, better amp available for under $1200 or so. You can dial in any one channel to sound as good as any $2500 amp. However, that $2500 amp will have at least one other really good-sounding channel, one or more switchable fx loops, some kind of onboard boost, etc.

If you don't already own a MIDI switching system, you're kind of getting into the question of whether you want to drop another $800 to get modern switching for a 20-year-old amp that cost you $750, or just flip the III and use the cash you were going to spend on the MIDI to buy, say, a used Roadster and some EL34s, which will give you a much more versatile amp overall.

I love my Mark IIIs but they're 20-year-old amps based on 25 or 30-year-old designs. You can only do so much within that.

 

[boogiemon]

They're great amps for the $: hell, they're great amps period. i just treat mine like a 2-channel amp & that's fine for most live stuff: good clean channel & great gain channel, both at the correct relative volume. Truth be told, i don't really have a problem w/the relative volume of ch2 either. It's a little louder than ch1 but nothing that can't be compensated for w/the guitar volume control. Amazing sound for a knee-high box.

"if you midify your III"

Even if you do get the MIDI switching, you're still stuck with the shared gain and EQ (I mean the volume/bass/treble/mids, not the GEQ) and the compromises this forces you to make, especially when trying to get three volume-balanced channels.

I think the selling point of the Mark III isn't necessarily that it's the greatest amp available, it's that it's a ridiculously good-sounding amp for what you pay for it. There is no, repeat no, better amp available for under $1200 or so. You can dial in any one channel to sound as good as any $2500 amp. However, that $2500 amp will have at least one other really good-sounding channel, one or more switchable fx loops, some kind of onboard boost, etc.

If you don't already own a MIDI switching system, you're kind of getting into the question of whether you want to drop another $800 to get modern switching for a 20-year-old amp that cost you $750, or just flip the III and use the cash you were going to spend on the MIDI to buy, say, a used Roadster and some EL34s, which will give you a much more versatile amp overall.

I love my Mark IIIs but they're 20-year-old amps based on 25 or 30-year-old designs. You can only do so much within that.

 

[Boogie Woogie Man]

The III doesn't really have any down sides, tonally, as long as you don't mind the lack of clean headroom in Simul-Class and you don't need TR00 BR00T4LZZZZ.

Lack of clean headroom ???? You must be talking about some other amp, the MK lll has a ton of clean headroom.

 

[Facelift]

The III doesn't really have any down sides, tonally, as long as you don't mind the lack of clean headroom in Simul-Class and you don't need TR00 BR00T4LZZZZ.

Lack of clean headroom ???? You must be talking about some other amp, the MK lll has a ton of clean headroom.

not when you have the lead channel dialed in for TeH BRoOtalZ. :lol:

 

[CoG]

I do play pretty loud (master's usually around 3) and with the volume at 7 there's very little room for dynamics without breakup on R1.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I do play pretty loud (master's usually around 3) and with the volume at 7 there's very little room for dynamics without breakup on R1.

see, on my IV, this would be deafening!!

I try messing with variations of high Master volume, Low Output, or vice versa....either way, Masters on 3-4, Output on 2 and its TOO LOUD. I really wonder why they made these amps capable of being so dang loud, it's almost unusable and leaves me feeling like im not getting my "bang" for my buck....

 

[kmanick]

I run my IV thru a hotplate at -8dbs and I can run the output at 3 and the Master at 3 no problem. without it, I agree these suckers are loud, but if you turn the channel master off completely and bring th eoutput up to 4 or 5 you can bring the master back in to 1 , 1 1/2 and still get a good sound out of the lead channel (on Tweed, class A mid gain,triode)
really choke the amp down all the way.

I do play pretty loud (master's usually around 3) and with the volume at 7 there's very little room for dynamics without breakup on R1.

see, on my IV, this would be deafening!!



I try messing with variations of high Master volume, Low Output, or vice versa....either way, Masters on 3-4, Output on 2 and its TOO LOUD. I really wonder why they made these amps capable of being so dang loud, it's almost unusable and leaves me feeling like im not getting my "bang" for my buck....

 

[CoG]

I don't know about IV's but my III's don't seem that loud compared to, say, a JCM800 or Super Lead or something where it seems like it could just keep getting louder until you die from organ failure. Even through a 4x12 there seems to be a limit where it stops getting louder and the EL34 distortion starts fuzzing things up more and more, plus the feedback gets a little unmanageable with any upper mid-heavy pups. I mean, it's LOUD, but it seems like there's a limit.