Trey's rack (no not that kind)

[Walker done done]

I have never owned a Mesa Mark 3, but when you guys (or Trey) use the power drop switch does it switch to just using 2 tubes? Or just cut the power and still utilize all 4 tubes? Would like to know cause I feel I got closer to Trey's lead tone with just 2 tubes in play.

If you cut to Class A, it cuts out the 2 inner tubes, which in mine are 6L6's, and leaves just the EL34's on. Class A is 60W, SimulClass is 100W.  The manual says they don't recommending swapping the 34's with 6L6's but I may try it. I also may replace my speakers (Tone Tubby and an Eminence commonwealth) with V30's too. We'll see.

I think half power on a 4x 6L6 MKIII is 60w. I think with EL34's its 25-30w, according to Mesa when I emailed them about this after I got my MKIII because some literature says Class is 15w!

You can download the manual in PDF form online, just type it in Google.

[Heady Jam Fan]

I have never owned a Mesa Mark 3, but when you guys (or Trey) use the power drop switch does it switch to just using 2 tubes? Or just cut the power and still utilize all 4 tubes? Would like to know cause I feel I got closer to Trey's lead tone with just 2 tubes in play.

If you cut to Class A, it cuts out the 2 inner tubes, which in mine are 6L6's, and leaves just the EL34's on. Class A is 60W, SimulClass is 100W.  The manual says they don't recommending swapping the 34's with 6L6's but I may try it. I also may replace my speakers (Tone Tubby and an Eminence commonwealth) with V30's too. We'll see.

I think half power on a 4x 6L6 MKIII is 60w. I think with EL34's its 25-30w, according to Mesa when I emailed them about this after I got my MKIII because some literature says Class is 15w!

You can download the manual in PDF form online, just type it in Google.

Yep - Mesa MKIII Manual:

TUBE SWITCH
This is the "Class A/Simul-Class" switch or the "60/100" watt switch, depending on amplifier type. In the Simul-Class amplifiers the
power (before clip) is much less in the Class A position - mere 15 watts. But the unique way the system is wired allows you to achieve a
much greater degree of power tube distortion than with most other amplifiers ... and it is still very loud! In Class A, only the outside
(outer left & outer right) pair of tubes - the EL-34's will be on. The inner pair - which are 6L6's - will also be turned on when the switch is
in the Simul-Class position. In addition to this obvious difference, the biasing and control circuitry of the socket pairs are radically
different ... and this is the heart of the now famous (and patented) Simul-Class circuitry. It is worth noting that almost all of the major
players who have gone over to Boogie have chosen the Simul-Class power design!

NOTE: In the past, MESA/Boogie advertised the "interchangeable power tubes" feature of the Mark III Simul-Class. We told players
that they could use either EL-34's or 6L6's in the outer (Class A) power sockets. However, in recent years we've observed a much
greater reliability factor with the use of EL-34's in these outer sockets, with much fewer incidents of tube failure. Therefore, today we
strongly recommend using EL-34's in the outer sockets and 6L6's in the inner sockets of your Simul-Class Boogie.

But when I emailed Mesa about the wattage on my Red Stripe:

...using two EL34’s on the two outside positions and running the amp in Class A you will be running about 25-30 watts and in Simul-Class you would be looking at more like 75-80watts.  Regardless it’s a loud 25-30 watts when running just the Class A.

The 60w setting is only on the non-simulclass amps with 4x 6L6 power tubes. Its the "half power" setting that only uses 2 6L6's.

However, some Simul-Class amps are mislabeled and say "full power" vs "half power" rather than "simul-class" vs. "class-A." I think this mislabeling only occurred on long chassis amps. Long chassis amps, like Trey's, has the reverb knob on the front, but from the back of Trey's amp, you can see he has 4 6L6 tubes, so it seem likely he has a non-simulclass amp running in the 60w half-power setting (2 6L6's). However, its possible his is a mislabeled simulclass amp and he is simply running 6L6's in the EL34 slots.

One more caveat - I think the MKIII Green Stripe amps (the last run of MKIII's) switched the "Class A" EL34's from functioning as triodes (which is why they are less efficient their the full capacity) to pentodes for a 10w bump.

[Helping Friendly]

I have never owned a Mesa Mark 3, but when you guys (or Trey) use the power drop switch does it switch to just using 2 tubes? Or just cut the power and still utilize all 4 tubes? Would like to know cause I feel I got closer to Trey's lead tone with just 2 tubes in play.

If you cut to Class A, it cuts out the 2 inner tubes, which in mine are 6L6's, and leaves just the EL34's on. Class A is 60W, SimulClass is 100W.  The manual says they don't recommending swapping the 34's with 6L6's but I may try it. I also may replace my speakers (Tone Tubby and an Eminence commonwealth) with V30's too. We'll see.

I think half power on a 4x 6L6 MKIII is 60w. I think with EL34's its 25-30w, according to Mesa when I emailed them about this after I got my MKIII because some literature says Class is 15w!

You can download the manual in PDF form online, just type it in Google.

Yep - Mesa MKIII Manual:

TUBE SWITCH
This is the "Class A/Simul-Class" switch or the "60/100" watt switch, depending on amplifier type. In the Simul-Class amplifiers the
power (before clip) is much less in the Class A position - mere 15 watts. But the unique way the system is wired allows you to achieve a
much greater degree of power tube distortion than with most other amplifiers ... and it is still very loud! In Class A, only the outside
(outer left & outer right) pair of tubes - the EL-34's will be on. The inner pair - which are 6L6's - will also be turned on when the switch is
in the Simul-Class position. In addition to this obvious difference, the biasing and control circuitry of the socket pairs are radically
different ... and this is the heart of the now famous (and patented) Simul-Class circuitry. It is worth noting that almost all of the major
players who have gone over to Boogie have chosen the Simul-Class power design!

NOTE: In the past, MESA/Boogie advertised the "interchangeable power tubes" feature of the Mark III Simul-Class. We told players
that they could use either EL-34's or 6L6's in the outer (Class A) power sockets. However, in recent years we've observed a much
greater reliability factor with the use of EL-34's in these outer sockets, with much fewer incidents of tube failure. Therefore, today we
strongly recommend using EL-34's in the outer sockets and 6L6's in the inner sockets of your Simul-Class Boogie.

But when I emailed Mesa about the wattage on my Red Stripe:

...using two EL34's on the two outside positions and running the amp in Class A you will be running about 25-30 watts and in Simul-Class you would be looking at more like 75-80watts.  Regardless it's a loud 25-30 watts when running just the Class A.

The 60w setting is only on the non-simulclass amps with 4x 6L6 power tubes. Its the "half power" setting that only uses 2 6L6's.

However, some Simul-Class amps are mislabeled and say "full power" vs "half power" rather than "simul-class" vs. "class-A." I think this mislabeling only occurred on long chassis amps. Long chassis amps, like Trey's, has the reverb knob on the front, but from the back of Trey's amp, you can see he has 4 6L6 tubes, so it seem likely he has a non-simulclass amp running in the 60w half-power setting (2 6L6's). However, its possible his is a mislabeled simulclass amp and he is simply running 6L6's in the EL34 slots.

One more caveat - I think the MKIII Green Stripe amps (the last run of MKIII's) switched the "Class A" EL34's from functioning as triodes (which is why they are less efficient their the full capacity) to pentodes for a 10w bump.

This is all great info!! I am learning alot from y'all