Les Paul + Mark III Lead

[guitarsawicki]

My bandmate has Les Paul and Sundown 1987 head. He tried My Mark III blue stripe (with his Les Paul) and said that the lead channel is no good! Is he a jerk? :lol:

I tried to dial the amp but he didn't like any of it! He liked both rhythm channels. His pickups are passive. When he tried the lead channel with my guitars he said it sounds good. These are my guitars:

Doubleneck stratocaster with 6 EMG S pickups
Stratocaster without tremolo arm with 2 EMG S and EMG 81 pickups
Stratocaster with Floyd Rose tremolo arm and 2 EMG S and EMG H pickups

I have tried my amp with many Les Pauls and in my opinion they sounded very good with all three channels.

 

[Elpelotero]

A lot depends on the guitar in question, as well as the pickups. My buddy has a VOS 1957 Les Paul Black Beauty that sounded stiff when plugged into all three of my amps. In comparison, my cheap guitar sounded fat and creamy. Mesas really let the tone shine through. Some guitars simply go well with certain amps

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

IMO, the Mark series reacts much better with the preamp driven hard, especially if you're looking for a searing lead tone.

Your EMGs do that much better than his Les Paul stock pups I would think!

 

[guitarsawicki]

That Les Paul sounds muddy with the lead channel even when I try it with bass and master knobs pushed in. The clean channel with front pickup sounds very good and is pretty bright. So I guess that the pickups are OK. Pickups look like these:

http://www.hudobne-nastroje.sk/img_products/Gibson-Les-Paul-Classic.jpg

 

[pmb]

Don't les paul pickups have a pretty high output. At least the les paul classic

 

[Boogiebabies]

My favorite Les Paul Pickups are 57 Classic's, but they squeal like pigs.
they sound phenominal through all of my MK amps. I went to Fralins and they did not cut it, so I lobbed out $ 320 for a set of Duncan Custom Shop 78's and I have never heard such a lively and harmonically diverse pickup. It loves Boogies and has a huge bottom end with no mush. In turn, my EBMM Luke I's with EMG 85's all provide a smoother tone with a bit more output. Other than the Fralin's being dull, I have never had a pickup sound really bad in the Boogie's.

 

[Shep]

i don't see the mk III as a lead amp.. i use it for rhy's.. it is a amzing rhy amp and can out do anything but for leads mk IV..

 

[Boogiebabies]

i don't see the mk III as a lead amp.. i use it for rhy's.. it is a amzing rhy amp and can out do anything but for leads mk IV..

Wha ?

 

[carlosasi]

mark iii no good for lead..hello Mcfly. Although i find no weakness in any channel the lead is perfect. The iv & iii are very close on lead channel. Both my guitars sound great with my iii, but my les paul sounds the best. Maybe its the pick ups, but bring me over jimmy page's guitar and i bet it will sound real sweet on the lead channel.

V pld 7
t p 8
b p 2
m 4
ms p 2
ld p 7
lm p 2.5
simul
rev 7
prsc 3
Eq v
Letr rip

 

[ramalam]

With humbuckers and especially a heavy hander picker, you might want to keep volume one under 7. Volume one sets up the sensitivity to the guitar.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

That's one of the qualities of a tube amp, reacts differently to different guitars. The les paul and your amp/cab might just not get along with whatever settings your using, especially the passive vs active pups. I loved the tone of my les paul through both my mark iv and mark iii, but I had to change a few settings compared to my 7 strings.

 

[edward]

My 05 Standard (burstbucker pros) and my MKIII sound amazing together ... R1, R2, and especially on the Lead channel. Tight, harmonically rich, creamy , simply gorgeous! But that said, certain amps/guitar combos do work better (or less than great) than others. FWIW, while I love my MKIII, I prefer playing my LP through it. But when I use the Strat or Tele, I reach for the DC5. It's just "better" this way

Edward

 

[carlosasi]

With humbuckers and especially a heavy hander picker, you might want to keep volume one under 7. Volume one sets up the sensitivity to the guitar.

Agreed, but pushing v1 to about 7 you can reduce the drop in vol when switching channels imo.

 

[Boogiebabies]

The sensitivity of the guitar/pickups is pre-determined once you plug in. Unlike most other amps, MK series amps connect the guitar input right to the preamp tube grid. There are no 22K, or 68K resistors for roll off or RF shielding, just the pickup signal straight to the tube. The Volume one is a typical gain stage. The lower the signal it passes, the brighter the tone is. The higher it is used, the more treble is shelved off. In conjunction with the pull bright's capacitor, it's effect is just barely noticed above 7 or 8.
If you have a Volume 1 with a decent taper you will notice an audible change from 7 to 8. If your Volume 1 is all over, like many Mesa's are just use your ears and you will hear where the tone goes from open and bright to smoother and compressed. The Volume 1 is very important and versatile in how it sets the tone. Try it at 5-6 with the Treble Pull Shift, Pull Deep and Pull Bright. It's huge, ballsy and an uber-blues tone. The MK's are very versatile.

