tell me about the Mark III Coliseum

[mentoneman]

I saw Brad play with Ozzy. Best guitar tone I've ever heard live, even to this day. I believe they were just 2B's , not Coliseum heads.

the recordings don't convey just how blistering it was in the audience.

 

[thegame]

it was a massive sounding rig. i went with him to lab sound/mesa boogie in sherman oaks the day he bought the Mk III Coli. the salesperson said that the amp was originally supposed to go to al dimeola but that he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to get something else.
i also went with him to pick up his bradshaw rack from bob the day it was ready, and had it at my place in cali for almost a year before shipping it off to him, once he got settled Hawaii. played it at his shop dozens of times and between his coli/atomica/super reverb/jtm 45/100 marshall multi amp switching and all the ultimate rack toys there was not a sound he couldn't get well!



on the neal schon note, zach and i saw him with soul sirkus at a venue in anaheim and were lso ooking forward to seeing one of our heros in action at a fairly small club.
he had an equally large diezel multi 4x12 rack rig which honestly sounded very washed out with reverb/delay.

Yeah, I remember most of that. Quite honestly, that rig was very cool and impressive. I'm certainly not against it or Zachman personally. But the constant posting of those rig pics (never just one shot, always a super pic heavy marathon) that made scrolling through various threads a chore got to be a bit much. Plus, he had this off putting superiority complex laden air about him when he discussed it. Subtle insinuations like, "yeah, I know Bob Bradshaw only works for the stars these days but I've got him on speed dial" kind of pretentiousness. I can't be the only one who got that vibe from him. But whatever, as long as it made him happy.

 

[mentoneman]

Yeah, I remember most of that. Quite honestly, that rig was very cool and impressive. I'm certainly not against it or Zachman personally. But the constant posting of those rig pics (never just one shot, always a super pic heavy marathon) that made scrolling through various threads a chore got to be a bit much. Plus, he had this off putting superiority complex laden air about him when he discussed it. Subtle insinuations like, "yeah, I know Bob Bradshaw only works for the stars these days but I've got him on speed dial" kind of pretentiousness. I can't be the only one who got that vibe from him. But whatever, as long as it made him happy.

he’s like a brother to me. not gonna try to explain the guy or his ways but if you knew him like i do you’d understand?

 

[Fusionbear]

the recordings don't convey just how blistering it was in the audience.

I tried to get close to that tone with my old Splawn Competition....



This was a metal jam. No rehearsal, no idea who was going to play what. I didn't know who I was going to play with and what songs people knew until we got there. These are a lot of fun as you never know what's going to happen...
Lol...

 

[shredi knight]

Oh, I'll tell you what no one else is going to tell you about it!

It's not a coliseum at all! It's just a guitar amp!

 

[mentoneman]

The North American leg of the 1982 Diary tour was solidly in the IIB era and should stand as a nice reference for the gain available in those boogies.

"The Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC amplifier was manufactured from May 1983 to January 1984. The serial number range for the Mark IIC is 11001–12499 for heads, 1x12, and 1x15 models. The Mark IIC was an improvement on the Mark IIB, which had noisy switching. The Mark IIC was later updated to become the Mark IIC+, which had an improved effects loop. The Mark IIC+ was manufactured from January 1984 to March 1985, with a serial number range of 12500–14999."


As amazing as Gillis' IIB tone was that night, it did not eclipse the tragedy of not being able to see Randy, who died March 19, 1982 after I had already purchased my tickets for the show!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Madman_Tour