NHSD - Mesa Mark III

[Alan]

I had posted in Vince's Mark III thread that I had bought a green strip Mark III combo (actually traded for it with a friend of mine). I had been scouring the internet looking for a good way to get a head shell built short of going through Mesa. In a last ditched effort to find one, I ended up finding a guy in Pennsylvania who builds them however you'd like. It arrived today and I swapped it over while on my lunch break.

The work is fantastic... the only thing I have to souce is a small piece of aluminum to cover up the top of the reverb tank, but I don't use the built in reverb so I'm not worried about any noise that may be introduced. Everything lined right up and slid right in, including both the fan and the reverb tank.

I called Mesa service a couple weeks ago to find out if the amp had ever been back for service - come to find out, it went back 10 years ago and had a bunch of caps replaced, one of the EQ band inductors replaced, as well as a few other miscellaneous parts, plus had the R2 mod done, so it should be good for quite a while. If Mike B ever ends up doing mods again (the answer was no right now), I may send it in for a ++ mod, but I'm quite happy with how it sounds as it stands.

[Budda]

Aw yeah.

[beneharris]

Nice. Welcome to the Mark III club. Such a frigging awesome amp. And nobody has figured out how awesome it is because it isn't a IIC+ so you can still get them relatively affordably.

[Leon]

Hot. Simul-Class 4lyfe.

[Tony]

Nice. Welcome to the Mark III club. Such a frigging awesome amp. And nobody has figured out how awesome it is because it isn't a IIC+ so you can still get them relatively affordably.

Man I wish. Before all the lockdowns and stuff they were roughly £4-600 now they're pushing £1500-1700 for beaten up ones.

I probably shouldn't have spent the last few years telling people how close they are to the iic+ and can be changed with only a handful of parts.

That and I should have bought one when they were cheap. As I should have an ada mp-1 also.

Back to the main topic enjoy your amp. They're incredible.

[Alan]

Man I wish. Before all the lockdowns and stuff they were roughly £4-600 now they're pushing £1500-1700 for beaten up ones.

I probably shouldn't have spent the last few years telling people how close they are to the iic+ and can be changed with only a handful of parts.

That and I should have bought one when they were cheap. As I should have an ada mp-1 also.

Back to the main topic enjoy your amp. They're incredible.

One of the guys in my band has a 60 watt black dot Mark III with graphic eq... I told him he has a standing offer of $1k if he ever wants to sell it. The prices of them are getting pretty crazy over here too.

[beneharris]

Man I wish. Before all the lockdowns and stuff they were roughly £4-600 now they're pushing £1500-1700 for beaten up ones.

I probably shouldn't have spent the last few years telling people how close they are to the iic+ and can be changed with only a handful of parts.

That and I should have bought one when they were cheap. As I should have an ada mp-1 also.

Back to the main topic enjoy your amp. They're incredible.

Well, compared to the 4-5k I'm seeing on IIC+ lately, I'd say $1500 isn't too bad

I got lucky, I paid $350 for mine because it needed a little bit of work.

[Tony]

Well, compared to the 4-5k I'm seeing on IIC+ lately, I'd say $1500 isn't too bad

I got lucky, I paid $350 for mine because it needed a little bit of work.

Well that is true. You got an absolute bargain.

[beneharris]

Well that is true. You got an absolute bargain.

Yeah, it took some work, but it wasn't anything major. A wire had come off the transformer, so I repaired that, a pot was broken, and it needs a recap, which I still haven't bothered with.

[Chris]

[Budda]

Run in stereo with that bogner.

[desertdweller]

Hell yes Alan !!! That looks amazing. I love the black tolex with the gray faceplate - looks really modern and slick IMO! It looks like this headshell is about an inch or so taller than the V35 headshell Mesa sent me for my Mark III - you have a bit more room between the tubes and the bottom panel. Overall looks killer! Great job finding a local alternative, the best I could find outside of Mesa themselves was a guy on Reverb in Europe that made these.

