Mesa Mark VII vs JP-2C

  • Thread starter Thread starter FourT6and2
  • Start date Start date
Little B said:
I'm still digging my v2 tx4 triaxis into strategy 500 or vht 2150.Its just a lot of fun.For amp heads,I'm firmly rooted in the iic+,iii, and colis.my iv a and b took a direction in tone I wasn't completely sold on.I would agree, having played the v,jp,and vii,I feel like the vii should've been after the iiis.Some of you commented on your fav new" dream" boogie- mine would be a vii coli,with 2 eqs..oh,and a new updated triaxis.
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howabout a custom “choose your own 8 mode” triaxis from the encyclopedia of boogie amps?
2 spacer with dual GEQs clean/dirt partnering with fryette to design the layout for serviceability and tap his recent foray into hybrid world.

one thing i did try when i had the triaxis was run it with a rocktron ProQ and a BBE switched in and out with a patchmate for more fine tuning on my hypercleans and lead II red “80s metal” sounds 😁

in 2001 i went to my friends studio to track with my triaxis rack for another friends project and he shot this behind the scenes vid of me warming up while the engineer was dialing in levels. sounds like i started with lead II yellow (IIC+) then switched to lead II (III) red…



next,
experiment with my blue stripe when people were reporting squealing with the new IIC+ RI:
“Even with Volume, Treble, Lead Drive, Presence on 10 and graphic eq 6600 cranked (way brighter than I'd ever run it so watch your ears!) old faithful passed the test and isn't trying to squeal/oscillate.
Left the GEQ on with the clean channel--sounded cool!”





vid i made borrowing my friend’s mark III green stripe combo with warehouse blackhawk HP. this last evolution of the III stripes had a fatness which made cleans nice and leads kinda fusiony, which in hindsight was a tip of the hat towards the direction of the IV

 
mentoneman said:
howabout a custom “choose your own 8 mode” triaxis from the encyclopedia of boogie amps?
2 spacer with dual GEQs clean/dirt partnering with fryette to design the layout for serviceability and tap his recent foray into hybrid world.

one thing i did try when i had the triaxis was run it with a rocktron ProQ and a BBE switched in and out with a patchmate for more fine tuning on my hypercleans and lead II red “80s metal” sounds 😁

in 2001 i went to my friends studio to track with my triaxis rack for another friends project and he shot this behind the scenes vid of me warming up while the engineer was dialing in levels. sounds like i started with lead II yellow (IIC+) then switched to lead II (III) red…

That's an awesome suggestion! I'm 100% on board with that. And love those boogie tones and playing too.
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I liked the M7 better than the JP, but both killer amps, me I would get a used mark IV, I have one and love it, thats my favorite boogie of all time
 
jharpersj said:
I liked the M7 better than the JP, but both killer amps, me I would get a used mark IV, I have one and love it, thats my favorite boogie of all time
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The IV is kinda where I feel Randall perfected the lead channel of the Marks. You can hear the subtle refining of the gain structure from the IIC+ to the IV, and that is where I feel he nailed it. It's a bit thicker in sound and richer sounding, but you can dial it back too by just pushing in those pull fat and pull bright controls and switching to harmonics instead of mid-gain.

I feel I have complete control of the lead channels gain structure with all those controls, they are all very useful.

Then again I still want to get a IIC+ one day just because. I had a III and it was cool but had trouble dialing in the highs and getting it out of 80's territory. I'm more into 90's - 00's tones to be honest.
 
anomaly said:
The IV is kinda where I feel Randall perfected the lead channel of the Marks. You can hear the subtle refining of the gain structure from the IIC+ to the IV, and that is where I feel he nailed it. It's a bit thicker in sound and richer sounding, but you can dial it back too by just pushing in those pull fat and pull bright controls and switching to harmonics instead of mid-gain.

I feel I have complete control of the lead channels gain structure with all those controls, they are all very useful.

Then again I still want to get a IIC+ one day just because. I had a III and it was cool but had trouble dialing in the highs and getting it out of 80's territory. I'm more into 90's - 00's tones to be honest.
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I don't think there is better metal tone anywhere (to my ears) than what they reached with the IIC+ to III era (especially when accessed via the Quad), but the IV is more refined does very well with prog metal.

The VII is unique is that it does EVERYTHING very well at the SAME TIME. No compromise. But I can't say it has better lead tones that the above amps.
 
I've been reading through this thread since the beginning and agree with various comments based upon my own experience since I've owned the MKIII, MKIV, MKV, JP-2C, and MKVII.

MKIII:

The MKIII had a GREAT lead tone but the rhythm tone just did not work well for the style of music we were playing at the time (and to be fair, I think I just did not know how to properly dial in a Mesa Boogie back then when I had that amp (I had been a Marshall JCM800 and JMP-1 player for years)).

I had it for about a week, and then sold that amp pretty quickly (as soon as I had listed the amp, it was sold that day on CL).

MKV:

Many years later (during the time Petrucci was showcasing the MKV), I picked up a MKV, watched his videos demoing the amp, and found I really liked that amp.

I had purchased a 2nd one that some guy had a tech bias the power tubes to work with specific non-Mesa power tubes.

The amp sounded killer after warming up properly (about 5 -10 minutes (the needed time to warm-up might have been related to the non-Mesa power tubes)).

I had sold both of those MKV's only because I needed space at home (no where to store them after the band had taken a break).

Later, I had purchased two more MKV's, sold one for space, and kept the other (still in the box until recently).

