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16th January 2008
| #1 |
| Gear maniac  Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Posts: 197
Thread Starter | Mesa/Boogie Mark III I need to ask... It seems that when the Boogie comes up, everyone is about the Mark IIC+ and the Mark IV. I recently got a 1993 Mark III at a pawn shop in Japan and this thing Kicks A$$. Its a 60 Watt Short head with a single 12" expansion cab...and it's LOUD Why does the Mark III get such a bad rap? It seems like the one amp in the Mesa line that gets no love....nobody ever mentions it. Id like to hear some opinions....
__________________ "I'm sorry, Smokey. You were over the line and that's a foul. Mark it zero Dude." |
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16th January 2008
| #2 |
| Gear nut Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NH USA
Posts: 91
| My first amp was a Mark III combo, which, if I am not mistaken, had a 60/100 watt switch on the back. I loved that amp, and found it to be relatively versatile in tone, and I don't believe that is just my sentimentality speaking.  One thing I learned is that the amp always sounded best to me with Mesa Boogie power tubes. Whenever I swapped out old power tubes with non-Mesa Boogie tubes the amp sound "mushy". Apparently this has to do with the bias of the power tubes and amp being in the same range. |
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16th January 2008
| #3 |
| Gear interested Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 27
|  I've never heard anything bad about the Mark III. I have an 86 (I think) Red Stripe Mark III and I use it as my primary rig. Although, for live purposes, I'd like to have a Mark IV just for the independent eq (minus bass and treble, though!!) for each channel or better yet a second Mark III. Otherwise, I wouldn't part with mine for ANYTHING!! What color stripe is yours? (if you don't know look under the powercord and tell me the color of the magic marker stripe, then visit Mark III Stripe/Dot History and learn all about the Mark III). Since it's a 93, it's probably a green or blue stripe...so you should have the most up to date model. I say enjoy and shred away!! gym* |
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16th January 2008
| #4 |
| Lives for gear  |  man.. i love all the mesa combo amps... mark III, IV caliber .50 and even the tiny subway blues... all great amps... easy to get a great sound with them... if you know how to use the eq´s and gains... |
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16th January 2008
| #5 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 3,038
| One of my dream amps is the Mesa Boogie MK IV with the wood frame and wicker grill. Those things are a beautiful site.
__________________ PT9, HD2pcie, Digi 192 I/I, Lynx Auora, Digi 003, MacPro, MacBook, iPad |
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16th January 2008
| #6 |
| Gear nut  Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 85
| I LOVE my Mark 3.  Mine is the red stripe, I believe. You have so much control and variation with the EQ. I use a 4x12 marshall 1960a (well, either 19 or 18, I'm drawing a blank haha). For live man oh man, so much volume. This thing has only gone above 3 once and that was when I was playing outdoor fest. I just convinced my guitar player to get a mark 3 and he is in love as well...
__________________ www.mynameischance.com/ | myspace.com/chance PT 9.06 with Digi 002; Mac Pro; (1) UAD-2; SSL Duende (for sale), Great River ME-1NV mic pre; Distressor EL-8; ; Reason 4.0; BFD (base and XFL expansion) for drums; Mesa Boogie Mark 3 amp +Marshall 4x12 for guitars; Mics: Peluso 2247 LE; AKG C 451 B; Royer 121 (for sale); Blue Kickball; One beautiful left handed '57 strat |
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16th January 2008
| #7 |
| Lives for gear  | I had one for years , it was a really good amp. The only thing I noticed was it was sensitive to the voltage. If you played anywhere where the voltage was down just alittle it got ugly
__________________ Lou Gimenez www.musiclabnyc.com |
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17th January 2008
| #8 |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Posts: 197
Thread Starter | HA! Funny you mention that! I got mine in japan, 100V Ran it thru a step-down TxFormer 120V-100V, still sounds great Now I live in Germany, so Im going thru a 230V-120V Txformer, then into a 120V-100V TxFormer, still sounds great! I couldnt believe it, I was expecting the exact opposite to happen. Also...someone mentioned that they sound better with M/B tubes...I wonder. I worked with a dude who was like Rain Man when it comes to electronics, he was telling me there's only one or two plants left in the world that manufacture tubes, so most brands tubes are all from the same plant... Whether or not this is true I dont know...  |
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17th January 2008
| #9 |
| Gear addict  Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Netherlands
