Mark III 4 month review

[topalchohol]

(long winded post warning) Hi all. It's been a busy spring for me and I thought it was time to review my baby, a Mark III blue stripe combo, loaded, ev12, eq, simulclass, reverb, all 3 switches and cover in almost new condition. I paid on the high end of the price spectrum, but it was everything I wanted (and even better than expected) and am happy with the purchase. I have been through alot of amps trying to find my tone. Marshall Vintage Modern, Peavey XXX and 6505+, and Carvin X100b to name a few. I found something to like in all of these amps, but they all lacked something... each one would fill something the previous one missed, but at the expense of not having something the other one had.

Enter Mark III. I wandered into my local guitar center dead set on buying a single rec. I saw they had the new Mark V in so I tried it out. I liked it, but wasn't completely sold on it. So, I decided to wait a while and keep using my backup rig which is a Digitech rp500 into a p.a. speaker. Inspired by the Mark V, I decided to fiddle with the Mark IV preamp of the digitech. At first I was confused as it sounded muddy and weird, so I thought, hmmm.... I heard a Mark IV was hard to dial so I looked at the Mesa manual for one, entered the reccomended values into the digitech, and it came to life! This was the tone I'd been searching for.... almost. Needed tube warmth. Because of my noobery with boogies, I'd decided against the Mark V without understanding how the controls interact with each other and had bought another guitar with 1/2 my money budgeted for the Mark V. So I did some research and came across the Mark III.

:shock: The day it arrived, I knew my tone search was over. Great cleans, Evil crunch, singing leads, killer reverb, and the best effects loop I've ever used. Let me also say I normally hate combos. Usually they sound small and boxy. Not this beast. Huge tone with the ev12L. Even bigger now that I added a new C90 loaded thiele cab underneath! Mini stack of doom. I decided against the r2 volume mod for now, as I am running a radial Plexitube in front for my Marshall tones, and it kills! And my rp500 is great through the loop for delays, etc...

This amp still make me grin like a kid when I turn it on. I Tried the Mark V again the other day, and... I like the III better. Anyway, sorry for the long winded post. Probably useless anyway as I am preaching to the choir! :twisted:

 

[Marcus71]

I, too, enjoy my Mark III Blue. Mine gets Marhsally enough in R2.

 

[>Photi G<]

My Blue Stripe has served me well in the month I've owned it. I still have to get around to doing the Lead Channel "+" mod, and then the little beast will be golden! :twisted:

 

[Neptical]

One of the best, hands down. 8)

All the Best,
~Nep~

 

[ltd2recto]

Are you sayin you know how to do it or gonna send it to mesa?

 

[>Photi G<]

Are you sayin you know how to do it or gonna send it to mesa?

It's been discussed before. It's basically inserting a capacitor on the Lead Drive stage, and swapping a capacitor in the Presence circuit (depending on your stripe color, your mileage may vary).

I'm probably going to do it myself, since money is tight, and, other than that, there's no real reason to send it all the way across the country for a 10 minute task.

 

[boogieslayer]

It's been discussed before. It's basically inserting a capacitor on the Lead Drive stage, and swapping a capacitor in the Presence circuit (depending on your stripe color, your mileage may vary).

I'm probably going to do it myself, since money is tight, and, other than that, there's no real reason to send it all the way across the country for a 10 minute task.

maybe so however its not a bad idea to have it cleaned up , replace anything thats wearing out and or burnt out... mike B does a great job

when isent my IIc+ in to him to have the GEQ added on he cleaned it up and holy cow did it make a difference, it was like a whole new amp !

