Another prob with my mark iic+ head. Please Help.....

[Nick_cor]

Hey man! what's going on! how's the baby ?

 

[Boogieman]

Yeah, I'd like to know as well.

 

[plumptone]

Hey you guys - sorry to butt in on this, but just FYI - I know the tech that this head was taken to. He's a VERY good technician, at least in my experience. He's always treated me right. I feel especially bad here because I actually gave Axel the recommendation to use him. I use him exclusively for all the work on my amps, and I've never heard of anyone having a bad experience with him until now. He's a hardworking guy, and is honest to a fault.

I was down at his shop today (to get some work done on one of my units), and he told me that the IIC+ head was internally in real bad shape when it was brought in. The amp has been used, and used hard over the years. Adding insult to injury, what you guys don't know is that the output tubes had actually been installed incorrectly by the prior owner, and as you can imagine this does not bode well. Add to that the variety of other stuff that he replaced and fixed. It was a big job, that's for sure.

I know for a fact that he felt REALLY bad that Axel drove all that way only to have to return. I don't know if he charged for the second set if tubes, but if there was additional work that needed to be done (and there was), you can't expect him to eat that - he wasn't redoing work already completed.

And what you guys also don't know is that this tech is a very, very busy guy. When the amp was brought back the second time, he dropped everything to do the work then and there. He told me he doesn't like doing a rush job on equipment like that, but felt like he had to that time, to try and make the guy happy. That has to count for something.

I suspect that there are other issues with the amp that we don't know about yet - perhaps, as someone already mentioned, a mod done by someone else down the line. In any event, this tech is a real good guy, he's very busy, has ALWAYS done excellent work on my stuff. He's not about ripping people off at all.

I hope the head gets fixed up, because I know he spent a lot of money on buying it, as well as on getting the repairs done. I think if anyone is guilty of being a rip off artist here it's the guy that sold him the head in the first place. That's all - and thanks for indulging me.

 

[Nick_cor]

yeah, well i hope the mark IIC+ gets restorted back to health! we have't heard from axel in a LONG time.. we're still waiting!

 

[plumptone]

I just realized the seller was MesieBooga, so I categorically take back what I said about the seller being a rip-off artist. Let's just say I feel absolutely horrible that the guy I recommended didn't fix the problems to Axel's satisfaction. I stand by my comments that he's a good tech though.

 

[Boogiebabies]

This is odd. Todd put up clips of himself playing that amp and it was awesome. Before he sold it, he sent me hi-rez gut shots and it all looked perfect.

 

[axelfatu]

I have no idea.. I sent it to Mesa Boogie and requested to speak to Mike B, but someone by the name of Rich told me he is too busy to speak with anyone.


Anyways, I told Rich my problem and I shipped the amp on Monday and he will be looking at it.

I also fax over all the expensive bills I spent at "Daves Sound and Music" over to him. He is curious as to how I got charged a lot for something so small.

 

[Nick_cor]

well todd duane or w/e his name was sounds the same through all his amps, he sold all his amps for the elmwood modena, he didn't really use tha tmuch gain anyways so the low gain mod could have actually been done

 

[akamouzis]

hey axel, i feel your pain. when i bought my c+ i was expecting the metallica gain but when i played it it just didnt have it. im not saying it didnt have any gain but not nearly what i had always been told. so for like 2 years i kept searching and searching. then i finally sent it to someone on this board actually ( im not gonna say who because i dont know if they would want that) but they told me that there were 2 factory mods done to my c+ that cut the gain down considerably. so he took those mods off and restored it to normal c+ and now its got all its balls back. i actually dont have the amp back yet, i should be getting it back in a week or two but he told that she's all better. hope this helps you out because i know how frusterating it is to want that metallica tone and not be able to get it even though every one else can get it. listen make sure that now that your sending it to mesa to make sure to mention the 2 preamp mods i told you about. actually its 2 resister values that are changed. i sent my amp to mesa too and honestly they didnt do **** for me and they charged me out the ***. i had to send to someone on this board to have the problem figured out. go figure.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Alex is right. If you want all the gain and crunch from a IIC+, do not have the .001 cap mod or the 20pf cap mod done. They reduce gain and brightness. Also, Mesa used a 100K load resistor off the treble pot to reduce the gain to the rest of the amp and the way the tone controls work. You do not want this, or if you have it, get rid of it. These mods do not however turn it into a blues amp, but give less attack, highs and a smoother rounded tone. It is in a sense how you will hear the gain, not that it is not capable of making a lot of it.

 

[axelfatu]

I'm not trying to bash the tech who had made repairs to my amp. He was a good guy (charged a lot of $ i didn't expect), but I still felt I was not satisified after several visits. After being told its a blue amp, I got really depressed and I just wanted to shoot myself for buying such an expensive amp.

I know someone who owned a iic+ combo and when he had the gain enabled, you can hear the metallica tone and everything. I expected this to happen with my amp, but it didn't..

akamouzis, you say that Mesa Boogie did not help you at all? That kinda scares me..

I don't know what mods (if any) were done to this.. we'll wait and see and I'll keep you guys informed..

 

[akamouzis]

well if you do end up sending to mesa make sure you ask them if your amp has had the .001 and the 20 pf mod done to it like boogiebabies said. if it does have those mods ask them to remove it and that should hopefully get all the gain back. if it doesnt have those mods then i dont know. but yah mesa didnt help at all. i told them that i was concerned that the gain wasnt all there and mike b. should have known to remove those mods considering mike B put them on there. he should have known to take them off too. but i got it back in exactly the same shape i sent it tothem in. they didnt even clean it up for me at all. it came back all cruddy on the inside even though i asked them to clean it for. and then they charged me $215 for it. you might luck out because at least you know to ask about those 2 mods. i had no idea about that when i sent it so maybe things will be better for you.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Axelfatu,

I remember seeing good shots of the inside of your amp. I I remember, it had the .001 and the 20pf mod. I could not tell if it had the 100K mod, but as I stated earlier, it would not be a blues amp in any way. The preamp circuit was a normal IIC+ in every other way.

As Alex stated, removing the mods will bring back a real agressiveness to the amp. I have obviously had experience with the mods and I have chosen to leave my three stock.

 

[axelfatu]

Well guys,

After almost over a month, I finally got my iic+ back from Mesa last night. A Mesa Boogie technician named Rich called me several weeks ago and stated that Mike B from Mesa took a look at it. Mike stated there were a couple of questionable transistors that he replaced he "got it as stock as a iic+ can get." He also cleaned the amp for me. But Rich also stated what also might have caused no distoration is a little piece of rubbish metal that was found within the amp. I told him I had no idea how that happened. I don't even know how to take apart the amp.


Anyways, I will be giving it a shot tonight or sometime before Friday. I cannot wait to hear this. *crosses fingers*

 

[Restless Rocks]

Glad to hear your story come to a happy resolution. Now the only thing I worry about is when all these Mark III Mod attempts start to hit the open market. Soldering is somewhat of an art and look at all the trouble just one tiny little spatter can cause. Ask any tech what they think about the ones the customer tried to fix themselves. Can anybody say 20 amp fuse? You bet I'm the first one to experiment and "Mod". My very first Boogie Mark II was home built from the ground up straight off the schematic into a gutted Fender by myself. My Dad taught me to solder and about tube electronics as a child. I'm sorry but there has been tears in my eyes the times I've seen true vintage collectable guitars and amps butchered and destroyed by well meaning, but incompetant experimenters. If you want to experiment and learn man that's fantastic but please get a peavy to do it on. They aren't making any more MarkIIC+'s now are they?