First Boogie - Thinking of getting a Mark III

[SpiceDealer]

Hi all, new to the forum, thinking of getting my first Mesa Boogie after many years of trying to dodge around it. I've come across a tasty looking Mark III with reverb + EQ + simulclass in the UK and I've been offered it for £600 which suddenly makes a Mark affordable for me. I love the mark sound and while I can hear the differences between a C+ and a IV, I like both and from what I've heard of the III series it edges towards either depending on stripe. The one I'm looking at appears to be a Blue stripe, but possibly the age of it has reduced the stripe to blue from green. Unfortunately I'll be blind buying so I was wondering if anyone would advise me on this purchase and whether the amp is suitable for me. I'm looking for an aggressive lead tone that can get an Images and Words DT tone ballpark, along with Master of Puppets/Rust in Peace thrash territory, Friedman/Petrucci style liquid leads are also my thing. Cleans to me are a nice luxury rather than an essential component although I do like to play '80s brown-sound metal and so a good crunch should be on the cards too. I should also note that I am a bedroom player primarily and a tweaker at heart, although I have become weary of tone-tweaking modellers and I am craving something more 'real' and tangiable that I will enjoy playing. I'm not looking for a perfect C+ / IV match here - so long as I can dial in an approximate tone I'm happy.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me.

 

[Markedman]

I'd buy it if I were you. You can get all of the tones you're looking for with that amp, it is very underrated IMO. The GEQ is the biggest part of getting those tones and once you start dialing in different tones, you'll love your Mark lll. I personally can get great bedroom level tones that are awesome and when turned up, it really shines. Some people prefer the newer Marks because they're more flexible and if you need a 3 channel amp this is hard to do without a boost pedal with the Mark lll, but it can done by sacrificing tone with one channel. I get great cleans and totally ripping leads with my Marks. Most importantly, read the manual and start with the recommended settings.

 

[SpiceDealer]

Hi, thanks for the speedy reply. I'm very tempted to pull the trigger on this beauty, you say sacrificing one channel may be necessary, is it totally out of the question to get a great lead tone and crunch at the expense of a Fender clean channel then?

 

[Markedman]

It was sold as a three channel amp - Fender/Marshall/Boogie - in that order. You can modify channel two with an additional volume control which definitely helps to balance things. I can get great cleans and leads/crunch easily at the same time with channels one and three. The graphic equalizer is the key to obtaining different tones. What may work well at home could sound awful at practice or performing in a strange room so there is a learning curve to finding a balanced sound at louder volumes. The louder the amp, the lower you need to keep the treble and presence, it can get out of hand when the amp's master volume is above 1.5. A boost pedal will help with the crunch you desire in channel two. It is a great sounding amp, especially for performance, very responsive with low compression so it tends to cut through better than most amps I've ever used but not very flexible when compared to a Mark V.

 

[webrthomson]

I'd say go for it £600 seems like a good price - I've got a red stripe and it will do a pretty good IIC+ impersonation. The standard tones for Dream Theater, Metallica etc. are in there with a little outboard tweaking, generally a parametric EQ in the loop does the trick.

I *think* the blue stripes were the most aggressive and had the highest gain but there is not much in it! Personally I'd look to get the extra volume mod already mentioned for the 2nd channel and you can get another mod to lower some of the internal voltages (I think on the B+?). The drop voltage mod makes it sound closer to the C+ yet again - you can get either done by Dennis Marshall, tell him what sound you want and he's going to get you there (http://dennismarshall.co.uk/)!

Hope that helps!

 

[revgsmall]

I have a Mark IIC+ that I've used for many years and I just bought a Purple Stripe Mark III for $850. I immediately sent it to Mike Bendinelli at Mesa who recapped it, fixed a few other items and also did his Mark III+ mod to it where he changes the values back as close as possible to Mark IIC+ specs.

