A couple of weeks ago I picked up an Egnator Tweaker head for cheap, and since then my Mark III combo has had its head on the block. I truly can't get a bad sound out of the Tweaker, and it reminded me of simple times before I got the Mark a decade or so ago, when I plugged in to my Fender/Marshall/Vox, twiddled with the knobs a bit, and it sounded great. In contrast, the printed-out manual for the Mark is covered in hundreds of scrawled and dated settings from across the years. A year or so ago I finally felt I understood the controls on the Mark, and was consistently getting a sound I was happy with.
Anyway, after getting the Tweaker I realized that I hadn't been particularly happy with the sound I had been getting with the Mark for the last few months, and sent it off to the tech to have a faulty knob fixed and change some capacitors as per other pages on this forum (it was recently retubed with Winged Cs and Tung Sols). I got it back a few days ago, let rip at volume in a mate's studio, and it sounded awful: boxy, brittle and yet muddy at the same time. Pretty much unplayable.
I decided then I would sell the amp, and this morning started to clean it so I could photograph it and put it on EBay. As I was going over it, I glanced in the back and remembered that I had replaced the stock C90 with an old Mesa EVM12L a few months ago, and a lightbulb went on in my head. I put the old speaker back, tweaked the knobs for a few seconds and was getting an awesome tone again. The amp is so much more articulate and toneful with the C90 that there is no comparison. The EVM12L has sounded good before in cabs I have put it in, so I know there is nothing wrong with the speaker. I guess I was so used to reading that the EVM was the ultimate speaker for the Marks that I hadn't even considered it to be the problem. My bad.
Anyone else have this experience?
I still may sell this amp, as I have been through so many ups and downs with it over the last decade that I know I'll be disappointed again.
The amp is a 60w red stripe reverb no EQ. The mods seem to have made a great difference, although it's hard to compare with the speaker swap.
Anyway, after getting the Tweaker I realized that I hadn't been particularly happy with the sound I had been getting with the Mark for the last few months, and sent it off to the tech to have a faulty knob fixed and change some capacitors as per other pages on this forum (it was recently retubed with Winged Cs and Tung Sols). I got it back a few days ago, let rip at volume in a mate's studio, and it sounded awful: boxy, brittle and yet muddy at the same time. Pretty much unplayable.
I decided then I would sell the amp, and this morning started to clean it so I could photograph it and put it on EBay. As I was going over it, I glanced in the back and remembered that I had replaced the stock C90 with an old Mesa EVM12L a few months ago, and a lightbulb went on in my head. I put the old speaker back, tweaked the knobs for a few seconds and was getting an awesome tone again. The amp is so much more articulate and toneful with the C90 that there is no comparison. The EVM12L has sounded good before in cabs I have put it in, so I know there is nothing wrong with the speaker. I guess I was so used to reading that the EVM was the ultimate speaker for the Marks that I hadn't even considered it to be the problem. My bad.
Anyone else have this experience?
I still may sell this amp, as I have been through so many ups and downs with it over the last decade that I know I'll be disappointed again.
The amp is a 60w red stripe reverb no EQ. The mods seem to have made a great difference, although it's hard to compare with the speaker swap.