Mesa Mark III Green stripe rack mnt arrived. Tone suggests?

[Flavatrocious]

Scored a MkIII green stripe. Those that are familiar with this amp feel free to chime in with tone settings and pedal recommends.

 

[GJgo]

Well, it's the only II or III that's SimulClass pentode so it's hot & mean & smooth at the same time, oh and aggressive. Are you familiar with Mark settings?

 

[rstites]

The MkIII owner's manual is available as a pdf at the Mesa website. It has a list of recommended settings. They're great starting points to get tones form. Then you fine tune from there.

 

[Flavatrocious]

Well, it's the only II or III that's SimulClass pentode so it's hot & mean & smooth at the same time, oh and aggressive. Are you familiar with Mark settings?

I've had a MkIV and a MkV a few times. Never messed around with a MKIII before. I was holding out for a blue stripe/simul class but people want silly money for those atm. I'm really only looking for a quick cheat-sheet to pull the best out of it asap.

 

[GJgo]

The only significant difference between the green & the blue is the green was pentode. All other Simuls are triode. All green stripes are SimluClass.

Might start with the settings from the black amp (red stripe) here. (2:44) I had the presence on 7, which may be too hot for a blue / green depending on your 6600. Lead channel, treble pulled. Dial it in from there.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

The only significant difference between the green & the blue is the green was pentode. All other Simuls are triode. All green stripes are SimluClass.

Might start with the settings from the black amp (red stripe) here. (2:44) I had the presence on 7, which may be too hot for a blue / green depending on your 6600. Lead channel, treble pulled. Dial it in from there.

The middle pair of power tubes were always wired for pentode... all color stripes... it’s is only the outer pair of power tubes wired for triode in the DRG Simul-Class black thru blue revisions (exception being Blue HRG). Plus it bumps up the wattage to 85W in the Green due to all four tubes being wired in full pentode.

Also there is evidence of a few factory Green stripe HRGs... probably a carry over from the remaining Blue stripe HRGs they were still making.
Citation here: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index ... s.1576400/
Post #7

 

[GJgo]

That is true, but from my understanding the A/B pair in a Simul amp only adds HP & doesn't have much to do with the tone & feel.

 

[Dave L]

I had a blue stripe Simul Coliseum that was outrageous. One thing is that these late IIIs are friggin´ bright and very distorted, so settings meant for IICs and IVs and what not tend to get piercingly shrill and too gainy.

 

[Flavatrocious]

The mk3 arrived today. Clean unit. Fired it up to check everything was gravy. Clean side is good but the dirty channels are static-y and crackling. Volume spikes too.

I know this could be the amp that’s been missing from the stable from what I can tell so far. If I keep it it’s gonna go to Mike B to get sorted and probably ++’d. What do you guys reckon? How much moolah we talking about here? I purchased it off of the GC used site so no stress on returns.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

The mk3 arrived today. Clean unit. Fired it up to check everything was gravy. Clean side is good but the dirty channels are static-y and crackling. Volume spikes too.

I know this could be the amp that’s been missing from the stable from what I can tell so far. If I keep it it’s gonna go to Mike B to get sorted and probably ++’d. What do you guys reckon? How much moolah we talking about here? I purchased it off of the GC used site so no stress on returns.

Definitely needs new preamp and power tubes and new electrolytic caps, new filter caps, and who knows what else. So figure the cost of tubes + $600-$700 depending on how bad it is inside.

 

[Markedman]

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg29 ... resize.jpg

Note; metal setting calls for presence & treble to be set at 10, lead drive at 8!! Ye haw doggie!

 

[Deleted member 22177]

After you get it back from Mike you will want to keep it. I Just got my red stripe +’d and it is so badass. Mike replaced a bunch of stuff and put in new 6l6 power tubes. I just want to chug on it all day long. The service, tubes and mod was around $600.

 

[GJgo]

Yep. My III++ is en route back to me now. Service was about $450 and the ++ mod was $300. + is $200. It's fully worth it for a keeper, so decide that first.

If you don't have other Marks you might also consider a pentode / triode switch. I think this is super useful.