tell me about the Mark III Coliseum

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neeklaus
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thegame said:
For a Journey tribute band. Nothing against Journey but that bar rig was probably 3 x larger than what Neal Schon had in 1981 for arena shows.
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hahaha lol that guys rig probably used more power than all of NASA combined...it was fuckin epic!
 
thegame said:
For a Journey tribute band. Nothing against Journey but that bar rig was probably 3 x larger than what Neal Schon had in 1981 for arena shows.
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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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At any given volume it’s still more efficient/less effort at the way it puts out sound (aka headroom) with more extended lows and highs and less mids vs the non-coliseum versions. I find the tone of the non-coliseum versions to be better IME, but not as big or efficient sounding. Typical trade offs IME in tone quality vs power

For coliseums I had a iic+ (converted from IIB), 2 mark iii++ blue stripes, no stripe mark iii++ and played a red stripe mark iii++. The iic+/b was by far the biggest/heaviest sounding one followed by the no stripe. I kept for a while the iic+ coli, but sold it later because the iic+ hrg when compared to me still had a better, more complex tone and the megalith beta actually to me actually outmuscled it by a bit (680 plate voltage on it), so no more coli’s for me. Fwiw, the Wizard Hell Razor KT150 also had a plate voltage of 680 and the 250w ‘80’s Marshall Model 2000 (6x6550’s) is 700 volts
 
braintheory said:
At any given volume it’s still more efficient/less effort at the way it puts out sound (aka headroom) with more extended lows and highs and less mids vs the non-coliseum versions. I find the tone of the non-coliseum versions to be better IME, but not as big or efficient sounding. Typical trade offs IME in tone quality vs power

For coliseums I had a iic+ (converted from IIB), 2 mark iii++ blue stripes, no stripe mark iii++ and played a red stripe mark iii++. The iic+/b was by far the biggest/heaviest sounding one followed by the no stripe. I kept for a while the iic+ coli, but sold it later because the iic+ hrg when compared to me still had a better, more complex tone and the megalith beta actually to me actually outmuscled it by a bit (680 plate voltage on it), so no more coli’s for me. Fwiw, the Wizard Hell Razor KT150 also had a plate voltage of 680 and the 250w ‘80’s Marshall Model 2000 (6x6550’s) is 700 volts
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i have never heard of the megalith beta...looks like their website is down? listening to reza's clip now but let me know if there are other better ones out there please
 
Nashville Riff Co said:
i have never heard of the megalith beta...looks like their website is down? listening to reza's clip now but let me know if there are other better ones out there please
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Yeah he stopped making amps, at least for the last few years. Reza’s clips don’t represent it well imo. Tony Batal’s clips on YouTube of it are much better, but I don’t think clips can really capture the hugeness part of it in person, which is really what makes it stand out. The sublows are crazy. It shakes the floors and hits my ankles in a way I haven’t had in another amp. It’s I heard based somewhat on the Uberschall or Herbert. The tone itself is maybe a bit modern for what some guys here might like, but the efficiency and sub low part is what made it a keeper for me in doing something I couldn’t match with other amps
 
braintheory said:
Yeah he stopped making amps, at least for the last few years. Reza’s clips don’t represent it well imo. Tony Batal’s clips on YouTube of it are much better, but I don’t think clips can really capture the hugeness part of it in person, which is really what makes it stand out. The sublows are crazy. It shakes the floors and hits my ankles in a way I haven’t had in another amp. It’s I heard based somewhat on the Uberschall or Herbert. The tone itself is maybe a bit modern for what some guys here might like, but the efficiency and sub low part is what made it a keeper for me in doing something I couldn’t match with other amps
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fwiw i'm not a fan of rezas clips either but sometimes he just seems to be the only one with rare amps haha...and if i can give him some credit, he talks very little and then just plays and turns knobs. that being said, this is great info and i'll have to do some more reasearch. i live squarely in the 80s so probably not for me but i love at least knowing about it, thanks very much for the details!

Yehuda said:
I’m not a pro at all, but this is a clip I got that at least somewhat shows the huge lows of the amp

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dude i'm no pro either, i just appreciate you putting the clips out there of all the rare amps you've had. the larry one especially because i had genuinely never heard someone demoing that amp!

yes i've probably heard em on iced earth records but who knows what alls on there hah
 
Nashville Riff Co said:
fwiw i'm not a fan of rezas clips either but sometimes he just seems to be the only one with rare amps haha...and if i can give him some credit, he talks very little and then just plays and turns knobs. that being said, this is great info and i'll have to do some more reasearch. i live squarely in the 80s so probably not for me but i love at least knowing about it, thanks very much for the details!



dude i'm no pro either, i just appreciate you putting the clips out there of all the rare amps you've had. the larry one especially because i had genuinely never heard someone demoing that amp!

yes i've probably heard em on iced earth records but who knows what alls on there hah
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It turns out my Larry had broken preamp tubes and power amp tubes when it came- I’ll upload a better clip at some point
 
glpg80 said:
I remember he had to rent or buy a dually box truck to haul it to gigs and had to get help for setup and teardown. Last I heard he put it in storage in a store and has since started/finished parting it out.
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When I was gigging with my band Shaker in the late 80's and early 90's, I went through roadies like crazy. I would pay them $100 bucks a gig which was pretty decent back then. My rig consisted of two full Mesa Half-back stacks. Each cab had the two EV12L- MC90 combo, plus a small refrigerator sized rack with the Quad, ST400, TC2290, TC1210, Quadraverb, Eventide harmonizer, Alexis wireless receiver, Eventide Reverb.... It was heavy! Usually two guitars, sometimes three depending on the gig...

Many times, I would tell the the club soundman not to bother to use a microphone on my rig. I would just turn up to match the PA.... lol...

I had a covered pickup truck at the time..
 
Yehuda said:
As always, if you are near nyc, you are welcome to come try any of my amps lol
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bro, i wish i was, cause i'm pretty sure i'd never leave your place

your collection of guitars/amps, past and present, FUCKING EPIC.

and from what i've gathered you seem to be a pretty laid back dude about it all, which I greatly respect fwiw.
 
Yehuda said:
I only got into amps in the last 3 years so I don’t know anywhere near enough to have an ego lmao

I just follow @braintheory ’s recommendations and they turn out to be awesome haha- his collection is more impressive than mine as well
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damn i dont think i've ever seen braintheory's collection?! does he have a youtube account too?
 
thegame said:
For a Journey tribute band. Nothing against Journey but that bar rig was probably 3 x larger than what Neal Schon had in 1981 for arena shows.
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it was a massive sounding rig. i went with him to lab sound/mesa boogie in sherman oaks the day he bought the Mk III Coli. the salesperson said that the amp was originally supposed to go to al dimeola but that he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to get something else.
i also went with him to pick up his bradshaw rack from bob the day it was ready, and had it at my place in cali for almost a year before shipping it off to him, once he got settled Hawaii. played it at his shop dozens of times and between his coli/atomica/super reverb/jtm 45/100 marshall multi amp switching and all the ultimate rack toys there was not a sound he couldn't get well!



on the neal schon note, zach and i saw him with soul sirkus at a venue in anaheim and were so looking forward to seeing one of our heros in action at a fairly small club.
he had an equally large diezel multi 4x12 rack rig which honestly sounded very washed out with reverb/delay.
 
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