Would love to hear some tonal comparisons between the DC-5 and the Mark III.
Alrighty, but you asked for it
A few disclaimers: I have gone through many tube changes to "soften" both these amps more to my liking. My final recipe resulted in a variety of preamp changes to 5751, at7s, and ax7s; mixture of NOS-ers and current-prod RI preamp/power tubes: the result from my experimentation probably does not fully reflect what Mesa intended, but I have arrived at a wonderful tube recipe for less gainy, harmonically rich, rounder, chimey tone. Not a "vast" difference from the original, but enough of a diff that makes me NEVER want to sell these two. I play no metal, and shred not a note (ok, maybe one or two notes, but just for fun). My style is more classic and comtemp rock, blues-based rock, contemp worship, and almost all my cleans have some bit of hair around the edges ...no "spanky" country clean. That said:
Cleans:
DC5 warm and round; more of a "mid voicing" to it. Nice chime and sparkle up top, warm defined mids. Almost always has "some" breakup, though, and "spanky" clean is not its strong suit; though "bluesy/hairy" semi-clean is very much its strength.
MKIII has much more bottom, defined and powerful/tight. Like a large Fender (a la Twin or Super R) in its authority down low and crisp, pleasant highs. It literally sound physically larger! Less mid/upper-mid voicing. Brighter overall, though, (and capable of also being MUCH brighter, still) than the DC5 ...I admittedly avoid ever playing my Tele through her for this reason, but the Strat is fine. Huge headroom, and spanky clean is tremendous ("out Fenders" a Fender, IMHO!), and takes pedals well. As I had said, since I rarely ever play "country clean" I may use a bit of OD pedal on the R1 to smoke it up a bit. And on that note, she takes pedals without a hitch and sounds glorious with whatever I've put up front.
Lead channel:
DC5: smooth and harmonically rich, capable of lots of saturation (more than I need/want which is why I chose to gain her down just a tad here). Serious metal-capable tones, but easily does the classic rock thing with aplomb. This is a very thick channel and my Strat and Tele (single coils, of course) work great here. Lots of tonal versatility here with just a tweak of the gain knob and a couple of the GEQ sliders ...Mesa absolutely knew what they were doing here
MKIII: Awesome. Period. Wow. It is just more "rude" or "edgy" than the more polite/smooth DC5. It's just a different flavor, as if the MKIII can assume "Road Warrior" (a la Mel Gibson) toughness attitude and the DC5 is more refined 007 kill potential. ...which is why I had to keep both
Sure the DC's OD is great, but the bottom end that comes out of the III (mine is a simul green) is nothing short of tremendous: tight with serious authority. Metal (not me, but it's there) can be had in spades. Mids are well defined and "in yer face" (in the best way possible, of course), while highs are searing and crisp (for me, a bit too much initially, but I "corrected" that with some tube swaps and EQing). I wouldn't go as far to say the DC5 is a "dark" amp, but the MKIII is simply a brighter amp overall. Individual note definition also is better, especially as the OD and saturation increases. And it's on this channel where humbuckers excel. My LP sounds as if it were made for this amp, or vice versa. The drive you get and the harmonics that jump out from buckers is nothing short of intoxicating.
R2 is a different world, and there is no DC5 equivalent (I hate the DC's pull boost and never use it). But the R2 (with the vol pot mod) is a nice in-betweener crunch tone with a definite mid/upper-mid voicing that's nice for some tunes. I hated this channel with the stock tubes, but have grown to love this channel once I got her dialed in. I use it more than I had expected to.
Keep in mind that I mix/match spkrs depending on this or that circumstance. So I may be running the DC5 combo's MC90 alone, or combined with an EVM-Thiele cab; or the MKIII head may be with an old Mesa 112 EVM-openbacked cab on its own, or with the EVM-Thiele on its own (or both just to have some fun!
). But whatever the spkr combination I am running, all the above characteristics still apply. The bottom line is that with either of these amps, I could cover vast expanses of tonal ground. But having both is simply grin factor squared: just so much there between the two that I easily justify keeping both. And I am no gear hound or sentimentalist: if I don't like it or use it, out the door it goes.
Forgive the long-winded response, but remember. You asked for it.
Edward
