First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

[BluesGuyJ]

Hey there fellas.

So I got the Mark III in today...

Here are my first impressions:

Clean channel: Awesome tone and headroom, no doubt about this channel. Everything I could want for a clean tone.

Dirt channel:
Good Marshall like tone. Good for blues and light rock.

Lead:
Pretty disapointing. It sounds extremely fuzzy to me. I was expecting the Mesa world famous compression and tightness, but it sounds so damn fuzzy. Is this common among the Mark III series? Is there a pedal I should try to fix this fuzz/buzzing issue? Perhaps the tubes need replaced? I dont know the last time they were replaced. I was expecting Petrucci like compressed, focused lead tones, not buzzing and fizzy tones. Help me out guys!

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Hehe welcome to the endless knobtwirling of Mesa dom!

 

[B Bent]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Hehe welcome to the endless knobtwirling of Mesa dom!

Great amps, but for a simple player like me nuttin beats an old single channel Fender with an 808 and 9 out front!!! Guess that's why I just let two of them go this week!! hehe

 

[Falstaff]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Don't get too worried. Many Boogies take a while to dial in. If there's a Boogie forum out there someplace, you can try that. The other thing you could do is try kcanostubes.com and see if he can suggest a preamp tube that will get you where you want to go. I don't think you can expect to be able to dial in one of those three channel things (especially if there is anything shared between them) in one day.

Don't get bummed out.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Well I bummed out along time ago
Petrucci does he even use one of the various MK3 amps??

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

http://www.grailtone.com/forum

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Petrucci does he even use one of the various MK3 amps??

No. He uses the Mk II C+ and Dual Rectos.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Well that is something entirely different then.

 

[JeffB]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Hehe welcome to the endless knobtwirling of Mesa dom!

:laugh2: Sad but true....


can take awhile to dial in a MESA. Dont give up!..its a great amp...they just are not terribly good at "plug in and play"

 

[Al.C]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Exactly why I sold my MK 3 and got a MK1 ( then finally a MKII C+). THe lead channel on the mk 3 just was too edgey, not near the Santana sound I wanted.

 

[Monty-Jay]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Different but not very drastic, the Mark series are all fairly close but they take time to gain a firm understanding.

What are your settings like?

I second the suggestion about checking out the board on the grailtone site, also post on the amp forum of harmony central. There are LOTS of Mark III folks over there.

MJ

 

[FretFire]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Don't forget that Petrucci also uses a rack setup that would cause a brownout in many cities and towns here in the US.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Well I am still trying to get a hold on the EQ, that in its self isnew to me. I'm gonna work on it some more today and I am also meeting up with a friend who is a Mesa god and if we can't get the tone I want out of this bad boy, then I'll just bring her back to GC for an exchange.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Just tweaked the EQ and made a world of improvement. I am pretty sure what iI did scooped the mids and that made the rythem playing on the lead channel a lot better, as well as applied the EQ to the clean channel which made that even better. I just need to tweak the mid, treb and bass knobs to fine tune the three channels. I dont really see myself using the 2nd channel at all, I can just turn down the gain on the lead channel or buy a overdrive pedal for the clean channel.

Not to sound dumb, but would I only plug certain effects into the FX loop or would I plug all of my pedals in? Including distortion, overdrive, wah and so on and so forth? I have never had a tube amp before and I've only used modeling amps which don't really need pedals. And what does the FX level knob attribute to?

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

Update:

I've realized that giving the amp a lot of time to warm up and playing it semi loud really brings me to where I want to be. With higher volume comes more compression and gain, which is what I was looking for. Could someone still help me out with understanding the FX loop?

 

[TonyBar3]

Re: First impressions of Mesa Boogie Mark III

I'm a Mark III man myself, and as far as the effects loop, I'm sorry, I'm not to big into effects. I have a wah and a phase, and I put them both inline going to the amp input.

About the Graphic EQ, just keep that switch on EQ IN. Leave it all the time, and say hello to your best friend.

Actually, take it off, and dial in a nice base coat sound. Now, dial in the V setting on the EQ, turn it to IN, and tweak away, you'll find that the EQ can make massive differences, one being that the bass response on that EQ is tighter than the bass response from the knob. Mids are also very different on there. I love that EQ. What power tubes do you have in yours?

Oh, and definitly check out the website that DeadSkinSlayer recommended, it is THE Mesa forum. Lots of knowledge there.

Tony