Mark III blue stripe/green stripe = INCREDIBLE. you really can't go wrong with either. the green stripe has 10 watts over the blue due to the class A tubes being wired in pentode rather than triode in the blue. the power section of the blue stripe is IDENTICAL to that of a IIC+, minus the trannys of course. and even there, some people have blue stripes putting 480-490 volts to the plate (mine does 495 and that number hardly ever changes), which means if you upgrade the pre to IIC+ spec, you might have a closer IIC+ than a IIC+ owner. the cleans are awesome. my favorite clean though is to put the volume on 7, switch to the lead channel, put the lead drive in the 7-10 range, switch to neck pickup, and roll back the volume til it cleans up. VERY warm, full, sounds more fendery than some fenders ive heard, and if you pick hard, it'll overdrive really sweetly into that thick SRV sort of drive. make sure it has the EVM12L. I never really looked at the EV's until I got my mark III that had one in it. I will never play another speaker ever again. In short: you cant go wrong with either. the blue stripe is more raw/aggressive. the green stripe is a mark III preamp through a IVA power section. its more smooth, laid back sounding. (that having been said, either one has that throw you up against the wall bash your head in with a spiked bat and bite a hole in your jugular vein sound if you run it right)
