Mark III Red Stripe Unleashed

[steve_k]

After a week of it sitting here, I finally got my Mark III Red Stripe unpacked and tubed and fired up (I wish Randall would have put all the preamp tube sockets in the same direction!). It took a bit to figure out the controls on this thing. **** what a beast this is with all the gains dimed. The little piece of history just blows my mind! Haven't had this much fun with my clothes on in a while... :mrgreen:

They sent me Mesa 34's and 6L6's for the power end and JJ's for preamps. The Simulclass really sings on the Mark III, almost sounding on the border of stereo.

Steve

 

[boogiemon]

Yeah, i'm still impressed at the balls my MIII has and if you consider that these things are close to 25 years old now, ****.

After a week of it sitting here, I finally got my Mark III Red Stripe unpacked and tubed and fired up (I wish Randall would have put all the preamp tube sockets in the same direction!). It took a bit to figure out the controls on this thing. **** what a beast this is with all the gains dimed. The little piece of history just blows my mind! Haven't had this much fun with my clothes on in a while... :mrgreen:

They sent me Mesa 34's and 6L6's for the power end and JJ's for preamps. The Simulclass really sings on the Mark III, almost sounding on the border of stereo.

Steve

 

[steve_k]

Yeah, i'm still impressed at the balls my MIII has and if you consider that these things are close to 25 years old now, ****.

After a week of it sitting here, I finally got my Mark III Red Stripe unpacked and tubed and fired up (I wish Randall would have put all the preamp tube sockets in the same direction!). It took a bit to figure out the controls on this thing. **** what a beast this is with all the gains dimed. The little piece of history just blows my mind! Haven't had this much fun with my clothes on in a while... :mrgreen:

They sent me Mesa 34's and 6L6's for the power end and JJ's for preamps. The Simulclass really sings on the Mark III, almost sounding on the border of stereo.

Steve

Its a beast for sure. A few pots are a little scratchy. I wish I had gotten it drop shipped to Mesa or an amp tech for a tune up before sending it over to me.

 

[emperor_black]

What sort of tones can you get say at max gain? can it do death metal like old carcass, arch enemy, nevermore, etc? I just got a Mark IV and am very impressed. but on the local craigslist a guy said he has a MK III for $750.

thanks

 

[steve_k]

What sort of tones can you get say at max gain? can it do death metal like old carcass, arch enemy, nevermore, etc? I just got a Mark IV and am very impressed. but on the local craigslist a guy said he has a MK III for $750.

thanks

I am not so sure I would depend on it for death metal. But, if you got the money to spend, it is definitely an amp worth picking up. It has loads of driven crunch and drive. I don't find loads of sustain on it though when ripping through some leads. I am still messing with it though and with the way the gain stacks run on the amp, it takes a little dialing in. The thing about the III is the tone is very deep and articulate. It seems almost 3 dimensional and sounds like a stereo amp with little trails when wanking up and down the fretboard. Maybe some of the others have an opinion on it as a death metal amp. I picked the Red Stripe up for under $700 on flea-bay. I hear the red is most like the IIC+ and the blue has a little more gain. Don't know though and the differences I am told are subtle.

Steve

 

[kmanick]

I had a III Red stipe before I sold it for the IV(a) I currently have.
with a good clean boost in front of it (I use a modded Boss Sd-1) and an MXR 10 Band EQ in the loop
you can get Nevemore, Arch Enemy heavy with it , no problemo (that's actually the kind of stuff I played thru mine and now my IV)
Nevemore, Arch Enemy,SYL, Scar Symmetry the heavier Dream Theater stuff, with the boost and the EQ you can get a kind of tighter recto-ish feel out of it.
I actually do the same thing with my IV and it sounds just amazing. I play of lot of 7 string shreddy stuff and it works great.
the 6505+ would also be a good one to look at if this is the kind of stuff you're into playing too.
As heavy as the original 5150 but I think the lead tone is a little smoother.

 

[scottcrud]

Man, tone is subjective, me and the other guitarist use MKIII, in fact check out our myspace page, all the songs were recorded with MKIII's. I'd say yes, they can do death metal, in fact our old band Deadhorse was considered a borderline death metal band and MKIII's and .50 Calibers were our main amps. Oh, and we don't use boost pedals either.