Mark IIB+ Coli vs. IIC+ Coli- two of the heaviest amps ever made IN ONE BEDROOM!

[Racerxrated]

I’ve got other amps that are betrer than those in the organic, 3D or complex department, but when I play either of those 3 behemoths at volume I’m seriously concerned that one of the speakers in my 412 will break. My coli’s and triple rev F/C don’t have that effect despite being almost twice the wattage. So far nothing else I’ve tried shakes the room like that Hiwatt. Not really one of my absolute favorites for tone itself (same with the Blueface), but their huge wow factor at volume can’t be ignored

It is interesting in that my biggest sounding amps too have been 100w vs the Coli or Triple. The Wizard MCI 100 and 72 SuperTrem punch harder than the Mesas. I have read though that a 100 NMV Marshall actually puts out more like 160w at volume; while the Mesas tend to underperform vs their rating. Triple really puts out 120w etc. I also read that a 73 HiWatt is closer to 200w than it is to 100 haha

 

[braintheory]

It is interesting in that my biggest sounding amps too have been 100w vs the Coli or Triple. The Wizard MCI 100 and 72 SuperTrem punch harder than the Mesas. I have read though that a 100 NMV Marshall actually puts out more like 160w at volume; while the Mesas tend to underperform vs their rating. Triple really puts out 120w etc. I also read that a 73 HiWatt is closer to 200w than it is to 100 haha

I wonder if in general it’s a British thing to underrate power and for Americans to overrate it because it’s the same with speakers. The celestions tend to be more conservatively rated for their power (possibly Fane too I’m guessing), while old American speakers like Jensen and maybe JBL seemed to have been overrated and I’ve heard so many stories about them getting blown

If I weren’t told what the wattages were of my amps, I would definitely have guessed my Hiwatt is the highest one (very appropriate name for them lol). My ‘67 tremolo 50 is also bigger sounding than many of my 100 watt amps, but the Hiwatt and Gjika are still both a lot bigger sounding. My ‘63 Vox AC30 Top Boost (another British amp) even is bigger sounding than quite a few 100 watt amps despite being a 30 watt EL84 amp

 

[Racerxrated]

That's because up until the III green stripe, the Simul amls had the Class A pair wired in triode. That's why it's 75W. THe S & H amps were pentode, with all the extra awesome that goes along with it.

On III green stripe the Class A pair was wired in Pentode. Also, IV and V are switchable from pentode to triode.

IOW it's not the Simul you don't like- it's triode. I'm fairly confident of this. Simul pentode has all the aggression with all the harmonic overlay.

The funny thing about Metallica- AJFA and TBA I have a fairly high level of confidence that it's the C++ preamp slaved into a Strategy 400 power amp. There's no way to get "that sound" with a 4 tube power section. Of course a 1960B on AJFA and a Recto V30 cab on TBA. Couple important things here.

- While I think some Strategy 400 can run "Simul", I'm fairly confident it's some hybrid of the pentode version based on the wattage.
- The onboard GEQ is AFTER the effects loop. (Though TBH I don't know if it's before or after the "slave out".)

In other words the market gets a huge boner for the DRG, and that's not even really how it was done.

The 60 watters are for sure the most pissed off. Way more aggressive than the H models, even when they are on half power. Small PT FTW!

I should mention, my old Strategy 400 was a 1987 and the back row of 4 power tubes could run either 6L6 or EL34. Definitely liked it best with all 6L6 like other Marks.

 

[petejt]

Funny. Initially people heard Metallica, then saw Rectifiers on stages everywhere and figured that was MESA BOOGIE.
The Mark Series and Dual Rectifiers are very different from each other but neither is a 'British' sound.

This is the best quote regarding Boogie/Marshall tones I've read.




@GJgo Thanks!

Yep that's right. Mesa/Boogie Mark series for the Clean & Crunch.

Marshall for the Crisp, in between.

 

[milin_im]

Pretty sure Petrucci is an HRG guy.

I'm sure he's recorded with DRGs as well (I think the one used for Scenes from a Memory was a DRG), and he's said that his favorite IIC+ changes from time to time. But since the JP2C is based on one of his HRG, it is automatically implied that he's a HRG guy.