Might sell for space but I really enjoy that amp (love the option of either 6L6's or EL34's).

MKIV:

Purchased the MKIVb, and just loved that amp (once dialed in properly).

I was always able to get a pretty good sound on Channel 2 even though I've heard people say they couldn't use that channel.

If you're trying to get a heavy gain sound for a metal band/tone, then that channel is probably not for you.

Clean=Great, Rhythm=Great, Lead=Great

The Lead channel was definitely my favorite for rhythm/leads.

It's kind of dated (not modern) but I think it's what makes it great.

MKVII:

Initially, I thought it was a great amp.

The clean was good (not great, but good), the crunch was impressive, the IV setting was pretty good, and the 2C was pretty good as well.

I had two MKVII's and they both had this weird "ghosting/delay" effect happening when I would switch channels with effects on.

I had sold both of them when I picked up the JP-2C since I felt the clean was a lot better on the JP-2C (the clean on the MKVII is very thin in comparison).

JP-2C:

Initially, thought it was a great amp as well especially the two EQ's and Shred modes.

However, I felt there was a weird compression thing in the amp that just could not be dialed out.

A friend stopped by and the first thing he said was "That amp sounds overly compressed" and I had decided to sell both of the JP-2C's.

Final conclusion for me:

I had kept the MKIV until Friday (it was my favorite for rhythm/lead for that period of time), and I still like the MKV for the cleans, crunch with drive pedal, and I do tend to switch between the IV and Extreme and IIC+ for variety (I have the MKV dialed in well for me).

Ideally, a person needs to have access to all of these amps at the same time to see what amp really works best for "that" person/guitar/cab, and I was fortunate enough to have all of them to compare, then sold each one off to keep just the MKIV and MKV.

We all hear things differently and have different styles of playing as well as different guitars/pickups and cabs, so one amp may not work well for "one" person, but might work well for another person.
 
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Hey @FourT6and2 look what I scored yesterday on my local marketplace.. My 34th Mark! ;) Guess I'll have to revisit!

IMG_7220.jpg
 
BABMusic said:
Also, if you want the late 80s Metallica tone (Puppets, Justice, Black album), Marks are the answer.

What scares me though is the reliability. I had one of those orange capacitors go bad and had to be repaired. I was told that's almost expected of them over time. I might eventually upgrade to a VII if my IV ever gets to the point where it's too expensive to keep.
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I've got a Mark IV and there's a nagging feeling that the amp's internals are held together with thoughts & prayers.
 
Alright boys I have to circle back on some things. I picked up the MkVII combo the other day.

The first one I had was a head, which I made a ton of comments about, and I stand by those comments in the context that all I had at the time was my Mesa Recto Trad 4x12 which most Marks love.

First day impressions of this VII combo. I tried it with the combo Black Shadow, my 1960TV, my 1960B JCM800, and Mesa Recto trad cabs.
  • The (short) combo tone actually isn't bad. Most II, III and IV SHORT combos are boxy AF and can't chug. This one isn't quite as neutral as a IV or V WIDE combo, but the clean & breakup tones are actually very nice an you can almost get it to chug.
  • The cleans really are nice on the combo and on the 1960TV (that cab kills for cleans). I could see the VII being awesome for country. For blues I'd still lean Tremoverb or Blue Angel.
  • The break up tones in Ch2 are in there, but you have to work for it. IIB mode is great, should have been on Ch2.
  • I'd call this a better amp than a JP in terms versatility, and better than a V in terms of tone- with the exception of the Crunch channel on the Five 35.
  • The harmonic overtones and sustan are actually pretty nice.
  • Ok on to the lead channel that most of us care about. Here's the suprise. This amp really isn't jiving with my Recto Trad cab, which is all I had the first time around and the basis for my comments. It's pretty good with the 1960TV cab. HOWEVER, it's MUCH better and bordering on pretty damn good with the OG 1960 cabs with the G12T-75s in them. I'm going to give this a shot in the band & see how it goes.
Really my main beef the first time around was how it washed out in the live mix. Maybe with speakers it prefers, that won't be the case..? We'll see.
 
I've been using a new 90s RI Dual Rec the last few weeks. So haven't pulled the trigger on a VII yet. Still trying to decide if I'm keeping the Recto because my Granophyre kind of covers the same ground. But it's tighter and has more grind. The Recto is looser but has more of a lower mid chunk. Not sure the VII will actually do what I want at the moment, but it will probably be different enough to my Grano to still keep it an option for the future.

When I played the VII in a store, it was through a vertical Recto 2x12. I also tried the combo and really liked it. My cabs at home are Mesa straight 4x12 trad.
 
My VII definitely is picky with cabinets. Sounds great through my Recto standards, but just middling through my Port City which has historically been my ace. With IRs, it seems to jive nicely with 1960 IRs and 1960TVs.
 
FourT6and2 said:
I've been using a new 90s RI Dual Rec the last few weeks. So haven't pulled the trigger on a VII yet. Still trying to decide if I'm keeping the Recto because my Granophyre kind of covers the same ground. But it's tighter and has more grind. The Recto is looser but has more of a lower mid chunk. Not sure the VII will actually do what I want at the moment, but it will probably be different enough to my Grano to still keep it an option for the future.

When I played the VII in a store, it was through a vertical Recto 2x12. I also tried the combo and really liked it. My cabs at home are Mesa straight 4x12 trad.
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Why not the 2c+ reissues? I’d love one or an MKIV
 
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