Why no Mk IIC reissues?

[shredding]

AS the market price's been constantly going up and considering this is the holy grail of the Mesa boogie product line, why dont' they put out reissues? Do you believe this is b/c they are manipulating the market by limiting the numbers of MK II's in circulation? All the MK II stock holders will never wish the day to come when thousands of new MK II's are pouring into the market.

 

[phyrexia]

maybe they'll announce something at namm, or in the summer. the mark I was just discontinued.

 

[Elpelotero]

I doubt it will ever happen...The C+ sound is offered in various forms today, most notably the triaxis and to a lesser extent the mark4. In addition, many of the components are no longer made (such as the transformers). Lastly, the labor would be very intensive since these boards were truly hand made. The boards are not printed off a machine like I assume many are today.

 

[Shep]

if they do do one it wouldn't be anything on the original .. they would to the silver boards or the same Cap's pot's and resistors.. it wouldn't be the same..

 

[Blueracer]

I don't think a reissue would affect the market on the original iic+s in the least. If they did a reissue it would be in a class by itself. Note that Marshall has several reissues out on their JTM45, Plexis, Blues Breakers, etc and they are just different. The original Marshalls go for huge dollars and the reissues don't. One notable difference is that Mesa actually has a better chance of getting a reissue out that is much closer to the original part for part than Marshall did in their reissue line. Never the less I do think a reissue will just be viewed as being different and will not affect anything concerning the current crop of "real" iic+s.

One other point is just look at the differentiation between a iic+ and a iic+ that has been upgraded from a iic. There are literally reams of posts about this. If you stripped the amps of their serial number and put them side by side there is no way to tell the difference particularly if they had the preamp board swapped on the upgrade and yet one is so much more highly prized than the other. Go figure. Anyway I think the "holy grail" is safe regardless of a reissue or not.

 

[JOEY B.]

AS the market price's been constantly going up and considering this is the holy grail of the Mesa boogie product line, why dont' they put out reissues? Do you believe this is b/c they are manipulating the market by limiting the numbers of MK II's in circulation? All the MK II stock holders will never wish the day to come when thousands of new MK II's are pouring into the market.

Doesn't Gibson make a re-issue of the '59 sunburst LP? Has it hurt the value of the original? See what I mean? :shock:

 

[Elpelotero]

Those are two reaaalllly convincing points I had never thought about. Great posts guys!

 

[metalblitz84]

maybe they'll announce something at namm, or in the summer. the mark I was just discontinued.[/quote

That's what I was thinking. For them to discontinue the Mark I and the Bass 400+, something great has got to be in the works. I would expect a re-issue of some kind, but you never know. I actually emailed Mesa asking them this and of course they wouldn't tell me what's coming but they said that the Mark II is DEFINITELY not coming out, at least now!!!

 

[Boogiebabies]

In the past, Mesa discontinued a product via evolution. Now, they do it for a lack of sales. If it has not happened after almost 24 years, I really don't think it will. There is nothing in the C+ that cannot be made and every manufacturer is still in business.

Let's see:

Schumacher - Still open
Mallory - Still Open
Dale - Still open
Sprague - Still Open
Kemet - Still Open
CTS - Still Open
Face Plate Maker - Still Open
Chassis Maker - A dime a dozen
Perkin/Elmer - Still Open
Cheap Carbon Film's - A dime a dozen


The PCB's are just tinned copper and can be made, so if they wanted to make it, it could be done. The labor could be no worse than wiring the flying leads of a Road King. They could use flow soldering on the components and it may reduce cost and labor, especially from China.

The MK IV is the evolution of what the IIC+ was meant to be so I would expect a MK V before a C+ reissue.

 

[ramalam]

AS the market price's been constantly going up and considering this is the holy grail of the Mesa boogie product line, why dont' they put out reissues? Do you believe this is b/c they are manipulating the market by limiting the numbers of MK II's in circulation? All the MK II stock holders will never wish the day to come when thousands of new MK II's are pouring into the market.

Doesn't Gibson make a re-issue of the '59 sunburst LP? Has it hurt the value of the original? See what I mean? :shock:

You are right about that but you are comparing apples to oranges. There were about 10 times as many C+ amps made as 59 Pauls. It is also almost impossible to get the same woods and impractical to use the same processes as used in the original 59 Les Paul. Not that alll 59 Les Pauls sounded the same and were all great and not that there aren't some exceptional reissues. You can much more easily duplicate the components and sound of a C+. Bottom line, neither of the originals has anything to worry about.

 

[tiktok]

Low demand would be my guess.

I suspect a new one would list for more than the original.

 

[Pablomago]

I bet if some boutique builder started making a clone, and they were selling, Mesa would be all over it. Or their lawyers would be all over the clone builder. 8)

 

[devilrob1979]

I doubt it will ever happen...The C+ sound is offered in various forms today, most notably the triaxis and to a lesser extent the mark4. In addition, many of the components are no longer made (such as the transformers). Lastly, the labor would be very intensive since these boards were truly hand made. The boards are not printed off a machine like I assume many are today.

I'm curious as to how a machine-made circuit board would sound any different than a hand-made one. A circuit is a circuit. By the way I'm pretty sure that machines were making the circuit boards by 1984. They'd moved out of the shed by then. Transformers can be reverse-engineered as well. They're just copper and iron. It's not impossible to do but my guess is we won't see a Mark IIC+ reissue this year.

 

[Blueracer]

I bet if some boutique builder started making a clone, and they were selling, Mesa would be all over it. Or their lawyers would be all over the clone builder. 8)

I am not sure what Mesa or their lawyers could do if someone wanted to clone the design. If there are any parts of the design protected by patents these have expired as patents have a life time of 20 years. As long as someone didn't put a badge with the name Mesa Boogie on it, which would be a trademark infringment, I don't see what legal course could be taken.

 

[Boogiebabies]

The patents are all expired, but it's the copyrights where Mesa has you.
They used it to imply that their faceplate, preamp and power amp circuit traces are artwork. These are technically protected for a seriously long time. Even after death. If you want to pull a Mesa on Mesa, just change a few small details of the circuit trace design and then you can say it is your own. They ripped of Fender and Soldano, so what comes around, goes around. Fender just returned the favor by using a switchable tube or SS rectifier. I don't think Mesa has the pocket change to go after them now.

 

[rizboog]

THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTES FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!!

 

[dmt]

THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTES FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!!

+1

 

[phyrexia]

Dumbest statement ever.

THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTES FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!!