This makes me want Mark series amp

[jlbaxe]

My Mesa Mk III stays more constant sounding then any other amp I have had. Easy re-tubes and no biasing. Great with pedals and hangs with my 20th Xtc.

It does take getting use to dialing in. The first 4-6 Soldano SLO amps were mod'ed Mk IIb

 

[fretout]

Do any of the cheaper Marks sound like this?

Yep! The Mark III will nail this tone. I would recommend the Triode-wired Mark IIIs (no stripe, purple stripe, red stripe and blue stripe) since the pentode Marks tend to sound "stiff" IMHO. The ultimate in responsive, bright and aggressive is the blue stripe IMO. Red stripes are also favorable, but I find the blue stripes to be brighter, and since the treble control works as another gain dial for settings above "7", more aggressive.

Mark IVs are amazing amps, but i think they are smoother and darker than the Mark III. The Mark III has some aggression that the Mark IVs cower in fear of. The downside of the Mark III is the fact that all the controls for all three channels are shared, but you can get a happy medium, it just takes some time.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

Why haven't I tried this before?! It took quite a bit of GEQ tweaking, but I was able to get much closer. Close enough to where I could fix it up in post, to what I want.

Thanks for saving me lots of money

...eh, I'll probably end up buying one someday anyway

Cool, glad you liked it.

I really miss my old UL, wouldn't mind picking up another someday. I actually preferred channel 2 boosted to channel 3 straight in, and when I had my UL I also had a Mark IV so I understand wanting both.

 

[Chris O]

Dude...Ola makes everything sound insanely good. It's not the amp.

 

[paulyc]

I love my Mark III blue stipe with a Furman PQ3 in front of it and the graphic eq on the amp in a v...Stryper/Brad Gillis !

 

[thiswaythatway]

The first 4-6 Soldano SLO amps were mod'ed Mk IIb

Is that true? All I ever hear is how Mesa ripped off Soldano in the Recto design.

But yes, the III is a cool amp. A much better amp than most of the stuff Mesa has out now, actually ALL of what they currently have.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Do any of the cheaper Marks sound like this?

Yep! The Mark III will nail this tone. I would recommend the Triode-wired Mark IIIs (no stripe, purple stripe, red stripe and blue stripe) since the pentode Marks tend to sound "stiff" IMHO. The ultimate in responsive, bright and aggressive is the blue stripe IMO. Red stripes are also favorable, but I find the blue stripes to be brighter, and since the treble control works as another gain dial for settings above "7", more aggressive.

Mark IVs are amazing amps, but i think they are smoother and darker than the Mark III. The Mark III has some aggression that the Mark IVs cower in fear of. The downside of the Mark III is the fact that all the controls for all three channels are shared, but you can get a happy medium, it just takes some time.

Yes, the Blue stripe are bright but damm do they have a lot of pissed of gain in them. They sound so much more aggressive than a Mark V.

 

[benduncan]

Dude...Ola makes everything sound insanely good. It's not the amp.

True, but I feel that I can still get an idea about the basic characteristics of the amp

I love my Mark III blue stipe with a Furman PQ3 in front of it and the graphic eq on the amp in a v...Stryper/Brad Gillis !

I have a PQ6!

 

[jkkkjkhk]

Check out this video as well, I really don't care for the tone/settings but it gives you an idea of how different the IIC+, III, and IV sound from each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj5DYsjq08o

 

[skoora]

I've played a few III's and I don't think I'm missing anything with my MKV. Really liking this amp. I reckon I'll be selling my Studio Pre soon because the MKV covers that territory. Or I just realized I could use it as additional channels to the MKV with my GCX audio switcher

 

[RJF]

Try channel 2 with the high gain dip switch setting and a boost pedal. The extra saturation and mids from a pedal should get you close I loved boosting channel 2 of my old UL. Then use the graphic EQ for further shaping.

Why haven't I tried this before?! It took quite a bit of GEQ tweaking, but I was able to get much closer. Close enough to where I could fix it up in post, to what I want.

