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I know you're just trying to be funny and I appreciate that, but let's take a moment and stop to appreciate the fact that it has been over two years since Gibson bought Mesa (Jan 6 2021) and so far there's not a trace of any Gibson influence on Mesa's production or operations. They've so far...

I'm trying to imagine a Mark VI and not really seeing how to surpass a Mark V or JP2C. I would not want it to be a four channel amp. To me, even three channels is unnecessary. I never use R2. If Mesa would build what I would ask for, then it would literally be a restart of the original...

The correctly sized card fits right over the carry handle. That's what the cutout in it is for. The card should be something around 20 inches wide. It'd be nice for someone to take that card to someone who has a large format scanner and make a high res scan of it, and post it. I'd get it...

I've only had my Mark V 90 for a few weeks but I've found it to be very easy to set up and have had no trouble finding great tones in it. It's usually connected to my Mesa horizontal 2x12 with V30s in it, which is a new adventure for me in speaker cabinets, and I'm enjoying it. My EQ is set to...

Today, use Sprague Atoms whenever and wherever possible. They've always been premium quality and anybody who's recapped any number of Mesa amps knows full well that tomorrow a 45 year old Mark II might come in the door for recap and the original caps are still there, still doing their job, and...

Yes, Sylvania, later Philips-ECG. Made in the same factory on the same tooling by the same people, Philips-ECG production is USUALLY identified with blue screened labelling and green for Sylvania, but I think I've seen green Philips labelled tubes. Certainly I've seen blue ONLY on Philips...

STR 415. There are only two 6L6GC STR types you're ever likely to see and they are the STR 387 and the STR 415. Only the STR 415 was ever Mesa branded. STR stands for Special Tube Requirement. Care to guess what that requirement actually is? "Tube must be rated to operate to full...

I've found that really bad coupling caps read as shorts to a regular multimeter. No high voltage needed to tickle them into shorting. Come to think of it, I haven't yet found a coupling cap that was shorted that didn't read bad on the DMM. Those cheap little multi testers are very handy...

The IV kind of struck me as weird with its control layout. I never found it as easy to dial in tones over all three channels because of the number of shared controls AND the number of controls that are side by side but work in different channels. I'll just say it....the front panel layout is...

31 band graphic EQ in the effects loop any time I'm really in a mood to chase the perfect tone. Or if the amp doesn't have its own graphic EQ, such as my Marshalls and my Mark IIB.

Chassis tensioner bolt. It presses against the cabinet and helps damp out chassis vibrations which can be a problem at high volume. A fair number of amps use that idea. Loosen it when removing the chassis from the cabinet. After reinstalling the chassis, snug that screw up firmly.

How about the one I linked to? Works great for basic value tests including ESR. Otherwise you'd want a capacitor meter that tests ESR.

Your expectations are reasonable. And since apparently BMI has a supply issue right now and I'd rather eat bugs than put IC caps in an amp, I'm going to hold off on recapping my Mark IIB which is all original and running perfectly with no trace of any capacitor issues as of yet.

Nothing terrible will happen if you go to the next hotter or cooler color range. Have you considered buying guaranteed tested used tubes on ebay? Those power amps aren't known for being very hard on tubes anyway. At the very worst, you might want to add a fan to your rack if you run a...

Rather than go to all that trouble, just remove and test the orange drops out of circuit. They should not read as low value resistors. I got a couple of these and they tell me the ESR and resistance and capacitance of any common capacitor. Get one or two...

I had a MK IVB combo until I traded it straight across for a Mark V 90 head. I have to say that I really love the way the Mark IV footswitch stores in the amp. I'd like for Mesa to have kept that feature with the Mk V. Connecting and disconnecting the cable was easy and it's right there in...

Just a note on electrolytic capacitors...you don't WANT NOS examples. Capacitors have a shelf life in addition to a service life. They'll go bad just sitting on a shelf after a certain number of years has passed. This is because the electrolyte in the capacitors is slightly corrosive and...

The Mark IIB was the first model with available Simul-Class, to the best of what I've been able to discover.

Things just keep getting better for me. I've now acquired another blue stripe Mark III long head model in a trade, and so I've kept the other Mesas I currently own. Now I can really compare the Mark V to the Mark III blue stripe. And....gotta be honest here, the Blue Stripe is substantially...

Oh, just wanted to add, after pulling the pair of orange drop coupling capacitors and replacing them, I later measured them and one is a dead short, 0.12 ohms. The other still reads OK.