Mark VII Channel 3 gain taper

[CrowGhost]

This is perhaps a very silly question- but I figured I’d ask it to try to understand my amp better.

I have been running the IIB mode with the gain WAY down, around 9 oclock. I noticed, only on channel 3 and mostly with IIB mode, that there is a weird taper at the bottom end of the gain setting. At 9 oclock, it’s at its lowest, but then if I keep going counter clockwise (lowering the gain) it jumps a little bit and then plateaus for the remaining travel of the pot, as in, it seems like the pot does nothing for the remaining bit of travel.

This small volume jump doesn’t happen on the other two modes on channel 3, but the same plateau does . the gain is a very clean sweep on the other two channels.

Is this because of the gain staging used on channel 3 and the nature of how it is wired to be the “higher gain” section of the amp? I know mesa doesn’t recommend going lower than around 10 oclock in any of the literature.

I ended up putting the gain at around 11 olock and lowering the presence and that sounds great- I’m just curious if it’s a matter of gain staging and just how that channel works

 

[mace]

Yeah, I could duplicate what you described on channel 3, IIB mode. The gain goes down, down as the dial goes CCW then volume comes up again at about 8:30 and stays constant until 7:00. So, your VII seems to be normal, or ours both are weird

 

[CrowGhost]

Yeah, I could duplicate what you described on channel 3, IIB mode. The gain goes down, down as the dial goes CCW then volume comes up again at about 8:30 and stays constant until 7:00. So, your VII seems to be normal, or ours both are weird

It’s probably something to do with gainstaging honestly. Either way, I’ve found keeping the gain above around 9 and balancing w volume and presence sounds better anyway for a cleaner sound

 

[bandit2013]

I found the same thing. Most of my other Mesa's you can kill the sound with the gain dialed out.