Mesa Mark IIb - Amp porn and questions

[kakev]

Gentlemen,

My first proper post to this forum, but have been reading this forum extensively for quite some time. Great place for Boogie knowledge! I'm quite excited 'cos I got a new amp couple days ago. Here it is:

Fully loaded Mark IIb, serial #10 8XX (dont remember the exact #) with Anvil roadcase. A very fine amp. Very smooth lead tone and great cleans. I was little surprised how much gain this beast has and the lead channel cleans up beautifully using guitar volume. I have barely scratched the surface with this but gotta say this is my favorite Mesa amp to date. I've been testing this with my Fane loaded 2x12" Hiwatt cab and 2x12" Recto cab. One thing that bothers me is the fact that the reverb isn't working at all. Seller said it worked fine prior shipping but dead on arrival. Tech is working on it and most propably it will be fixed any time now.

Here's few gut shots:

What can you experts tell me about those markings. DRG is obvious, but what b2 means? E-3?

I didn't have much luck using a delay pedal (Boss DD2) in the loop. It kinda sucked all life out of my tone. Any suggesstions what delay might work properly?

When I opened this amp I noticed text saying "Life's been good.."

Cheers!

 

[Boogiebabies]

The reverb issue is probably the tank or the preamp tube.

It's really, really clean. :shock:

The B2 may be a revision of the IIB circuit, B.C. may have done the wiring etc, but I would call Mike B. to be sure.
If life's been good, maybe it was Joe Walsh's amp ? The Eagles were well
documented Boogie users.

I don't think you could have found a cooler amp. Simul, EQ, Reverb and Export with the long chassis.


Edit: It was teched out by Randall C. Smith.

 

[zebpedersen]

Very cool amp indeed man, great find.

I notice the 15" marking on the amp - was it originally a 15" combo? I would find it very strange if Boogie wrote 15" on all their long heads, as they'd likely sell a helluvalot more of that option than 15" cabs?

 

[Boogiebabies]

15" is just the long chassis designation. It's too clean inside to be a former combo, IMHO.

 

[zebpedersen]

I suppose it is "15" rather than 15"...I still find it a bit odd given that the vast majority of long chassis amps would end up as heads rather than 15" combos

 

[kakev]

Guys, thanks for the comments!

Just talked to my tech. Reverb wasn't working because 2 springs were missing(!) and one was loose. And if that's not enough the wires were wrong way around. Talking about mysterious faults occuring during transportation :roll: Well, I hope they will compensate..

It would be cool if this was used by Joe Walsh Just realized one thing when I took same tape off the roadcase:

The Kinks! How cool is that When I get it back, gotta try how "U Really got me" sounds through it..

 

[gonzo]

way way cool, congrats on your grab.



i've had mine, new, since 1981.

it doesn't have reverb, and is not simulclass-
it's a straight 60 watts, (2) 6l6's.

i ordered it that way, because at the time, i had a 100watt marshall, and it was killing me.
eventually, i sold the 4x12 cab, and bought (2) 1x12 closed back cabs, and that was a dialed in rig for club gigs.

i had it completely tuned up (new caps, anything out of spec replaced--which was not many parts at all!) about a year and half ago.
amazing amp, that's why i've never let mine go.


i've only got one decent gut shot of mine, doesn't show much:

 

[Restless Rocks]

So you got like a phase inverter master volume or something going on there? How do you like it?

 

[gonzo]

restless-
are you referring to mine?
if so, that's a 'master', post efx, i had my local guy add it, decided 'meh', i never use it.
i'll probably actually have him remove it, next time i have a chance to take it to him...
i've always considered the idea of trying a different value pot/circuits on the bass control.
that'd be the only other 'mod' i'd really care about.
the bass has always been more 'farty' to me, than bassy.

granted, when i'm only driving the rhythm channel, the bass control is pretty sweet.
in lead mode, i don't like it.

i don't know if different values would make any difference or not...
but i'm willing to try it.

 

[Restless Rocks]

I was just thinking that because of the dual pot and 4 buffering caps that it's a "pimv" which is installed between your phase inverter tube plates and power tube grids. Those fond of it say that it doesn't suck tone like the standard MV between the preamp and poweramp sections. The only easy solution that comes to mind for the Mark amps for solving the farty bass in the lead channel (problems solved on the mkIV with it's own independant tone stack) would be to use an inductor at the input of the lead circuit (post LDR) to shelve frequencies say below 80hz. Would have to do some math to calculate the correct inductance/impedance of the signal at that point but why not. The guys who just need a one trick metal amp shouldn't be bothered by this as they can simply set the controls to be lead channel specific. I'm a little different in that I really like the idea of a channel switching amp. Still thinking though of a bass pot change ala the lonestar "Reeder Mod" would of course still affect both channels (or 3 on the MkIII) Perhaps someone will experiment with this and share. I've found that the best solution for my personal taste is choice of speakers and cabs. The problem with the compac combo for example (different thread) is it is simply too small to have a good low frequency resonance and the speaker cone starts to fight itself below the cabinet's usable range.

 

[kakev]

way way cool, congrats on your grab.



i've had mine, new, since 1981.

it doesn't have reverb, and is not simulclass-
it's a straight 60 watts, (2) 6l6's.

i ordered it that way, because at the time, i had a 100watt marshall, and it was killing me.
eventually, i sold the 4x12 cab, and bought (2) 1x12 closed back cabs, and that was a dialed in rig for club gigs.

i had it completely tuned up (new caps, anything out of spec replaced--which was not many parts at all!) about a year and half ago.
amazing amp, that's why i've never let mine go.

That blonde is so great looking amp! Before I pulled the trigger I listened your clips and those really convinced me to buy one

Yesterday I got this Studio Preamp:

Studio Pre+MkII power amp=Nice! A little different flavor to Mk2b preamp. From I friend I got that Korg A3 which seems to work with the MkIIb beautifully and it solves a lot, no need to worry about how to boost solos etc..