REISSUE Rumor: Mark IIC+ and 2ch Recto

[gts]

for my my ears Bass 2-4 and mid 5ish is a sweet spot.

A lot of settings depend on the pick ups you're using.
For example it'll sound like mud with the Bass above 2 when using humbuckers

 

[RayBarbeeMusic]

If you saw all three videos, I believe the 2nd one was after he took the amp to his dealer, they tried the SPAX7 as a few people suggested including myself. I also recommended using a JAN/Phillips or JAN/GE 5751 in V1 to see if that corrects the issue. According to his statements they got the local Mesa rep involved. He claims he does not want to return the amp, just pointing out there may be some settings that get the squeal. Nothing more. His intent was to ask other Reissue owners if their amp will do the same thing. This is only one person's experience and does not reflect the masses. Heck, I have an ice pick Mark V90 I bought in 2012. I should have returned it but opted not to do so, how it is a 65lb pile of trash. (combo amp). CH3 was more usable than it is now, all it does is squeal with no guitar plugged in. It could be just bad preamp tubes. It suddenly died into the squeal mode when trying the amp with the Mesa 410 guitar cab.

With no signal at the input. self driving feedback could be an issue. If that is the nature of the beast, so be it. That is the same reason why I do not use the shred mode on the JP2C as that does the same thing unless I am playing at bedroom level.

Bad filter caps can cause squeal that sounds exactly like a microphonic tube, but it will happen with no input and at low volumes. If you brought me an amp doing that, I'd look there first. Other issues could be bad lead dress causing oscillation, a couple other possible bad part options, but if I were to bet based on your description, I'd bet on bad filter cap.

Even brand new ones can be bad; "they don't make em like they used to" definitely applies.

Amps shouldn't oscillate unless there's an issue, especially given all the high end bleeder caps in the mark audio circuit.

 

[endofall]

 

[Jamme1961]

Someone just moved up a notch on the SW list - I’m out - I’ll wait it out on this amp

 

[SonVolt]

I can't speak for the IIC+ but I could NEVER get my Master up past 3 (much less 5 or 6, wtf) on my Mark IV or it would be too loud for live band use. The taper on the IV's is NOT linear, it's exponential.

 

[spawnofthesith2]

I can't speak for the IIC+ but I could NEVER get my Master up past 3 (much less 5 or 6, wtf) on my Mark IV or it would be too loud for live band use. The taper on the IV's is NOT linear, it's exponential.

I’m not very convinced so far that any of the “squeal-gate” videos are anything more than nothing burger lol

 

[danielpasco]

I’m not very convinced so far that any of the “squeal-gate” videos are anything more than nothing burger lol

It certainly doesn't seem to be commonly reported. If it's a defective unit he might need to just return it.

I've certainly gotten that kind of issue with a number of my Marks at different times, but I was usually really pushing things harder than was reasonable.

 

[spawnofthesith2]

It certainly doesn't seem to be commonly reported. If it's a defective unit he might need to just return it.

I've certainly gotten that kind of issue with a number of my Marks at different times, but I was usually really pushing things harder than was reasonable.

agreed, if anything is truly defective on the bright side there’s both return policies and mesas warranty on every single one of these amps still at this point lol

I’m just not really seeing much of a compelling issue from these vids… like you said if one wants to be silly it won’t take much effort to make any Mark series amp squeal lol. Without even changing any of my core settings just now I started turning up the master output knob on my IV up with nothing plugged in… once you’re to 5 or above yeah you’re getting the squeal. There’s also no rational or sane reason to ever turn a IV up that high either

 

[tbonesullivan]

To me it really seems like a lot of people don't understand what microphonic FEEDBACK is, or basic trouble shooting to locate the cause. It's a super high gain amplifier, and these people are plugging them into 4x12s in a tiny room, which makes microphonics that much easier to produce. I mean did any of them even determine that it was or was not a tube? or a reverb tank? Or one of the fifty other things it could be?

 

[bandit2013]

Bad filter caps can cause squeal that sounds exactly like a microphonic tube, but it will happen with no input and at low volumes. If you brought me an amp doing that, I'd look there first. Other issues could be bad lead dress causing oscillation, a couple other possible bad part options, but if I were to bet based on your description, I'd bet on bad filter cap.

Even brand new ones can be bad; "they don't make em like they used to" definitely applies.

Amps shouldn't oscillate unless there's an issue, especially given all the high end bleeder caps in the mark audio circuit.

Yeah, agreed. I have a feeling the person may return the amp, Many people have suggested to do so. I can see having stupidly high settings will result in unwanted feedback issues. That I assume is while playing the guitar through the amp. Not with the volume all the way dialed out. He should have removed the guitar cable if one is to do the no signal test. It is what it is, perhaps only one in a (not sure what number to place here, 1k, 10k? or 100?) Hopefully Mesa figured out how to keep the ice pick out of it. I got lucky with the two Mark VII as I was rather skeptic on the statement my SW sales engineer told me that it sound much like your mark V. Sure as hell hope it doesn't. That amp is an ice pick.

 

[VisaL]

It certainly doesn't seem to be commonly reported. If it's a defective unit he might need to just return it.

I've certainly gotten that kind of issue with a number of my Marks at different times, but I was usually really pushing things harder than was reasonable.

I’ve never had that issue under any even remotely reasonable use conditions with any of my marks or any amps for that matter. Microphonic tubes yes, but that is fixed with tube replacement which wasnt the case atleast in that multipart video where new tubes were tried. Even in the case of microphonic tube I’ve never had that bad situation.

 

[bandit2013]

I am not worried about it. Still reminds me of the Mark III I had. Heck, even the Mark IVB can rip through your eardrums if you have the harmonics set.

 

[Appleridge]

Looks like it goes away when you move the bass (assuming treble too) off of zero? I run these slightly open anyway. Seems like an easy fix if so? I haven’t been able to recreate this on my IIb+ or III+. The only thing I had close to it was my IIb+ after the loop mod. I had to do the reverb jumper as Mike B suggested.

Not swayed from purchasing as of yet.

 

[Fiveband]

Is anyone in a position to provide gut shots for study?

 

[endofall]

Is anyone in a position to provide gut shots for study?

 

[endofall]

Looks like it goes away when you move the bass (assuming treble too) off of zero? I run these slightly open anyway. Seems like an easy fix if so? I haven’t been able to recreate this on my IIb+ or III+. The only thing I had close to it was my IIb+ after the loop mod. I had to do the reverb jumper as Mike B suggested.

Not swayed from purchasing as of yet.

yes it does, I posted a video where I did this and it cut it out.

 

[endofall]

So far I am absolutely loving this amp. The oscillation video and the gut shots are mine as well. I do wish it didn’t do that, but I talked to Mesa and it and they stated it was normal. Today I made a quick clip doing some thrash, played poorly. This amp can do so much more than just metal but I couldn’t stop my inner teenager from taking a shot at this.

 

[Fiveband]

Looks like a lot of hard to replace connectors and ribbon wires.

Has anyone measured plate voltage on the reissue?

 

[bandit2013]

I got word from my sales engineer at sweetwater. I did inquire about the use of EL34 tubes in the class A sockets. Based on his response he got from Mesa, use of EL34 tubes will void the warranty. Just for smiles and grins, here is the user manual if you could not find it yet.

 

[Darkstar2]

Fascinating, they never once mention "EL34"'s in the manual, neither suggesting nor cautioning their use.