Which pedal comes closest to the Mk IIC+ lead tone for you?

[SonicProvocateur]

So many OD pedals with 12AX7s/12AT7s/12AU7s run their plate voltage waaay too low and all it ends up sounding like is a generic off the shelf cheaper OD, nothing real special versus what the tube could really be doing by adding its color, compression, and change in dynamic. There are a few tube OD's that really hit the mark; the BK Butler Tube Driver always comes to mind. Of course they sound nothing like a Mesa - but their tone color and dynamic as a pedal is amazing.

Anyone around here ever use a V-Twin or Bottle Rocket?

 

[revgsmall]

After A/B some amps with many of the mentioned pedals, I conclude there is only one way to
nail the C+ sound. With a C+.

I agree. The general tone of the C+ can be copped with pedals, EQ and whatnot, but the C+ response to pick attack is exteremely evasive. :shock: 8)

+1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc....

The C+ tone can even be copped by other Mark series amps but, that response to pick attack can't (and/ or hasn't so far)

I agree, I should have started this thread, "when it is not possible to take your Mark IIC+ with you what would you take on the plane etc."

 

[revgsmall]

So many OD pedals with 12AX7s/12AT7s/12AU7s run their plate voltage waaay too low and all it ends up sounding like is a generic off the shelf cheaper OD, nothing real special versus what the tube could really be doing by adding its color, compression, and change in dynamic. There are a few tube OD's that really hit the mark; the BK Butler Tube Driver always comes to mind. Of course they sound nothing like a Mesa - but their tone color and dynamic as a pedal is amazing.

Anyone around here ever use a V-Twin or Bottle Rocket?

Oh yeah, we tried them both, my Fulltone Fulldrive did a way better job of getting me into the Mark II ballpark.

 

[revgsmall]

I got the Wampler SLOstortion on friday. I had only about 15 minutes to tweak it. I plugged it into my Mark IIC+ and tried to dial in as close a sound as what I normally use on the lead channel. It would have been more fair to have a fender twin and the Wampler a/b d with the IIC+ but alas all my gear was else ware.

But I did get fairly close, sustain and tone wise. Pick attack and all that other cool stuff no, I could not readily dial any of that in. I 'll fool with it some more in the next few days. It has a very touchy mid control and I think there is some possiblities there. The boost function should be taken off this pedal it just introduces really harsh sound. They should have put a foot switch on it to go back and forth with the crunch setting and the overdrive setting. It would make the pedal more useful.

If I can snag a Ethos pedal for reasonable, I 'll definitly give that a spin as well.

 

[JOEY B.]

After A/B some amps with many of the mentioned pedals, I conclude there is only one way to
nail the C+ sound. With a C+.

I agree. The general tone of the C+ can be copped with pedals, EQ and whatnot, but the C+ response to pick attack is exteremely evasive. :shock: 8)

+1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc....

The C+ tone can even be copped by other Mark series amps but, that response to pick attack can't (and/ or hasn't so far)

At the end of this quest, you will be ready for a straightjacket and a double shot of thorazine. I tried it with the Mark III (various stripes, Coliseum and whatnot) and both versions of the Mark IV. The tone is there, but the response is not. If MESA could reproduce the magic of the C+, those old 2-channel Boogies would be worth about $500.

 

[SonicProvocateur]

I will throw my $0.02 in on a particular pedal.

My friend got a Tech 21 California Pedal, and we ran it through both my Mark III and a Roland JC120 and through the Mark III it still was only able to come about 95% within the Mark lead tone pushing the Mark power section (was missing some low mid articulation) and felt the same through the JC120, except then was lacking the smooth sound of tubes. However the Tech 21 really did nail the woody Mark series clean tones, especially the Mark I. Obviously it didn't have the same power, missing it's power section, but it did have the same tone character. It's an interesting pedal, pedal misses on the high gain stuff where it counts. Without a Mesa to A/B it through, most people probably wouldn't be able to dial it in so precisely though, it took me about 30 minutes of very fine knob tweaking, and it still sounded...dry.

