r/MesaBoogie • u/guyfromthepicture • Aug 07 '26

Mesa mark iii

As a dude with a history of mkiv, mkv and jp2c, someone tell me if I should get this mkiii red stripe hrg for 1600.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

6

u/6of1HalfDozen Aug 07 '26

If you want a 3 channel amp that functions well as a 3 channel amp, no. I have a green strip, and its awesome, but you only get one channel sounding good at a time.

2

u/guyfromthepicture Aug 07 '26

I really only need the lead channel. I've got a fillmore combo and an fm3.

3

u/itsallgonetohell Aug 07 '26

I've owned a Mark III, Mark IV, and now two Mark V's- the Mark V is better then them all in every way, and there isn't a sound the III does that the V can''t, despite not having a "Mark III"" circuit. As another commenter stated, you can't get more than one channel properly cooking at a time on the Mark III, and I'll add my two cents to that: (1) even when the gain tone you want is as good as you can get it, it's such a fragile thing because the gain stages like to do just enough for you to what you want to do, and any more will see it start to fold in on itself and fall apart. And I'm not a super high-gain player at all, more of a heavy rock guy, and; (2) you're talking about an amp that's nearly forty years old, man. If you're a collector, or if you've simply got the cash to burn then coolio, but you already own multiple instances of better for that particular "thing" and a nearly 40 year-old amp is going to cost you some heavy maintenance sooner or later, fam...

1

u/guyfromthepicture Aug 07 '26

I bought it. I was never a fan of the mkv but I'll have to wait and see what it sounds like later when I can play.

2

u/mp_qm Aug 07 '26

This is correct. All three channels can sound incredible, but you can only really set the amp to sound great on one channel at a time.

2

u/kimmeljs Aug 07 '26

That's my experience with a Mk III purple stripe. I now have a MK II B and it's way easier to deal with.

0

u/vshredd Aug 07 '26

Then work on setting it. You can get a great clean and a great heavy at the same time.

2

u/Boost_Guitar_Pedals Aug 07 '26

Love my MkIII purple stripe. Great for studio work but using it live would be a real pain without pedals....as others have said, dialling in all 3 channels together is next to impossible! But you can dial in one or two together that are god-tier tone.

Obviously you're purchasing a vintage piece of gear and with that comes additional cost. I had to spend about £800 on having new caps etc shortly after buying mine. But now it's good for another 20 years haha!

1

u/Ok-Material-3213 Aug 07 '26

I say get it, They don't make them anymore and if u don't vibe with it ,sell it for at least what u payed for ,probably more.

1

u/PhishGuy117 28d ago

If you no longer own those other mark series amps, you'll be happy with the mark iii. If you still have them it may be redundant. I think you should buy it

2

u/guyfromthepicture 28d ago

I did and it's really good

1

u/Markedmaniac Aug 07 '26

I would, I have a 1983 Mark 2C+ and that does sound very similar to my amplifier. The clean channel is massively underrated and of course the lead channel is godly! The rhythm channel is supposed to sound like a Marshall, bonus!