I found a Mark III locally, but a little confused... help!

[doctadre]

Ok, so I found a guy locally that has a Green Stripe Mark III amp head. I checked it out today. It is a long head version, with 4 switches for Power, half/full power, standby, and EQ in/auto.


I also noticed that on the back of the amp, the "R2 mod" was there, next to the presence knob. However, the thing that confuses me is that there is what appears to be a reverb knob in the front of the amp too! What the heck could be going on here? I believe this is a 1989 green stripe.


Anybody have any clues as to why it would be like that? Also, it seemed as if the Reverb was more pronounced when I turned the R1 and R2 volumes down more. If they were too high, the reverb becomes very subtle.


Thanks,



Dre

 

[MrMarkIII]

The reverb knob is usually on the front panel of wide heads. The back panel will still have the hole for the reverb knob next to the presence knob, because narrow and wide heads use the same part for the back panel. The wide heads will have a plastic plug here. It's the perfect place to stick the R2 mod knob on the wide head.

The HALF/FULL power switch is really the Simul-Class switch.
For a green striper, full power is 85 watts, the other way is 25.

 

[doctadre]

Thanks!! That clears up a lot for me!



Dre

 

[Neptical]

Doc - Are you looking for a green stripe? As I'm sure you've read, that'll be the closest to your IV. They're pretty ferocious amps.

 

[kdorsey]

If it's in decent shape, that's a good find. Especially with the R2 mod already done (MrMarkIII already nailed all the other details 8) ). Just curious, how much are they asking? And no, I won't poach your opportunity. :wink: I've just seen a few MkIII's available around my area too and am interested in comparing perceived value.

And no, I won't sell mine.

 

[doctadre]

Hey,


Yea, I ended up picking up the Mark III for 750. The guy had it listed on ebay for 999, and when I got in touch with him, I got to check it out. It seemed to work fine, though there were questions on the reverb and the EQ switch not working (I figured out the issues there, but it helped me talk him down in price).

I offered 650, he said 800, I said 700, and then finally 750 was reached. It definitely sounds similar to my Mark IV, but a little bit more raw. I definitely like the simpler layout, and the cheaper price. Hopefuly I can get someone to buy my Mark IV soon. I will be trying to see what guitar center offers for it tomorrow. If it is less than 1000 I will just keep it for sale locally.

The Clean channel of the III is really nice, and the reverb is better too. I think the Mark III is better than my Mark IV was, though the Mark IV was a little more responsive to control tweaking. Meaning, it didnt need as much precise tweaking to sound good as the Mark III did.



Dre
Dre