Mark III low volume playing

[Mr.P]

Hi guys. A friend offer me his mesa mark iii green stripe combo with EVM. I haven't tried the amp yet because its in another town.
Is the mark iii a good choice for practicing at low volume? How much gain does it have?

 

[megavoice]

YES and NO.

At very low volumes i.ex. for practising in the living room it sounds crappy as mostly the preamp wil be in action and it will sound very buzzy-fizzy. On one side you can live with like I do now for a long time but on the other side as I know there's a lot of gear to put in between to improve sound for very low volumes.

But the Class A is mostly concepted to let the amp destort very early. So this is very useful for playing in small clubs at "lower" volumes. But at a certain degree when turning the gain higher it is advised to switch to A/B as Class A becomes a bit muddy. This had been told here by a member recently and I can confirm.

Now be aware of this: Lower volume means at one side playing only with the preamp, but lower volume means also playing loud but with a fine sound without earbleeding......o.k. ?

 

[dlpasco]

I'd add to this that my Mark III is just fine for practicing at low volume, and sounds even better loud. If I need to get it up to about 2 or so for recording I use an attentuator with it.

 

[megavoice]

YES and NO.
.....But the Class A is mostly concepted to let the amp destort very early.

This is not quite correct what I've told above.
In Class A mod the amp begins "TO CLIP" much earlier than in A/B mod.

I'd add to this that my Mark III is just fine for practicing at low volume, and sounds even better loud. If I need to get it up to about 2 or so for recording I use an attentuator with it.

Well, it's completely up to you if you like the pure preamp sound, but for me the pure preamp and the upper power-end sound are completely different worlds.
But as I said, I've learned to live with............

 

[DJPattP]

Depending on what style of music you play or not but that EV will NOT sound good at low volume.

 

[Seanboy]

At what volume would you say the master would have to be at to get the upper power end to kick in, instead of the preamp?

 

[ManCas]

At what volume would you say the master would have to be at to get the upper power end to kick in, instead of the preamp?

It would depend on your settings, speaker, amp and tubes condition, among other things. But, in my experience it would be with the Master Volume at least at 3 or 3,5 (not o'clock settings). Which is LOUD.

 

[MrMarkIII]

Well, it won't be *instead* of the pre-amp, it will be *with* the pre-amp. If you run the pre-amp lower and cleaner, say with the Volume 1 at 5 or so, you won't get enough signal to clip the power section until the Master is cranked. That will be very loud, which I assume you're trying to avoid.
A low volumes, you can't tell the difference anyway. If you insist on clipping the power section, and wearing out the power tubes faster, try an attenuator, which plugs in between the amp and the speaker (not the effects loop). The sound and EQ will change, and there are lots of opinions on whether the changes are good or bad.
Some say the Master is too touchy, but use the Lead Master to fine tune the loudness level. Dial in the level of grind you like, then use the Master and Lead Master to set the loudness. EQ to taste, bearing in mind that EQ at very low volumes is very different than EQ when playing loud. More treble and bass at low levels should do the trick. Or cut mids, it's the same thing.
Easy peasy. No need to over-think it.

 

[kkanne20]

I suppose my v30 will sound different than your evm but speakers aside I can replicate most petrucci tones with lead master between 2-2.5, master to taste and pull/deep engaged for fullness
ymmv