Mk 2 c+ magic?

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jblguy

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I own several amps including a mk2 c+ it sounds good but the holy grail? Nah. I switch back and forth between my mk2 and my mk3 blue simul with the same cab, same axe. And the difference is pretty negligible.
There's far more difference in my playing feel and tone settings. I' done many recordings with them both and I can't even tell witch ones which. I don!t play metal. More jazz fusion. Clean, to little crunch to violin sustain leads. Just my personal experience with these amps.
 
And you aint wrong,at least for you.Tone and feel of an amp is totally subjective.One of the main reasons why I wont repair or mod an amp that requires shipping.
 
When I first joined B/B there were a couple of threads about which amp was better, C+ or Mark lll . Some members got very defensive and the threads got pretty ugly. Stokes is correct tone is subjective, there's many different amps where guitarist find "there sound". To say that the C+ doesn't deserve the reputation it has is an opinion your entitled to. I 've owned a couple of Mark lll's and I feel the C+ IS magical, tone, feel, response, magical but that's just my opinion.
 
Don't get me wrong. If I was a "metal" player, the Mark III gives you the best bang for the buck, no doubt. I just like the way a Mark II responds more to the way that you attack the strings. More response to the way that you play, and it has to do with the preamp and transformers, in my opinion. 8)
 
Agreed , the Mark lll can do metal well and can be picked up at a reasonable price. I understand why they are a good fit for so many . Having said that I saw a band about 9 months ago that basically was kinda bluesy in nature and the guitarist was playing a purple stripe. He was getting a good blues tone from his Mark lll so I'm not saying metal is the only grenre the Mark lll can pull off, just sayin what I prefer when it comes to the ll and lll
 
Buster Leggs said:
Agreed , the Mark lll can do metal well and can be picked up at a reasonable price. I understand why they are a good fit for so many . Having said that I saw a band about 9 months ago that basically was kinda bluesy in nature and the guitarist was playing a purple stripe. He was getting a good blues tone from his Mark lll so I'm not saying metal is the only grenre the Mark lll can pull off, just sayin what I prefer when it comes to the ll and lll
The purple stripe can pull off a sweet blues tone in the R2 channel, without a doubt.
 
I just picked up a normal IIC (not +) and I feel it is by far the best Mark I've owned to date. There's a musical harmonic rich quality to the IIC that I haven't found in my other Marks.


I considered sending it to Mesa for the + mod, but the gentleman I spoke with at Mesa told me it's a gain structure change which I'm not interested in. The more I researched it, the more it sounds like it alters the IIC tone to be more modern like the III. I'm sure it would still retain the 3D like tone that I love about the IIC, but I prefer the more vintage voicing for my personal style.


Anyway, after owning Mark I, Mark III, and a Mark V, I can say the IIC is head and shoulders above the other ones for me. Just my opinion of course, ymmv
 
I have a fair number of both amps in question: the IIC+ and blue stripe are quite close, but in my experience the IIC+ is that much easier to get singing than the blue stripe. I like that I have to work a bit harder with the III, on the other hand - it stops me being lazy about getting the hands working properly. The blue is a touch grainier, which can work for you too in certain live contexts.

I also have a Studio pre, which I fed through the IIC+ return. The responsiveness and feel of that combination was close to indistinguishable from the IIC+ by itself, once dialled in to match the differences through the different channel, master and output levels.
 
Mark amps are similar to whiskey. Some people will tell you how Jack Daniels or Jim Beam are as good as or better than any whiskey there is without having tried anything else. To them, those other whiskeys aren't even worth trying because there is nothing that is better and they know that already so why waste time trying?
I'm on the C+ is magic team myself having owned multiples of both. They're fairly equal, more like the Lone Ranger and Tonto than Batman and Robin.
 
dfwxjer said:
I just picked up a normal IIC (not +) and I feel it is by far the best Mark I've owned to date. There's a musical harmonic rich quality to the IIC that I haven't found in my other Marks.


I considered sending it to Mesa for the + mod, but the gentleman I spoke with at Mesa told me it's a gain structure change which I'm not interested in. The more I researched it, the more it sounds like it alters the IIC tone to be more modern like the III. I'm sure it would still retain the 3D like tone that I love about the IIC
The person to talk to at Mesa is Mike Benidelli (spelling?) He's the tech that took the Mark llC which was in production at the time and made a series of changes to the Mk llC and the end result was the llC+. This all took place while Mesa owner Randell Smith was away for a month or two on business. When he returned he felt the plus was such an improvement he immediately opted to build llC+'s and phase out the llC except to fill existing orders . That's my understanding of how the plus came about I don't think it's too far off.
Anyway the point I'm getting at is call Mesa and tell them you're thinking about upgrading a llC to a llc+ and you'd like to talk to Mike Benidelli, leave a msg, you'll probably get his voice mail. He'll call you back in a day or so and you can ask the man who designed the C+ any questions, concerns, what to expect from an upgrade ECT. He's a great guy and very easy to talk to. He's not going to talk you into an upgrade to sell an upgrade job. He's not like that and he's got plenty of work, often to much.
I played a festival and a member of another band had a llC. I didn't see him play he was earlier in the day and I wasn't there yet. But he couldn't believe the tone of my amp. At the end of the night most everyone got up together to jam and our amps were next to each other so I could hear his compared to mine. I can't vouch for his settings but mine had more of a harmonic rich 3d tone, better sustain and less fizz ,I would say a non upgrade sounds more like a Mk lll than an upgrade at least in his case, but again I didn't pay much attention to his settings . We were both playing PRS with the same p/ups . Call Mike Benidelli . I'm sure there's board members that sent there llC's in for up grades. Maybe someone will chime in with their before/after opinion . And I'm not a metal guitarist I set my C+ to more of a vintage like tone somewhat but with a "singing" quality to it . I certainly wouldn't call it a "modern" tone the way I set it but , I could easily set it that way. Its very versatile. Is there anyway you could play one ? Where do you live ? Maybe talking to Mike B. Or another board member will help with your decision to upgrade or leave it the way it is. I know what I would do but that may not be necessarily what's right for you. Either way enjoy the amp. Their second to none in my book.
 
