Thought I had a mark III, Actually have a POS

Well. This one is going to be odd to describe. I have had a mark III green stripe long head for about 6 years. I decided a couple weeks ago to send it to mesa for a re-cap, and check up etc. Well I got off the phone with Mike B. The amp is actually some guys garage experiment on a mark III circuit board. Almost NOTHING remains of the green stripe III. Told me these huge mods looks like they were put there and done to heavily smooth down and round down the amp. Says about 40% of the gain is shaved off, and the voicing is a lot darker. Makes a lot of sense. I have been struggling time to time getting the saturation and aggressive tight bright attack out of the amp. I learned to cope with it being in my ownership for 6 years.

I picked up the amp in a classified section $500 shipped. Thought it was killer deal at the time considering back then, they were going for 1k+ all the time ( I think the mark V has pushed these down a little bit in price ). Now I think it was $500 for a no name home made amp.

Anyways. I'm not going to like the price when its done, but I can't help but be excited about it at the same time. I'M GETTING A REAL MARK III BACK FROM MESA. It's being restored to a green stripe.
Other things etc:
-missing reverb tank is being added back on
-wicker grill
-new front panel (current one is out of shape and has carvings)
-foot jacks are being restored in the right way. (the modder replaced the lead jack switch for a R2 volume pot)
-mark V "boogie" plate being installed on wicker grill. (old plate missing)
-re-caped
-probably new tubes (modder changed the green stripe triode wiring to pentode, making it more like a previous mark III) its being restored back to triode.
-green stripe restore

it will be about two weeks before I get it back Mike said.
I always had a funny feeling about this amp. it never sounded anything like the IIIs on youtube, and I always brushed that off being that I can not find a green stripe clip almost anywhere.

Well, if its any consolation you get a cool story to tell at the end of the day.

Actually, think that you gonna get a brand new 2012 Mark III 8)

THAT will be rare, plus im sure youll love it when she returns

That sounds like an easily justifiable investment. And remember: if it sounds too fizzy, a simple NOS preamp tube change brings it in line. No silly component mods are necessary.

You're gonna like the way you sound...now. 8)

I can't speak for a green stripe, because I've never played through one, but every time I play through my purple stripe, I think "****, that sounds good". Congratulations to you as a soon-to-be owner of a real Mark III.

Thanks guys. Still no word yet from Mesa/Mike. Might a long while.
I just replaced my mesa 1x12 with a custom shop 3x12. I just loaded it with two gb128's and a man o war. Also picked up two new guitar while she is gone.

THAT is the 2nd biggest reason why I stay with Mesa amps. Their customer service is second to none. 8)

I just sent my Mark iii in for some repairs and maintence a couple of weeks ago. Before I sent it they provided an initial estimate but gave the disclaimer "as long as someone hasn't made alot of changes to it". I wonder if they were referencing yours as an example or if this happens frequently. It sounds like mine still has a while before it even starts to have work done. Have you heard back about yours yet?

Mjj said:

I just sent my Mark iii in for some repairs and maintence a couple of weeks ago. Before I sent it they provided an initial estimate but gave the disclaimer "as long as someone hasn't made alot of changes to it". I wonder if they were referencing yours as an example or if this happens frequently. It sounds like mine still has a while before it even starts to have work done. Have you heard back about yours yet?

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Yes I have. I backed out of the wicker grill I don't know why. But it should be here this Friday.
How happy are you win the black stripe? Consider the + mod? Mike can make it into what ever stripe you want too if you don't want the + mod. Only reason I say that is because the stripes have huge improvements to them over the black and the + well as close as you can get to the c+ without being a c+ or c. Since it's there already I would think about it.

I had mine reverted back to the green stripe from a custom done mod, reverb restored.

Going to be here Tuesday. Seems like forever.

Justice - I liked the black stripe but not sure how it compares to the other stripes, I have only heard the others on youtube (they all sounded good to me). Seems like alot of folks have had good inputs on the purple, blue, red and green. I wouldn't know which mod to go with +, or different color stripe. Thanks for the inputs on the additional mods. They mentioned a few they would do but I only remember reverb off the top of my head.

Mjj said:

...I liked the black stripe but not sure how it compares to the other stripes...

Click to expand...

That's a tough and subjective topic. IMO, it really depends on the music you play and the target tonal emphasis. For the scooped metal tone, the preference seems to be for everything but the green stripe. For any other music type, it can be conjured out of any version, but easiest from the green (again, IMO). The classic rock stuff just seeps out of my greenie and sounds VERY Plexi-ish in class A mode with EL34s. I think I do things with a MkIII that few others attempt because that's not how most characterize this amp. But that doesn't mean that it can't do those things, because it's able to go from Metallica to Green Day to Black Crows to Creedence, Buddy Holly and Dick Dale if you just try. A combo speaker change also helps. :wink:

I don't know how the green would be any less capable than a blue with metal considering they are almost identical. Mike told me that besides the outer sockets being different, the green is slightly less bright, but other than that it is by all means a blue. When we were talking about reverting my amp back to factory, after asking me what I play etc, he was pushing on the blue and green stripe as being the stripes I would probably favor most for my play style(I said thrash metal, power metal). I guess this speaks volumes(no pun attended) about the myths of the stripes to this day. Probably the most largely discussed and intriguing aspects of mesa history. IMHO, I think each stripe got more gain over the other as each stripe rolled out. Almost as if Mesa was racing for the highest gain of all high gain. Finally stopped at the blue, were forced to make a green because of production issues with tubes back then.