 

[Facelift]

I too have tried many different amps. Marshalls, Randalls, Peavy, all the way to the Bogner Fish. I actually sold my Fish for a loaded blue stripe Mark III head and couldnt be happier in my decision. I know what youre talking about with the smile it brings to your face whenever plugging in to it because I have one from ear to ear as well. :lol: I currently have the head plugged into 2 Warhead cabs (4x12 and 2x15). Also use a Furman Pq4 along with a MXR Flanger/Doubler in the loop and the sound Im getting is HUGE. Only complaint I have with the mark III is the lack of a clean channel when you have the lead channel in its sweet spot. Im contemplating the seperate volume mod so the clean can be usable with heavy distortion settings. Other than that, the Mark III is THE sound Ive been searching for and will never sell it under any circumstances. If it were stolen, the person that did it would surely die a violent death. :lol:

 

[jpdennis]

I have a no stripe (black stripe) Mk III; bare with me as I get to the point.

I recently had the opportunity as well as the need to "turn all my amps up" and see how they compare. I had been using the .50 Caliber with the Mark III as a stereo (no A/B) rig for many reasons. I decided to give each amp about an hour solid play time over two days; I did play them all for more than 1 hour apiece this way. So I used my M13 with all of them starting with the Acoustic 165 and found it to be rather rhythmically chunky and solo wise smooth. I then tested out the Heartbreaker and at louder volumes it seemed to lack clarity at some points along the gain path; I am not satisfied with my ability to really set it up so I will be setting the HB up again next weekend and focusing on it for many hours/days. The Fender 75 had to run a little different but had some great highs, smooth solos, and great cleans though a little brighter then I like across the board. The .50 Caliber is a very versatile amp and after some real fine tuning got great tone across the board; mine does not have the EQ.

Now the real deal. I pulled into the Mark III using every foot pedal it has. No matter what settings I used it just sang out. It is extremely well defined. The overtones are unbelievably clear across the range my ears hear. Plenty of low register bass response, extremely clear highs but not piercing, R1 & R2 & Lead just off the "I love it" spectrum in a positive way, and every note so well defined that I have to make sure I do not get sloppy or else everyone will hear it very plainly. I don't really know how to put what I hear from this amp into words; you just have to hear it - words fall short of what this amp can do. After 10 hours over two days on the Mark III alone I had to shower and eat; I don't really know why but my wife was adamant about that . Oh well, long and short I cannot conceive of a better amp :shock: . However, I may have to go try a Mark V to really see if it is what everyone who owns one says. I still feel for my playing style the Mark III is the ultimate to date for this old rocker.

Dennis

 

[Nazgul666]

I just got a Mark III Blue Stripe a few weeks ago with Graphic EQ, Simul Class and the reverb mod. I wanted to use the Lead channel with EQ engaged for my metal chunk and then footswitch off the eq to play leads. Initially I thought that the lead channel without EQ was too middy and boxy but that was before I turned it up. Once I turned it up, the lead channel even without EQ was really powerful and much more to my liking. Anyone else feel that running this thing loud is important?

I actually love the gainy clean channel. It reminds me of the clean sound on Live Evil for any Iommi fans out there. It sounds just like the intro to Black Sabbath and/or Children of the Sea on the Live Evil Disc. I think Iommi actually used a Mark III Coliseum on that tour. (This is making me sad thinking about Ronnie James!)

You do have to be careful though, finger noise and sloppy noises do get amplified through this amp. It still is smooth to play so I won't say its a hard amp to play because you can definitely shred with it, but it picks up a lot. More than my Marshall for some reason.

 

[jpdennis]

... Anyone else feel that running this thing loud is important? ...

+1

O.K. This may be a little long winded but I will get to the punch line :wink:

I recently had an "undocumented feature" with my .50 Caliber. My effects pedal using the 4CM would send a high and shrill squeal when the volume was past 2 though the system. It didn't happen to any other amp. After much research it was how some of the filter and modulation modelers would handle the mix and the high end especially. But prior to this revelation I called Mesa and was routed to Rich. When I explained my settings on the amp he said that they were "unsupported" settings. I had to think about this since I have all my amps produced through our sound system.

