The SC15219B secondary is 1700 ohms yet Mesa still used 470 ohm screen grid resistors on the outer sockets. Today they use 2.7K on the outer sockets which is more in the area of an EL34 grid resistor. The funny thing is on all the Simul-Class amps I have seen I have only seen screen grid resistors blown up on the 6L6 sockets. Mike B. also reccomends to connect pin 1 and 8 to ground if you are running EL34's.
On that low volume side by side test, you have to open the later ones up more on the power amp. Remember they have a 22K series resistor due to the bad taper of the later CTS Taiwan pots. Your new amp has a USA made CTS Master with a decent taper. The best time you will have is when you really find the spot. I generally run the Master at 5 in the lead mode and the lead master at 1-1.5-2 to blend in just enough preamp and a ton of power amp. It is a monsterous tone like early EVH. Forget about using the clean channel when you do this or you will need a few windows replaced. You new amps is one of the early ones. I find them to be chewy and fat with just the right amount of agressivness. I find the later one to be more agressive. The early ones without the series master volume circuit just seem to be more open and sound a bit bigger. IMHO the later ones seem to shred and appear to have more gain. My head is ridiculous. It has more gain than Godzilla. The hardwood and the head are later models and seem to have more gain, so it does get tricky to find the same balance as the early one. It really takes a while to get used to blending the masters on them. One may like 4 and 2 and the other might like 2 and 2. You may also find that they all seem to shred better when you run your lead master at 3-4 and your Master at 1-3. It adds a ripping shred quality. These amps are really master chamelions. And dont forget you can do Carlos with the EQ off !!!!
You are in a very elite club now. You have the "Grail of Grails". A perfect example from the dawn of shred. Dont feel too much remorse, the value will catch up soon enough. As PRS-IAN said, " there are only a finite amount". Less than 750 total were simul-class, not alone hardwood, graphic, eq and reverb. You need and EV or a Knight Rider 150W Black shadow in that thing to make it bone stock.
Now if it just had the export transformer......
Remember, It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
Note to self: End Mesa IIC+ Manifesto.....
(I want a combo and have 2 heads) See the Classified section if interested!
