tell me about the Mark III Coliseum

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here's another question for you all @glpg80 @Beyond Black @Racerxrated @GJgo

how much of the magic of the coliseum is sheer volume? 6 6L6's for 180W...:shocked:

I'd imagine without turning up to "destroy house foundation levels" you can't even really get the benefit of the coliseum?
 
Nashville Riff Co said:
here's another question for you all @glpg80 @Beyond Black @Racerxrated @GJgo

how much of the magic of the coliseum is sheer volume? 6 6L6's for 180W...:shocked:

I'd imagine without turning up to "destroy house foundation levels" you can't even really get the benefit of the coliseum?
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It’s not the coliseum’s loudness that we are prioritizing. It’s the bigness character. It’s a high B+ 500+ plate volt amp with massive iron and high gain. You can set the graphic EQ aggressively and you have the headroom then to still push decent mids with just the volume knob just like Marshall’s do. What you get with it for free is insane low end thump, nice mids, lots of compression, tight playing, and the one thing most people mention is a lot of top end.

Think about it this way - most old mods for Marshall’s are based on Mesa mods. The IIB/IIC/III coliseum era is just more poweramp throttle to manipulate the character that modded Marshall’s can do with volume to give you more of everything.

One thing people don’t mention much is that my coliseum is likely the nicest clean channel in the house. More than the XTC with its fender deluxe preamp.
 
glpg80 said:
It’s not the coliseum’s loudness that we are prioritizing. It’s the bigness character. It’s a high B+ 500+ plate volt amp with massive iron and high gain. You can set the graphic EQ aggressively and you have the headroom then to still push decent mids with just the volume knob just like Marshall’s do. What you get with it for free is insane low end thump, nice mids, lots of compression, tight playing, and the one thing most people mention is a lot of top end.

Think about it this way - most old mods for Marshall’s are based on Mesa mods. The IIB/IIC/III coliseum era is just more poweramp throttle to manipulate the character that modded Marshall’s can do with volume to give you more of everything.

One thing people don’t mention much is that my coliseum is likely the nicest clean channel in the house. More than the XTC with its fender deluxe preamp.
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this is very helpful, thank you very much

probably a stupid question but i'll ask because why not...so if you turn the master up to say 4/5 area (out of 10...although it probably goes to 11) and put it through a Powerstation, would you get the benefit of the full tonal capability of the amp at what i'll call "bedroom loud" volume?
 
Nashville Riff Co said:
this is very helpful, thank you very much

probably a stupid question but i'll ask because why not...so if you turn the master up to say 4/5 area (out of 10...although it probably goes to 11) and put it through a Powerstation, would you get the benefit of the full tonal capability of the amp at what i'll call "bedroom loud" volume?
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The very late 2B coliseums, with the RP9C pre board have limiter pots. Basically a second master vol. So, if you find one from a late 2B on forward through the Mk III line you won't need the PS.
 
Racerxrated said:
The very late 2B coliseums, with the RP9C pre board have limiter pots. Basically a second master vol. So, if you find one from a late 2B on forward through the Mk III line you won't need the PS.
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wow the master volumes from that era are that capable? thats very cool
 
Is Brad Gillis’s tone on Speak of the Devil the MK2B Coliseum amps? The only detail on that rig I remember reading about was that it was two MK2 somethings in stereo. Sounds like a mild chorus splitting the signal. Any idea what speakers? Assuming it was Boogie cabs. Greatly prefer this tone over Randy’s.
 
thegame said:
Is Brad Gillis’s tone on Speak of the Devil the MK2B Coliseum amps? The only detail on that rig I remember reading about was that it was two MK2 somethings in stereo. Sounds like a mild chorus splitting the signal. Any idea what speakers? Assuming it was Boogie cabs. Greatly prefer this tone over Randy’s.
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It would make sense that they were Coliseums, but I've never read that. They aren't tight at all, unless he used the very late 2Bs with that last version preamp board. Gillis' Strat has/had a built in preamp also, which I'm sure tightened up the tone considerably.
Only artists that used Coliseums to my knowledge are Prince, Keef, Iommi, and Sykes. Probably more but that's all I know.
 
Racerxrated said:
It would make sense that they were Coliseums, but I've never read that. They aren't tight at all, unless he used the very late 2Bs with that last version preamp board. Gillis' Strat has/had a built in preamp also, which I'm sure tightened up the tone considerably.
Only artists that used Coliseums to my knowledge are Prince, Keef, Iommi, and Sykes. Probably more but that's all I know.
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I saw Brad play with Ozzy. Best guitar tone I've ever heard live, even to this day. I believe they were just 2B's , not Coliseum heads.
 
Racerxrated said:
It would make sense that they were Coliseums, but I've never read that. They aren't tight at all, unless he used the very late 2Bs with that last version preamp board. Gillis' Strat has/had a built in preamp also, which I'm sure tightened up the tone considerably.
Only artists that used Coliseums to my knowledge are Prince, Keef, Iommi, and Sykes. Probably more but that's all I know.
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And Jeremy.
 
Haha also Lukather used Colis.

The theater that we play most of our gigs at gets tons and tons of mid level touring bands coming through. A couple of the shows I’ve played my 2B Coli through my Mesa trad cab, and the owner came out at one point to take pictures of my amp because he said it was the best tone he’s ever heard on stage there.

I will say the limiter pot does shave off some top end. With the two B honestly, it can be kind of a good thing. With the 2C plus I don’t care for it as much. The threes did not have the limiter, but the power section isn’t as beefy and I never had any trouble at low volume.

Long story short, a B without the limiter is really unusable at low volume. The C is usable without and the three is fine without it.

What has been said is absolutely correct. I can get gig volume with anything from a 60 W on up, when you add the extra wattage though what you’re really adding is girth and width. Not to mention clean headroom. In the case of my band since we are a three-piece, I really value the amps that have a wide sonic footprint.

All that being said, I think this is really a live thing. The wattage doesn’t really matter, like so many other things, for close mic recording.
 
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Nashville Riff Co said:
this is very helpful, thank you very much

probably a stupid question but i'll ask because why not...so if you turn the master up to say 4/5 area (out of 10...although it probably goes to 11) and put it through a Powerstation, would you get the benefit of the full tonal capability of the amp at what i'll call "bedroom loud" volume?
Click to expand...

I’ve never had the amp over 3. It doesn’t have TV bedroom volume in its capabilities. It goes from off to church band practice instantly. They flat out are so loud it’s hard to describe it on a forum and this is coming from someone who only owns 100W+ amps and no modelers. However they’re so inspiring to play - it just does what you expect an amp to do and it does it well.
 
glpg80 said:
I’ve never had the amp over 3. It doesn’t have TV bedroom volume in its capabilities. It goes from off to church band practice instantly. They flat out are so loud it’s hard to describe it on a forum and this is coming from someone who only owns 100W+ amps and no modelers. However they’re so inspiring to play - it just does what you expect an amp to do and it does it well.
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thats badass dude, sounds beyond epic!
 
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