What are the Mesa "Coliseum" amps?

[Marshall Freak]

I know Ralph and Kage have a Mk III Coliseum, and I've seen people talking about the II's and III's that are Coliseum heads, but I've never seen any info on them. WHY did they make 200-300 watt heads? How did they sound compared to the regular Mk II and III heads? Are they even halfway usable for normal usage without NASA approved hearing protection?

 

[Digital Jams]

Well imo they have this more aggressive thing going on as well as the 6 6L6 power tubes for stupid volumes.

They are rare though and sometimes you can catch someone that does not know what they have :wink:

 

[Digital Jams]

Oh yeah....you can get low volume great tones as well.

 

[Gainfreak]

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I know Ralph and Kage have a Mk III Coliseum, and I've seen people talking about the II's and III's that are Coliseum heads, but I've never seen any info on them. WHY did they make 200-300 watt heads? How did they sound compared to the regular Mk II and III heads? Are they even halfway usable for normal usage without NASA approved hearing protection?

It's essentially a higher wattage version of the lower powered Mark series heads. It has the same preamp as the lower wattage models but the trannies are different and of course you have 6 o/p tubes. It puts out about 150 watts but sounds great at any volume. It doesn't mud out at higher volumes because of the added headroom.
John Sykes used them on The Whitesnake 87 album and Blue Murder albums.

 

[Marshall Freak]

If you had a Mark III and a Mark III Col. how would the tone compare at similar volumes? About the same?

 

[Gainfreak]

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If you had a Mark III and a Mark III Col. how would the tone compare at similar volumes? About the same?

Yup about the same. Its when you get into stupid loud volumes a regular Mark III would mud out on you whereas the coli wont.

 

[Digital Jams]

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Yup about the same. Its when you get into stupid loud volumes a regular Mark III would mud out on you whereas the coli wont.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm........I was thinking of Kage's guitarmageddon clips and I forgot that one was your IV and the other was the Coli. That is where I was getting my "aggressive" talk.

Ok so I got amps mixed up

 

[Gainfreak]

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Hmmmmmmmmmmmm........I was thinking of Kage's guitarmageddon clips and I forgot that one was your IV and the other was the Coli. That is where I was getting my "aggressive" talk.

Ok so I got amps mixed up

nah, they can be a bit more aggressive but I think that is just luck of the draw or what tubes you load into them. it also depend on if Mike B tweaked the amp. My friend has a MKIV that Mike B did a fat mod to and it smokes. What Im basically saying is that I can;t keep track of all the mods/ things that were done or could be done over the years!!

 

[Marshall Freak]

Thanks for the info! 8)

 

[Zachman]

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Thanks for the info! 8)

MKIII Coliseum is a 180 watt version of the MKIII and approximately 200 were made.

Here is a clip of mine, which also has the Simul-Class circuit which is always active, unlike the MKIII version with a switch. The 1/2 power switch does not disengage the simul circuit. I am running 4 6L6's and 2 EL34's in this one. I think you can only do this with the Simul-Class circuit, but am not sure on that point.