Mark IIC+ Reissue vs. OG 1983 IIC+ DRGX: The Ultimate A/B Blind Comparison

  • Thread starter Thread starter hellzington
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Tone Monster said:
I’ve owned both, here’s my two cents. The Mark III kills for metal. I had a red stripe. It’s a more one dimensional sound though. The IIC+ has that sweet harmonic upper mid range that compresses just right. Juicy. The III is more strident in the highs for sure. In his high gain example you can hear it plain as day.
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I had a no stripe with the big 105 transformer converted by Mesa to a red stripe. And a C+. Both DRG.

The III was way brighter if you matched settings but if you dialed back the III, it sounded the same was the C+ to me. The III felt a lot different. Very immediate. The C+ was softer and the notes bloomed a bit.

One wasn't really worse than the other and weren't all that different.
 
I was all over the place with what I liked. It was close to 50/50 the higher gain stuff was a little easier to pick out the OG, but it was close.

I’m willing to bet if I had a reissue 2C+ and slapped in some Sylvania 415’s and did some preamp tube rolling, you’d never hear the difference.
 
I had a Mark III++ and I really, really liked that amp. But at the end of the day, I'm a IIC+ boy. Y'all know I'm more of a Marshall guy by heart and the IIC+ has a bit more of that midrange and squishiness that I like. It's the same reason I like the JP-2C... put that bastard on 60w mode, keep the ohms normal (don't go down to 4 ohms), and you'll have the thickest, coolest, squishiest super-Marshall ever.
 
Great video. The RI hangs pretty well with the OG. I preferred the OG in most cases but having had a IIC+ and swapping some tubes, the 415s and Tungsrams def make a difference.

It would be awesome to hear a RI and JP shootout. You think the JP can hang with the RI?
 
I have to say that despite the ribbing the reissue is getting in the main thread, in your vids it sounded really good. On the blind A/B, I focussed on picking which I preferred and I was pretty much 50/50 between the reissue and OG across all clips. Nice job!
 
Listen up, Mikey boy. That’s a real nice YouTube channel you’ve got there. It’d be a real shame if something happened to it. Maybe the disrespect was unintended but the boss Don Corleone isn’t so much into 90’s alt rock. The Don wants the heavy shit. He needs to feel the palm mute chugs and hear the sustain of single note soloing, capisce? 😉
 
Tone Monster said:
When will someone take 3-4 extra minutes and use the same tubes in both amps? Seems obvious but it NEVER HAPPENS.
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Great question! For me, there were a few reasons:

First, I wanted to represent the Reissue as "faithfully" as possible—exactly how it comes from the factory. If I had swapped the tubes, I imagine some people might have said, "Well, you need to change the tubes for it to sound like the original." I wanted to show that even with the stock tubes, the Reissue is extremely similar to the original.

Second, to be honest, I’m a bit hesitant! I really don’t want to take my IIC+ out of its headshell again. The last time I did, it was a nightmare to reinstall. In fact, when I sent it to Mike B, he even noted on the service order, "This IIC+ poorly installed in non-Mesa headshell." 😅

Third, it’s just another task in an already massive project. This video was a beast to put together, especially for Rounds 2 and 3. Four full mixes with double-tracked guitars, dialing in tones, adding effects, mixing, mastering, rendering, re-listening, adjusting—it all adds up. If I had to guess, I spent about 40 hours on this video. There were a couple of sleepless nights because I couldn’t stop working on it! Adding a tube swap to the process would’ve been one more thing to do in a project that was already taking way longer than expected.
 
hellzington said:
Great question! For me, there were a few reasons:

First, I wanted to represent the Reissue as "faithfully" as possible—exactly how it comes from the factory. If I had swapped the tubes, I imagine some people might have said, "Well, you need to change the tubes for it to sound like the original." I wanted to show that even with the stock tubes, the Reissue is extremely similar to the original.

Second, to be honest, I’m a bit hesitant! I really don’t want to take my IIC+ out of its headshell again. The last time I did, it was a nightmare to reinstall. In fact, when I sent it to Mike B, he even noted on the service order, "This IIC+ poorly installed in non-Mesa headshell." 😅

Third, it’s just another task in an already massive project. This video was a beast to put together, especially for Rounds 2 and 3. Four full mixes with double-tracked guitars, dialing in tones, adding effects, mixing, mastering, rendering, re-listening, adjusting—it all adds up. If I had to guess, I spent about 40 hours on this video. There were a couple of sleepless nights because I couldn’t stop working on it! Adding a tube swap to the process would’ve been one more thing to do in a project that was already taking way longer than expected.
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Great points. I didn't intend to call you out personally, just stating the fact that I've never seen it done, EVER.
 
As close as they are now, I can only bank on the fact that these amps would be virtually identical with the exact same tubes.
Of course, there’s going to be a bit of a break-in period to bring the Reissue the rest of the way.

Great job, Mike.
 
hellzington said:
Great question! For me, there were a few reasons:

First, I wanted to represent the Reissue as "faithfully" as possible—exactly how it comes from the factory. If I had swapped the tubes, I imagine some people might have said, "Well, you need to change the tubes for it to sound like the original." I wanted to show that even with the stock tubes, the Reissue is extremely similar to the original.

Second, to be honest, I’m a bit hesitant! I really don’t want to take my IIC+ out of its headshell again. The last time I did, it was a nightmare to reinstall. In fact, when I sent it to Mike B, he even noted on the service order, "This IIC+ poorly installed in non-Mesa headshell." 😅

Third, it’s just another task in an already massive project. This video was a beast to put together, especially for Rounds 2 and 3. Four full mixes with double-tracked guitars, dialing in tones, adding effects, mixing, mastering, rendering, re-listening, adjusting—it all adds up. If I had to guess, I spent about 40 hours on this video. There were a couple of sleepless nights because I couldn’t stop working on it! Adding a tube swap to the process would’ve been one more thing to do in a project that was already taking way longer than expected.
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40 hours? Dang. Sounds like it was a real labor of love for you to make. But in doing so, you've managed to show the entire community something a multi-hundred-million dollar guitar company could not.

Thank you, sincerely!
 
I just listened and thought which one is noisier and has harder sounding highs and was able to pick it out the reissue however once the tracks got going, I couldn't tell. I think in the room it would be far easier to tell then with the youtube compression going. Thanks, very cool, I'm sub to your channel and really enjoy the content you got going!
 
cardinal said:
I couldn't tell the difference.
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I couldn’t either. I was wrong most of the time however I’m also not a IIC+ pro to have a solid baseline. I just want amps to work correctly so regardless of how it sounds if it eats tubes and always breaks down I want nothing of it.
 
glpg80 said:
I couldn’t either. I was wrong most of the time however I’m also not a IIC+ pro to have a solid baseline. I just want amps to work correctly so regardless of how it sounds if it eats tubes and always breaks down I want nothing of it.
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Which amp is breaking down, and eating tubes?

Is this a new thread I'm missing?
 
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