Mk IIC+ Colliseum pics w/questions

[Fear]

I posted in another section about scoring a sweet Mesa MkIIC+ Colliseum with fan but no reverb or EQ. One part I left out was that I was broke and had to put it on layaway. I just brought it home today with a slant 412 Mesa the pawn shop also had and shot me a sweet price on due to the cabinet sitting there so long.

I was wondering if anyone recognises the signature. I'll be swapping the Russian tubes for some Mesas soon. You'll notice two of the power tubes are missing (I think the last owner was trying to quiet it down some). Also, the master goes to mute under 2. I'm assuming the pots dirty. I plan on cleaning them and maybe swapping some caps as well as the tubes.

I didn't get a footswitch with it. I'm assuming any Mesa single-footswitch on Ebay with lead/rythm on it will work.

Also, the 412 cab doesn't actually say recto. stilleto, etc. Any way to tell how old this cab is? It would be nice to have one from a period vaguely near the IIC.

 

[Elpelotero]

The signature is of Mike Bendinelli, Mesa's head technician. He tweaked the IIC to become the IIC "+". He signed most of the IIC+ amps (Randall, Mesa's owner, signed some) to indicate they had the authentic + modifications on the circuit.

The cab looks like one from the early 2000's. Does it say 280 watts? or 240? 240 watts would mean it is a bit newer, perhaps within the last 3-4 years or so. You can measure it and compare to the sizes listed on Mesa's website.

Any footswitch will work with the amp.

It is common for the master to not have much impact under 2. It goes from very low to very loud with the slightest touch. I would put the tubes back in. Have a full set. I don't think it's recommended to run it with less tubes. If you want to control the volume, the "limit" knob on the back where it says reverb is actually a power soak of sorts. That's your ticket to running the front volumes high to cook the tubes while keeping the overall volume manageable.

 

[DaveP]

The power tubes on the Coliseum are split 3/3 from my understanding after speaking with Mike B. Running the amp with any missing is not a good idea.
The limit knob found on some of these actually limits the power to the phase inverter which in turn reduces the power supplied to the power tubes.
With the limiter cranked takes it down to 3 watts. Also using 1/2 power cuts all the power tubes it doesn't take any out of the circuit.
The cabinet looks like a Recto Slant, the cab from the Mark IIC era are the Metal grilled ones that usually have ELM12l's, C90's, MS12 or Vintage 50w Eminence.
Or any combination of.

 

[Fear]

Thanks for the comments/replies.

I was thinking the metal mesh grill cabs were pretty cool and fit the era, but I also noticed the old ads with Santanna and Keith Richards and such, the cabs had cloth grills.

I do doubt this cab is that old. The fabric and tolex are way different and the printig on the jack plate on the cab looks much more commercial than the crudeness of the head print layout.

I wish I could find more info on the cabs. I went to see Corrosion of Conformity a few months back and all the bands seemed to be playing through the same cabs which most were heavy Mesa playable road cab-type deals with heavy grills and cases. No need to pack them in road cases, they look like you could drop them out of an airplane and not hurt them. I can't find anything like them on Mesa's current website.

The cab says 280 watts. So I guess it's from early 2000s. next project is finding a straight bottom cab after getting new Mesa tubes (including all 6 6l6 tubes) and a footswitch. When did they start/stop making slant baffle, half-open back straight cabs? I was thinking vintage 30s are better for closed cabs and greenbacks better for open backs, so a half-half might need two of each to sound right. In a perfect world I'd just yank them all out and mount some EVM Black Labels. Too bad they don't give them away.

 

[Fear]

I talked to Marcus, a tech at Mesa Boogie. He said there isn't that much recorded about amps this old in their records. He was able to say it was shipped to them and upgraded to C+ in '97, so it wasn't a factory + but was made one by the factory at a later date. He said Mike Bendinelli signed most of the MkII Colliseums, whether they were + or not just because Mesa was a small company back then and he was the only one besides Randall Smith working on Colliseums back then. I'll have to crack it apart to see if it's simuclass or not to read the endcaps on the transformers.

 

[Facelift]

Looks sweet man. When you take the chassis out I would suggest cleaning it all up with some DeOxit spray. That should fix any dirty pots.

 

[gts]

The cab says 280 watts. So I guess it's from early 2000s.

Actually it's from the early 90's (91-92) when Mesa Vintage 30's were rated at 70 watts each.
Later they were rated at 60 watts each and cabs had 240 watts written on the jack plate.

In a perfect world I'd just yank them all out and mount some EVM Black Labels. Too bad they don't give them away.

Don't need no black labels :wink: any EVM-12L will work just fine and be perfect!

 

[TiPiMods]

If you take out some tubes to quiet the amp you have to put one out from the left and one from the right. The way it looks on the picture the amp would sound very imbalanced as it has 3 tubes on the left and only one on the right side. But anyway it wont be much quieter with 4 instead of 6 power tubes.
this amp will make some eardrums bleed for shure

 

[zodiac272]

the limit knob on the back is there so there is no need to remove tubes

scott

 

[DaveP]

You should not remove any of the tubes, use the half power or limiter knob. It will take it down to 3 watts,