MESA/Boogie® Mark IIC+ full demo & overview ft. Doug West & Tommy Waugh

  • Thread starter Thread starter JohnnyGtar
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hellzington said:
Hey guys, got the amp very late today. About 5 o’clock. Haven’t had a ton of time to play around with it. I did a basic AB comparison video, but wasn’t really satisfied with the results. So I didn’t publish it. But I’ll make another one tomorrow that I think will be better when I approach it with fresh ears.

Here are my basic takeaways:

They have similar amounts of gain, but the OG has more. Mine also has the gain boost function which definitely makes it more.

The feel is very different. The reissue is much more stiff my OG is much more saturated and easier to play under the fingers.

The reissue definitely sounds anemic with the input gain and lead gain at seven or less.

The treble on the OG is just much more pleasing for some reason

The graphic EQ are very different. The reissue actually has a much wider range than the OG. If you’re looking for an ultra scooped sound, the reissue is actually better for that.
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Interesting.

Regarding the feel, maybe there's hope that after a break in period the reissue gets better? The Naylor I ordered new, when it arrived I was disappointed in that the 'sticky' feel the 1995 version had, was missing with the new one. But, at around the 6 month mark it was all there. I think I sold that amp to you a while back? There's definitely a break in period for that amp anyway. It also had a 'stiff' feel for the first 6 months.
 
Racerxrated said:
Interesting.

Regarding the feel, maybe there's hope that after a break in period the reissue gets better? The Naylor I ordered new, when it arrived I was disappointed in that the 'sticky' feel the 1995 version had, was missing with the new one. But, at around the 6 month mark it was all there. I think I sold that amp to you a while back? There's definitely a break in period for that amp anyway. It also had a 'stiff' feel for the first 6 months.
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Shant be waiting for bounce and feel.
 
Racerxrated said:
Interesting.

Regarding the feel, maybe there's hope that after a break in period the reissue gets better? The Naylor I ordered new, when it arrived I was disappointed in that the 'sticky' feel the 1995 version had, was missing with the new one. But, at around the 6 month mark it was all there. I think I sold that amp to you a while back? There's definitely a break in period for that amp anyway. It also had a 'stiff' feel for the first 6 months.
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I was going to say the same thing. Any time I send in OG in to Mike B for a recap & service, when it comes back with new caps they tend to feel stiff for the first week or so and then they seem to "break in" and sound / feel great. I haven't quantified this but I've sent at least 20 in for service & it's a theme.
 
Kudos to RT for posting the best clips of this amp so far. :cheers:

It appears to at least sound as good or better than their previous IIC modes that tried to copy it. :dunno:
It's going to be very interesting to hear more comparison clips and reviews of the mythical "feel". Now I'm really dying to play one of these things, lol.

So is the squealing thing normal with more extreme settings on a IIC? I think I saw some say yes, some no?
 
Erock said:
Kudos to RT for posting the best clips of this amp so far. :cheers:

It appears to at least sound as good or better than their previous IIC modes that tried to copy it. :dunno:
It's going to be very interesting to hear more comparison clips and reviews of the mythical "feel". Now I'm really dying to play one of these things, lol.

So is the squealing thing normal with more extreme settings on a IIC? I think I saw some say yes, some no?
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It’s audible at extreme settings but still present in the amp at above 20KHz in non-extreme settings. You’ll find this amp will eat tubes pre and power until it’s resolved. That fuzz you hear in the topmost frequencies in the gain is caused by instability. The amp needs recalled and fixed.
 
glpg80 said:
It’s audible at extreme settings but still present in the amp at above 20KHz in non-extreme settings. You’ll find this amp will eat tubes pre and power until it’s resolved. That fuzz you hear in the topmost frequencies in the gain is caused by instability. The amp needs recalled and fixed.
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holy smokes. hard pass. :aww:
 
WizardAmpIphoneClip said:
I am so sick of anyone playing Metallica riffs 😂
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There are support groups :dunno:



H1KtTW6.jpg
 
I hope everything will settle out with time on these new ones for all of you. Get the juices flowing hard and heavy through them!