I'm not completely opposed to an upgrade at some point, but for now the stock amp is just blowing my mind. Absolutely no fizz at all, and it's easily the best amp I've ever played or owned.

I loved my old no stripe 3, don't get me wrong. In fact, I went to buy what I thought WAS a Mark III only to find out the gentlemen selling it had mismarked a IIC.

I plugged in and my jaw dropped. One of these days I'll call Mike B up and see what he has to say. I do like the idea of the effects loop upgrade, because at the moment I'm running all of my effects through the front of the amp.

For now I have a completely stock, mint condition, IIC in Imbuya/wicker and I can't imagine changing a thing about it tone wise. It has a certain dryness that my old III didn't have. The III felt a bit more saturated if that makes sense.
 
The most important thing is that you're loving it. I pushed a little more than I should have about getting it upgraded, sorry about that. I've never owned a llC, only factory or upgraded pluses. I shouldn't form my opinion on hearing one once , I have no idea how he had his dialed in nor did I have any idea what tubes or even what speaker was in it . As they say if it ain't broke .............
 
A big factor in any amp is where the power tubes are biased.I remember,years ago,Tony Bruno was still developing his line of amps and doing work for the Cars.I had a Gauss speaker he wanted so he agreed to re-tube 3 amps I had in exchange.One of the amps was my 2C+ which I had just gotten from a friend.The tubes were original and the amp sounded great.He replaced the tubes with the same that were in there.When I got it back it sounded horrible,cold,harsh,shrill just awful.I checked the current draw and the new tubes sat at about 24ma's,the old ones at about 34ma's.I put a bias pot in and adjusted accordingly and the magic was back.Pre amp tubes can,of course, also have a huge effect on how good or bad the amp sounds.Speakers too.So if you hear an amp that doesnt sound as good as you think it should,it aint necessarily the amps fault.
 
I've had more than I can remember of both C+ and IIIs, and I do believe there's a difference. More so in the feel as opposed to the sound. I ended up keeping an '84 IIC++ (DRG, 105 PT) and '85 IIC+ (DRG, 105 PT).

That being said, if someone has a IIC and loves it as-is, who cares if the + would be an improvement? If you love how it is now, don't mess with it.
 
Silverwulf said:
I've had more than I can remember of both C+ and IIIs, and I do believe there's a difference. More so in the feel as opposed to the sound. I ended up keeping an '84 IIC++ (DRG, 105 PT) and '85 IIC+ (DRG, 105 PT).

That being said, if someone has a IIC and loves it as-is, who cares if the + would be an improvement? If you love how it is now, don't mess with it.


That's the plan. :)


I've had a few more rehearsals with the IIC, as well as spending hours up at our studio playing it and it keeps blowing my mind. Truly an amazing amp, and I've had the pleasure of owning some truly iconic amps ranging from old brownface Fenders to Marshall Jubilees as well as modern amps such as the Mark V.

The IIC is just it for me. It's what I was wanting my Mark I to be.
 
dfwxjer said:
That's the plan. :)


I've had a few more rehearsals with the IIC, as well as spending hours up at our studio playing it and it keeps blowing my mind. Truly an amazing amp, and I've had the pleasure of owning some truly iconic amps ranging from old brownface Fenders to Marshall Jubilees as well as modern amps such as the Mark V.

The IIC is just it for me. It's what I was wanting my Mark I to be.

chipaudette (a Boogie Board member here) posted a great comparison of his IIC before and after it was modded to a C+
Well worth the read.
Just found it. 4th post down in this thread.
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=40556&p=292169#p292169

Btw the three posts above Chip's are a good read as well and they are right up your alley too! (they are about those having a IIC and NOT doing the + upgrade).
 
gts said:
dfwxjer said:
That's the plan. :)


I've had a few more rehearsals with the IIC, as well as spending hours up at our studio playing it and it keeps blowing my mind. Truly an amazing amp, and I've had the pleasure of owning some truly iconic amps ranging from old brownface Fenders to Marshall Jubilees as well as modern amps such as the Mark V.

The IIC is just it for me. It's what I was wanting my Mark I to be.

chipaudette (a Boogie Board member here) posted a great comparison of his IIC before and after it was modded to a C+
Well worth the read.
Just found it. 4th post down in this thread.
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=40556&p=292169#p292169

Btw the three posts above Chip's are a good read as well and they are right up your alley too! (they are about those having a IIC and NOT doing the + upgrade).


Man, thank you for pointing me to that thread! A good read for sure. Since I don't really use effects loops, and love the amp right now I can't justify sending it to Mesa to modify. I usually run the lead gain around 4, and the input volume around 8 with my LPC with the Shaw humbuckers. They're PAF level output, and this produces one of the best crunch tones I've ever played. I add my Sunface for over the top leads, or the TS808 for boosting for heavy rhythm parts.
 

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