Capture the Story – Mesa/Boogie Mark III Green Stripe

Mesa/Boogie Catalogue, Circa 1985

The story of the Mark series has been told countless times. It all started in the 60s, with Randall Smith playing a practical joke on a local guitarist by installing a Fender Bassman's power section into a Fender Princeton as well as a 12-inch speaker (Stoner, 2022). Approximately around 150-200 units of these 'Princeton Boogies' were built (Hunter, 2005).

Enter the Mark I. Introduced in 1971, the Mark I revolutionized guitar amplifier design in many ways (McMurry, 2023). The main unique feature that defined it was the cascading gain stage preamp design, with the signal going through "a first gain stage, then the tone stack and volume control, then a gain makeup stage, then a further gain stage before heading towards the output" (Pittman, 2003). This introduced a more aggressive timbre to the world of overdriven guitar amps. Around 3,000 units of Mark I Mesa Boogies were built (Hunter, 2005).

In 1978, Mesa/Boogie introduced the Mark II (Neural DSP & Davies, 2023). An extra gain stage was added to the already existing preamp gain stages, residing within the foot-switchable lead mode, being the first amp to have this feature (Pittman, 2003). The Mark IIB revision was released in 1980, introducing a buffered Fx-loop as well as introducing the Simul-Class power amp technology (Mesa Engineering, 1982).

In 1983, another revision was made, being the Mark IIC. The revision remedied the noisy channel switching between the rhythm and lead channel as well as introducing a pull bass shift onto the control panel (Neural DSP & Davies, 2023).

The ultimate revision of the Mark II line was released in January 1984: the Mark IIC+ (Gill, 2023). The Mark IIC+ replaced the pull 'gain boost' control on the master knob with a 'pull deep' function in addition to revoicing the amp for a more aggressive timbre (Neural DSP & Davies, 2023). This arguably became Mesa/Boogie's most famous amplifier, being featured on Metallica's Master of Puppets, almost every work featuring John Petrucci on guitar, as well as being the amp of choice of many 80s session guitarists (Gill, 2023).

The Mesa/Boogie Mark III was released in 1985 as the successor of the renowned Mark IIC+. When it was released in 1985, the company described it as their 'most toneful musical amplifier ever', with the marketing material alluding the amp to be able to capture the sounds of a Fender clean amp, a Marshall crunch, and the Mesa/Boogie's iconic Mark series lead channel sound. An enigmatic IIC++ factory mod was also made in extremely small quantity, increasing the gain in the lead channel (Neural DSP & Davies, 2023).

Ignoring the changes made in each stripe revisions and the newly added Rhythm 2 channel, the preamp circuitry of the Mark III is further built upon the coveted Mark IIC++ factory mod (Mesa Engineering, 1985b). This gives the Mark III an unmistakable aggressive sound that the Mark series is famous for.

However, compared to the popularity and status of the Mark IIC+ and Mark IV that fetches massive prices on the market, the Mark III is often overlooked and is an affordable entry into owning a Mesa/Boogie Mark series.