 

[carlosasi]

Don't get me started. You could go on for months with all the settings and capabilities of the Marks. That 5-6 range is ridiculously huge when set as you mention. That versatility is the beauty of the amp and sadly what drives some away. Almost like thinning of the heard.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Don't get me started. You could go on for months with all the settings and capabilities of the Marks. That 5-6 range is ridiculously huge when set as you mention. That versatility is the beauty of the amp and sadly what drives some away. Almost like thinning of the heard.

More for us then. Let them thin away.

 

[Restless Rocks]

Don't get me started. You could go on for months with all the settings and capabilities of the Marks. That 5-6 range is ridiculously huge when set as you mention. That versatility is the beauty of the amp and sadly what drives some away. Almost like thinning of the heard.

More for us then. Let them thin away.

Here Here !!!!!

I've used the adage "Tone is in the ear of the listener" several times. BUT! I've also play'd Mark amps in every conceivable situation since my first purple stripe in 1985 and I've never had a problem getting any sound I've wanted from whatever guitar I was using to suit the song. I'm beginning to think that the reason some of these folks can't find a good sound is because they don't have the sound in their head to begin with. If you don't know what you wish to hear you'll probably never find it by accident. There's way too many on here that buy the guitar somebody uses and pickups somebody uses and the amp somebody uses then come on asking how somebody else set's their knobs and what kind of tubes somebody uses and puts some silly *** purple or pink strings on the thing because somebody else does.
I guess I've been lucky in that as a working musician (most of us don't get rich ya know) I've always had to make do with what I had to work with. At the end of the night it's what you did with it that counts.

Let me also say that I'm fully aware of those of you who are obviously pro level players and or extremely well informed about your rig. I think those of you will relate to particular instances I'm referring to here. So please don't take offense unless of course the shoe fits. Those of us realize that no one amp or no one guitar is all things to everybody and respect that. Not to worry as most of them will soon convert to custom "Guitar Hero" rigs and there will be Boogies for sale all over.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Don't get me started. You could go on for months with all the settings and capabilities of the Marks. That 5-6 range is ridiculously huge when set as you mention. That versatility is the beauty of the amp and sadly what drives some away. Almost like thinning of the heard.

More for us then. Let them thin away.

Here Here !!!!!

I've used the adage "Tone is in the ear of the listener" several times. BUT! I've also play'd Mark amps in every conceivable situation since my first purple stripe in 1985 and I've never had a problem getting any sound I've wanted from whatever guitar I was using to suit the song. I'm beginning to think that the reason some of these folks can't find a good sound is because they don't have the sound in their head to begin with. If you don't know what you wish to hear you'll probably never find it by accident. There's way too many on here that buy the guitar somebody uses and pickups somebody uses and the amp somebody uses then come on asking how somebody else set's their knobs and what kind of tubes somebody uses and puts some silly *** purple or pink strings on the thing because somebody else does.
I guess I've been lucky in that as a working musician (most of us don't get rich ya know) I've always had to make do with what I had to work with. At the end of the night it's what you did with it that counts.

Let me also say that I'm fully aware of those of you who are obviously pro level players and or extremely well informed about your rig. I think those of you will relate to particular instances I'm referring to here. So please don't take offense unless of course the shoe fits. Those of us realize that no one amp or no one guitar is all things to everybody and respect that. Not to worry as most of them will soon convert to custom "Guitar Hero" rigs and there will be Boogies for sale all over.

Still fine with me. I have two spots open for a Simul-EQ-Reverb-Export IIC+ and a Colisum IIC+ Simul-EQ-Reverb, both preferably in hardwood heads. I am a proud member of the Boogie Whooer Association. I'm not in it for the money. It's been a 22 year chase since hearing my first C+.

 

[Restless Rocks]

Ed! Please tell me you don't use blue tie die'd strings. Hopefully we'll both end up fat n' happy with a basement full of Boogies and fine guitars. I like you play Boogies by choice. But I ain't gett'n no guitar hero machine thank you very much.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Ed! Please tell me you don't use blue tie die'd strings. Hopefully we'll both end up fat n' happy with a basement full of Boogies and fine guitars. I like you play Boogies by choice. But I ain't gett'n no guitar hero machine thank you very much.

No, even the yougin's have real mini strats and can plug into the Boogie's.
For strings I'm really happy with Everly B-52's on rosewood boards and D'Addario's for maples. I eat strings on rosewoods for some reason.

I was thinking you saw a shift in the market where players would ditch thier Boogie's for digital junk and we could corner the market. I'm not in this for the money, I've just had the Boogie sickness for a long time. I could have cashed out already and bought a Z06 Corvette. I could have picked you up for breakfast at the Daniel Boone Inn and you could listen to me complain about how I sold out for a car.

No Guitar Hero stuff here. The closest I have is a Sesame Street guitar that my boy would play on. Elmo can wail....