Add your Mark III settings

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Seanboy

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I want to start a thread with nothing but Mark III settings. As we all know when you're new to a Mark III it can be difficult to dial them in. Let's post our favorite settings, include presence and GEQ settings if your amp has the GEQ.
Here's mine
Volume 1 - 7
Treble - 7 (Pulled)
Bass - 1 (Pulled)
Mid - 4
Master - 1 to 2 (pulled for deep)
Lead Drive - 6 or 7
Lead Master - 4
Presence - 2
GEQ - slight V, middle slider up just a little
 
First off, Everyone ears are after something different so this is just a starting point for you. The master volume level makes this setting work well with either a Les Paul/Firebird/Strat very well for me.

If you play low on the master this will feel a bit fuzzy but if you can put the master around 2ish (Or More) it really lets this setting open up ! The clarity on Boogies really kicks in when the master volume opens up. IF you are in a bedroom trying to get the clear but great sustain on a Mark III, I find when I turn it up to stage volume it gets the tone I'm after. Once I get it dialed in I don't change any settings when I am at home learning tunes or practicing.

Its my fave for a balance between clean and lead tones. I like less top end than some folks so flavor to taste. :mrgreen:

16649287_1914847585403431_7665689811452543142_n.jpg
 
On lead eq 2 1 3 7 10 and b2 m3 t8 with an emg jackson '88 i always put presence high. an aggressive tone for sure, but I was in the army then

experimented with different volume levels of course.
 
My MkIII is a 15/75 watt Simul-Class with R1+R2+ Reverb mods by Mike B. These are my standard settings. I adjust the bass, gain and possibly the graphic EQ slightly only when switching between Superstrats or Strats or my Tele or Les Paul. I will sometimes Pull Shift on the bass knob only for thin-sounding guitars when I want a very fat distortion. This is more suited to lead playing than the kind of lean, mean rhythm sound I like, although it could be good for early Smashing Pumpkins style rhythm playing such as on Siamese Dream.

Volume 7.5 (Pull Bright)
Treble - 7 (Pull Shift)
Bass - 0 to 1
Mid - 5 to 5.5
Master - 3 (Pull Deep)
R2 Volume (Rear Panel mod) - 7.5
I always engage this extra gain stage for the Lead channel
Lead Drive - 4 to 6
Lead Master - 6 to 7 (Pull Bright)
Presence - 5
EQ - In (otherwise, the clean channel lacks sparkle)
GEQ - U shape, middle slider neutral
Reverb - 1.5
I almost never touch reverb. Any other effects (including exotic reverbs) are in addition to this setting.

I run two Mark series 4x12s with the original spec speakers at all times, and all Monster Performer/500 cable for the entire signal chain, which is noticeably bright and responsive. The amp REALLY comes to life around Master Vol = 3, which is my recording volume. I typically run in 15 watt mode, which is already crushingly loud!

I can get very nice clean sounds by adjusting my guitar's volume knob down slightly, whilst still having killer R2 and Lead tones. I have a MXR KFK 10-band EQ w/gain boost as an option to pump for R2 for heavy rhythm, but the Lead channel is simply perfect. I never add anything to it other than pedal effects such as delay, phaser, or an octave pedal. Any time I want a pedal distortion flavor, it is through the clean channel, although every now and then I use something like this to boost R2.
 
I had a breakthrough in my Mark III high gain tone journey a couple weeks ago & here it is. Before this I've always gone straight to the lead channel when I wanted this tone, and used the standard settings on the knobs & GEQ you'd expect. Moving on from this I started trying some higher than normal presence settings to take the blanket off, and pulling back on the 6600 slider to compensate.
https://youtu.be/n-rqJAUmkMI

This was good, and opened some things up for me. It still wasn't exactly what I was looking for tonally in rhythms, though. It's still a little compressed & fizzy there. So, I kept tweaking, and kept ignoring how everyone else says they run theirs. I actually switched over to the Rhythm 2 channel & slammed it with a 20db boost, and knobbed up these settings while running on my bridge EMG 81-

Volume 10 pushed
Treble 10 pulled
Bass 1 pull or push to taste, you can kind of compensate either way with the 80 slider
Middle 4 pulled
Master >1.75 pulled
Lead pushed (off)
Lead master pushed
GEQ enabled & set to taste
Presence 10
Simulclass / Class A to taste
On your guitar- volume at 10
On your guitar- tone at 0 (This was the big fizz killer for me- dump the tone & compensate with 6600. Also stops the string wipe noises.)
Input boost at full tilt

To me, this gives the same basic gain & saturation as running the lead channel on more traditional settings with the gain around 7 and no boost, but it really opened up the note separation when chording & I think gives it this killer tonal edge. It also drops the bass flub just a little compared to the lead channel with the same settings. It may change next month but right now I'm super happy with this sound for playing heavy. I can't wait till I get it in a room where I can turn it up past 2. :D

Side note, I also switched the Mark III from my Mesa recto V30 cab to a Marshall 1960B G12T-75 cab, and I think it really suits it better. It was another step in taming the fizz with the tall presence settings. Marks take a lot of work to dial in but when you do they kill!
https://youtu.be/NdARuM_4QJ8
 
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