View other reviews for this product:
iamqman
Published on 04/07/11 at 15:03
I had this amp in my band for over two years. I am more familiar with this amp than probably any thing I have ever played before. The tone from this amp is massive and saturated. It comes off sort of as a one trick pony but that pony is a stallion. Our rhythm guitar player would play through this amp to cover any missing ground that I didn't cover in the band.
The tone from this amp is warn and rich fill of natural harmonics that filled the air in a 3D setting. We would only use the rhythm and lead as boost for choruses and such. Never did we use the clean aspect of it. Got a chance to record with it a few times. Recording proved to be a little bit more complicated finding a right sound to record with.
UTILIZATION
If someone were to look at a Mark series amp and would probably take a while to figure out how it operates. Unlike the Marshall's and Hiwatt's this amp can be a little tricky at first glance. I know it took me a little bit of time learn how the control knobs interact with the circuit. There a few push pull controls and then the footswitch engages the crunch and lead channels. So without the footswitches someone might get angry they can figure out how to get this thing to overdrive.
SOUNDS
The cool thing about the Mark lll is the gain that you would get from a modded Marshall is around 5 on these amps. There is a ton of gain headroom on these beasts. That is always one of my favorite things on an amplifier is how much gain can I have but never needed that much. If I can keep an amp around 1-2:00 on the gain control knob then I am a happy camper. That tells me it is well built piece of equipment and if I ever need MORE than I have it on tap. If the controls for the three band EQ were like that then this would be the best amp on the planet. Unfortunately you have to crank the treble up a lot on these amps to get them to really sizzle.
Try out this amp with a Mesa 4x12 with Vintage 30 Celestion speakers and a Les Paul. you will get a solid rock tone fit for just about any musical situation you may find yourself in. It even sounds great when you throw a Strat in front of it and blast that midrange up a bit. every guitar i threw at this thing was easily taken care of. This is one of those amps that you don't need a boost pedal in front of. It has so much power and trust that it would only diminish the amp if you did use a booster pedal.
OVERALL OPINION
I love this the and the power that comes with the lead channel in particular. Mesa Mark ll amps have my favorite lead tone of any amp that I have played before. I have played ever single Marshall that exists and just about ever modern high gain amp on the market and I always find myself coming right back to the basic sound or the lead Mark lll tone.
The tone from this amp is warn and rich fill of natural harmonics that filled the air in a 3D setting. We would only use the rhythm and lead as boost for choruses and such. Never did we use the clean aspect of it. Got a chance to record with it a few times. Recording proved to be a little bit more complicated finding a right sound to record with.
UTILIZATION
If someone were to look at a Mark series amp and would probably take a while to figure out how it operates. Unlike the Marshall's and Hiwatt's this amp can be a little tricky at first glance. I know it took me a little bit of time learn how the control knobs interact with the circuit. There a few push pull controls and then the footswitch engages the crunch and lead channels. So without the footswitches someone might get angry they can figure out how to get this thing to overdrive.
SOUNDS
The cool thing about the Mark lll is the gain that you would get from a modded Marshall is around 5 on these amps. There is a ton of gain headroom on these beasts. That is always one of my favorite things on an amplifier is how much gain can I have but never needed that much. If I can keep an amp around 1-2:00 on the gain control knob then I am a happy camper. That tells me it is well built piece of equipment and if I ever need MORE than I have it on tap. If the controls for the three band EQ were like that then this would be the best amp on the planet. Unfortunately you have to crank the treble up a lot on these amps to get them to really sizzle.
Try out this amp with a Mesa 4x12 with Vintage 30 Celestion speakers and a Les Paul. you will get a solid rock tone fit for just about any musical situation you may find yourself in. It even sounds great when you throw a Strat in front of it and blast that midrange up a bit. every guitar i threw at this thing was easily taken care of. This is one of those amps that you don't need a boost pedal in front of. It has so much power and trust that it would only diminish the amp if you did use a booster pedal.
OVERALL OPINION
I love this the and the power that comes with the lead channel in particular. Mesa Mark ll amps have my favorite lead tone of any amp that I have played before. I have played ever single Marshall that exists and just about ever modern high gain amp on the market and I always find myself coming right back to the basic sound or the lead Mark lll tone.