Tested Mesa Mark III & IV, DR and TA

[Jakem]

Me and couple of my pals went and held somekind of a mini-ampfest. We had Mesa Mark III & IV, Dual Recto and Triaxis and ran them thru an angled Mesa Recto Standard 4x12 cab. Here's some thoughts about these amps:

Mark IV (EL34 & 6L6) - damn this amp sounds fantastic!!! What a friggin' wall of sound and the notes remained clear, huge, fat, tight and natural. Can't go wrong with this head.

Mark III (6L6) - I was very very surprised to see how much rawer this amp sounded than the IV after all the comments which say that the III is very very close to IV. I liked the IV tones more. The IV seems to be a bit more compressed, smoother, thicker and modern sounding. I have no idea which stripe version this III was.

Dual Rectified (3ch) - Didn't really put much of effort for this amp but it sounded nice for heavy rhythm stuff when boosting it with a tubescreamer.

Triaxis (V2.01) - I haven't yet put my 2:90 into the rack ( ) so I left the 2:90 at home and we ran the Triaxis thru the IV's power section. I was surprised to see how close to the IV this thing sounded! It was cool to see how well the Dynamic Voice worked at loud volumes! I have set the DV to 1.0 on my rhythm patches for low volume playing because higher settings tend to sound shitty. When putting it up to 6-9 at loud vols it sounded very nice and close to the IV. Like I said, we didn't do side-by-side comparisons but when playing both amps after each other the TA was in the very same ballpark as the IV! Wondering how much did the IV's power section affect this? Although the 2:90 power section is basically Mark series amps' power section it might sound quite different. We discussed about taking my recto std 4x12 and 2:90 with me, next time we go there, to be able to do better comparisons between the IV and Triaxis paired with a 2:90!

 

[thiswaythatway]

Yes, the III sounds a lot different from a IV to my ears as well after owning both. You summed it up well, the IV is more compressed, smoother. If you want the Sykes lead tone the III is it IMHO. The IV is too refined where the III has a sort of nastyness about it.


And a IIC+ sits in between the III and IV, to me at least. The IIC+ can sound smooth like the IV but it's more open and less compressed.

I never liked te Triaxis but maybe i never played it on a nice poweramp?

And FWIW, a few guys on the Boogie board were commenting that the Mark V looks an awful lot like a Triaxis preamp loaded into a headshell with a few tricks added.

 

[Digital Jams]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

 

[Jakem]

Yes, the III sounds a lot different from a IV to my ears as well after owning both. You summed it up well, the IV is more compressed, smoother. If you want the Sykes lead tone the III is it IMHO. The IV is too refined where the III has a sort of nastyness about it.


And a IIC+ sits in between the III and IV, to me at least. The IIC+ can sound smooth like the IV but it's more open and less compressed.

I never liked te Triaxis but maybe i never played it on a nice poweramp?

And FWIW, a few guys on the Boogie board were commenting that the Mark V looks an awful lot like a Triaxis preamp loaded into a headshell with a few tricks added.

Wassup, Daniel?

I just heard so many comments that the III is basically like the IV so therefore my reaction to the, IMO, big difference. It was like the III was thinner and harsher too.

As for the Triaxis, I dunno how much the IV's own power section affected it or how much our ears were misleading us after setting the Triaxis up but it was in the very same ballpark. Never heard my Triaxis sound this huge! I'll post a new report after next testing session. Then we will have two recto std cabs and will be able to compare the tones and tweak the TA tones even closer to IV on fly.

What worries me about the Mark V is the lack of drive adjusters. My local Boogie dealer should get the first ones in 2-3 months so I'll head there to test one when they get those.

 

[thiswaythatway]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

 

[Jakem]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

Scott, whisper to your IV that Jaakko said "hi"!

Any news on the YJM Strat clone?

 

[Digital Jams]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

Dont you have some superstrat thread you can terrorize???

 

[Digital Jams]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

Scott, whisper to your IV that Jaakko said "hi"!

Any news on the YJM Strat clone?

Sure will

Still waiting for it to come back from the set-up guy

 

[thiswaythatway]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

Dont you have some superstrat thread you can terrorize???

Superstrat owners get terrorized enough when they plug into a real guitar like an LP and hear the difference.

 

[Jakem]

I still have to order new power tubes for the IV, been on such a Marshall kick the IV has just been sitting there dead

Scott, whisper to your IV that Jaakko said "hi"!

