Got my baby back!

[vae]

Well it was a long 3 weeks but I finally got my IIC+ back from the mothership.

I still am in awe at how friendly all the M/B staff is. I went to the factory in Petaluma, sat down in the waiting area to have them bring my amp up -- to my surprise it's wheeled in by Mike B.

This guy was a charm to talk to over the phone and he's even a greater guy in person.

Amp was basically looked through and recapped as necessary. There was a minor mod done on the input jack that Mike said was meant to "tame" the hairyness of the amp to make it sound more "jazzy" to which he chuckled. I had him revert this back to stock.

He then noticed that the end of the powercable seemed to be nibbled on by a dog (previous owner) and he was going to fix that but completely forgot. It wasn't bad at all and I told him it was totally cool but he ran back, got some electrical tape and worked some magic. I thanked him for the custom power cord mod and asked him if he could initial it to which he replied "haha don't go there."

Anyway, just got home and can't wait to plug her in again -- the Mark V is going to be lonely for a while!

 

[Elpelotero]

So lucky to live in CA!

 

[Platypus]

let us know how it sounds

 

[Freefall]

Congrats on getting her back!

Funny, as it happens I just shipped my recently acquired IIC+ to Mesa for some TLC, and UPS indicates it just got there today. I'm looking forward to Mike B's insight... it cost me a bit to send it to Mesa from here on the east coast, but I figured who better to get things in shape?

 

[Devnor]

Congrats! I'm seriously considering sending my IIC+ for a check out too. Problem is I can't stop playing it!

Are you hearing any difference?

 

[vae]

Amp is sounding awesome -- possibly a bit more clear now. I only had the IIC+ for about a week before I took it to Mesa so its a bit hard for me to recall the exact tonal differences.

Main reason I had it checked out is I just picked it up and wanted to make sure everything was working fine (and who better to do this than Mike B.). Good thing because as I said earlier, he found a non-Mesa input trim mod that I had reverted to stock.

I put in some EL34's in the outer pair and I'm liking this combination in Simul mode -- the change seems to be more pronounced in leads.

One question I did have though, I ordered a hardwood head from Mesa and I was talking to Mike B. about it. He was asking if I ordered it with a fan -- now I was under the assumption that when I transfer the unit from the combo to the head I could also transfer over the reverb tank and fan, is this correct? If not I need to call up Mesa and modify the order.

 

[av8or3]

The fan can be transferred easily enough, it will require a different mount than the combo, see this thread....
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=39515&start=15

To put reverb in the headshell will require that the correct opening be cut out of the bottom of the headshell to fit the reverb tank and you will have to advise them of your wish's. They can install a reverb tank (about $60) or they can cut the headshell so that you can install the tank. But you **** sure need to tell them....
Jim

 

[vae]

The fan can be transferred easily enough, it will require a different mount than the combo, see this thread....
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=39515&start=15

To put reverb in the headshell will require that the correct opening be cut out of the bottom of the headshell to fit the reverb tank and you will have to advise them of your wish's. They can install a reverb tank (about $60) or they can cut the headshell so that you can install the tank. But you **** sure need to tell them....
Jim

Thanks Jim! Yeah I let them know about the reverb tank -- just wasn't sure about the fan part. Thanks for the info!

 

[mr_fender]

If you don't mind me asking, what did they charge to give the amp a good going through? My MKIVa just hit 18 years old (she's legal now boys!!!) and I'd like to have it refurbished and recapped as needed. I've also got a broken pot shaft on the Rhythm 2 master (glued back for now) and I'm too lazy to pull that rat's nest out of the chasis to change the pot.

 

[vae]

No problem!

They explained to me that the charges would depend on what exactly needed to be fixed/replaced and they quoted me at $150 when I took it over. They said they would let me know if the costs exceeded this by a large margin.

It ended up costing $157 so the quote was pretty spot on.