Any pedal recommendation for a Mark III?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DaveShred86
  • Start date Start date
DaveShred86 said:
Hello folks

Thanks a lot for all your help! I bring some news here..

First of all, my Mark III is right now at the technician, a local Spanish guy who is a legend for a reason, and well, after he made his first analysis, he gave me a few words.

1- All power tubes are 1989 originals and they are completely worn out, plus really bad quality ones.
2- Preamp tubes are of very poor choice, plus they are also faulty and add extra noise.
3- Some of the capacitors and filters must be changed

The amp status, even if it looks really good from the outside, is a real mess on the inside, so once he stabilizes all we will further talk about mods or the possibility of adding gain.

Taking this into consideration, I will try a Fortin Hexdrive both on my Mark IV and my Mark III once repair is done to it. Only boost, no drive. Will also try an EQ with flat values.

thanks everybody for the great advice.
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Ya, they are old amps and all in need of new filter caps at this point if they are all original. I had my Mark III sent to Mesa twice, first time they replaced two caps, then the amp failed again, so they replaced the rest, this was a while ago, like 7 - 8 years ago. I just sent my Mark IV in early this year and they did it right and had all the caps replaced, so I'm hoping it stays healthy for many many years. I've never had so many problems with tube amps as I've had with Mesa Boogie's. They are such complex amplifiers that something is just bound to go wrong.
 
Seems mine got also some ugly stuff regarding reverb and the cooling fan, all that before seeing caps or any possible mod, so yes, my green stripe was fucked up.

Patience.
 
I use the deadweald Duality dx with my Mark IV. I use the green channel for E to C standard but I've been learning some new carcass this past week and have been using the blue channel in B standard. I feel like this is one of the best tones I've ever had.
 
Tomorrow I will finally get my Mark III from the technician, lot of stuff was wrong with that old amp, time to test it with my 4X12! Thanks everyone for the answers and support.

Will let you guys know.
 
Today I finally tried my serviced Mark III.

Not only it doesn't need a boost, I just think it's the best amp I've ever played.

I swear it sounds 100% like the IIC+ Ola Englund plays in this video.



Not joking.

I am so amazed....
 
WarHed said:
Out of interest, what did the tech do?
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All power tubes were original 89 Chinese ones, they were in a horrible state. All of them changed, also completely rebiased the amp according to the best possible SimulClass operation.

Preamp tubes were all also original except one, and all of them were quite of poor quality, all have been swapped for good quality ones, specially V2, which nos has a very fine picked German NOS RFT

Some capacitors were in pretty bad condition too, as the same as some noisy pots and parts here and there, all changed for premium parts.

There was a mod done in the fan (added resistors that made the fan work at half speed I guess), now all that is thrown out and ventilation is far better (mandatory after this revision because now the bias is a lot hotter it seems).

Some little mods and changes are done on the preamp, just for it to be closer to the IIC+ specs, but still with the III rage, this is what I would call the "special sauce" of this revision (this technician is operating Mesa products in Spain since the early 90's, he knows what he is doing).

Sincerely, the amp now is so open, so loose and yet so brutal, I swear it sounds totally like the one on the Ola Englund video.

I'm sorry maybe I'm not being too specific, I'm writing all this using the phone, will try to give more details during this week.
 
FWIW, I always preferred R2 boosted on my MkIIIs for a heavy rhythm tone over using the Lead channel for the rhythm tone. Try it.

Side note I just posted another thread with a link to a IIC+ running through 3 different boosts. It'll be the same idea, just less hair than the III.
 
Same. Boost R2 with a pedal for rhythm. Dial in Lead for single note solos.

Click pedal out and roll back guitar volume for cleans on R2.
 
GJgo said:
FWIW, I always preferred R2 boosted on my MkIIIs for a heavy rhythm tone over using the Lead channel for the rhythm tone. Try it.

Side note I just posted another thread with a link to a IIC+ running through 3 different boosts. It'll be the same idea, just less hair than the III.
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Excellent video as always by the way :)
 
rstites said:
Same. Boost R2 with a pedal for rhythm. Dial in Lead for single note solos.

Click pedal out and roll back guitar volume for cleans on R2.
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Will try for sure, but I doubt I can love anything more than an old Mark Lead tone for rhythm haha
 
DaveShred86 said:
Today I finally tried my serviced Mark III.

Not only it doesn't need a boost, I just think it's the best amp I've ever played.

I swear it sounds 100% like the IIC+ Ola Englund plays in this video.



Not joking.

I am so amazed....
Click to expand...

Your comment brings me back to the first time I plugged into my HRG Red Stripe after having the 3+ mod done to it.

It smoothed out the stock aggressiveness of the amp in a good way and added a R2 volume pot which made all the channels useable.

Glad you're enjoying your Green Stripe man. Those Mark III's really are great amps.
 
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