What Mk III or mod would you pair with a IIc+?

[GoneFission]

I have a post that hasn’t quite caught fire in the Rack Pieces subforum so I’m asking again here.

I’m gonna have to send in my Quad for a health check. I’ll talk with Mike B. about whether to tweak the Mk II channel all the way to IIc+. I don’t really want to get into the fine points of how close the channel is or isn’t—let’s just go with the assumption that it will cover it better than a modded Mk III (or that channel of the Quad) and as well as I will ever have that sound covered.

But then there’s the Mk III channel and what to do with it. And I’ve read and heard a bit about Mk III mods here. One of the typical measures is “How close to a IIc+ does it get?” But what would you get in a Mk III as a complement assuming you’re happy with a “IIc+” side of things?

Would you just keep it in the Mk III family with the crunchiness and hair? Would you ++ it to make it more molten? Would any of the ways to shift it seem redundant to a good IIc+, so that you would go a specific path for variety that wouldn’t be your first choice if you had just one amp?

(So far I’m really leaning towards the ++ if that can be done in the Quad’s Mk III side—seems to be as hairy as I would want but gives an alternate singing sustain voice to the IIc+.)

Thanks!

 

[erickompositör72]

Would you just keep it in the Mk III family with the crunchiness and hair? Would you ++ it to make it more molten? Would any of the ways to shift it seem redundant to a good IIc+, so that you would go a specific path for variety that wouldn’t be your first choice if you had just one amp?

The bolded would be my vote, based on how I know the Studio Preamp to sound (I believe it's the "IIC" side of the Quad). I have that and a stock Red Stripe Mark III. If I was gigging in a band, I would love to have these two sounds at my disposal- StudPre for lead, III for rhythm.

I would also ask Mike B. if he could do the "III++" gain boost without doing the "III+" smoothness/voicing change. Seems like he can do anything one asks. That might be everything you want, if possible: raw, aggressiveness of the Mark III with the "++" gain level.

 

[GJgo]

My advice is don't try to make an amp something it's not. Either enjoy it for what it is, or sell it & buy the one you really want.

 

[edge59AlnicoIV]

From what I have gathered, to get the Mark III 90-95% there, changing out the components will get you very close, the main thing is the power transformer that was used in the IIC+ and some of the NO stripe or black stripe III's. Higher plate voltages, where the later III's had a cooler voltage to prolong the tubes/reliability through warranty issues. The higher plate voltage has a lot to do with that IIC+ growl that many are familiar with. My friend has a original IIC+ that has that, higher plate voltage power transformer. I also found with my Mark IVB, that the output transformer was lacking, and bought an OT that came out of a Simul-Class stereo power amp, that was bigger, more core than the stock OT, it was more open, thicker and more sustain, so with the early PT, it may have been close as possible for what it was, The Mark IVB sounded damn good after the OT swap.