Thanks for saving me lots of money

...eh, I'll probably end up buying one someday anyway

Shiny has it right. Channel 2 with a tube screamer in the front on the UL. Super tight, clear, and punchy. That is the way I play mine. I never use Ch3.

While playing around with my MkIII the other day, I did get it to sound in the neighborhood of my UL, since you were asking me about that in my NAD mk 3 thread.

As others have said, I also think the mkIII is more aggressive and brighter than a mk4. I had a mk4 and hated that thing. WAYYYYY too many push/pull knobs and controls, I had a hard time dialing that thing. The mk3 is simpler, and I don't care that it shares controls for all channels. I just run it on the lead channel and use it as a one trick pony amp, could care less about it's clean/crunch. Same for the 2ch rectos. Simple layout one trick pony heads.

ANd lastly, I am going to step out on a limb and say I doubt there is much of a difference between a 2C+ and a mkIII. Especially the red/blue/green stripes. I've never played a C+, but I would bet thats what I would think if I did.

 

[petejt]

Check out this video as well, I really don't care for the tone/settings but it gives you an idea of how different the IIC+, III, and IV sound from each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj5DYsjq08o

I didn't hear much different between the MarkIIC+ and MarkIII. The MarkIV sounded a little more honky in the upper mids, but that can be changed by lowering the 2.2kHz slider and raising the 750Hz slider- this gets an aggressive scooped mid sound but still quite full in the central midrange (but you can lose a little 'cut' that has to be raised in other parts of the amp, or supplemented by an adjacent amp). Note that if you raise 750Hz too high it squashes all that 'scooped mid crunch', which is usually why it's often automatically lowered to attempt to get that crunchy mid-dipped sound.

 

[RJF]

Check out this video as well, I really don't care for the tone/settings but it gives you an idea of how different the IIC+, III, and IV sound from each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj5DYsjq08o

I didn't hear much different between the MarkIIC+ and MarkIII. The MarkIV sounded a little more honky in the upper mids, but that can be changed by lowering the 2.2kHz slider and raising the 750Hz slider- this gets an aggressive scooped mid sound but still quite full in the central midrange (but you can lose a little 'cut' that has to be raised in other parts of the amp, or supplemented by an adjacent amp). Note that if you raise 750Hz too high it squashes all that 'scooped mid crunch', which is usually why it's often automatically lowered to attempt to get that crunchy mid-dipped sound.

Yeah same here. Not a lot of difference. I would think if the treble or presence was turned up a hair on the mk3 it would have sounded identical to the 2C+. The 4 sounded like it had more presence turned up than both.

 

[Mudder]

You can get close to that tone with a Studio preamp and nice 6l6 power amp. The pre can be found all day long under $500.

 

[apophis]

A properly EQd UL will smoke that amp's tone, just listen to the dry amp tone video....save your money keep master at 70-75% on the UL chan vol to taste, and like others mentioned, chan 2 boosted via low input ....a nos RFT in v1 does wonders for making the vht sound wetter

 

[midnightlaundry]

The Mark V can get tone like that all day.

 

[glassjaw7]

UL - dry amp tone

Fixed

 

[LowDesertSludge]

This is near the exact tone that I'm always trying to get out of my UL, though it can get really close, it's still missing something

I might cut a little somewhere in the 400-800hz range, for my taste, but I'm sure that there's already plenty of post work done. Do any of the cheaper Marks sound like this? I remember hearing that the Mesa Studio Preamp was based on this amp. That would probably sound awesome running through the UL's KT88 power section. The Mark iv has always been on my list, but not really that high up. Bah, the differences between this and my amp are so subtle that it's not worth contemplating, but I can't help it Should I add this to my amps to buy list? Which if you're wondering, is currently:

1. Randall Satan(at least #1 to try, who knows after that)
2. VHT Deliverence
3. Rhodes Colossus
4. Kaos Hatred
5. Mesa Mark IV

6 through 9999999 of the list contains every other amp known to man

Is that an Evertune bridge in that axe??