TGF Official Amp Mesa Boogie Mark series. Join the fun and get one today!

[EOengineer]

Wow! That means someone let go of their Triaxis for around $300 trade credit.

I'm never getting rid of mine, not even for $3000, let alone $300.

NeverSellAnything™

Yeah I’ve never went for a buy button so fast in my life. That was a tough one to miss.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Current discount promotion for GS used making things look extra compelling right now

 

[László]

I JUST missed a $600 triaxis at GC but DID NOT miss the VTwin rack I just snagged for $275.

Gotta love taking advantage of GC. Never miss an opportunity…except for that triaxis.

I had the V-Twin pedal when it first came out. What a fantastic device!

Probably sold it or traded it in to get something I also no longer have. I wish I'd kept it.

 

[spawnofthesith]

I guess the biggest downside of owning a bunch of amps is that it makes chronic procrastinators like myself welll… procrastinate…….

Mark III needs some critical work…. Mark V is still usable at home but needs work before it can come out to a gig again…

Mark IV and crab Marcus are ready to go for anything and I have a few others that are gig ready that aren’t marks…. Been heavily favoring my badlander live recently….

 

[TSJMajesty]

In my opinion, John Petrucci's tone is the holy grail. When I hear his live playing, that's the sound that keeps me awake at night.

Haha, you'll get no argument from me! Both at his last solo tour and at the camp this past August I was right in front, directly in the path of that glorious JPIIC stereo tone! It's unlike anything else.

Back, way back, when all I played was my LPC, I hardly ever used the neck PU. Just didn't like it. Even when I switched to the Seymour Duncans. But lately when practicing JP's solos, I find myself using the neck PU on my JP15 or Majesty quite a lot. Even in places where he was on the bridge PU. It just has such cream to it!

(How did I miss all this Petrucci tone talk for 3 days?)

 

[TSJMajesty]

For me it his 90s guitar tone. Awake, ACOS, and the second LTE album. The beginning of Acid Rain is my favorite guitar tone. That, the tone in The Mirror and Lie, and then Fear Factory’s entire Demanufacture album.

Something I've noticed on the Parasomnia tour, is he's using his Enchanted Forest Majesty for The Shadow Man Incident, but for ACOS, he switches to the new Gold Eclipse Majesty. Both songs are 7 string, std tuning. I've never seen him use a different guitar for the same tuning in one show. He does switch guitars from time to time, i.e., different shows, but never that I've seen in the same show. (I've watched a shit-ton of live videos.)

The only reason I can think of is the Enchanted Forest is a Mahogany body, while the Gold Eclipse is Basswood, which is what his Ibanez JPM's were made of. And he has said in interviews he'll use a certain Majesty on a song for its tone.

There's all sorts of different wood combinations nowadays on both the Majesties and the JP15.

 

[TacoParty]

Got my Mark IIB back from Mike B. last night. Sounds fantastic, been playing it all day. I forgot to take a gut shot before I put it back in the cab.

This is what he did:
Michael Williams #0202421 MK2B chassis #10639 Amps very clean, tested with bench tube set and did find relay chatter. The 470 filter cap for the relay supply dying, also replaced the diode for that supply. Solid now. Cleaned pots pulls jacks and tube socket contacts. Re-tensioned the octal socket contacts and re-lubed the pull pot shafts. Rebuilt the treble and mid pots. The rest Ok and vol1 and ld drv had already been replaced. Replaced all the electrolytic caps with new Mesa stock parts. All working good. Rev RCA cables should have extra ground jumper added. Emailed fix it note on that. Labor 2.25 hrs.
Thereverb cables already had the ground installed when I got the amp.

 

[László]

Got my Mark IIB back from Mike B. last night. Sounds fantastic, been playing it all day. I forgot to take a gut shot before I put it back in the cab.

This is what he did:
Michael Williams #0202421 MK2B chassis #10639 Amps very clean, tested with bench tube set and did find relay chatter. The 470 filter cap for the relay supply dying, also replaced the diode for that supply. Solid now. Cleaned pots pulls jacks and tube socket contacts. Re-tensioned the octal socket contacts and re-lubed the pull pot shafts. Rebuilt the treble and mid pots. The rest Ok and vol1 and ld drv had already been replaced. Replaced all the electrolytic caps with new Mesa stock parts. All working good. Rev RCA cables should have extra ground jumper added. Emailed fix it note on that. Labor 2.25 hrs.
Thereverb cables already had the ground installed when I got the amp.

