Question on IIC SRG

Hey all,
I just picked up a IIC SRG head from the original owner yesterday for a great price (I felt like I stole it...). I'm going to have Mike at Mesa take a look at it, because it's been mothballed for the last few years. Still debating plussing it. Before I do that though, I have a question:

Above the power chord, there is a sharpie "dot" where the "+" was put for IIC+s (as well as Mike's initials below). I know for some no stripe IIIs, they sometimes marked them with dots as well. My IIC is a relatively late production one (SN 1192X). I'm wondering what, if anything, that dot means. Thanks for any info!

As I understand it, if a (non-plus) IIC falls under the IIC+ production range there is a chance that the original owner opted for it not to be produced as a C+ at the time of purchase, in which case the chassis would be marked with a dash.

That said, 11XXX makes that amp pre-C+ (123XX) production, so that wouldn't apply here. If you're going to send it to Mike, why not just ask it'll be recorded somewhere.

Have you done the loop test? Maybe there's a chance it was actually upgraded to a + already at some previous factory visit.

Thanks for the replies. It's definitely not a +, but I knew that when I bought it. The guy I bought it from didn't say that anyone besides himself worked on the amp (he's an electrical engineer). He more or less returned it to factory settings before he sold it to me, but there might be some internal issues with it, the main reason I want Mike B. to look it over. Sounds nice and crunchy, though.

I heard a rumor (completely unverified, so don't hold me to this) that when Mesa would start a new series, they would begin the serial numbers at an arbitrarily higher even number (IIC+s officially started at 12500, Mk IIIs started at 15000), even if production of the previous series was still happening at lower SNs. The guy had the paperwork from my amp and it was from early '84, right around the time of the IIC+. I wonder if this amp was ordered as a later IIC, and to differentiate from the already-in-production +s, they put a dot over the chord. Pure speculation, and I'm not sure that that even sounds right to me.

Anyway, definitely something to ask Mike about, but was just curious if anyone knew anything about that.

For anyone who is interested, I just stopped by Mesa and talked to Mike face to face, couldn't have been a nicer guy. As far as the marking goes, he says it probably had something to do with a mod or update during production (as he was always tinkering back then). Beyond that, he couldn't remember specifically what the dot signified. The IIC will be going to him later this week for a refresh and possible plussing.

Definitely do the plussing :lol:
There simply is no reason for a C to not be a C+.