Any news on the YJM Strat clone?

Sure will

Still waiting for it to come back from the set-up guy

It's clear without even saying this but post a thread about it when it arrives!!!

The IV we tested was a short head version and it's funny how that little, innocent looking amp can deliver that kind of massive tones!

 

[stephen sawall]

Years ago I went to jam with some people. The drummer demanded I put my Mark IV combo right behind him up on a chair so he could "hear it". I put it over there and told him it does not need to be on a chair for you to be able to hear it. I put the Master on 4 just to make sure he could hear it..... I think he got whiplash as turn around to look at it and stopped playing his drums....
I run it with a stack most of the time but leave it in the combo now.
It's great this way for a grab and go for jams where I do not feel like bringing a lot.
I agree the Triaxis gets close to the IV sound ...

 

[Jakem]

Superstrat owners get terrorized enough when they plug into a real guitar like an LP and hear the difference.

You have a Mark V coming in, right? Any info on delivery date?

 

[Jakem]

Years ago I went to jam with some people. The drummer demanded I put my Mark IV combo right behind him up on a chair so he could "hear it". I put it over there and told him it does not need to be on a chair for you to be able to hear it. I put the Master on 4 just to make sure he could hear it..... I think he got whiplash as turn around to look at it and stopped playing his drums....
I run it with a stack most of the time but leave it in the combo now.
It's great this way for a grab and go for jams where I do not feel like bringing a lot.
I agree the Triaxis gets close to the IV sound ...

The drummer story was great!!! We played the IV at both levels at around 3 and it was loud as hell.

 

[stephen sawall]

I have had very similar things happen several time with that combo....
Looks can be deceiving. I have taken it to gigs were the sound guy tells me to turn it up when I felt it was loud enough. The same guy well tell me to turn down the stack .... sometimes before I even turn it on.

 

[Jakem]

I have had very similar things happen several time with that combo....
Looks can be deceiving. I have taken it to gigs were the sound guy tells me to turn it up when I felt it was loud enough. The same guy well tell me to turn down the stack .... sometimes before I even turn it on.

 

[VoodooChild24]

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

I hear ya bud. I have been on a Bonger Uberschall rampage for the last two weeks and
I fired up my Mark IV yesterday and it made me smile.

I realized that it is such a great amp considering how small it is compared to the
newer, upper tier amps. Mark IV's would compete with any $2000-$3000 amps in terms of
clean, drive and lead sound.

 

[Jakem]

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

I hear ya bud. I have been on a Bonger Uberschall rampage for the last two weeks and
I fired up my Mark IV yesterday and it made me smile.

I realized that it is such a great amp considering how small it is compared to the
newer, upper tier amps. Mark IV's would compete with any $2000-$3000 amps in terms of
clean, drive and lead sound.

It's a fantastic amp indeed! I really like the extra tone shaping ability provided by the graphical EQ.

 

[Digital Jams]

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

I hear ya bud. I have been on a Bonger Uberschall rampage for the last two weeks and
I fired up my Mark IV yesterday and it made me smile.

I realized that it is such a great amp considering how small it is compared to the
newer, upper tier amps. Mark IV's would compete with any $2000-$3000 amps in terms of
clean, drive and lead sound.

It's a fantastic amp indeed! I really like the extra tone shaping ability provided by the graphical EQ.

and if you slave an amp into the IV's power section the eq is still functional for further tweaking

 

[Jakem]

I've been on a Boogie kick since 1998 ever since i kicked my Marshalls to the curb. Only amp i miss is the short head 50 watt tremolo Plexi. Even though i blew the Output Transformer. Egh, if anything it sounded better after i had the tranny swapped out.

I hear ya bud. I have been on a Bonger Uberschall rampage for the last two weeks and
I fired up my Mark IV yesterday and it made me smile.

I realized that it is such a great amp considering how small it is compared to the
newer, upper tier amps. Mark IV's would compete with any $2000-$3000 amps in terms of
clean, drive and lead sound.

It's a fantastic amp indeed! I really like the extra tone shaping ability provided by the graphical EQ.

and if you slave an amp into the IV's power section the eq is still functional for further tweaking

Yep, noticed that yesterday!

 

[HerbieTheRadDorklift]

I have a Mark IV, how can I do this Slaving you speak of? I've run a Mesa Formula Preamp into it before, but never a full amp.