Sweet setup, from what I can see!

 

[laxu]

Messing with the Mark V 90's ch2 Mark 1 mode again. That thing needs:

• Gain needs to be kept in check. It has a surprising amount of gain on tap but I feel it works better if you don't crank it too high as the treble knob also adds gain.
• Bass to zero. If there was ever a mode that I would want to mod for a significant low cut, it's this.
• Mids to taste, probably fairly low.
• Treble high.
• Presence noon or higher.
• Preferably 90W mode as it helps with clarity.
• Graphic EQ dedicated to ch2 and set to what looks like a diagram of the rising national debt:
  • 80 Hz down
  • 240 Hz down a bit
  • 750 Hz middle or up
  • 2.2 KHz middle or up
  • 6.6 KHz up.

Honestly Crunch mode is a helluva lot easier to work with. The 750 and 2.2K bands seem to be the key for getting the most out of Mark I.

 

[newholland]

Got my Mark IIB back from Mike B. last night. Sounds fantastic, been playing it all day. I forgot to take a gut shot before I put it back in the cab.

This is what he did:
Michael Williams #0202421 MK2B chassis #10639 Amps very clean, tested with bench tube set and did find relay chatter. The 470 filter cap for the relay supply dying, also replaced the diode for that supply. Solid now. Cleaned pots pulls jacks and tube socket contacts. Re-tensioned the octal socket contacts and re-lubed the pull pot shafts. Rebuilt the treble and mid pots. The rest Ok and vol1 and ld drv had already been replaced. Replaced all the electrolytic caps with new Mesa stock parts. All working good. Rev RCA cables should have extra ground jumper added. Emailed fix it note on that. Labor 2.25 hrs.
Thereverb cables already had the ground installed when I got the amp.

that be just like mine- but at some point mine made it back to mesa for new caps, and new leather handle and corners and a woven grille!

 

[LCW]

My IIC++ did something weird yesterday . Had been playing for about a half hour, then the gain completely dropped. Like a stage dropped out. Best way I could describe is sort of like when an active battery starts to die or a pedal battery dying.

I put it on standby and turned it around to look in back. Power tubes were glowing normally. No red platting. I did have the cage. Thinking between that and up against the wall maybe it overheated?

Pulled it away from the wall and took the tube cage off. Let it idle for a few more minutes. I forget if I tuned it completely off then back on.

After a couple minutes flipped standby back on and it was completely back to normal. Face melting gain again.

That was yesterday. But since removing the cage and pulling it away from the wall and leaving it on for a while (30+ minutes). Hasn’t repeated. And it’s never done this before.

I saw someone post something similar about their IIC++ but theirs was brand new and they thought maybe a tube died in transit. Forget which forum I saw it on whether here, SSO, or the Boogie forums.

Not posting to cause panic or stir shit. Just being transparent. The amp slays. I hope it doesn’t happen again or get worse but it makes me uneasy.

 

[newholland]

having owned mesas since about 1995, ive never ever experienced overheating a single time. i dunno what that was, but i cant say ive seen that happen without it being a tube going south.

 

[LCW]

having owned mesas since about 1995, ive never ever experienced overheating a single time. i dunno what that was, but i cant say ive seen that happen without it being a tube going south.

I’ll get some extra 12AX7s and 6L6s just in case.

 

[newholland]

hey LCW- i wonder if gibmesa went to the cheaper plastic bodied jacks like they used in the calibers. if they DID.. the only thing that did that to me (besides tubes)was those things when they got a few years old... and i cant imagine them being old enough to do that... but you never know if gibson is using up their old stock.

 

[TubeStack]

My IIC++ did something weird yesterday . Had been playing for about a half hour, then the gain completely dropped. Like a stage dropped out. Best way I could describe is sort of like when an active battery starts to die or a pedal battery dying.

I put it on standby and turned it around to look in back. Power tubes were glowing normally. No red platting. I did have the cage. Thinking between that and up against the wall maybe it overheated?

Pulled it away from the wall and took the tube cage off. Let it idle for a few more minutes. I forget if I tuned it completely off then back on.

After a couple minutes flipped standby back on and it was completely back to normal. Face melting gain again.

That was yesterday. But since removing the cage and pulling it away from the wall and leaving it on for a while (30+ minutes). Hasn’t repeated. And it’s never done this before.