Posts: 394
| More love for the MKIII here! Never knew about the colour stripe thing but it turns out I own a red stripe. On newyears eve I opened it up completely for the first time ( never dared to do this before because as "mynameischance" already mentioned it gets scary beyond 3... )! ALL knobs on 10! Just had to do it ( didn't buy any fireworks so I thought this would be a nice substitute ). Result: WOW !!! Beautiful powertube distortion and luckily the volume didn't instantly kill everyone in the room.  It is a very direct and unforgiving amp though, revealing even the slightest mistake...Play it well and you are rewarded with the greatest TONE! When gigging you have to take into consideration that it doesn't spread very well. Lots of volume directly in front, a lot less off axis. All in all the MKIII is a great amp and I wouldn't sell it for the world ( I would trade it for a Cranesong Spider though  )Cheers, Martijn. |
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10th February 2008
| #10 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside the Outside
Posts: 1,195
| Quote:
Design differences aside, tubes turn out with wide variations, even within tolerance. The significance of the Boogie branding is that they *select* tubes to match the bias characteristics hard-wired into their amps. If you use Boogie tubes they will always fall within range of the amp's bias settings. If you use other tubes (even matched sets), there is a good chance they won't match a Boogie's bias requirements. BTW Boogie tubes are also selected for other characteristics, so in various respects they're not "just another tube".
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10th February 2008
| #11 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside the Outside
Posts: 1,195
| Quote:
The only notable shortcomings with MkIIIs are that you have just one set of tone controls for all three channels, and the R1 and R2 channels share the same gain and master controls. So if you want to switch between a jangly clean and a big dark gain-laden monster, in the studio it's fine but live it's a limitation. Unless you have some outboard effects, floor stompers etc. I use mine with a V-Twin pedal and a couple of other pieces. But even without them, it's a beautiful thang.  | |
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10th February 2008
| #12 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: London
Posts: 1,688
| I think darksky has covered the tube issue so I'm just adding my love for the Mark III. I'm not sure where the OP thinks the MKIII gets a 'bad rap' - I generally only hear good things about them, and I love mine. re: the MKIIc+, I think some of it is myth, that's not to say they're not GREAT, but the MKIII matches it IMO. As always, the internet is responsible for spreading a lot of myth and misinformation. Bear in mind that some of these amps are getting pretty old, and the components age a bit. This means every amp sounds/feels slightly differently. PLUS boogie support is first rate too - they really (seem?) to care about their products including those no longer in production. just my 2p |
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26th January 2009
| #13 |
| Gear Head Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 49
| I have (2) Mesa Boogie Mark III one is a combo Blue strip and the other is a Short head Red strip which I have a 2-12 Mesa bottom Both are just SUPER, and I'm lookingfor another, You can spend days and weeks getting new sounds out of them |
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26th January 2009
| #14 |
| Lives for gear  | The original Boogie I, II, and III which bascially hot wired Fender amps. The disortion was more garbled sounding and not the smooth distortion of the 80's. Still a great sound, Hence the TriAxis and and V Pre gave the more modern distortion. I always loved the MArk Series amps and now they have the Mark V which I would love to own. The only problem I had with the Mark series is that they were sound LOUD even at low volumes. |
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26th January 2009
| #15 |
| Gear addict  Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 327
| My Mark III head is my main amp, i love it. Half power, Telecaster and "pull deep", it`s magical. |
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26th February 2009
| #16 |
| Gear nut Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Nashville, Tn. USA
Posts: 101
| Still is my #1 amp after 22 years! In the later of 1987 I bought two, of the Mk3 simul-class combo amps together, brand new in the boxes... one serial number after the other, and both had the red stripe. I later sold one of the amps because it was just too much to take around, but I'll NEVER sell the one I kept. This thing plays itself! The only other amp I trully loved was a 50 watt JMP Mk2 Lead Marshall 2x12 combo, I bought in the early '80's. - Andy |
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