UPDATED - Mark V for Mark III

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blackba":1mt9bw3q said:
I hate these mark III threads, it always makes me want to add a mark III to my amp stable. I love my mark IVA, but have long been curious about the III. How is the effects loop on the mark III, is it usable?

Darn GAS.....
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Effects loop is stellar!
 
blackba":14d5f47a said:
I hate these mark III threads, it always makes me want to add a mark III to my amp stable. I love my mark IVA, but have long been curious about the III. How is the effects loop on the mark III, is it usable?

Darn GAS.....
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Pick one up, you won't be disappointed. You can find them all day long for < $1000, combos included. My red is a combo and has the EVM-12L speaker, which sounds great.

The IIIs are underrated amps, for sure.
 
Mark III

The Mark III was launched by Mesa/Boogie in 1985. It introduced a third channel, a "crunch" rhythm sound right in between the rhythm and lead channels. This amp has a dual footswitch system: one footswitch alternates between the current rhythm mode and the lead mode, and the other selects either the clean rhythm mode or the crunch rhythm mode. The two rhythm modes share all of their controls, while the lead mode only shares the rhythm modes' tone stack, featuring independent gain and master volume controls. The physical switch for the crunch rhythm mode was implemented as a push/pull switch above the Middle frequency control.
The Mark III went through multiple revisions, similar to the Mark II. Each revision had a slightly different voicing, but identical functionality. The amplifier had an aggressive voicing, and extreme brightness that is well suited for heavier music.

Black Stripe
These are distinguished by either the absence of a marking, a black dot, or a black marker stripe above the power cord entry. Early Black Stripes retained the same power transformer as the IIC+, which is easily distinguished by its larger physical size than the later-introduced Mark III transformer.

Early Black Stripes also re-used the face plate from the Mark II series. This resulted in the pull function of the Master 1 knob being mislabelled as Gain Boost instead of the correct Pull Deep name. The pull function labels above the Bass and Middle knobs were hand etched onto the face plate resulting in a slightly different look than the other labels on the face plate.

Purple Stripe
The second revision was the "Purple Stripe" Mark III, which featured a purple marker stripe above the power cord. This amplifier was voiced with a more mellow lead and crunch modes, with slightly reduced gain.

Red Stripe
The third revision was the "Red Stripe" Mark III which featured a red marker stripe above the power cord. The amplifier had increased gain over the purple stripe, and lead mode circuitry almost identical to the IIC+.

Blue Stripe
The fourth revision was the "Blue Stripe" Mark III which featured a blue marker stripe above the power cord. The amplifier was voiced so bright, it is considered to be the most aggressive Mark Series Boogie ever introduced. The power amp was also altered to mirror that of the IIC+.

Green Stripe
The final revision was the "Green Stripe" Mark III, which was only available in a Simul-Class format. It was identical to the Blue Stripe, except for the wiring of the Class A power amp tubes, which were switched to Pentode operation, for a 10W RMS increase over previous Simul-Class amplifiers.

Mesa ultimately ended the Mark III's production in the company's largest marketing failure, since it overlapped with production of its successor, the Mark IV, which was introduced in 1990. Mark III's were still in steady production around 1994, and finally ceased as late as 1997, 11 years after its launch.
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Guess I had a dud blue stripe then! Given the age of these amps coulda been the tubes or caps dulling the sound. I preferred the Red and kept it for quite awhile. Sounded just as good as the IIC+ I owned.
 
My MK III had reverb issues years ago. Took it to my trusty amp tech and dropped it off. He put in a new verb transformer and then went through the amp. Replaced the caps and a few other things. I got it back and put in all new tubes and HOLLY SH!T iii Mine is the purple stripe without GEQ and simuclass, only 2 6L6 tubes (50-60 watt?) Does have reverb and I did the R2 mod which made a big difference.

I had the Mk V and it was a great amp Went from head to combo w/mesa M90 speaker. I liked the combo better. The only cabs I have are the Bogner 20th X and 2 Friedman/Cameron cubes with 300w EVM 12 L BLS. I would get the head and a separate open back cab next time because of weight. The Mk V is a great amp but I have had my MK III since 94'-95' and it just has that mojo for me. I will say that I might end up with another MK V but only after I get a SLO.

I have thought about getting another Mk III fully loaded just to have :lol: :LOL: :doh:
 
Thanks for the Wiki quote Rupe, but I always like to read RT people's opinion too ;)
 
Tone Monster":15jc6q76 said:
Guess I had a dud blue stripe then! Given the age of these amps coulda been the tubes or caps dulling the sound. I preferred the Red and kept it for quite awhile. Sounded just as good as the IIC+ I owned.
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I had a black dot, or no stripe that sounded....egh...ok. I had another that sounded great. They do vary and it's not always just the tubes.
 
I had a rack mount MK III a long time ago. I never knew about stripe revisions then so no idea which it was. The 2nd (R2) rhythm channel had lots of gain and surprisingly Marshally sounding. In fact it sounded better than the lead mode.
 
Business":30tahi45 said:
Thanks for the Wiki quote Rupe, but I always like to read RT people's opinion too ;)
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Oh, so this was a comedy thread? ;) :D
 
So here it is, just bought yesterday. Thought I was buying a blue stripe, but this looks a lot more like a green stripe with Simul-Class switch as Full Power - 1/2 Power switch on the front panel

:rock:

MarkIII1_zps4324bc3a.jpg


MarkIII2_zps9005acb3.jpg


MarkIII3_zps9f2ea1c0.jpg


MarkIII4_zpsffc511e0.jpg
 
It's in simul-class all the time. The half power switch is just that. We'll need a clip/vid of that bad boy in action :thumbsup:

Edit: I just did a little more research and a few folks on the Boogie Board said the half power switch on the full size heads is a mis-nomer and it is switching to the outer pair, class A setting, so I stand corrected.
 
You can use the blacked out reverb spot in back for a R2 mod. Just pull the rubber plug out and put in a volume knob. Look up the mod online. It's a fairly easy one to do if you can solder.
 
Cool amps, I have a purple Coliseum and it's a beast. If it's as 'mellow' and lower gain as wiki says, I'd hate to see a red stripe.
 
That could be a blue, I've seen blues where the stripe faded to a similar greenish color. The serial # would help identify - exceptions notwithstanding, there are commonly excepted serial number ranges for each stripe.
 
dsquared":1lyiqbea said:
That could be a blue, I've seen blues where the stripe faded to a similar greenish color. The serial # would help identify - exceptions notwithstanding, there are commonly excepted serial number ranges for each stripe.
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Looks like it's Serial #26084
 
Business":1o4jjhv5 said:
dsquared":1o4jjhv5 said:
That could be a blue, I've seen blues where the stripe faded to a similar greenish color. The serial # would help identify - exceptions notwithstanding, there are commonly excepted serial number ranges for each stripe.
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Looks like it's Serial #26084
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That's right in between the Blue and Green from what I understand. If you take it apart look how the outer tubes are wired to know for sure.
 
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