 

[revgsmall]

I will throw my $0.02 in on a particular pedal.

My friend got a Tech 21 California Pedal, and we ran it through both my Mark III and a Roland JC120 and through the Mark III it still was only able to come about 95% within the Mark lead tone pushing the Mark power section (was missing some low mid articulation) and felt the same through the JC120, except then was lacking the smooth sound of tubes. However the Tech 21 really did nail the woody Mark series clean tones, especially the Mark I. Obviously it didn't have the same power, missing it's power section, but it did have the same tone character. It's an interesting pedal, pedal misses on the high gain stuff where it counts. Without a Mesa to A/B it through, most people probably wouldn't be able to dial it in so precisely though, it took me about 30 minutes of very fine knob tweaking, and it still sounded...dry.

I'd like to hear a sample of that. One thing I 've noticed, very few pedal companies tout their pedals as a Boogie sounding device...

 

[RocketRick]

Tubedriver

 

[willrock]

i had this debate myself for a while, the closest i came to a mark series sound in general is the mi audio tube zone!

 

[DaveP]

I just pick up a Suhr Riot pedal. It's the best distortion pedal I have tried by far. It will take you from bluesy overdrive to C+ tone and sustain.
I tried it on my C+ in the clean channel and A/B'd the lead channel against this pedal and it was spot on.
It will take a clean amp and turn it into a highly usable C+ type of gain. Turn up the tone control and it will get very Marshall sounding as well.
Best pedal purchase I have made in a while. The OCD and BB never quite get to that C+ gain. They stop short. Great pedals in their own right but the Riot is
definitely worth a look.

 

[revgsmall]

i had this debate myself for a while, the closest i came to a mark series sound in general is the mi audio tube zone!

I saw the clips and I think its a viable contender. The trouble with most dang clips is; they are lousy guitar players to begin with, or they are good players but not in the style I play and want to show their 2 thousand note a second prowess chops.

 

[texwest]

Gary, I am on this same tonequest. I really like your tone and style on your youtube clips. I'm looking into buying a c+ and your clips have convinced me that it can do the tone I'm looking for.

I want to find the tone with an old fender too, to get this sound at lower volume. I have the same problem with the zendrive. It sounds nice and smooth but lacks dynamics and is just a little thin. I have a baked mod keeley ts-9 that has a little more dynamics but is slightly more edgy and on its own does a better job. The thing that helped both of these pedals was putting a durham sexdrive in front of them to drive them. This is a seriously great clean boost that I've used for several years. This gets them much more dynamics at low volumes. But I'm still not completely happy. Its still not like getting the sing out of an amp with the power tubes starting to cook.

I just bought an ethos on ebay and will let you know how this goes.

It think it be interesting to push a fulldrive with the sexdrive. I'm going to have to try this combo.

Another question from another thread I read yesterday-- How is that maverick speaker working for you?

please keep posting-- I want to know your solution to this tonequest!!!

Wes

 

[edgecrusher]

It's not a pedal, but I have a Behringer V-Amp Pro that I traded an old Ipod for, and the Calif. Drive amp model is actually pretty good! Of course it doesn't have the same feel as a IIC+, but compared to my Mark III, I was impressed. The default cab sim that is paired with it makes it sound a bit weird, but changing it or just running it as a preamp into the power section of my Mark III sounds pretty damn good!

 

[revgsmall]

Gary, I am on this same tonequest. I really like your tone and style on your youtube clips. I'm looking into buying a c+ and your clips have convinced me that it can do the tone I'm looking for.

I want to find the tone with an old fender too, to get this sound at lower volume. I have the same problem with the zendrive. It sounds nice and smooth but lacks dynamics and is just a little thin. I have a baked mod keeley ts-9 that has a little more dynamics but is slightly more edgy and on its own does a better job. The thing that helped both of these pedals was putting a durham sexdrive in front of them to drive them. This is a seriously great clean boost that I've used for several years. This gets them much more dynamics at low volumes. But I'm still not completely happy. Its still not like getting the sing out of an amp with the power tubes starting to cook.

