Mark III brainwashing

[E_R]

ok...so I have been here long enough to know Mark III's can kick *** in the "metal" scene so I may need to get myself one....I have a question about one (pictured below).

Seems the Blue stripe if favorable for high gain stuff?
Which color stripe is this thing?
Was there ever a Purple stripe, (looks purple to me) and if so what's the story on it?
Check the pic maybe I'm just going color blind or something.
It seems to have all the options (simul/reverb/EQ) available at the time, but $1200 seems a little high? It's a short head.
Any help on this one would be greatly appreciated.

 

[phyrexia]

I love my blue stripe but I'd bet any of the IIIs could do metal/hard rock.

I would say $1200 is too much. I got my combo (which is just a base-model 60w but still) for $500.

 

[carlosasi]

I'm a very new owner of a Mark III Blue Stripe loaded. Paid $700 for a 1 x12 EM Speaker $1200 seems high.

Looks Purple to me, but I can't be sure. I bet all Mark III are good. I need more time with mine before I offer any useful feedback, but so far HOLY &^%* is this thing awesome.

Check these sites out for more info.

http://homepage.mac.com/mesaboogie/serials.html

http://homepage.mac.com/mesaboogie/dot.html

These sites were posted before by other Mark III lovers.

 

[Boogiebabies]

I think Purple was the shortest stripe version.
It's a nice amp, but I shagged a 90 Green Stripe long chassis-Simul/EQ/Reverb for $ 590 from Guitar Center of all places. The same place I bought my mint MK IV B combo from for $ 750.

In the orient, it would be know as " Too high".

 

[Russ]

For $1200 I'd be asking for the matching 4x12

 

[Paul Secondino]

$1200.00 is most definitely too high. A mark 3 in clean condition shouldn't sell for over $850.00 and that would be pretty much dead mint. I got my Blue stripe head in very good condition for $750.00

As far as tone goes, some guys want instant metal. The Mark 3 doesn't do instant metal . But bring the thing to a good sized club and crank it up and you'll be amazed by how good it sounds and how much better it cuts than some of the more common amps like a Peavey XXX or 5150 or Rectos

When recording, stick a mic on axis and let it rip. What seems like a hot rodded marshall will actually sound pretty Metal if you play tight enough. A recto has the more compressed / EQ'd sound when you're right in front of it but I'd put my Mark 3 up against any Recto and be very comfortable.

 

[eldi]

I get a really good 80's-esque metal sound out of my Mk III no-stripe, although I'm not sure how well it would do for extremely detuned/7-string nu-metal sounds (Drop D is as low as I go...)

A year ago, I paid $650 for my simulclass long head. $1,200 would be a fair price for a used Mk IV in excellent condition.

 

[reo73]

$1200 would be a rip-off. Mark III's pop up very frequently on ebay and for a head with all the fix'ns you should not pay more than $800.

As for the stripe, the purple was an early generation and from what I have heard it had level problems between the R1 and Lead channels which were ironed out in later stripes. Most people seem to regard the red and blue stripes as the most desirable though I bet it would be very difficult to tell much difference between any of the stripes except maybe the green.

Lastly, the gain on a Mark III is similar to that of Early Metallica or early Dream Theater. I believe Whitesnakes "Still of the Night" is a Mark III as well. IMO it is up there in gain with all the modern metal amps, just voiced a bit different.

Anyway...save your money for a red, blue, or green head and make sure it is a true simulclass and not the half power.

 

[E_R]

You guys rock, thanks for all the input/advice.
Yeah $1200 seemed more than a bit to high to me.

I've gone through a Boogie DC-5 and a Nomad 100 both heads.
Each one sounded fantastic...but not quite "it" . So finding a mesa that will fill the ticket is top priority.
I'll digress for a moment ....
I bought a Express 5:50 head 2 weeks ago and returned it 8 days later (they have a 10 day trial) although it had enough gain..it lacked saturation big time, IMO....not to mention that was a noisy sucker on chan 2.
I tried the 12AT7 in the V1 position as advised by mesa HW it did a little to quiet it down but not enough.
Settings on the 5:50 (that I liked) were as follows:
Burn mode
gain: 2:50 ish almost 3:00
treb 12:30
mid 12:40
bass:11:30
Contour: 2:00
Guitars,
Roscoe w/Seymour Duncan C.C. bridge
Epi LP Limited w/SD CC bridge 59' neck

