Original Mark I, II, III, owners - any stories?

[Boogiebabies]

There's a blur between the end of the IIC+ production and the MK III introduction. In May of 85 you could of gotten a C+, but IMHO and research Mesa was mixing serial numbers for the IIC+ and MK III up to 15,000. Now, here's the rub. I have never seen a IIC+ over 14,500 or a MK III under 15,000. I'm in the Bermuda Triangle right now and after five years of looking, I need some proof. I seriously beleive that the MK III was in production in mid 1985 and co-existed with the MK IIC+. Of course, if you wanted a IIC+ in late 85 and Mesa had the parts, you could get one. I have confirmation of a visual of a IIC+ at # 15,000.

As far as waiting, in hind sight missing the IIC+ is painful to even hear.

 

[igfraso]

It happened something similar to me.

I called Mesa at the beginning of November 1985 and wanted to buy a Boogie (at that time, the Mark IIC+). I was going to be in NYC by the end of November and I wanted to get it and bring it home by airplane.

They told me there was no way I could get a IIC+ in those 2 to 3 weeks. They said that there was a waiting list of 6 months for the IIC+ but that they were already starting to offer the Mark III and they could have one ready for me in 2 weeks.

I figured... why not. So I bought a Mark III and I lived happily for 17 years until I found out that I had missed the opportunity to get the Holy Grail.

After 3 years of unstoppable drive looking for my IIC+, I bought my Boogie in eBay in 2005. It was a 1981 Imbuya combo, EV 12L, 60/100W, rev/EQ, export transformer, born as a IIB and with the PCB swapped in order to become a IIC+ (certified by Mike Bendinelli). It has the IIB knobs which makes it really cool.

So after 20 years of making a mistake, I was lucky enough to correct it. And even more, gaining from it. Had I bought the IIC+ back in 1985, I wouldn't have ordered the Imbuya cabinet.
Regards

 

[ursinus]

I owned a MKIII Coloseum that I bought at the MESA Boogie store in North Hollywood which eventually moved to regular Hollyweird, CA. They had MKIIB in the store, but no IIC+ > I was 19 at the time (1985) so I bought a full stack to go with it (yes, I was making good money back then) Anyway, I was playing in a thrash metal band called "Adonis" and man, did that amp crank! It had beautiful gain for lead and rythm and cleaned up nicely too. I ended up producing a couple of thrash bands too at the time, and they ended up using My MKIII set up for their EP's that I also engineered. I eventually joined "Black Sheep" and used that setup, but added a carvin stack for wet sound with a Carvin Monitor power amp (300 watts) with a EQ. I miss that amp! I sold it in order to get a Mesa quad/strategy set-up. It was an awesome amp, but not as versatile as my MKIV for gigging. With the MKIII, you always had to comprimise one of your sounds. The MKIII would work great with a Lone Star in a A/B set-up IMO
P.S. I now play jazz rock fusion, my thrash days are over just like Chris Poland's (ex-Megadeath)

 

[dmt]

I bought my Boogie at the end of the summer before my sophmore year in college. Thats the summer of 2003. I had a shitty little practice ampthat came with my first guitar; a 10 watt ibanez chunk of dirt. I constantly had to re-solder the input jack to the board because it kept breaking loose. And it couldnt handle and pedals, it just started to fart out and vibrate along the floor.

About a year previous to that summer I talked to a buddy of mine about how much I hated my amp and he said he had a friend who was selling a Boogie and that he wanted like $500 bucks for it. I said I want it, but I want to know about it and I want to play it first. So he found out that it was a Simul-Satellite. What that meant I didn't know, so I set to find out about the amp...

And i could find nothing. Not one thing. Some reviews of a Boogie Satellite 60 combo, which I doubted was the same amp (and is not). So a year passed by before I asked him again about the amp. At the end of the summer, somehow i had some money and I decided spur of the moment to go see it. At the time i lived with my mom in new york city and my friend lived in jersey. I had about two days before I left to go back to school in Rochester, so i was in the middle of packing and everything was a mess. I left, told my mom i was going down town and that i'd be back later, and i hoped on a jersey transit train out to lawrencville.

my budy picked me upand we went to this guys shop. turns out the guy was a music teacher and tought out of his studio space. he had a few rooms that were somewhat soundproof, and when we got there he was in the middle of a lesson. but he took me to the room with the amp, and gave me a guitar to play with. I cranked the **** out of the amp, so much so that he came to tell me to turn it down for a while. and i sort of did. i ofund out that it was a clean amp, one channel, but all tube and 85 watts. I liked it and when he got back i asked him how much he wanted. he said the amp was just appriased and that it was worth 1200$, and so he wanted i think 650 for it. That was alot of money to me and i bargianed him down to i think 550 or 600.

of course i didnt have anymoney with me. so i had to walk to the bank, which luckily was right accross the parking lot in the strip mall. i took out 600 bux and gave it to the guy and we loaded it up in my friends car and drove off. the **** thing was so fucking heavy! i didnt know how i would get it home, and what my mom would think of me coming home with a huge amp thats a factor of 15 louder tha my amp and about 8 times as big. nor did i think that it was gonna fit in the car, since all the rest of my **** barely fit... (my mom has a mitsubishi 3000gt vr4, and it has a big trunk for a sports car) so i asked my buddy to ship it for me, and not tell my mom that i just skipped out of new york to buy a 600 dollar amp thats super loud without asking or anything. so i left my amp in his house, and we went to lunch someplace and had a few drinks (thank god for fake id's and happy hour) and i got on the train headed back to new york city.

i felt kinda nervous about leaving my amp with him, but only because i had never bought anything so expensive. that night he calls me up and tells me that a friend of his is driving up to rochester the next weekend, and that he'd take the amp for me if i pay for his gas. i agreed and waited eagerly all during the first week of school for my new amp to arrive. as it turns out the guy who drove it up actually worked at my school as a network admin or something and he was pretty cool. i was so happy to finally get my amp! and of coursethe first thing i did was crank the **** out of it in my room to see how much overdrive i could get out of it...and pissed off my RA who lived right next to me, and then hated me all year long for playing so loud all the time. i had people come complain from other buildings and other floors about my amp... and i'd always turn heads that walked by my window... the two girls next door didnt mind at all tho...and they claimed they heard me loud and clear from the parking lots that were almost a 1/4 mile away. that put a big **** eating grin on my face. now all i had to do was get a nice distortion pedal...(but thats another story)