#37770  by High Peaks
 
Hi all!!!

If anyone has one of these, do you use the reverb in the amp?? Or run an external unit in parallel??
Just curious. Mesa's reverb sucks. Maybe i'm just spoiled from playing thru Vintage Fender amps!!!

Thanks

 #37771  by KCJones
 
I have a Boogie Mark IV and run an external reverb, though its more for variety than that my Boogie's reverb sucks. Funny thing is that I had that perception too about my Boogie's reverb. So, I dialed in the "best" TC Electronics Spring Reverb that I use and thought was just great, and compared to my Boogie's reverb. Guess what, identical. I still use the TC Electronics reverb because I vary it with certain patches of other efx I use.

http://www.tcelectronic.com/G-Major.asp

 #37790  by 1960strat
 
I actually like the reverb on the Mark III that i have. The only thing is it has to be on 9, to get to where my 68 twin is set at 3.5.

 #37812  by SpaceYrface43
 
Had a Mesa Rectoverb-50 and i liked the reverb but i had to have it cranked.

 #37824  by deadguise
 
I was going to buy a Mark IV at one time but it's reverb convinced me otherwise.

 #38130  by Emoto
 
I have a MkIII and the reverb sounds good. Mine is set at 7...
 #56411  by tigerstrat
 
Goodness. I! just! did! the! reverb mod!!! on my early "no-stripe" Mk III!

I am flabbergasted with awe. After owning this amp for over 15 yrs and resorting to either digital or pretty weak and noisy verb during most of that, it finally breathes without a respirator! Literally a 5 minute job if you have the 3.3k/.5w resistor handy (I didn't) ... all of a sudden my Showman Reverb has a rival for my affections! It helped that in swapping around prior to doing the mod, I hit on a combination of preamp tubes that I really like, but the mod by itself was very dramatic in effect. Suddenly warm and clean. It still needs to crank up pretty high to about 7ish to where I like it, but the very thought that this amp would ever produce "too much" reverb even set at 10 is something I never thought I'd see.

So then I learned another thing about my III: the FX loop send is post-reverb! I would have never considered that, but its true. That means that no mod is necessary to tap the preamp signal out to an external power amp. Just remove your power tubes, and patch into the fx Send (stick a dummy plug into the fx Return jack).

I've just decided (because I just tried it and it's amazing) that I'm going to play my gig on Thursday with my Mark III combo preamped out to my Yorkville power amp, in turn feeding 250w back to the JBL in my Mark III :twisted: All of a sudden I like the Rhythm 2 "crunch" channel (for leads, in conjunction w/ OD pedal)! I'm in love with my Boogie again!
 #56413  by Crazy 9.5 Fingers
 
Tiger is this something worth doing with my Mark IV? Possible to do? I don't dislike the reverb on it, but let's just say I don't love it. Sounds like you are in love.
 #56415  by strumminsix
 
tigerstrat wrote:Goodness. I! just! did! the! reverb mod!!! on my early "no-stripe" Mk III!
...all of a sudden my Showman Reverb has a rival for my affections!
Does it feel a bit weird? I have a few amps but my DSR was always my #1. Then my Fargen came into my life and she took 2nd.

What exactly was the mod?
 #56432  by Emoto
 
tigerstrat wrote:Goodness. I! just! did! the! reverb mod!!! on my early "no-stripe" Mk III!

I am flabbergasted with awe. ...
Is this mod detailed somewhere?
 #56441  by tigerstrat
 
Well, I found the mod I did here: http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopi ... 704fe2b32e

But there had been references made to a 2nd rv mod, which I stayed up late trying to scare up with no success, but when I (just now)regoogled to find the above post, I instantly found this thread, which describes the other mod... which I might have to try :twisted: :

http://www.grailtone.com/forum/viewtopi ... dab15588fe

I saw a reference to the Mk IV possibly already having the resistor from the 1st mod built in... might be somewhat tweakable regardless? Or perhaps the 2nd mod would apply.

Nick, it is kinda weird, yea. What sucks is I was gonna sell this Boogie, and now I can't bring myself to do so just yet...
 #56444  by Emoto
 
Cool. Thanks!!! In the second link, one guy said that the first mod - the one you just did - made the amp lose volume. Did that happen to you?
 #56455  by tigerstrat
 
Emoto wrote:Cool. Thanks!!! In the second link, one guy said that the first mod - the one you just did - made the amp lose volume. Did that happen to you?
I gotta listen again, but not that I recall. It's still one stupendously loud amp, maybe not as lethal at its upper reaches. Mine is the 60w-only earliest production III, it even has one of the leftover IIC+ "105" power trannies. Loud as it is, I found I still slightly prefer the external SS power amp, with Vol 1 set pretty high on the Mesa.
 #59902  by Emoto
 
Here's another question for the Mk III users out there. I had been using channel 1 for the "clean" Jerry sound, both when playing rhythm and leads. After some experimentation, I find that if I use the rhythm 2 channel instead, with the gain pretty far down, I can still get the clean sound, but can also set it to where a note or notes get a little hair on them when I pick harder, exactly the amount I want, which is what I like. The question is, is there anything about using that rhythm 2 channel all the time that makes it not such a good idea?