I'm looking forward to all of the videos/clips you guys are going to do, and big thanks to you guys that have already made some.
 
hellzington said:
They have similar amounts of gain, but the OG has more. Mine also has the gain boost function which definitely makes it more.
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If you by gain boost mean the pull function on the Master 1 knob that is actually the same as the pull deep. Gain boost is just what the old IIC faceplates said, the function is the same.
 
glpg80 said:
Now that’s just badass. You don’t see EVMs ripping tones like that very often. Killer gear setup dude the amp rips with some scooped speakers.

I bet it sounds amazing through non vented T75’s to take out some of those dominant mids the reissue has.

As far as the instability goes…

I told Jeremy I thought the amp was unstable many weeks ago and texted him about it. I heard it in recordings between notes or other sounds. I also sent a message to a few people here as well - they know who they are.

IMO a problem exists with their new board layout, a defective ceramic cap batch, lack of shielding from the input to the grid of the first gain stage, or components/wiring/traces of later stages are too close to components/wiring/traces of previous stages. Any combination of these or any single one is capable of causing this.

Can people start posting closeup gut shots of these? I really want to get my hands on one but not from a playing standpoint but rather to see what is fucked up if anything or whether a component is defective.
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So the question is do the OG ones have the squeal as well? So far some people say no, others yes.

Maybe there will be a mod around this problem.
I am just wondering, if the people at Gibson were aware of this problem or if they just kept playing "dad rock" while testing the amp. In the end, it is a money grab for the company, so redesigning the product at any stage of the development would have cost them money and time.
 
BesaMoogie said:
So the question is do the OG ones have the squeal as well? So far some people say no, others yes.
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I tried this on my stock C+ DRGX and it didn’t do this squeal. Then I tried it on my C+/++ DRG and on ++ mode I can get it to squeal like that. Not in C+ mode though.
But I used very extreme settings, basically everything on 10. Looking at his videos again, his settings actually aren’t that extreme. Vol 1 at 9, treble on 7, bass and middle at 0 and lead drive at 8. It’s definitely more gain than I would dial in on my OG’s. But if the reissue does have less gain, as I’ve seen some say, maybe you do need to dial it a little hotter than you would on the OG and are getting close to it’s limits.
He does set the lead master very high though, something I personally wouldn’t do, but still, it’s not a problem on my OG’s.

Maybe it’s the preamp tubes? Mike B mentioned he weren’t too happy with the JJ’s lately, as they tend to be noisy. I assume the amp shipped with Mesa branded JJ’s.
 
NineShallDie said:
I tried this on my stock C+ DRGX and it didn’t do this squeal. Then I tried it on my C+/++ DRG and on ++ mode I can get it to squeal like that. Not in C+ mode though.
But I used very extreme settings, basically everything on 10. Looking at his videos again, his settings actually aren’t that extreme. Vol 1 at 9, treble on 7, bass and middle at 0 and lead drive at 8. It’s definitely more gain than I would dial in on my OG’s. But if the reissue does have less gain, as I’ve seen some say, maybe you do need to dial it a little hotter than you would on the OG and are getting close to it’s limits.
He does set the lead master very high though, something I personally wouldn’t do, but still, it’s not a problem on my OG’s.

Maybe it’s the preamp tubes? Mike B mentioned he weren’t too happy with the JJ’s lately, as they tend to be noisy. I assume the amp shipped with Mesa branded JJ’s.
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Probably not a tube problem. Others have it on their RI and it seems the manual mentions it
 
Some great clips, guys. Keep them coming.

I trust forumites' honesty in making these vids more than the inevitable Youtube celebrity demos that are coming, which will probably be processed to death and tone matched to Metallica tones for good measure.

I got to say though, I thought I would be really gassing hard for this amp.

But it turns out that I really like my Mesa Boogie Quad-Rectifier Stereo setup, based on what I've heard so far. Feel like it really cops that Metallica tone, as well as a lot more.

Anyone who is interested in hearing the setup can check out these videos. Apologies, it is just a room microphone capturing the audio, and is completely unprocessed, so it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Mark IIC (+?) mode (high gain at 5-minute mark)



Mark III mode (this video is not so great, not sure what happened. Skip to the 11.30 mark and maybe listen for about a minute to the high gain tone, which is actually what I dialled in the amp for).

 
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