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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Mesa MKII-C+

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7/15/2005 2:30 PM
Joe N	Mesa MKII-C+ Anybody ever build a Mesa/Boogie MKII-c+, or played one. They are pretty acclaimed, but rare to find in music stores. I was thinking of building a new gain machine, and was considering this circuit. I never really liked Mesa products and despise randall smith's business ethics even more. I always favored marshall flavor, but may want to try something different, any suggestions?

7/15/2005 4:16 PM

Hi Joe

Never played such one but here's some info:
- MB did upgrade the regular MkII(C) after some complaints about the sound. One tech at MB did invent a mod/new circuit and MB did offer many clients an upgrade. After that the MkII C+ was introduced
- Afaik the MkII C+ did use different transformers, I did try to get such transformers from MB and other companies for a customer but it was impossible

A MB-loving buddy of me does like his Mk I and the Mk II C+... but he also did buy a 2204 right away with an OT upgrade after hearing such amp over here and right now he's totally into tweed kits...

Never build one but lots of older Boogies are kinda "souped up" bf-Fenders...

Chris
Love, peace & loudness
http://www.CMWamps.com

7/16/2005 2:26 PM

thanks chris,

Yeah, You can deffinately see it's fender heritage in the scheme (which is incredibly difficult to read, I had to look at the schemes of the MKIII, Studio, and Formula preamps to get the values of some of the components), I don't know why, but I have always had an aversion to placing the tone stack after the first stage of gain, and from the plate, in high gain situations. for clean I wouldn't think twice. I didn't want to commit this circuit to a pcb unless I had some affirmation that it sounded good. It's really acclaimed, but rare. Alot of the older boogies have that kinda funny "cloth baggy" midrange that you can deffinately hear on recordings. The only boogie from the mark series that i have played was a MKIV which I thought sounded like complete ass. I will never buy a Boogie, but I will clone one.

7/20/2005 12:39 PM

quote:
"The only boogie from the mark series that i have played was a MKIV which I thought sounded like complete ass. I will never buy a Boogie, but I will clone one."

being a Mk IV owner, i'd have to agree with you. the Mk IV is an amp that can easily provide some horribly wretched tones if it isn't properly "dialed-in."

i own a bunch of amps, and i really like my Mk IV, but its not an amp that i would recommend to most people. its definitely not a Plug and Play type of amp, where you can just plug in, crank it up, and get great tones (like you can with the typical vintage Fender or Marshall).

in the case of the Mk IV, its very easy to get the thing to sound really bad, and it takes an awful lot of familiarity with it to get the most out of it. the controls are highly interactive and subtle adjustments can cause wide swings in tonality. because the time that's required to "dial-in" a good tone can often be a long time, i would never recommend it as a gigging amp. even with 3 "channels", its just to labor intensive from a tone-crafting standpoint. in that respect, the wide palette of good tones that are possible with the Mk IV make it a great practice or studio amp, and a really lousy gigging amp.

as far as cloning goes, if you've ever looked inside of one of those beasts, there's no way that you'd try to clone one, unless you're just a glutton for punishment. fwiw, here's a link to a few porn snapshots of my Mk IV:

http://geocities.com/custom_basses/mesa/mesa.html

for me, it was alot cheaper to just buy a used amp than to spend the time trying to reproduce that circuit. granted, a simpler circuit like the early Mark series amps would be a more reasonable undertaking.

7/21/2005 4:12 PM
anonymous	Yeah I really had no interest in cloning the MKIV, I was thinking of cloning the MKIIC+, As I have heard people rave about it, and how it had a really good lead tone. I didn't want to clone it if it had that same fizzy, midrange Honk that I have always associated with earlier mesa products. Joe N.

8/8/2005 8:25 PM
peter	It does have that same dreadful fizzy, buzzy, nasty midrange honk that the all the early boogies have. That said, if your going to build one from scratch it's not too difficult to move the tone stack where it belongs in the circuit and drive it with a CF and of course eliminate the cheesy midboost circuit. Personally I'd steer far clear of this circuit, YMMV. peter

7/17/2005 9:28 AM

Check out the link for the sound of my amp.

http://www.firebottle.com/fireforum/fireBB.cgi?cfg=ga&select=gadc&first_days_old=

I always like the MKIIc+ and was a decent amp. Never was perfect for me, just seemed to lack somewhere that I never could figure out. Still, it's the best amp they done in my opinion regardless of the **** in charge. I'v played the recto's and they just seem to mushy for my taste. The fumble is similiar, also check out marshall 2205 and 2210 circuits. Those were my favorite amps in my metal days. They all were not as clear sounding to me as I would want them except the Fumble but like I could afford one?lol Feeding the tone stack from the plate at the end of the gain stages is the distinct sound the metal heads like. Why they like the MKIIc+ with the EQ at the end. I like my cleans very much fendery. The amp I built is similiar to these. About a years worth of experimenting and the wife jumping on my back for being to loud. It's a very clean fender channel.Loads of headroom and with a flip of a switch you get a nice dirty BF clean but just at deafening levels. The second channel is the gain channel. Gets gobs of gain if you want it. I voiced it with a tad less gain since I didn't see the need to. Most use a volume boost or an overdrive for lead tones anyways. You could easily add a third channel for it which is just rerouting the signal to a third tone stack and gain pots. Seperate effects loop for both channels. I'v got a few orders to build already and the feedback from others is good. So maybe I can make a few bucks on my hobby after all. Started out with just making two heads for me and a buddy.

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