NAD: Mesa MkIII

[rstites]

She's blond! I should have put a pic up earlier, I suppose. (Gives me an excuse to move my post count up a little more! )

The cab is nice, but those holes on top are pretty big and there's no way to secure the chassis to the head. I could plug them I suppose, and then redrill.

Unfortunately, no time to play tonight. Thanks for the ideas on head cabs. I'm mulling it over. I also happen to have a spare rack case and a Mesa rackmount kit around. I could do that, but I like the head aesthetic over the racked head.

 

[jdel77]

Awesome. SLO and Mesa MKIII owner here too.
2 of my favourite amps of all time.

 

[Racerxrated]

She's blond! I should have put a pic up earlier, I suppose. (Gives me an excuse to move my post count up a little more! )

The cab is nice, but those holes on top are pretty big and there's no way to secure the chassis to the head. I could plug them I suppose, and then redrill.

Unfortunately, no time to play tonight. Thanks for the ideas on head cabs. I'm mulling it over. I also happen to have a spare rack case and a Mesa rackmount kit around. I could do that, but I like the head aesthetic over the racked head.

Seems like it's already in a headshell? Or did someone try to cut down a combo box? My 2C+ is a combo, I've been tempted to cut it down to a headshell. But keeping it a combo allows me to easily slave it out, using the combo speaker as my load.
Congrats on the MKIII! Cool amps for sure. I had a Purple and a Red stripe at the same time...I didn't notice much difference between them. Purple is supposed to have less gain. Yeah...right. Lol

 

[rstites]

Seems like it's already in a headshell? Or did someone try to cut down a combo box? My 2C+ is a combo, I've been tempted to cut it down to a headshell. But keeping it a combo allows me to easily slave it out, using the combo speaker as my load.
Congrats on the MKIII! Cool amps for sure. I had a Purple and a Red stripe at the same time...I didn't notice much difference between them. Purple is supposed to have less gain. Yeah...right. Lol

It is in a head cabinet. The cab is just a bit messed up. There's no way to mount the chassis into the head. The mounting holes of the chassis are under those big 1" diameter holes you see on top, so no way to secure the amp chassis into the cabinet.

It sets inside the cab perfectly fine, and it's fine setting in my studio/jam room. It's not secure, so not (safely) transportable. That's why I said that maybe the thing to do is plug the holes and redrill them to properly mount the chassis. I might go that route. It'll be cheaper than buying a whole new head chassis.

 

[Racerxrated]

Seems like it's already in a headshell? Or did someone try to cut down a combo box? My 2C+ is a combo, I've been tempted to cut it down to a headshell. But keeping it a combo allows me to easily slave it out, using the combo speaker as my load.
Congrats on the MKIII! Cool amps for sure. I had a Purple and a Red stripe at the same time...I didn't notice much difference between them. Purple is supposed to have less gain. Yeah...right. Lol

It is in a head cabinet. The cab is just a bit messed up. There's no way to mount the chassis into the head. The mounting holes of the chassis are under those big 1" diameter holes you see on top, so no way to secure the amp chassis into the cabinet.

It sets inside the cab perfectly fine, and it's fine setting in my studio/jam room. It's not secure, so not (safely) transportable. That's why I said that maybe the thing to do is plug the holes and redrill them to properly mount the chassis. I might go that route. It'll be cheaper than buying a whole new head chassis.

I see. If you order one from Mesa they are around 400, I'd definitely try to re drill. Looks like they screwed up the screw pattern? You can always pick up a combo shell for cheap, and then cut it down into a Headshell.

 

[rstites]

Yeah, the prices are definitely making me lean that way. At the very least, it's worth a try before I order one. We're moving toward spring here, so I'll take it out to the garage, plug it, and drill it before I drop more money on anything. I'd rather buy something else with that money. (I also have a car I'm anxious to get out and do some things too - only so much $ toward expensive hobbies here! )

 

[John4021]

Those holes look like the same size as the suspention cups in a Mesa combo.
Dont know if mesa sells them,but worth a call and ask.

 

[rstites]

I've dialed it in a bit, mostly by fully the Mesa recommended settings.

I'm running Volume 10, Treble 7.5 pulled, Bass 2 pulled, Middle 2 pulled, Master 2 (home!), Lead Drive 8, Lead Master 2.5 pulled, Presence 10 on the back. This is a pretty nice balance for a heavy rhythm tone. I can switch it to lead and get a good lead tone without messing with anything else. I like that. The rhythm tone cleans up pretty nicely. With light attack, I can pull perfectly clear arpeggios out of it. The lead screams. I can't image needing more gain than this. It's nice in that it's far easier to sound go with it than the SLO lead, which shows off the slop a fair bit more!

I'm running EQ on it all the time, to boost bass and pretty flat otherwise. I don't need more treble. In fact, there's just a bit too much high end on individual high notes on the rhythm channel, but it's a prefect top-end shimmer on big chords. I'm a bit stuck there on what to do. With an EMG equipped Jackson, I can definitely hear early Metallica type sounds in there. I usually play medium output passive pickups (Duncan Custom, Dimarzio Super Distortion, etc.). Those could use a little more "tightening" to get them where I want them. I'm thinking a light boost up front would do nicely. I wonder if I can roll a little high end off.

The controls are so interactive that rolling back treble or presence, deadens things. I can't find a happy middle ground. It's so close, but like a mirage that just keeps shifting out of view. Still, I could live with this and be happy. I'm running it through my G12-65 equipped Marshall 4x12s right now. I need to get into my Mesa 2x12 and get it working - input jack is messed up. I think it has the 90s in it, but I'll double-check. I'm curious who it'll sound. I haven't tried it due to the fact that the speaker jack keeps falling out of it!