The punch line - The unsupported part is anything which is under 4 or more on the volume and under 2.5 or more on the Master. I thought about this and setup all my amps, like I said earlier. The Mesa's just don't sound right until they get into their sweet spot which is well above 4 or 5 on volume and 3 or 4 on master. And because of the way I insulated my practice studio the Mark was able to get some real crunch going into 6 and above for volume and 4.5 and above for master (ear plugs do help).

I have to say that Rich's comments concerning my settings were as passionate as Mike B when I asked about using a 12AT7 in the 'verb slot. So I set my Mark III as far back as possible off stage right and at a 45 towards the drummer (the loudest stage person). I then set up my Sennheiser about 2.5 to 3 feet away or more from the speaker and turned up the amp. Using the Mesa foot switches, my guitars' volume & tones knobs, the M13, and some expression pedals I was able to get some supported 8) settings for the Mark III and keep the sound man happy all the while "cutting across the music" when necessary. Turn these puppies up and you will need a crowbar to remove the smile on your face or maybe even blasting powder; now why would anyone want to remove a "Mesa Boogie Smile" :?:

Dennis

 

[ltd2recto]

Are you sayin you know how to do it or gonna send it to mesa?

It's been discussed before. It's basically inserting a capacitor on the Lead Drive stage, and swapping a capacitor in the Presence circuit (depending on your stripe color, your mileage may vary).

I'm probably going to do it myself, since money is tight, and, other than that, there's no real reason to send it all the way across the country for a 10 minute task.

I didnt know it was that easy! Care to share a link or post the details?

 

[>Photi G<]

I didnt know it was that easy! Care to share a link or post the details?

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=27879

This thread has a lot of info on the III+ mod. There are basically 3 parts to it: Clean channel, Lead channel, and Presence circuit. Read all about it. :mrgreen:

 

[ltd2recto]

Great info! You da man Photi G.

 

[glgarber]

I have a no stripe (black stripe) Mk III; bare with me as I get to the point.

Now the real deal. I pulled into the Mark III using every foot pedal it has. No matter what settings I used it just sang out. It is extremely well defined. The overtones are unbelievably clear across the range my ears hear. Plenty of low register bass response, extremely clear highs but not piercing, R1 & R2 & Lead just off the "I love it" spectrum in a positive way, and every note so well defined that I have to make sure I do not get sloppy or else everyone will hear it very plainly. I don't really know how to put what I hear from this amp into words; you just have to hear it - words fall short of what this amp can do. After 10 hours over two days on the Mark III alone I had to shower and eat; I don't really know why but my wife was adamant about that . Oh well, long and short I cannot conceive of a better amp :shock: . However, I may have to go try a Mark V to really see if it is what everyone who owns one says. I still feel for my playing style the Mark III is the ultimate to date for this old rocker.

Dennis

This is pretty much my feelings on my No Stripe Mk III. I've had it less than a month, but it is absolutely blowing me away. The CLARITY....

 

[cremona]

This reminds me of the first time i got to crank up my old c+

before that i have been running it at bedroom level because thats i had it until i could take it to rehersal, sounded great amazing infact.

When i finaly got it cranked up through a 4x12 it was like, takeing a drug, the feel and the shere power of the dynamics ,made me smile like i was 5 years old and had just gotten the greatest christmas present ever.

This mark amps sound so godly when the get fired up

 

[CoG]

yeah, I have now been on the mark iii train for a couple of years and no intention of getting off. I'm regretting unloading my 'backup' iii. I have gripes about the clean channel, but oh well.

I recently found what was for me the missing piece-- swapping out the V30s in my 4x12 with 2 original EVM-12s and two Emi RWBs. The EVMs keep the clarity and the RWBs add a little warmth now that they are broken in.

Now it sounds pissed off and kinda stoned, instead of just pissed off. Power supply in the recording workstation died yesterday, but I *will* post clips as soon as it's back b/c I think this is a new speaker mix for most people.