Official Mesa IIC++ Reissue?

[Brandonrz]

Some gigs are mic'd up, some are not.

I've found that what tends to come across as harsh when playing at home or recording cuts better in the live mix. At least, for my hard rock & metal bands.

Yeah, sound guys are such a crap shoot man. Some great locally, some absolute dog shit.

When I used to play out a ton locally in Denver we used to have the same dude do our sound usually. Actually Dave from Havok did a few times and he was great, cool dude.

 

[Faded Abyss]

I love the people freaking out about the oscillation that have never played the amps. Welcome to the internet. I own them... I'd be pissed about it if I didn't know how to dial in an amp and turned everything to 10 and couldn't figure out why it sounded like shit and squealed sitting right in front of it.

I can force the IIC+ to oscillate but I have never hit it at settings I would actually use / play with. I dialed in the IIC++ the way I like it and have not had it oscillate, and have not tried to force it to.

You compared one re-issue to another re-issue. Have you compared the iic+ RI to the original? There are instances where people who actually own both have compared them to eachother and the oscillating is much worse on the RI. Is this an actual problem? Some customers might not like it… I personally think it’s not that big of a deal but because the ++ came out, I’d have buyers remorse if I bought the + instead of the ++

The manual on the ++, which is available on the internet, implies that the ++ is more susceptible to oscillation when the contrary is reported by actual users.

I assume you aren’t suggesting that Randall Smith is some random guy off the internet and that he doesn’t know how to dial in the amps he (mostly) created, OG and RI. Or are you assuming that his comment is from a fake account? You think that people who simply mention the RI has oscillation are all just incompetent and just turn everything to 10? Sheesh… people buy cars with top speeds they will never actually reach. Having it there to use and not have the car malfunction is worth mentioning

Aside from mentioning the oscillation, Randall also mentions the ++ sounding better in general. I suppose you can throw this one out since you own both. I’ll take Randall’s word for it over the internet over yours, no offense.

 

[bugsy5150]

I have two MKVII’s, two JP2C’s and finally two MKV’s!! They all fucking oscillate if you get stupid with the knobs!! Unfortunately the MKII C+ RI brought all the retards into our World of Mesa!!

 

[technomancer]

You compared one re-issue to another re-issue. Have you compared the iic+ RI to the original? There are instances where people who actually own both have compared them to eachother and the oscillating is much worse on the RI. Is this an actual problem? Some customers might not like it… I personally think it’s not that big of a deal but because the ++ came out, I’d have buyers remorse if I bought the + instead of the ++

The manual on the ++, which is available on the internet, implies that the ++ is more susceptible to oscillation when the contrary is reported by actual users.

I assume you aren’t suggesting that Randall Smith is some random guy off the internet and that he doesn’t know how to dial in the amps he (mostly) created, OG and RI. Or are you assuming that his comment is from a fake account? You think that people who simply mention the RI has oscillation are all just incompetent and just turn everything to 10? Sheesh… people buy cars with top speeds they will never actually reach. Having it there to use and not have the car malfunction is worth mentioning

Aside from mentioning the oscillation, Randall also mentions the ++ sounding better in general. I suppose you can throw this one out since you own both. I’ll take Randall’s word for it over the internet over yours, no offense.

Where does Randall say this is a problem? Most of the marks will oscillate at extreme settings, it's even in the manuals and somebody posted a video of either an original IIC+ or ++ (forget which) oscillating.

I'm telling you from playing the amps the oscillation is not really an issue. I'm running gains / treble at something like 8.5 / 9 / 9.5 IIRC on the IIC+. That is a LOT of gain. Hell the guy that initially posted the video talking about the oscillation even said it isn't a problem and still owns / is using the amp and I believe grabbed a IIC++ as well.

The IIC++ is a bit more rounded and has more gain (which is why I'm running the gains a hair lower on that amp).

 

[bugsy5150]

Where does Randall say this is a problem? Most of the marks will oscillate at extreme settings, it's even in the manuals and somebody posted a video of either an original IIC+ or ++ (forget which) oscillating.

I'm telling you from playing the amps the oscillation is not really an issue. I'm running gains / treble at something like 8.5 / 9 / 9.5 IIRC on the IIC+. That is a LOT of gain. Hell the guy that initially posted the video talking about the oscillation even said it isn't a problem and still owns / is using the amp and I believe grabbed a IIC++ as well.

The IIC++ is a bit more rounded and has more gain (which is why I'm running the gains a hair lower on that amp).

Exactly!!!

 

[Jakem]

Now the ETA for my IIC++ RI is ~2 weeks. Let's hope the shop has correct info.

 

[Faded Abyss]

Where does Randall say this is a problem? Most of the marks will oscillate at extreme settings, it's even in the manuals and somebody posted a video of either an original IIC+ or ++ (forget which) oscillating.

