MK-IIA/B Blues sound heaven (at least to me...)

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Itsik

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Due to the recent interest around the MK-II I though it some one might find it usefull so here's what I use for Blues gigs. It's pretty much SRV land so you'll probably need a strat to get the best out of it.

My amp is a 76 MK-II no REV, GEQ, or any mods.

Vol1 - 7 Pulled
Treble - 7 Pulled
Bass - 4
Middle - 5
Master1 - What ever level you need - Pushed
Lead Drive - 9
Lead Master - What ever level you need - Pushed
Presence - 8

Check both channels - I think you'll enjoy them.
Hope some one finds this usefull

Itsik
 
It's a small body combo with an EVM12L

BTW, I still haven't given up on a couple of head shells and thiele shells we were talking about quiet some time ago GTS.
I just need to figure out how to get them to Israel without paying the cost of a combo for the shipping ... :roll:

Itsik
 
Pretty much the same settings I use for a heavy sound just dime the Lead Drive and pull the lead master and add in a V in the GEQ (that's the most important to get the chunk and highs right).

But yeah, your settings with a strat works well for blues. I even like to bump the Vol 1 up to 10 and roll down the volume on the guitar to clean it up (it don't get too gritty with singles anyway).
 
I wish I could try the settings but my Mark II-B is at the rehearsal space.

...but I will take this opportunity to announce my love for the amp! I think most people, on this forum and elsewhere, just assume that the II-C+ is the Sound of God and all the other Mark II's are just inferior earlier versions. I use my II-B in my Funk band and primarily use the (incredible) clean channel, but one day I plugged in my friend's 7 string, gained it out with a V on the eq, and it was the best metal tone I've ever had between all the amps I've owned.

II-B for life.

...BTW mine's a 1979 model. Love it.
 
Yep. 79 here too.
Only lacking the REV. and GEQ which I'd LOVE to have :( ... but still, imho, a very verstile and articulat amp.
 
Itsik said:
Due to the recent interest around the MK-II I though it some one might find it usefull so here's what I use for Blues gigs. It's pretty much SRV land so you'll probably need a strat to get the best out of it.

My amp is a 76 MK-II no REV, GEQ, or any mods.

Vol1 - 7 Pulled
Treble - 7 Pulled
Bass - 4
Middle - 5
Master1 - What ever level you need - Pushed
Lead Drive - 9
Lead Master - What ever level you need - Pushed
Presence - 8

Check both channels - I think you'll enjoy them.
Hope some one finds this usefull

Itsik

Itsik,
let me quote here something I posted in a different section of this forum.
Hope it helps.
Daniel

QUOTE
The Mark II (or II-A) has a very unique sound and, especially, on the clean channel.

According to Mike Bendinelli, it is very much like a tweed Bassman and like the typical Jerry Garcia sound. He also said that you won't find the II-A sound in any other Mark series amp.

I also recall that there was an interview to Randall Smith (you can find it in the Mesa Boogie site) where he was asked who came in first: himself with the Mark II-A or Dumble with his amp. He replied that both of them were working on similar designs with no knowledge of what the other one was doing.

In Randall Smith's own words... "As far as Dumble, I don't know much. I've never been inside of one of his amps, although I hear they're all gooped up to prevent copying and that they are built on printed circuit boards. I did run across a hand-drawn block diagram somewhere — I don't know — Gerald Weber's book or Aspen's — of an Overdrive Special and it looked to me like the functional equivalent of a Mark II. The configuration was the same, deriving the overdrive the same way, had the controls and internal switches in the same locations and so on. Howard no doubt has his own ways of doing things and makes great amps, so many of the parts values and such could be different, or the whole thing could be different for all I know. Really, my only exposure to his amps is that one block diagram, although I did meet him briefly in 1973 or'74."

Maybe I am wrong but I read that:

- the BF Fender vibrato channel and the Mark I input 2 channel have a First Gain-Tone/Volume-Gain makeup-Gain-Reverb path
- the Mark I input 1 channel has a Extra First Gain- First Gain-Tone/Volume-Gain makeup-Gain-Reverb path
- the Marks II, III and IV in lead mode (and the Dumble?) have added a fifth gain stage and a fourth volume control in the signal path.

Disclaimer: I am in no way an electronic engineer/technician so I am eager to read the opinion from the experts here.
UNQUOTE
 
I used to have a MarkIIA and would love to have that back. It was a beast... and was way different than my C+.

S.
 

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