I saw someone post something similar about their IIC++ but theirs was brand new and they thought maybe a tube died in transit. Forget which forum I saw it on whether here, SSO, or the Boogie forums.

Not posting to cause panic or stir shit. Just being transparent. The amp slays. I hope it doesn’t happen again or get worse but it makes me uneasy.

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Dear GOD that’s a sweet looking setup!

Hope you get it sorted out.

 

[EOengineer]

My IIC++ did something weird yesterday . Had been playing for about a half hour, then the gain completely dropped. Like a stage dropped out. Best way I could describe is sort of like when an active battery starts to die or a pedal battery dying.

I put it on standby and turned it around to look in back. Power tubes were glowing normally. No red platting. I did have the cage. Thinking between that and up against the wall maybe it overheated?

Pulled it away from the wall and took the tube cage off. Let it idle for a few more minutes. I forget if I tuned it completely off then back on.

After a couple minutes flipped standby back on and it was completely back to normal. Face melting gain again.

That was yesterday. But since removing the cage and pulling it away from the wall and leaving it on for a while (30+ minutes). Hasn’t repeated. And it’s never done this before.

I saw someone post something similar about their IIC++ but theirs was brand new and they thought maybe a tube died in transit. Forget which forum I saw it on whether here, SSO, or the Boogie forums.

Not posting to cause panic or stir shit. Just being transparent. The amp slays. I hope it doesn’t happen again or get worse but it makes me uneasy.

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Overheating is pretty unlikely. Does the IIC+ reissue have the fan or did they get rid it?

Anyway, almost certainly a 12ax7 issue and seems like you’re already on the right path there. I suppose it could also be one of the pull pots sticking or failing too.

 

[TacoParty]

Sweet setup, from what I can see!

Thanks, doesn't rival your's though. I just don't have enough room in the office, so I have to lug amps and cabs up down to and from the basement when I want to change it up. I'm happy with it, and loving the MKIIB, sounds great through all my cabs and really any speaker I have tried it with. I put an 80's 1265 in to shave 9lbs off from the stock MS-12 and it sounds great (not a surprise). The MS-12 is a great sounding speaker though. It really shines with the Crescendo clones in the HT 2x12 also.

that be just like mine- but at some point mine made it back to mesa for new caps, and new leather handle and corners and a woven grille!

Bet it looks great. I asked Brett at MB about getting a head shell for mine, quoted $470ish for straight black and $650ish for another color with a cain grill, + shipping and a 6 month lead time. Figured I wasn't knocking enough weight off to make sense of those numbers. The head would still weigh a little more than my Z-Plus combo. I should look into just getting the cain grill and leather corners for my combo cab.

BTW, who is the go to for hosting pics now? I notices my recent Imgur pics look out of focus, but the originals in my iPhoto are crystal clear.

 

[László]

Thanks, doesn't rival your's though.

Thanks though I think yours is quite a nice setup! I can spread out a little, but mine's just a room with some stuff in it. No different, when it comes down to it.

 

[László]

My IIC++ did something weird yesterday . Had been playing for about a half hour, then the gain completely dropped. Like a stage dropped out. Best way I could describe is sort of like when an active battery starts to die or a pedal battery dying.

I put it on standby and turned it around to look in back. Power tubes were glowing normally. No red platting. I did have the cage. Thinking between that and up against the wall maybe it overheated?

Pulled it away from the wall and took the tube cage off. Let it idle for a few more minutes. I forget if I tuned it completely off then back on.

After a couple minutes flipped standby back on and it was completely back to normal. Face melting gain again.

That was yesterday. But since removing the cage and pulling it away from the wall and leaving it on for a while (30+ minutes). Hasn’t repeated. And it’s never done this before.

I saw someone post something similar about their IIC++ but theirs was brand new and they thought maybe a tube died in transit. Forget which forum I saw it on whether here, SSO, or the Boogie forums.

Not posting to cause panic or stir shit. Just being transparent. The amp slays. I hope it doesn’t happen again or get worse but it makes me uneasy.

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Sorry to hear about the issue - though I have to say that is a killer rig. Really looks the business.

 

[maddnotez]

Can't read through 65 pages but Mesa has been haunting me and I'm curious what is the best Mark for high gain, saturated death metal?

I know they can all do it but what is the best one? I've owned a JP2C but dont know much about the brand and unfortunately there are so many. Mark 7 now, Rev A. Rev B, long head short head, etc...too much to dive into.....

Also considering a triple rectifier as they often pop up pretty low cost used.