Mesa Boogie MkIII - quick demo with Jesse and Leon

Welcome to the amp vault at Zen Amplification in sunny Sydney, Australia. R&D for our very own tube amp is in full swing (more on this below) - but in the meantime we thought we'd have a little fun and invite you into the vault.

🎧 What to Expect:
Good friend and Aussie guitar legend Leon Todd will host what will become an entire series directly from Zen HQ. Leon and a bunch of other great players will showcase every amp in our collection with a minimum of fuss or distraction. No reviews, chatting or zaney clickbait antics here - just pure tube tone, from super clean through to metal.

We'll feature mostly raw samples, plus some full mixes and double-tracked clips for kicks.

🎴Our Mantra:
In short - tubes still rule.

In an endless sea of digital promises, we firmly believe that traditional tube circuitry still offers so much that simulators just can't. Punch, depth, immediacy, interactivity and attack are some words that come to mind. Not to mention the simplicity and the tactile advantages of real amps.

For us, the feeling of playing through a great tube amp is inspiring, distraction-free and simply brings joy. When this tonal trinity occurs, great music is made and good times are had - and that's what it's all about.

🇦🇺 We built a wall - to keep bad tone out:
The vault houses modern classics from companies such as Wizard, Friedman, Diezel, Bogner, Soldano, 65 Amps, Landry, Splawn, Mesa, Orange, Rivera, Divided by 13, Tone King and Peavey. And of course there's a number of vintage stalwarts around the studio from Marshall, Fender, Vox, Hiwatt and more.

To top it off the vault also houses a similarly impressive selection of vintage and modern guitars from Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, Suhr and PRS.

🎤 Analogue Recording Gear:
• 4x12 cabs close mic'd with a Shure SM57 / Sennheiser E906
• Combos and open cabs close mic'd with a Shure SM57 / SE VR1 ribbon mix
• Pair of Neumann U67 room mics 4.5m back, mixed in just a touch
• Neve 1073 preamps for close mics
• API 3124 preamp for rooms
• Little Labs Redeye3D DI (some clips reamped)
• KHE amp switchers to manage the wall, Mogami cabling, Neutrik connectors

🖥 Digital:
• Recorded via an Apogee Symphony A/D converter
• Waves reverb added to some clips
• Minimal post-processing - just a LPF and HPF to better reflect how it sounds in the room

🎛 The Zen Amplifier:
We can't reveal too much right now but there is a very special amplifier design underway in the Zen workshop. It is an all-tube design that incorporates some next-generation innovations, enabling it to compete with the versatility of digital - whilst retaining the responsiveness and punch of traditional tube amps of course.

More details to come later, but sufficed to say we're very excited about this project and can't wait to share it with you.

Thanks for checking out our channel, and don't forget to subscribe to keep up-to-date with all things Zen.

Special thanks to all our amazing guitar playing friends that helped out - Leon Todd, Joel McDonald, Ryan Thomas, James Norbert Ivanyi, Dave Bleus, Cale Storer, Dave Longo, Voya Milutinovic, Ned Koncar, Odin Wolf, Jesse Turner, Daniel Willington, Alex Wichello, Tim Maxwell, Seb Bartels, Jimmy Lardner-Brown & Cameron Henderson.

[zenamplification]

We managed to blow up the amp after this clip so full video will have to wait!

[LeonTodd]

That's THE thrash tone right there.

[User-jkwq]

Goddamn that’s one of the best rhythm guitar tones I’ve ever heard!

[worldline]

"Volume 1" = No-Stripe. A very special amp.

[squidmate]

Mark III Simul-Class blue stripe owner here. They are killer amps!

[rockstarjazzcat]

Ohhh yeah. Love those MkIII's!!! Go Leon and Jesse! 🙌

[maplelanemusic]

Good lord that sounds fantastic!!! Never heard a 3.

[AlexandreCriado]

Great! Not for my taste, but you can instantly get why this amp is iconic and the mesa "mark" tone signature is legendary.

[firststep]

One of the reasons I avoid vintage amps:) But it sounds killer; a tone that's unmistakable! Although not a MKIIC+, you can still hear MOP, AJFL and the 'BLACK" album in it. I also discovered that John Sykes used a MKIII on Whitesnake's 1987 album; another tone that guitarist try to replicate for obvious reasons. Looking forward to the full review.

[thechannelforeverything]

I have a Mark III Red Stripe that really does Thrash like no other.

[techdeathhippie]

Did you make the final video for this ? I really want to see this one . I think this tone is cool af

[Galileist]

Pull Volume I does not affect the lead channel on the Mark III so you could have left it in or out. It affects the lead on the Mark II though.

[hags]

Who knew palm muting could sound so good!? Even the cheating up-picking ones....