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Opinions: Peavey Mark iii


Nothingman
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Afternoon boys and girls, 

A friend of mine has revealed he has a Peavey Mark iii sat in his garage needing a new home. Now he is not a bass player and I am not a gear head so we are trying to get a feel for opinions on this amp. I can find loads about the Mark iv but little about the Mark iii. 

Is anyone currently using one and can you describe the sound? I used to have one of those awful 90's (maybe 00's) one with the felt covering but never played this one. I may see if I can get a loan for practice one night, but wanted to get some expert opinions on them. 

Are they worth their weight in gold or are they overpriced door stops?

Thanks in advance

Will. 

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I had a couple of these back in the day. The one you've pictured is IMO the best variant, having the switchable compressor.

Later version had the dreaded Peavey built in 'DDT' which was designed to safeguard the speakers but in reality would 

kick in far too soon and limit the signal too much.

I always liked mine, only swapped for a Trace 500w head IIRC.

Quite loud and good EQ, with useful patch inputs too.

Despite what it says on the back panel I wouldn't recommend running it into a 2ohm load, it will run very hot. 

The 210 watts into 4 ohms is plenty loud enough. The matching cab for these was a 4 ohm 2x15 Black Widow job, 

and would knock down walls.

Incidentally how much is your mate asking for it?

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41 minutes ago, casapete said:

I had a couple of these back in the day. The one you've pictured is IMO the best variant, having the switchable compressor.

Later version had the dreaded Peavey built in 'DDT' which was designed to safeguard the speakers but in reality would 

kick in far too soon and limit the signal too much.

I always liked mine, only swapped for a Trace 500w head IIRC.

Quite loud and good EQ, with useful patch inputs too.

Despite what it says on the back panel I wouldn't recommend running it into a 2ohm load, it will run very hot. 

The 210 watts into 4 ohms is plenty loud enough. The matching cab for these was a 4 ohm 2x15 Black Widow job, 

and would knock down walls.

Incidentally how much is your mate asking for it?

Hey thanks for the info!

 

Im tempted to see if he’ll sell it to me but don’t think I could justify it. I’m doing fine blagging back line! 

 

He hasn’t got a clue (he used to sing in a band and the bassist gave him this) how much he wants for it but he’s looking at mark iv for a price comparison. How much do you reckon they’re worth? 

 

I’m willing to bet he’d he get rid in order to make space. 

 

Will

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2 hours ago, Japhet said:

These and cockroaches will survive armageddon.

LOL. Absolutely, bombproof!

When they come up, you see them for around £100 ish, depending on condition of course.

Anything less would be a great deal IMO.

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Good amps these, the rehearsal studio I go to has one, was chatting to the owner and she said she`s had it for 20+ years, never had it serviced, never had anything go wrong with it. Japhet was pretty much spot on about these amps & cockroaches surviving Armageddon (tho suspect Keef might just scrape through as well).

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I started out with one of these along with a matching 2x15. I don't think I've ever had a better sound but the 2x15 was a bit bulky :) Not actually that heavy though. The eq is as good as it gets. They are certainly very usable and plenty loud enough.

I had to replace some of the power supply capacitors though. You'll often get problems with them on older amps whatever the brand and amps sitting around doesn't help. the good news is that if these do need repair they are an easy job to work on. They don't fetch much used, I'd be expecting around £100 in average condition, maybe £120. 

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Thanks for all the wicked feedback y’all. 

 

Ive relayed back to him. Suppose the condition is fair to middling so gives me an idea what to tell him.

 

You never know, he may try and get me to flig it on here! 

 

Will

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  • 3 years later...

I've got one, bought on enthusiastic recommendation from my electronics engineer friend, in severe disrepair for $80 US (I'm a Yankee), and had him refurbish it... it needed new power caps, some re-soldering, a lot of stuff I'm not knowledgeable about.  When it was finished, I discovered what a beast it is.


The Automix feature, which combines the two channels, is a beautiful piece of engineering. To get that happening I got one channel sounding good, then the other, and then combined them with the Automix toggle... then, between setting the channel volumes and tweaking each channel's settings, I found the sweet balance between the belly of a 9-ton beast and the tapping of a butterfly's wings on glass (of COURSE I exaggerate! XD). It was the tone I'd been seeking my whole life.  Do enough reading and you'll hear a lot of good things about the preamp- and it's all true. I've got it running into an SWR Goliath-II (8 ohms) and it's deadly. I haven't hooked the big Ben up to it yet, but I imagine I may pass out when I do. 

 

The power section's architecture is very similar to the Acoustic Control Corp 370 head, and the power ratings are similar. Running this at 4 ohms, with a reasonably efficient speaker system, well, even if it isn't your java, I'm sure you're going to be impressed. The Mk III is one of the better kept secrets out there. I'd take yours in for a check-up, and if you need parts they're relatively easy to get. 

 

Go on and bring you some noise...

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  • 2 weeks later...

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