Chicago Area Mark4 seekers, found one

[recto-robbie]

This is my second time in a month going to the same store to try out the Mark4. I really tried to like this amp, I did. But again I found myself eventually playing other amps much more to my liking. I swear I must have turned knobs on these Mark4's for about four hours total on two different visits. I can only believe that every guitar sound known to man is in this little amp, like most seem to insist,, but I just cant find them.
Honestly what scares me the most about the Mark4 is that if im ever lucky enough to find my holy grail sound, now what am I going to do with the 93 knobs, switches and push pulls that I cant touch because I might loose that all elusive grail tone???
Anyways I wrote this because I know many of you out there love the Mark4 and many are seeking deals on them. I found a store in Aurora Illinois named Hix Brothers Music which is a Mesa dealer. They seem to carry many models of mesas. They were out of new Mark4's this time around but did have a very nice used Mark4 wide body combo on casters.
The amp was in very good clean condition. There was some velcro on top of the amp and the top handle was a bit messed up but other than that, there was nothing else wrong with the amp. All the knobs and switches seemed to work fine and I didnt notice any static when turning any knobs either. I think this was an older version because it had a ground switch on the back. It also had mesa 6l6 420's in it. They were asking $969 for this amp. I really considered it but it just wasnt for me.
Check it out if your in Chicago land, I hope I was of some help to someone out there. Good luck

 

[vermillion]

Kudos to Hix

Their new store in Aurora (outside of fox valley shopping mall) is loaded with great premium gear. Stores like this (compared to Guitar Center) are the place to go; especially with pro-net pricing. This new store is not to be confused with the old Hix aurora location on Farnsworth ave just south of I-88. The old store didn't have much to offer along the lines of premium gear. Many years ago, when I was a kid in band, Hix financed us for PA gear when we were too young to get credit cards.

Some other places to check out: "Chicago music exchange" (they have hundreds LPs, Strats, Teles from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, etc) but not so many amps though. For boutique amps and boutique pedals, Make n Music has the goods. They might be appointment only nowadays, call first.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

Make'n Music isn't appointment only as far as I know...I've just waltzed in there several times. $969 for a used Mark IV combo is an amazing price! Did they have a good selection of other Mesa stuff? I would like to try out a Mark III sometime...I don't suppose they had a used one of those in stock?

 

[Platypus]

Make'n Music isn't appointment only as far as I know...I've just waltzed in there several times. $969 for a used Mark IV combo is an amazing price! Did they have a good selection of other Mesa stuff? I would like to try out a Mark III sometime...I don't suppose they had a used one of those in stock?

No they didn't the last time I was there.

They do have a Mark IV widebody though, I've played it several times

 

[seajay]

Thanks for the heads up. That seems like a good price.

Robbie, if you have only played Mark IV combos you may want to try a head version through a nice closed back cab. Or you could even disconnect the internal speaker on the combo and just hook it up to a separate cab. This would make quite a difference in the sound.

 

[recto-robbie]

Yea I thought of that but Ive decided that the Mark4 for me is just too much of an overload. I can spend an entire evening of playing my ROV which is relatively very simple to use compared to the Mark4 and spend all night playing with knobs and adjusting. I can only forsee problems in the future from going the Mark4 route. Honestly I think by the time I figure it out I would forget the little I know about playing the guitar.
To be honest I plugged into the stiletto ace head and almost immediatly I found awsome tones I would love to have. I also found this with a Marshall jcm 2000 dsl 100 head,, within a minute or so after a couple quick adjustments I had tones I would love to have.

And for the poster above who wanted to know if this store carries many mesa amps,, the first time I went into the store the owner told me he likes to carry at least one of every model in stock, I believed him because
honestly he was only missing just a few models. He has a room in the back of the store with just amps that you can close the door behind you, so your left alone to try what you want,, needless to say I had at least
4 or 5 boogies warming up once or twice. I will say though, this time I went into the store he seemed to be missing a lot that he had before. He only had a Mark1 in the series and a used Mark4 combo. He had All the rectifiers minus the roadking. All the lonestars including a head or two.
There was a lot missing this time around but before I left he did say they had at least one new Mark4 on the way.