The clean chan was good no matter the settings..the reverb F'in rocked on both chan.
Now I mention this because when I say "metal" I'm talking about Dio (think "Stand up and Shout/Mystery"), Def Leppard (think "Wasted" album) Iron Maiden (think "Total Elclipse") Megadeth ("think the Conjuring") ( hey look every one can tell im in my early 30's now LOL)

Yes I know all those songs were done with Marshall amps (or the like as far as I know). I have been there done that with 4 Marshall heads, the quality was lacking and to one dimentional tone to me...that and I have a JMP and dual mono block. It has 2 dimensions LOL.
So with my desire in mind and guitar/cab in hand I went to my local mesa dealer (because the one I bought the express from is far as hell).
I tried a dual rec..nope, Roadster...really cool, especially with the el34's Heck I even tried a green stripe combo plugged up to my 4x12 very close......very.
Then they pulled a Stiletto Deuce (stage 2) out of a box for me to try, yep that's the one. So now all I have to do is see about grill/face options...because the croco has to go .Then drive up to the other dealer to actually buy the amp.

Now back to you guys, it's awesome that I can ask something and get this kinda feedback so quickly. Thanks much..I'll start a new thread about the "Stiletto way of life" after I figure out the "croco" problem and get it ordered.

 

[murray]

mark 111 stripes were in order of issue
no mark or black dot or + only a few hundred made
purple stripe re-shaping of r2
red stripe
blue stripe
green stipe

if it sounds good who cares about the price its the sound everybody wants

 

[JimAnsell]

Anyway...save your money for a red, blue, or green head and make sure it is a true simulclass and not the half power.

someone here said that Mike B. told them the half power switch on mark III long heads is really simul/class a.

 

[reo73]

Anyway...save your money for a red, blue, or green head and make sure it is a true simulclass and not the half power.

someone here said that Mike B. told them the half power switch on mark III long heads is really simul/class a.

I think I have heard that too but was never quite sure???

 

[Zoner]

Anyway...save your money for a red, blue, or green head and make sure it is a true simulclass and not the half power.

someone here said that Mike B. told them the half power switch on mark III long heads is really simul/class a.

I think I have heard that too but was never quite sure???

It was a different kind of Simul switching where the "low" power option produced quite a bit more than the ususal 15 watts, I'm just not sure how much juice was on hand in the lower power mode. My greenie was still brutally loud at half-power, and I didn't notice much tonal change. The outer tube sockets were wired differently on the greenies,(the triode vs. pentod thingie I suppose) and I believe you can re-do the sockets on other MKIII's to get the same result. Just don't ask me how! Z

 

[Boogiebabies]

Other than black dots, when was the last time you saw a 60/100 MK III with a stripe? The half power is the Simul-Class / Class A switch. They also have a Simul sticker on the back. If they ran out of Simul stickers, all you need to look for is 562003 on the OT.

The triode connection is made by connecting pins 3 and 4 with the screen grid resistor. The Green Stripe does not have this, hence the pentode wiring. I would not put too much thought into output power. The pots are all over the place and you should know by now that Boogie's are obnoxiously loud anyway.

 

[Shep]

i have seen 60 watt and 60/100 watt blue stripe's..

 

[carlosasi]

So what is the wattage of the simu/class A config?

 

[Zoner]

On yours it is 85/15 I do believe. Z

 

[carlosasi]

Zoner!

Thanks man. What an amp. Blowing me away. I've had so much fun playing with the infinite settings. I can't think of a better way to spend several evening hours just getting to know my Mark III.

I dropped one of the El 34's unpacking them. Bummer. I've got a new set on order from MESA.

 

[Boogiebabies]

i have seen 60 watt and 60/100 watt blue stripe's..

Yeah, maybe two in the last three years. There all over the place.

 

[psychodave]

Other than black dots, when was the last time you saw a 60/100 MK III with a stripe? The half power is the Simul-Class / Class A switch. They also have a Simul sticker on the back. If they ran out of Simul stickers, all you need to look for is 562003 on the OT.

The triode connection is made by connecting pins 3 and 4 with the screen grid resistor. The Green Stripe does not have this, hence the pentode wiring. I would not put too much thought into output power. The pots are all over the place and you should know by now that Boogie's are obnoxiously loud anyway.

Not to be ignorant... but on My Mark III Long head blue stripe, the 1/2 power switch on the front is actually a Class A switch? (the amp doesnt have any switch on the back right side). Thanks 8)