Mesa Mark I, II, III or IV ???

[Achilles]

Smoke em if you got em.

1987 Mark III SRG red stripe with new caps and the rhythm channel master volume mod. Dusted it off cause of the talk in the Fractal thread. Having not played it in about a year the mind blower reminder right off the bat is what a glorious freaking clean channel this has. Really nice Fendery stuff inside. The gain side is great but nothing that'll replace the Ares. It's going back in storage until old Mesa pricing starts going absolutely bonkers - then it'll hit the market.

EDIT: Just quickly plugged the KSR back in and the gain that was taking 7s and 8s on the pre-amp side of the MIII are easily gotten with the Areas on about 4. It's actually got some Mark flavor to it but with more bite and aggression.

 

[2112]

Mark IV B mounted in the rack kit & Studio Preamp. Both stock. Both sound glorious.

 

[Achilles]

Mark IV B mounted in the rack kit & Studio Preamp. Both stock. Both sound glorious.

Had a Studio Pre and it blew an optical switch. The PCB was fragile enough that the trace got trashed trying to replace the part. Could have gotten it fixed but the cost would have been insane. I'd gotten a good deal on it in the first place so it wasn't worth the added investment.

While I got you on the line, you noted in your early review of the Myasnikov Super Lead that the output level was set ridiculously hot on it. Do you know if that ever got addressed? Thanks Leon!

 

[gearJunkie]

Mark VII in Cali Tweed into a 1x12 open back & 1x12 Thiele cab with Boogie badges replaced with Mesa badges.

It has a Mark IIB, IIC, IV mode on channel 3.

 

[2112]

@Achilles I'm not sure if that got sorted. Mine was a pretty early one and I've since sold it to a mate.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

1985 Mark III black dot rehoused from its combo

hilariously mahoossive power transformer

 

[Achilles]

1985 Mark III black dot rehoused from its combo

I removed that sharp finned heatsink on the back from mine. Funny thing is there's nothing mounted inside coupling to it. It serves absolutely no purpose.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I removed that sharp finned heatsink on the back from mine. Funny thing is there's nothing mounted inside coupling to it. It serves absolutely no purpose.

classic mesa using any available space for SOMETHING

 

[spawnofthesith]

I miss my red stripe III

and my V

 

[adam]

My '93 IVb back when I had it racked.

These days it's back in it's headshell gathering dust, paired with an mf400 cab.

 

[EOengineer]

My Mark III Blue Stripe simul class that was purchased as a combo and rehoused after a decade. It has a slight mod where my amp tech added a cap into C30 to basically turn it into a red stripe - shaves a little top off. It’s the most effective part of the + mod you sometimes see people get on their III.

I wouldn’t sell this amp for any amount of money. It oozes mojo and I love it more every time I plug in.

 

[0XI0]

I'd gotten a good deal on it in the first place

in 2010 they were like 450! 15 stock dual recs on any given day for 850

 

[Achilles]

The post Gibson sale creep is well under way.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Realistic mark IIIs that are actually selling have been creeping down closer to $1700 or so locally here. People trying to sell for $2.5-4K have been sitting on them for months to years


Still a far cry from the good ol days tho but I’ll keep watching

 

[Achilles]

Realistic mark IIIs that are actually selling have been creeping down closer to $1700 or so locally here.

Ya, already told my wife we'll check back in another 12 months.

 

[wharf rat]

Realistic mark IIIs that are actually selling have been creeping down closer to $1700 or so locally here. People trying to sell for $2.5-4K have been sitting on them for months to years


Still a far cry from the good ol days tho but I’ll keep watching

I’m eyeing a Mark III (Purple Stripe) locally. The guy has it up for $2200 but has offered it to me for $1700. I just bought a Lonestar Special but damn…might bite on it.

Personally I think he’d take $1500 to get rid of it.

 

[la szum]

Mark III's are amazing amps. Just need to drive them with so much juice that it makes them
difficult and challenging to use, in my experience. Then you have the whole R1/R2 discrepancy
with setting/balancing volumes.

My first Mark was a III. Moved on to a IV. Honestly, don't really miss either.

 

[nicolasrivera]

Happy Mark III and Studio Cal. owner.

And just a reminder that new Mark builds sound as good as the vintage ones!

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I've posted this one in other threads, but I'll do it here too. Mark III DG red stripe. The original headshell may or may not have had separation in one of the joints. The tolex didn't rip but showed an indentation so it was hard to tell. I went ahead and built a new shell for it.

 

[Bossman415]

Personal prefernce here but IIC+/++ is the GOAT. The IV is also a killer amp and same with the JP2C.

The Mark III's are killer, but can't seem to justify owning them since I have a IIC+/++, too much overlap.

The loop modded IIB RP9C's (last PCB version) are very underrated. They have their own thing going on and sound vicious.

I prefer the loop modded IIB RP9C's to the Mark III's. The Mark I is a killer amp as well, but not Metal amps.

Played a V and thought it was cool but not as good as the IIC+/++, IV or JP2C as far as the lead channel goes.

Have yet to try a VII. I own all the amps it emmulates and already have a Cab Clone IR+. Seems like it would be overlap.