To dispell another myth.
There is no absolute substitute for the IIC+. The rest of the lineage shares it's DNA, but it has a distinct sound that is specifically it's own. Mesa knows this, but they also know it would be detrimental to the legend and value of th original. Mesa also knows it would be cost prohibitive and they believe the MK III's and IVB are close enough. The MK IV even now is beginning to become expensive to produce. When you look at buying 20+ LDR's alone at $4 each as compared to the current generation switching devices that cost
.12 cents. I am sure that the MK V will be using the current switching system using the .12 cent J175 and will claim to have the legendary sound of the dual cascading IIC+ that now demands three times its original value. The usual consensus on any item that is reissued is always a complaint that it does not live up to the original. So if the IIC+ was reissued the only benefit it would accomplish is to drive up the original IIC+ values even further out of control. Also, the MK V is not going to be the replacement for the MK IV. If it does not sound like a true MK IV do you think Mesa will reissue the MK IV? Absolutley not. They will tweak the bugs out until they stabilize the product. Mesa has a notorious history of tweaking. Just look at the MK II A,B,C and C+. Then the MK III stripes, Dual Rectifier circuit board revisions, RK I versions 1-4 and then the RK II and now version 2.2, Stiletto 1 and 2, Single Rec 1 and 2. If you follow the product, Mesa's drive to alter or perfect amps is relentless. Other than the MK I, which of course came with mods and revisions, Mesa has never looked back.
My personal affliction for the IIC+ began in 1985 when the local hot shot pro at the dinky music store we had got his order in on a IIC+ head with Simul, EQ and Reverb. So on that particular day I was there when he was playing it ( From the look of the other employee, he had been playing it all day). So, I asked him what it was and he kindly gloated it's description and how much it cost. Gulp !!! $ 1200 back in 85' was a fortune. Kind of like $ 1400 for a San Dimas Charvel. As a 13 year old kid it was an impossibility to obtain both without the threat of spending a fair amount of time in a juvenile facility with the future hope of probation.
So, for the next 10 years of searching dozens of music stores over a 5 state area, I never found another IIC+. Even in 1995 with the advent of the web and E-Bay finally crawling out of it's infancy they were hard to find. Today they seem more abundant because everyone wants to make 4K on an amp they stumbled onto or only payed $ 400 at a pawn shop.
For me, it was the one and only amp that satisfied the sound in my head.
Having to suffer for over a decade with Marshalls, MP1's and countless other **** amps and overdrive pedals the quest came to an end. When it did, for some odd reason I ran into three IIC+'s in about a 1 years span and could not resist buyng all three. Needless to say finding three Simul-EQ-Reverb amps in such a short span was euphoric. Luckily, they were all bought before the period of quadruple inflation. Now I do play other Mesa's and enjoy the MK III and IVB to the extreme, but I always feel a certain contentment knowing what the IIC+'s give to me. So if it's myth or legend that you want to beleive, for me it's personal preference plain and simple. Unless you have the time to intimately know an amp, what people say is purely hype or conjecture. Until you strap on a Les Paul or 85 Charvel Strat and plug into a IIC+ you will never really know the rush.
So, for being hypocritical in my last sentence I will call it a day.
BuBuBuBuBu, that's all folks.