[RevDrucifer]

A Mark III was the first big amp rig I ever heard cranked up in person when I was 11. My uncle had a full stack and because he was so fucking loud, I just thought it was awesome. He sold it to fund a Digitech 2101. He was here two weeks ago and is still pissed off about that.

That looks great, man!

[Adam]

A Mark III was the first big amp rig I ever heard cranked up in person when I was 11. My uncle had a full stack and because he was so fucking loud, I just thought it was awesome. He sold it to fund a Digitech 2101. He was here two weeks ago and is still pissed off about that.

That looks great, man!

Even I'm pissed off about that for him now that you've told us 🤣

[Alan]

Run in stereo with that bogner.

I'm not sure my foundation will survive that, though I want to.

Hell yes Alan !!! That looks amazing. I love the black tolex with the gray faceplate - looks really modern and slick IMO! It looks like this headshell is about an inch or so taller than the V35 headshell Mesa sent me for my Mark III - you have a bit more room between the tubes and the bottom panel. Overall looks killer! Great job finding a local alternative, the best I could find outside of Mesa themselves was a guy on Reverb in Europe that made these.

His work is fantastic and his pricing is quite reasonable for what you get. The only difference is he doesn't provide a reverb tank or fan, so you have to reuse what you have. However, he provides all the hardware and everything lines right up. Plus you can pick your custom tolex and grill options.

[desertdweller]

Alan The Mark III truly is an amazing amp. I've compared it up and down to my JP2C, and with the EL34s in the outer sockets like you have it, it has a slightly different characteristic to the JP that I just love. If I put 4 6L6s in the Mark III, it's pretty much spot-on the yellow channel of the JP. You can tell in the attack and in some of the high mids where the massive JP2C transformer adds something different, but the lead channel on the Mark III and the yellow channel on the JP2C are honestly very very close.

I've been messing around with the Mark III's Rhythm 2 channel recently and it's really interesting that they basically put a plexi smack dab in the middle of their amp here. Mind you, I have limited experience with the Mark IV and V, but I have extensive experience with the Triaxis, and the Marshall-esque middle channel sounds so unbelievably Marshall it's almost out of place on the amp and not like what I've experienced on the Triaxis.

I could go off about the Mark III for days, it's simply an awesome amplifier, and I love that you converted yours to a headshell too. The combo Mark III was just too loud for me, uncontrollably so with the Black Shadow speaker, it's much easier to control the volume with my 4x12 and the Mark III sounds really full and saturated even at whisper quiet volume.

[Alan]

Alan The Mark III truly is an amazing amp. I've compared it up and down to my JP2C, and with the EL34s in the outer sockets like you have it, it has a slightly different characteristic to the JP that I just love. If I put 4 6L6s in the Mark III, it's pretty much spot-on the yellow channel of the JP. You can tell in the attack and in some of the high mids where the massive JP2C transformer adds something different, but the lead channel on the Mark III and the yellow channel on the JP2C are honestly very very close.

I've been messing around with the Mark III's Rhythm 2 channel recently and it's really interesting that they basically put a plexi smack dab in the middle of their amp here. Mind you, I have limited experience with the Mark IV and V, but I have extensive experience with the Triaxis, and the Marshall-esque middle channel sounds so unbelievably Marshall it's almost out of place on the amp and not like what I've experienced on the Triaxis.

I could go off about the Mark III for days, it's simply an awesome amplifier, and I love that you converted yours to a headshell too. The combo Mark III was just too loud for me, uncontrollably so with the Black Shadow speaker, it's much easier to control the volume with my 4x12 and the Mark III sounds really full and saturated even at whisper quiet volume.

Vince,
I'd highly recommend the R2 mod if yours doesn't have it, which allows you to balance the volumes at least between all 3 channels. Mine has it, and I can definitely see using R2 for some of the more "classic" stuff my cover band does.

I do need to try some 6L6's in the outer sockets at some point just to see what the difference is sound wise, but I'm pretty happy with it as it stands.

[Drew]

Nice!