Help with my new Mark III - think I got shafted

[exbest182]

I purchased a 60w Mark III red stripe head off of ebay, I got it today and hooked it up.. and right away I noticed issues... Volume cuts out as I'm turning knobs, seems to happen on a couple different knobs.. also, I have no gain... at all.. I'm new to the older marks and pulling this knob and pulling that knob, but I can follow directions. I downloaded the Mark III manual and followed it for the metal settings, just to see if I could get anything and I got nothing but a clean sound.. granted, the clean sounds actually very good.. I got no gain... The amp cosmetically has seen better days... Anybody have any ideas on what could be wrong with it? I am planning on sending it to Mike B. for the III+ mod, and the way it sounds i'll need a little more work than that....

 

[zodiac272]

Hey, no worries, mike b will make it perfect, but it will cost.

First thing to check are the tubes. Get a 12ax7 you know is good and roll it dow the line and playtest in each position. If that doesn't work, it may be in the circuit. Bad LDR to switch channels or something. Send it to mesa. The III+ upgrade may be $300? then you may need $150 to $200 in cleaning and fixing and new caps etc... so the round trip to mesa will probably run $500 to $600, but it will be perfect when you get it back.

Did you contact the seller? any return policy or warranty? I bought 2 mark series off the net and both needed same work as you, but they were still good deals. I'm sure this will have a happy ending. let us know how it goes


scott

 

[exbest182]

I'm contacting the seller now, I got it for $610 with shipping included... not too terrible... I talked to Mike B the other day, and he said he'd do the mod for $200, which I'm stoked about it.. and I'm hoping to get a new short shell for it, and then it'll be brand new.. was just hoping to play with it a tad before sending it to Mike B... thanks for the tips though, i'll go try it out.. there was a 12ax7 that had came out during shipping and had the pins bent on it when it got here... I got them straightened out though and got it back in.... maybe that's it.. who knows...

 

[ryjan]

$600? Hell man, you're ahead of the game already. Send it to Mike and get ready to play on a great amp.

 

[zodiac272]

hey,

don't forget about the R2 volume mod while it's at mesa. Think that is like $50, and it adds a volume knob to eliminate sharing one knob and better balance the 3 channels. You might like that one. And I'm not sure if a triode/pentode switch can work, but if you can use pentode, you might like the extra power. Just throwing it out there since it's taking a trip to see Mike B.

scott

 

[boogiemon]

for a 20+ year-old amp, you can expect some issues. That's a good price so i wouldn't be too stressed.

i recently had the III+ mod done for ~$200, but unless you know you want it i might suggest just sending it in for the tune-up/service & skip the mod. A tune-up alone will probably be $150-$220 and then there's shipping on top of that.


good luck

 

[exbest182]

My only beef was that I wasn't expecting the amp to have playability issues, seller sold it advertising no issues other than cosmetic.

I'm totally excited though, I am fairly new to the Mark series after being a rectifier man for years. I bought a Mark V back in October and love it to death, now I'm just GASin' for more Mark series.

I bought this amp as a studio amp/backup for my Mark V, I plan to use the III to record here in a couple months along with my V. I'm looking for it to compliment my V as best as possible. I play the V on both IV and IIC+, depending on what guitar and cab I'm using - but I plan to record using all 3 tones, III, IV and V... I did my research and bought the red stipe honestly for the sole purpose of having the III+ mod put in, as I heard it was the best version of the III to have the + mod done, but I was hoping to hear it in person unmodded before sending it off just to make sure it's what I want... I'm considering just sending it out for repairs and service first, then maybe mod later.

I plan on making this thing in brand new shape, I've already ordered a new boogie logo plate for the front, and plan on getting a new shell for it from either boogie or GTS...

Lemme ask you guys this, has anybody had a chance to side by side a V in C+ mode vs. III+? Mike B. told me the III+ is the closest I'll get to a C+ without owning one, but then I thought "hey, what about my Mark V?", and then I started having second thoughts on the mod.

I dunno, I'll sleep on it.... I appreciate all the feedback, and I'll keep updating as my refurbish project goes on...

