Mellowtronic said:
Ladies and gents,
I tried, I played, I rocked with both a Nomad, and a Mark III and have finally unloaded both. They both had their great sounds,but just not for me I suppose. The Nomad, while with great clean, and great rhythm channel, was lacking in it's lead channels cut ability. It would drown in the mix. The Mark III had a decent clean and a decent lead channel, but a garbage R2(pretty useless actually, with all the woof). To top it all off, it felt dated, like it was made to be stuck in 1986. I know I love to hear the Mesa Boogie sound, I just don't know what else I might like.
The Nomad is perhaps the most aptly named Boogie amp... as it's doomed to forever wander from guitarist to guitarist, never settling down as it's always being sold onto the next guy.
And the Mark III is basically a two channel head. It's best to forget that R2 even exists.
If you're looking for variety, I used to set up R1 quite gainy, then clean it up using the volume on my guitar. Basically, I treated it like an old single channel amp for my clean to mean rhythm tones... then stepped on the lead channel like it was an overdrive pedal. Gave me a fair bit of versitiliy when used like that.
Maybe I need a more modern/smooth sound, but dual recs are surely not my thing.
For leads or rhythm? If it's for leads, put a compressor in front. Also consider that the Mark III is the most raw sounding of all the Marks. The II and IV were smoother.
I played an Orange Rockerverb yesterday and was blown away.
See below.
Any other suggestions before I leave the family behind?
Try before you buy.
Mellowtronic said:
You've all said some interesting things here. Who knows, maybe some time away, and a retube and I'll find what I need. Who knows, maybe I'll get the Rockerverb, fall in love, and still need the MKIII. Only time will tell.
A few years ago I also became tired of the Boogie sound. I sold my Mark III and Rectifier and bought a Rocker 30. I liked it, but it wasn't what I was looking for so I also bought an AD30. Played them for awhile, decided they didn't have the headroom I wanted, sold them and bought an AD140 and Rockerverb 50. Nice amps, totally bland sounding. I replaced the AD140 with a boutique type Orange OR-120 sounding amp with the gain of a JCM800. I'm keeping this. I recently bought a Lone Star and love it, and the Rockerverb 50 is on the chopping block as I type this.
Anyway, my point is that the grass isn't always greener, though sometimes you need to stand on the other side of the fence for awhile to see it.
Mellowtronic said:
As for modern, I suppose I mean more sleek, more tight, more smooth. Def NOT recto or 5150 style, but smoother than "vintage."
If you want smoother than a Mark III you might like the Mark IV (or V).
Further, try experiementing with a Dual Rectifier. Despite popular opinion, you don't need to make it sound like a nu-metal band or pop-punk parody.... it does have other sounds in it, and the new ones are much smoother/warmer sounding than the ones they were putting out a few years ago.
I have thought that maybe the Lonestar and Stiletto might be something to check out. My intial thoughts of the Stiletto were so blah, but I saw the Roots guitarist ripping holes in the atmopshere with one onstage, and thought maybe I didn't do something right!
The Stiletto is a revealing amp that covers little while amplifying all your shortfalls as a player. It's not an amp that'll make you sound good, you need to make it sound good. The trade off of owning one is that it'll make you a better player.
A Mark is A fire breather, plain and simple.
