From the Mark V manual:
"Back when I was testing II C+’s every day in the burn-in room, I always thought the non-graphic amps had a certain attack and purity
to the sound that the amps that had Graphic EQ on them just didn’t have. There was an urgency and bold punch to the sound…they
seemed tighter and more cohesive. Now granted, we made far more amps with the on-board EQ than without…probably 70% had the
EQ, but not many people had the opportunity to compare day-in and day-out as I did. The EQ model had the shaping advantage…
no doubt about it, and certainly all the sounds that II C+ are famous for were created with the EQ being an integral part of that sound,
but when it came to the straight sound – no EQ – the non-graph model always got to me with it’s speed and authority.
So it was that I came to be the obsessive/compulsive owner of no less than 8 of the II C+ Simul-Class™, Reverb (non-graphic) heads.
I hand picked these as being the best sounding amps - for me - out of the thousands of II C+ we made. Out of these eight amps I
immediately found my favorite - which I dubbed “His Highness the C-ness” and which I used as a reference model to have our Chief
Tech and Archival Guru Michael Bendinelli, copy exactly on the other 7 amps. Everything was measured and scrutinized (pot values,
resistors, caps, transformers swapped, etc.) and duplicated, and in the end… all 8 sounded alike. Regardless, His Highness was my
golden reference for MARK II C+ Tone and our R&D reference amp for many MARK Series amps to follow, including the MARK IV."
Sounds like we will be getting the best of both worlds!
at first glance I thought it's a Mark I. (Which would be cool as well). Can't wait for G3ed 2C+