Here's some out of the box pictures... It's kinda rough.

 

[exbest182]

sorry for the big pictures, out of left field question..

how many 12ax7's should a 60w Mark III have?

 

[boogiemon]

sorry for the big pictures, out of left field question..

how many 12ax7's should a 60w Mark III have?

w/reverb: 5
w/out: 4

 

[exbest182]

ok.. wheww.. thought i was missing a spot for a tube....

 

[Neptical]

Welcome to the club red stripe partna. :mrgreen:

So, no footswitches with the amp?

For a start, pull the 'lead drive'..and 'pull deep'.....crank it and see how it sounds! :twisted:

Be careful on the GEQ as it's pretty sensative.

The 750 (middle slider) I keep pretty close to the middle line---just below it.

The 2200 is just above the middle line..and the 6600 is not far from it at bedroom/house levels. When in a band situation I find I need to throw the 6600 a little higher to cut, but with volume and hitting the power section it shines really nice. The lows (80/240) I keep in classic 'V' fashion which keeps it really thick with the 'pull deep'.

YMMV with guitar/pups/cabs as well.

~Nep~

 

[scottcrud]

the other guitarist in my band has a MKIII, and it had no gain, it was stuck on the clean channel and needed new LDR's/Opticouplers, now it sounds great.

 

[SonicProvocateur]

To get the really high gain Mark sound, run volume 1 high and adjust lead volume to taste, that ramps up the pre-gain staging by in spades. But if you can't pull lead out of the clean channel, or get your tubes working right, as said before you might have a bad LDR keeping it from switching out of the clean channel. If you have a spare footswitch laying around, you could try it, though.

 

[droptrd]

To get the really high gain Mark sound, run volume 1 high and adjust lead volume to taste, that ramps up the pre-gain staging by in spades. But if you can't pull lead out of the clean channel, or get your tubes working right, as said before you might have a bad LDR keeping it from switching out of the clean channel. If you have a spare footswitch laying around, you could try it, though.

Yeah Vol 1 is the trick. I think they labled it wrong IMO. Shouldve called it "Input gain"

 

[exbest182]

Well, i tried cranking volume 1, and got nothing... however I took the chassis out to give it a once over, and after putting all the tubes back in, was able to get some gain out of it.. however, certain points on my presence knob and a Vol 1 cause the amp to cut out.. and even though I got gain now, it's still doesn't sound that great and def. sounds like there's a problem somewhere... Off to Mike B tomorrow and let the rebuilding begin!

 

[SonicProvocateur]

Yeah, sounds like an LDR among other things, you can actually get the clean channel to break up a little bit with hot pickups and ramping the controls way up. Once Mike gets his hands on it, you will be blown away. Have you decided on the (+) mod? You may like it without it first once shes recapped and overhauled. III's are ferociously beastly amps. You may not want it tamed. I'm not having it done to mine, but if I get a backup I probably will now that I know what mine sounds like on record.

 

[AceBoogie]

once that amp is healthy you will love it..i had a black dot III for a while and she was a monster! did well against my buddies mark V

 

[Neptical]

Just for a little bit more reference on the greatness of the amp.

One of my projects, I have a buddy who plays a Peavey 6505. I use my Mark III 'red' and it easily holds its own no problem. I think they compliment each other really nice, especially live. So for what that's worth, you definitely have an amp capable of producing some incredible tones. I think it's kind of funny that I've heard twice now .."wow, that's that really from the 80's"? :lol:

~Nep~

 

[exbest182]

you know I'm actually leaning against getting the mod at the moment... going to let Mike B clean it up and get it in good working order, then I'll decide.. been listening to some red stripe demos and they sound pretty great....

 

[boogiemon]

i've got both a III and III+ and there's not enough difference in the tone to say that the $200 was well spent or that one is better than the other: they're both great.

you know I'm actually leaning against getting the mod at the moment... going to let Mike B clean it up and get it in good working order, then I'll decide.. been listening to some red stripe demos and they sound pretty great....