I'm telling you from playing the amps the oscillation is not really an issue. I'm running gains / treble at something like 8.5 / 9 / 9.5 IIRC on the IIC+. That is a LOT of gain. Hell the guy that initially posted the video talking about the oscillation even said it isn't a problem and still owns / is using the amp and I believe grabbed a IIC++ as well.

The IIC++ is a bit more rounded and has more gain (which is why I'm running the gains a hair lower on that amp).

Ah, I’m on board then. It’s probably not an issue in general. What you describe the ++ being is exactly why I’d be pissed if I got a regular +, being that the ++ is more rounded and more gain.

Randall saying that the ++ sounds better whilst also not oscillating definitely poses a problem to me, but that’s just me…

To Mesa/Gibson’s defense, they didn’t market the iic+ as a metal amp. But we all know how that went! That probably pushed me away from getting a iic+ RI in the first place.

I think the real problem is if they why they couldn’t simply make the mid knob a push pull and have the ++ circuit and the + circuit in the same amp. Maybe there is a technical reason… it just doesn’t seem like it

 

[IronSean]

Now the ETA for my IIC++ RI is ~2 weeks. Let's hope the shop has correct info.

What country are you in?

I think the real problem is if they why they couldn’t simply make the mid knob a push pull and have the ++ circuit and the + circuit in the same amp. Maybe there is a technical reason… it just doesn’t seem like it

Given they designed built and shipped the Mark IV (whose mid gain switch is essentially the +/++ toggle switch), Mark V, Mark VII, and Road King... Technically they could do almost anything they pleased. It was a deliberate choice to keep the models separate even when the circuit board was built to accomodate both.

 

[thegame]

Given they designed built and shipped the Mark IV (whose mid gain switch is essentially the +/++ toggle switch),

Or a fairly good approximation of the actual +/++ modification?

 

[IronSean]

Or a fairly good approximation of the actual +/++ modification?

I think the value of the capacitor it switches in is slightly different than the one used in the IIC++ mod, but conceptually it's making the same sort of circuit change that the toggle on ++s does.

 

[Holy-diver]

What country are you in?


Given they designed built and shipped the Mark IV (whose mid gain switch is essentially the +/++ toggle switch), Mark V, Mark VII, and Road King... Technically they could do almost anything they pleased. It was a deliberate choice to keep the models separate even when the circuit board was built to accomodate both.

Mike b did the iii++ I have and it’s a + with mid in and ++ with it pulled

 

[Mike Oxhuge]

Mike b did the iii++ I have and it’s a + with mid in and ++ with it pulled

Fooled me in your clip the other day. I thought for sure you picked up a 2C ++ reissue, and plenty of other guys here and on Boogie forum have demonstrated the 3++ mod is legit. Fwiw in stock form Mark III'S have a certain upper mid frequency that drives me nuts at high gain settings, but it definitely is fixed with the mods.

 

[technomancer]

Huh, seems like nobody is currently making a 16mm A10K pot with a push pull switch (or at least nobody has them listed). Makes it hard to do the ++ mod as a push pull on the mid pot.

I didn't do an exhaustive search but doesn't seem like something that should be hard to find...

 

[Jakem]

Some killer tones in this video:

 

[TooMuchGear]

Interesting. How do you know if a IIB is a plus? This is for sale near me

You are going to have to verify if Mike B did the mod on it. Owner should have Mesa paperwork.

The 106XX serial number means it likely has the RP-9C preamp board, which is a good thing.

How much are they asking?

 

[Tone Monster]

You are going to have to verify if Mike B did the mod on it. Owner should have Mesa paperwork.

The 106XX serial number means it likely has the RP-9C preamp board, which is a good thing.

How much are they asking?

I wouldn’t be so sure. I have an original ++ that Mesa isn’t sure about…until I did the loop test. They don’t keep track of all the serial numbers.

 

[shredi knight]

I love the people freaking out about the oscillation that have never played the amps. Welcome to the internet. I own them... I'd be pissed about it if I didn't know how to dial in an amp and turned everything to 10 and couldn't figure out why it sounded like shit and squealed sitting right in front of it.

I can force the IIC+ to oscillate but I have never hit it at settings I would actually use / play with. I dialed in the IIC++ the way I like it and have not had it oscillate, and have not tried to force it to.

 

[JerEvil]

You are going to have to verify if Mike B did the mod on it. Owner should have Mesa paperwork.

The 106XX serial number means it likely has the RP-9C preamp board, which is a good thing.

How much are they asking?

$1200

 

[ners]

That's a common list price for a IIB around me, could maybe get the guy down to $1k if you're a good negotiator.

As far as the preamp version goes, the S/Ns can be tricky and the cutoff is different between the Reverb (RP-9C) and Non-Reverb (SP-9C) versions. Only 100% way to confirm is to take the chassis out and find the preamp version stamped on the PCB board (easy to do).

Based on this Mesa forum thread that S/N bodes well for the XX-9C preamp, which is what you want if you want Mike B to loop mod it. https://boogieforum.com/threads/mark-iib-serial-numbers.86334/page-2