Randall Smith Gone From Mesa Boogie/Gibson?

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I want a VII :love

Mayve one day if the used market ever cooperates

I heard a couple rumors that the Fillmore is being discontinued, and that the multi watt is being un-discontinued

Curious what might be in the pipeline

Also highly skeptical of any info that’s coming from sweetwater as a source
 
there’s also some comments on the bud where he addresses the “firing “ more specifically. He thought it strange and out of place “doesn’t benefit anyone”


But also it’s clear he doesn’t seem to have much bad blood either, and he’s continuing to “fluff” (sorry for the dad joke) up the folks still steering the ship
 
That’s interesting about the VII vs the IIC+ reissue. I don’t know anything about the IP/purchase arrangement between Smith and Gibson, but since he noted he (1) designed the VII pre-Gib and (2) Gibson didn’t promote it well, I’m guessing Smith gets more of a cut on it vs the IIC+ reissue and Gibson is trying to fade it.

So there may be incentive for him to say that, even though I bet he is also being sincere in his comment. Have to see the comparisons!
 
Agreed. I am in the same boat. I love mine, especially after jamming live with it.

Yes, the three core tones I'm getting on the VII are absolutely incredible, with the IIB being the surprise queen of the ball, just love that channel/mode.

I have a killer rock crunch on Ch1 as my main sound + boosting that with a couple drives, plus huge, lush cleans on Ch 2, and then crazy good pushed/gritty cleans with the IIB on Ch 3 (so good on the neck pickup of my LPC). It's like having three amazing amps at once, all switchable via midi with the VP4 in the loop. Throw in the on-board midi-switchable reverb + DI out with CabClone/IRs and I'm a very happy camper. Add to that the size and weight is super manageable and I've even got a headphone out, I truly don't need another amp.

(I don't even use the high gain modes or the GEQ, yet... :sofa :grin.)
 
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I do wish IIB was on channel 2 instead of channel 3. I really don't use Fat on channel 2 and rarely use VII mode. IIB is like a grittier crunch sound and it's too bad I can't switch to it and then to one of the higher gain modes from a footswitch or MIDI.
 
One man’s features is another man’s tone suckers.
I honestly haven't found a whole lot of truth to that with any amp I've owned.

A single channel on my Mesa Mark V isn't necessarily that much more complex as a circuit than say a Dumble, or whatever corksniffery amp people want to hold as their "pure tone" benchmark. The "pure tone" being an oxymoron in itself...

A lot of the complexity is in offering the user all the toggle options and whatnot that in any other amp would be just something that is set a particular way with fixed components. To be fair, that sort of curation can be useful as many amps out there have a particular "sounds best this way" arrangement for toggles like that.

I'd expect the Fillmore is about the same complexity as the clean channel with all its modes on the Mark V, but to the purist, the Fillmore just has to be more "pure" because it has less knobs and toggles on it.
 
I honestly haven't found a whole lot of truth to that with any amp I've owned.

A single channel on my Mesa Mark V isn't necessarily that much more complex as a circuit than say a Dumble, or whatever corksniffery amp people want to hold as their "pure tone" benchmark. The "pure tone" being an oxymoron in itself...

A lot of the complexity is in offering the user all the toggle options and whatnot that in any other amp would be just something that is set a particular way with fixed components. To be fair, that sort of curation can be useful as many amps out there have a particular "sounds best this way" arrangement for toggles like that.

I'd expect the Fillmore is about the same complexity as the clean channel with all its modes on the Mark V, but to the purist, the Fillmore just has to be more "pure" because it has less knobs and toggles on it.
I have no issue with complexity as long as it’s not a barrier to dialing in a good tone or makes people want to turn knobs all day. Some amps definitely are in that realm for me and IME Mesa has made more than most that did that for me. YMMV for the overly sensitive. I own simple and complex amps so it’s not that complexity that keeps we away it’s how it’s implemented and how they effect the tone, which they definitely do, especially if they impede you getting good tone fast.
 
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