I just bought an ethos on ebay and will let you know how this goes.

It think it be interesting to push a fulldrive with the sexdrive. I'm going to have to try this combo.

Another question from another thread I read yesterday-- How is that maverick speaker working for you?

please keep posting-- I want to know your solution to this tonequest!!!

Wes

I love the Maverick speaker Wes, it's on almost every cut of my new cd. Go here to hear some sound samples. www.coyotebros.net It kept the volume down yet the harmonics of the Boogie came right on through. I hope they do a model that immulates a EVM. The Maverick sounds to me more like a Jensen, not that I'm saying it's a bad sound, just different than a stock EVM. Did you read my other post that I found IIC with the plus mod for $700!!!! I am messing with a Wampler SLO stortion at the moment but I need to get it into a big room to really check it out.

 

[texwest]

I just got the iic+ and the ethos and haven't had enough time to make a verdict. But the ethos>sexdrive > Princeton reverb is getting real nice Dumble/Boogie with some touch sensitivity too. The keeley bakedmod ts-9 >sexdrive> princeton is a slightly little more edgy and might be even closer to the iic+. The ethos seems to have alot of touch sensitivity for a pedal, but still not as good as an amp with the power tubes cooking. The ethos is an incredible pedal and it only took two days with it to sell my zendrive on ebay. The ethos clean channel is very useful too. These set ups are getting pretty good for low volume situations!! I think I like both of these setups better than my fuchs ods30. Lots of ABing to do

 

[revgsmall]

The ethos clean channel is very useful too. These set ups are getting pretty good for low volume situations!! I think I like both of these setups better than my fuchs ods30. Lots of ABing to do

Can you get any grit/slight overdrive out of the "clean" channel on the Ethos?

 

[okgb]

Even though the tube doesn't seem to do much , there is allot of mid control
on the Radial plexi , when comparing to a friend's IIC+ , it got closer than my mk III did ,
[ which is still a dud amp to me ]

 

[texwest]

The clean channel of the ethos really isnt' that great for getting grit. If you used it as a clean boost it might function that way. Its more of a way to EQ your clean tone so you can get both a great overdrive tone and a great clean sound. There's only one volume for the clean side so you can't add grit and get unity gain. I think the grit you get out of it as a clean boost really isn't that good. But its great for EQing your clean amp tone.

My Durham sexdrive is a great clean boost that can also be put into "soft or hard compression" mode and it gives you some really great grit that reminds me of an old orange squeezer, but even better and more adjustable.

So between the ethos, the keeley bakedmod ts-9 and the sexdrive I'm now getting some pretty good tones with my princeton and my twin. The ethos is definitely more Dumble and the baked ts-9 thru the sexdrive is more Boogie. With the twin, this set up does an even better liquidy Boogie tone than the princeton.

 

[TiPiMods]

There is a german pedal maker: OKKO, which makes great pedals. The Okko Diablo is one of my favourites, together with the old Marshall Bluesbreaker it was in every pedalboard of mine over the last 5 years. But it's gain is too low for coming into Boogie teritory.
Lately I bought the "Dominator" which is more of a high gain device. And it has treble, middle and bass knobs to tweak. Plus there are 3 settings for the middle, which makes it very versatile, because you can push the middle frequencies up into Boogie Mk sounds or cut them for Rectifier tones.
Comes close in my opinion.

 

[revgsmall]

There is a german pedal maker: OKKO, which makes great pedals. The Okko Diablo is one of my favourites, together with the old Marshall Bluesbreaker it was in every pedalboard of mine over the last 5 years. But it's gain is too low for coming into Boogie teritory.
Lately I bought the "Dominator" which is more of a high gain device. And it has treble, middle and bass knobs to tweak. Plus there are 3 settings for the middle, which makes it very versatile, because you can push the middle frequencies up into Boogie Mk sounds or cut them for Rectifier tones.
Comes close in my opinion.

Will snoop on the OKKO, thanks!!!