Mesa Mark III Cap Job

[droptrd]

Just recaped my Mark III. F&T caps from tube depot. I also gave the amp a full cleaning. It really did improve the tone and performance of the amp. Brought alot of mids out of the amp. So i have a bit of tweaking ahead of me now. Im glad I did it. $55 in caps and about 20-30 min to swap them in after I drained the old caps to zero.

after I was done and played around with it for a while, I started swaping V1 tubes. Went from JJ to TS to ruby then to a mullard RI. Ive never liked the mullards in any amp ive had but they scream in the Mark III. Added tons of gain. I love it.

So all in all it was a good tone day. New caps and a different V1 really did breathe new life into my amp.

Did it effect the punch and feel ?

It tightened the amp up. It did liven up the play of the amp too.

 

[Jofipe]

Anyone have a complete list of cap values needed for the mark III? The complete package
Cheers!

Huge necrobump, sorry.

 

[MississippiMetal]

I recommend F&T, but I tend to dissuade people from going with Sprague Atoms, based on price and the fact that Atoms are spec'd rather poorly compared to modern capacitors from Nichicon, Panasonic, United Chemi-Con, and Cornell Dubilier. Atoms are also quite large in some values, an issue when it comes to real estate on a PCB.

 

[Anonymous]

I have an early 5150 sig head thats really noisy. I get this weird transistor radio tuning sound behind notes. The board say 91 on it but I dont think thats right. Are the F&T caps the better ones to get?

Thinkin Im gonna try it myself. Just drain the caps with a 10K-50K resistor and swap em out right?

that buzz is most likely from a failed screen grid resistor if you can't solve it with tube swaps.

 

[Anonymous]

i always use lighter fluid to clean electronic jacks, pots and such. never thought about, or heard of anyone using rubbing alcohol.

 

[Code001]

Anyone have a complete list of cap values needed for the mark III? The complete package
Cheers!

Huge necrobump, sorry.

My old notes say it should be 4x 220uF 300vdc + 3x 30uF 500vdc. Might wanna double-check that, though.