They are a different circuit and transformer so the III will never be a total "clone" He also put in the volume control for the R2 channel in place of the Direct Out knob on the back. I never used it anyway. Even before I sent the III off I could get pretty close to matching leads especially utilizing the graphic EQ on the Mark III.

The On/off switch took a hit in shipping so I have still yet to hear the results. A replacement switch is on the way. I would definitely budget for new tubes and a cap job at the least.

I'll post my results asap after the switch is replaced.

 

[kdorsey]

The only sure way of knowing if you have a blue or green stripe model (depends on which Sharpie they were using that day, heat, etc...blue can look like green and green can look like blue) is to open the chassis. Green stripe power tubes are wired in pentode and blue is in triode. Google the pictures out of this forum. Serial numbers and other factors can get you close but old parts stock made the age lines blur throughout the MkIII's production years. The green stripe has all of the updates the other models have and, to me, sounds less harsh in ch3. But it is NOT a MkIV.

 

[Agustín Collia]

The only sure way of knowing if you have a blue or green stripe model (depends on which Sharpie they were using that day, heat, etc...blue can look like green and green can look like blue) is to open the chassis. Green stripe power tubes are wired in pentode and blue is in triode.

Kind of yes and no. The main thing is, in all the stripes prior to the Green, the amps could be 60W, 100/60 or Simul Class. However, the Green Stripe amps were only Simul Class (there's no 100 watt Green Stripe). It is true that all Green Stripes were wired in Pentode, but in all the previous stripes, only the Simul Class amps were wired in triode, the 100 watt amps were wired in pentode.
So, if it is a 60 or a 100/60, it's NOT a Green Stripe, no matter what color the stripe resembles. If it's Simul Class and you're in doubt about the color of the stripe, you can sort it out by looking if it's wired in triode or pentode.

 

[kdorsey]

The only sure way of knowing if you have a blue or green stripe model (depends on which Sharpie they were using that day, heat, etc...blue can look like green and green can look like blue) is to open the chassis. Green stripe power tubes are wired in pentode and blue is in triode.

Kind of yes and no. The main thing is, in all the stripes prior to the Green, the amps could be 60W, 100/60 or Simul Class. However, the Green Stripe amps were only Simul Class (there's no 100 watt Green Stripe). It is true that all Green Stripes were wired in Pentode, but in all the previous stripes, only the Simul Class amps were wired in triode, the 100 watt amps were wired in pentode.
So, if it is a 60 or a 100/60, it's NOT a Green Stripe, no matter what color the stripe resembles. If it's Simul Class and you're in doubt about the color of the stripe, you can sort it out by looking if it's wired in triode or pentode.

That's generally true for off-the-shelf stock, but IIRC (bear in mind we're talking 1988), I had the option of custom ordering any option...including a 60w or 100/60w. My dealer went thru the options like an a la carte dinner menu. (This shop had no stock, so everything was custom ordered from M/B) Of course, I wanted the full enchilada meal. But in theory, those variants could exist. The big question: would it be marked as a green stripe? I have no idea.

 

[Agustín Collia]

That's generally true for off-the-shelf stock, but IIRC (bear in mind we're talking 1988), I had the option of custom ordering any option...including a 60w or 100/60w. My dealer went thru the options like an a la carte dinner menu. (This shop had no stock, so everything was custom ordered from M/B) Of course, I wanted the full enchilada meal. But in theory, those variants could exist. The big question: would it be marked as a green stripe? I have no idea.

I for one haven't ever seen a Green Stripe that wasn't Simul Class. I don't know this for a fact, but I think it would either be a Blue Stripe or it'd have no stripe on it. Mine for example is a 100/60 Blue Stripe, but it's one of the latest Blues I believe... Made 11/1993, serial 279xx (can't recall the last two numbers) :shock:

 

[sotosprince]

Has anyone compared the 2nd lead channel of the quad preamp to a mark III? I ve been thinking of getting either a blue or a red stripe. Currently I am using a quad + 2:90 and while I am more than happy with the tones, I am looking for something more "aggressive".