Please, for all the people talking about components, enlighten us with which components in the original IIC+ are no longer available.
The only thing I can think of is if it used vactrols for channel switching as the original company doing them stopped making them because they're not a great option for channel switching... and IIRC another company has started making them if Mesa is dumb enough to still use them.
There are just not a lot of exotic components in amps guys. Caps and resistors are still made, and electrolytic caps have actually gotten better over time.
And if you want to bring up transformers please include what in a transformer can't be done, specifically, and not some vague nonsense about the EPA banning something. I've looked into that one and was never able to identify anything used in a transformer that has been banned and is not allowed to be used anymore.
I'd just really like to know what magical component can't be reproduced in these things vs mythology as a guy that has actually built a bunch of amps.
It is a sum of all parts.
Usually discussions about old vs new transformers piont to the different quality of the steel used in laminations. Modern steel (M6) went up in quality and purity. Modern transformers usually have extended range in bass as well high frequencies giving a more hifi sound and a different feel, and they sound cleaner. But more hifi and clean is not particularly a good thing for guitar amps. Highs are usually referred as sweeter in old transformers and the less clean sound is percieved as "harmonic content".
Than there are the caps and resistors. From an electrical standpiont, a cap is a cap and a resisotr is a resistors. But in audio, it is different. Every material and brand has its signature little EQ, its signature way it breaks up and its signature of overtones it layers on the tone or gain struckture. Yes, simply changing one part will not make a difference, but building a whole amp with one type of caps is a different thing.
When building my 2203 clone and comparing it to an old Marshall, the Marshall DNA was there but at the same time, it felt like a different amp. I tried different caps and resistors.
For example, the dry and fast bass attack as well as the brute and roaring mid strucktre is part of what old Piher CF resistors contirbute. They break up in a dense way and accentuate upper mids. Most new CF resistors have the mids but as well a boomy bass taking away the fast attack and giving a saggy playing feel.
I am sure guys with more knowledge than me can work around all of this. But simply saying there`s no difference in old out of pruduction parts and new ones is a bland statement. The same goes for saying, there`s some sort of magic attributed to old parts. Sometimes, they just sound different.
If anything, sometimes the choice of parts together with the whole layout of the amp hits the sweetest of all sweet pionts. This is when guitarist start to talk about "magic".
