Mark IIA Restoration Final Installment

[carlosasi]

Well I finished restoring this Mark IIA. It came out better than I thought. The wood under the tolex cleaned up beautifully. A couple of coats of stain and poly and a nice refurb of the electronics by Mesa, new power tubes and we are ready to rock. The sound of this Mark IIA amp is incredible. Compared to my Mark III, which I love, it seems more bold and airy. Its hard to describe in words, but it is more responsive to the movement of the strings and seems less compressed. Maybe its the 100 watts but the IIA Clean/Rhythm channel is very full. The Lead/Gain boost is powerful enough to shake my basement walls and its concrete from the 1940's. Yikes. Now I have 3 Mesa amps and not enough time to play them all. Oh well tough ****.

BEFORE
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9163/dscn1277ln3.jpg
AFTER
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6944/dscn1337if6.jpg
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3228/dscn1338zx5.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8844/dscn1339ra3.jpg

 

[Ultron]

Looks outstanding! I have a IIB, and it's a great compliment to my Mark III. A different sounding amp, with an amazing amount of headroom on that clean channel. It is more open and airy then the Mark III, which is an outrageous gain machine. Variety is a good thing!

 

[ToneAddictJon]

That looks great! Absolutely beautiful

 

[Blueracer]

Your amp turned out very nice. I like the stained poly. It turned out surprisingly well. Take GTS up on his offer if you every want to tolex this amp or something else. He is getting quiet a bit of experience at this and has gotten very good at tolexing.

 

[Johnson]

Looks great! I love to see a good restoration!!

 

[mrd]

That's awesome man, glad you had the nerve to tackle a project like this. No Mesa deserves to be in that kinda shape :lol:

I bet the techs at Mesa had a hoot fixing this one up too.

 

[carlosasi]

Mike and I had a deal. If I rescued this amp he would take the time on his end to restore it. We had many really nice conversations during the process and without question the amp sounds amazing. He balanced the gain between channels, removed the fetron and cleaned up the circuitry. I enjoyed the whole process. Very rewarding. Now I must go play.