I found the SWEET SPOT

[>Photi G<]

After almost a year of tweaking my Blue Stripe, and being dissatisfied with it's fizzly, thin tone, I FOUND IT.

I am so confident that this is the best tone I've ever gotten out of the Mark III, I say it even gives IIC+ owners a run for their money. It is aptly named "The Cream," on the settings editor, because, it just is. Crunch tones on the lead channel sound like butter, not the typical ice pick highs, and thin lows. I really based it off of John Petrucci's tone on Systematic Chaos: Aggressive, yet smooth, tight, yet surprisingly harmonic, and extremely touch sensitive. Softer picking gets you a really cool sound like a Dumble, harder picking gets you sustain and overtones like only a C+ could deliver. I'll post a video as soon as I can, because it is a heavenly sound. Keep in mind that my Mark III is an un-modded DRG with an EVM, and in bad need of a cap job (major ghost notes when soloing).

I know, bragging, but it just made owning this amp worthwhile. I finally found what a Mark should sound like, and it is beautiful.

Settings: Notice how low Volume 1 and Treble are. Also, no Bass shift or Deep are engaged That's the secret! :twisted:

Just try it out. You'll see what I mean.

 

[okgb]

Thanks for the post , I'll have to try it out
cause i know i hate mine .

 

[pegagos]

Photi G,

I've been playing with my mark III blue stripe with the volume 1 to at least 7 since I got it over a year ago. To tell you the truth, I've been pleased with the sound of my MKIII. Just a couple of days ago, after I replaced the wiring on my Gibson LP with RS guitarworks modern kit (by the way, I recommend this to anyone), I wanted to see how the guitar responded to different amp settings. It's funny because I also think I found my sweet spot. And guess what, the settings are very similar to yours. I realized that the trick was getting volume 1 to around 5 and the treble to around 6.5 or 7 (it was 8 before) just like you did. I was under the impression that in order for the amp to sound good, you needed to have the volume 1 as high as possible in order for the order channels to sound decent. I am glad I lowered and it works great for me and my playing style. The side effect is that I have less gain on my R2 channel, which is fine with me because now I can use that channel for a blues type sound and then beef it up with Xotic BB Preamp in front of the amp (which the amp seems to take a lot better now). I also notice that my amp is more articulate and more sensitive to how hard I pick, which for me is a good thing. The lead channel is just heaven. Yes, it also has less gain that it used to with the volume 1 at 7 or 8, but it still has plenty. It's definitely smoother in my opinion. I can't wait to crank it up during band practice this Friday to see how it responds at higher master volume settings.

I am glad to see someone else with similar settings. Most of the settings suggestions on this forum seem to have the volume 1 and treble on the high end and I am glad I experimented with lower settings on these two. I know these things are subjective and it all depends on the player's style, guitar output and taste, etc. Give it a try and if you don't like it switch it back to your normal settings.

Just for the record, I like play heavy blues, rock, hard rock, classic rock, some metal and funk type of thing. My MKIII is loaded with JJs high gain on the preamps and JJs 6l6 and EL34L on the power section. I use a Gibson LP Studio with the Seymour Duncan hot rodded humbucker set.

 

[emoshurchak]

I have a blue stripe as well and can hardly wait to try out your settings. What model guitar guitar are you using Photi?

 

[okgb]

So far after trying it yesterday ,
I had to bring the vol 1 back up to 7 ish
to smooth out R2 ,
I'll have to try backing off the bass/ mid pots
that much , but it's definitely a different feel
making it up with the eq [ which i try to do
a little of both ]

 

[megavoice]

Hi Photi G,

Is yours a simul or not ?

Thanks

 

[kdorsey]

Photi, have you tried this with any external speaker cabs? My settings (mine's a green stripe, though) are very close to yours and run 2 Boogie 2x12 half back cabs. That lowers the drive on each speaker, smoothing out the harshness usually attributed to heavy driving the single EV. My settings still use the Deep and bass shift, but will consider your EQ settings. I'm also running a NOS cocktail in my preamp tubes including Tung-Sol and RFT.

I play heavy blues, classic rock and some metal, fyi.

 

[megavoice]

Mine is as very close as well. But what about your "Pull Deep" at everyone of you ? Pushed in, all bottom is gone.

I#ve a Redstripe.

 

[kramerxxx]

I have a Mark III blue, a Mark V and a Dual Rec. With all of them if I run the power section louder and the channel section lower, I get better tone.

With the Mark III I run the Master between 2-3, volume 1 5-6, Lead gain 5-6, Lead volume 3. I then use the guitar volume to manage whether it's a clean-ish or gain sound. I sometimes run a BB Preamp in front of that for more gain and a volume boost for leads.

With the Dual Rec I run the master noon-1pm, and then balance channels 2 and 3 with whatever Clean channel 1 volume I need.

With the Mark V I run the master between 11-noon.

With both the DR and V you lose some of the Solo function volume but the Tone is WAY better, with less fizz in the gain sounds and a rounder, more pleasing clean sound.