Everything about IIC+'s knobs, jacks, buttons...

[decker]

Hi,

I have the opportunity to buy a Mark IIC+. However, I've never tried one before (and never saw one for real before !!!) and given the price, I don't want to make mistakes.
I'm going to test it (before buying it) therefore I have to know what does every knob on this head (when being pushed or pulled), thus I will know if there's something wrong with it.

If there's something I should know or I should be careful of, please let me know.


Thank you very much for you help.

 

[webrthomson]

Hi,

I have the opportunity to buy a Mark IIC+. However, I've never tried one before (and never saw one for real before !!!) and given the price, I don't want to make mistakes.
I'm going to test it (before buying it) therefore I have to know what does every knob on this head (when being pushed or pulled), thus I will know if there's something wrong with it.

If there's something I should know or I should be careful of, please let me know.


Thank you very much for you help.

The IIC+ has a pull on all the front knobs except the middle one, as does the IIC, one says gain boost and the other pull deep (IIC Vs. IIC+ I mean) but I can't remember which way round that is and just to make things really interesting Mesa made a few hundered of the early IIC+'s with the wrong one (i.e. the IIC one). TBH really the only way to know it's actually a IIC+ over a IIC is that the serial for the IIC+ should be greater than about 12300 and to do the loop test on it - for more details please read this post:

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=18184

At one point any mark II from the IIB onwards could be updated to IIC+ specs so there are IIC+'s with much lower serials but these have been converted by Mike B at Boogie - if it's one of these you should confirm the serial with Boogie directly. While these seem to go for a lower amount that a "real" IIC+ in terms of sound there is little difference.

By that I mean that Boogie were (and probably still are) infamous for just using what was too hand and the internals of even two IIC+'s in the right serial range and passing the loop test will have a range of differing brands of types of components internally.

There are also a host of other things that are more desirable that others so simu-class over the 60/100, GEQ over non-GEQ, wide head over non wide head etc. Some of these change the tone - it is debatable if it's for the worse thought or if it's simply that these were not those most often used by DT / Metallica etc.

Be guided by if the tone and price work for you - I don't really know what they are going for in the UK right now as they don't pop up that often but in the states they are $2300 - $5000 depending on feature set.

Do the loop test, turn the lead channel up and if it makes you smile, which it should, and you can aford it you are golden