Mark III with a Variac

[Red3]

Has anyone run their Mark with a Variac? Or would that be bad?

 

[xdg999]

I use a variac with all of my amps. The line voltage into the house can get as high as 130 volts. I use the variac to throttle it down to 115-120 volts.

 

[Red3]

I was thinking more along along the lines of what Eddie Van Halen used to do... I think he used a Variac to scale his Marshall back to about 90volts to make it not so loud, back when they played small club gigs. I'd like to know if doing this sort of thing is bad for the amp, especially a Mark.

 

[GJgo]

Well, Mark IVs Vs and Rectifiers all have the feature stock so I'd guess no.

 

[robvoyles]

I've run my mark III with a variac for over 30 years at 86 volts work's beautifully.. you'll know if you go to low when it won't change channels around 66 volts.
hope that helps.

 

[DimePantera1]

Hello.

Is there a distinct tone difference running your Boogie amp at 86volts with a cardiac vs 120volts - normal?

EVH had to lower his amp voltage to 90v so he could max his Marshall superlead volume to -10 to get distortion. Boogie Mark amps have no shortage of distortion!!

Cheers.

 

[robvoyles]

Hey,The tone is not really different, it's the texture,feel, and smoothness of the amps voice that is really noticeable and when you lower the volts your volume drops so to offset that you have to crank the amp's volume more which in turn overdrives the power section into breakup and that is where the magic is using a variac. hope that helps.
Cheers!

 

[woodbutcher65]

Eddie didn't use the variac to get distortion out of his superlead. They all get raunchy enough when cranked up. (I'd know, I have three Superleads.) But what does happen is, when you start lowering the line voltage, it does change the tone. Not so much the amount of distortion.

Eddie didn't use a distortion pedal, per se, but he did put a hot signal into the amp's input, and got more drive out of it that way.

I've Variac'ed my best Superlead but haven't tried it with a Mesa yet. Maybe I should give it a try.

 

[robvoyles]

Hey,
I also have a 73 Marshall plexi and run a variac on it as well right at 86 volts, but the one thing on all my amps i run the variac on it doesn't effect my tone at all, if it did i wouldn't use it, as the boogie and Marshall have great tone and wouldn't want to change or effect there wonderful voice and tone.