I've been hanging out reading posts for awhile now and thought I'd jump in and say hello. I've always played through Twin reverbs and took the plung a few years back and bought this Mark 2B. I actually bought it from groove tubes back in 2002 or 2003 ...can't remember. Maybe they were doing some 'research' before they came out with their guitar amp line...who knows.
Anyway I sent it off to Mike B in Petaluma to go over completely. He did a cap job, replaced all the broken slider knobs and put in the new effects loop. He also installed Reverb for me so the amp is loaded...it has all the bells and whistles. Its a 60/100 model with the celestion black shadow in the amp and the heavy *** momma EVM-12L down below. I tried putting the EVM up in the amp but it sounded punchy as hell...not at all smooth plus the amp now weighed 543 pounds (its true...I put it on a scale)
I dont know why, but when I put the EVM down in the small box below its like heaven and super sweet. I really like playing both the black shadow on top and the EVM underneath only I rarely take both with me when I go playing as its a pain - so I don't get much time on the EVM.
I've read posts about how the reverb isn't great on boogies, but I beg to differ. I haven't played many boogies...in fact none with reverb, but this one is nice...remember - I'm a twin reverb man so I know reverb and although this isn't 'fender' reverb it is nice and deep and wet.
I definitely have a love-hate relationship with this amp. It's taken time and patience to figure it out. All the sounds are in there, but you have to play with it to find them. It doesn't help when you have a 4 year old son who loves to turn knobs and dials!!! Its amazing how one knob has such an extreme effect on the other knobs down the chain. I have to go back and forth, leap froggin between knobs, until I dial my sound in.
I'm not fond of the lead channel on this amp - switching back between both channels isn't the way to go with this amp as you have to start all over redialing knobs to get the lead channel rocking correctly and even then its a bit brittle and harsh to my ears...
Its heaven when you're sitting on the rhthym channel just under the breakup point. Sweet!!!!And I use a tube screamer to push it into lead bliss. I usually play at first volume around 6-7 and Master 1 at around 2-3. Man it doesn't take much (even with strats and teles) to push this amp into breakup. I love the clean fender sound this amp has though not as deep as a fender twin, its still incredible. This amp does the ZZ Top growl like no other!
I have a buddy with a Paul Reed Smith and the combo between this amp and that guitar is freaking incredible. Someday I'll buy another Les Paul (why did I ever sell my 1971 Custom?!?!?!)
What else....I think you have to be a bit smarter about your effect pedals with this amp then you do with a twin reverb (twins are great with pedals), but then again twins don't have an effects loop which makes things easier with this amp. I have a TC electronics Nova Delay that I put in the loop and its sweet.
There are some weird things about the amp that dont make sense to me like the Master volume 1 can never be put past 4 or 5. Couldn't they put in a different value pot that gave you better range in dialing in your volume then what they ended up with?!?!?
All in all, I love this amp although I can see why people scratch their heads and give up on them too. I would never sell this amp...its a keeper. Flat out, it's a killer Blues and hard rock amp! Very Santana/Peter Green and their not making any more of these! I never quite understood the hype with the IIC+ models...They are nice and have are a 'spring board' of harmonics in their lead channel, but I know there are IIb owners here that would never trade their amps for any IIC+ (they probably wouldn't mind owning both though!!!)
Ciao folks-
-Steve