The general consencous I read around the net, is that...
black = most raw
purple = best r2
red = best lead
blue = brightest, most aggressive
green = best clean

Only way to know for sure is own all 5 stripes. :lol:

Justice - I like the idea of getting all of the versions Did you get your green stripe back yet?

Mine is pretty much done (just ended up with a recap, r2 vol mod, new power tubes in outer sockets - EL34).

Kdorsey - I mainly got the mark iii for the lead channel (the clean was actually decent but not as good as the Lonestar). It seems to cover most of what I want from the amp and have a hard time leaving the lead channel. I haven't spent enough time on R2 to determine if it is usable for anything that I play. When I get the amp back from boogie I will spend some more time on R2 but probably with an OD pedal.

Sorry for the very late reply. My justice1988 account can't log in and my account email is not being recrecognized. So this is "Justice1988".

Anyway. The amp is killer. Beat my expecations. They did not lie, it is a hell of a lot brighter than the modded III I had before. Takes time reajusting to the new mark III and getting familar with the tone controls. Some observations...

-The pull bright switch is weaker
-The pull treble shift switch is weaker
-The pull bass shift is weaker
-The R2 is less hot(but much better sounding)
-The pull deep switch is stronger
-The Lead channel is brigter, and more gain
-The Lead bright is weaker
-Reverb is amazing. It's not overly done and strong, its not exactly weaker either. Seems just right.
-The graphic EQ is pretty much the same except the 6600 slider is much stronger and different sounding
-Class A as always sounds better than simul class, but it's even louder now with the pentode outter sockets
-R2 volume is on back now, and seems to be stronger than the user R2 volume mod
-Presence sounds disgusting past 5, needs to be low
-Effects loop seems stronger. My carbon copy sounds amazing thru it.

Other observations...
-The amp gets out of control past or around 2 on the master or 3-4 on the lead master, in class A or simul class in the lead channel. Loses a lot of defination and harmonics.
-Inconsistant tone. One minute it will sound very nice, and the next woofy, half gain, dark, or too bright etc.
-Fizzy, unusable gain past 8 on either the input gain(volume) or the lead drive.

Thats it for now. They replaced the enitre cicuit board with a rebuilt NOS greenstripe board. Replaced every everything including the the front panel with a new one that is older if that makes sense. Only thing they did not replace was the tubes. They gave me my old parts back and it was two big plastic bags of parts.

For my tone issues, I already pulled the trigger on a Furman 1800 PF. See if that helps my issues. I'm suspecting not enough current is hitting my amp because it sounded noticably better at my friends house. I'm also leaning on new tubes even though these tubes are still some what fresh with the amount of hours on them. All my reading suggest a tung sol in V1 will do wonders.

If you dont know what tubes I have, I got all JJ's in the pre high gain execpt the reverb which is a mesa/sovtek. I got all JJ in the power except one of the EL34's is a SED wing C. I have Two JJ 6l6's in the middle and one JJ EL34. I'm also leaning on two SED wing C's EL34 in the outter, and Tung sol 5881's in the inner to get more compression.

It's definitely normal that your presence control is useless past 5. I think I run mine at about 2. It seems odd to me that you would have problems turning the lead master past 4, though. I think I normally run mine at about 7. I don't think I've ever really tried turning my III past 2 on the master, so I can't comment on that. By the way, sometimes I feel like the odd man out preferring simul-class to class A. Class A is nice but it has a woody quality to the tone that isn't what I'm shooting for when I plug into my Mark III.

I was hoping for anyone with power conditioner experience to chime in.

Don't get me wrong, the reason class A sounding better could be partly attributed to the JJ 6L6 being crappy. IMHO. I really don't like that tube.

This power conditioner the PF 1800 seems to be built for insturment amplifiers which got me interested enough to pull the trigger on it.

I deal with UPSes and power regulators for a living, so I'm having a hard time understanding how it explains how the class A/B amp sounds bad enough to make the class A sound good? The average power is the USA is not going to impact the capability of your amp unless you depend on a generator.

Regardless, if you like the class A stuff, you just like the class A mode. Not because the Simul Class mode sucks but because the EL34s sound that good in this amp. The green stripe can do metal as well as the red stripe, or the black, purple or blue. I've just discovered that the classic crunch is hidden in a mere 25 watts. It's probably not for most Mark fans, but it exists. And it means that as you get older and want something different out of your amp, the MkIII can do it. Contrary to popular belief, the sun doesn't shine out of the keester of Metallica. :?

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy your amp. You've spent some real money on renovating it, now have fun with it. Dispel the hype and search for YOUR tone. It's in there, despite what others say.

I'm sorry I don't mean to suggest or confuse simul class/class A with my suppose power issues. I just like the sound of class A better, and that could be partly attributed to me liking EL34 better too. Thats what I mean.

Now for the power issues, I don't know what else to blame the inconsistent tone on. I won't know for sure till I get the unit this friday.

Anybody else pick up radio stations as clear as day? :lol: :!: