[jcadillac1973]

Hopefully this reaches all the Boogiephile experts out there that are in search of winter 1980. I need your feedback.

There is a Mesa Boogie MK II available for $700 at a shop near my house. It is black with no EQ, EV speaker, no reverb. They are not sure if it is a MK IIA, B or C.

Will the lack of reverb and an EQ be a tone issue difficult to compensate for? How do you determine which MK version it is. Should I get this one or wait? - It's been tough to find one local to be able to try out in person. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Staemius]

I love my IIa - the lack of reverb or EQ wouldn't be a deal breaker at $700 (but obviously preferable). This link might help you date it - good luck:

http://homepage.mac.com/mesaboogie/MarkSeries.html

[jeffm725]

you can tell what mark 2 version it is by the serial. There is a page online that has the serial range for each model. By the way, dont let the lack of reverb deter you. You dont really miss the reverb on the Boogie. (just my opinion ...original reverbs on the Mark 2's were noisy and not like Fender reverbs at all) You can do much better for reverb with a Holy Grail Plus (or Nano) or a Line6 Verb Zilla or even the behringer equivalent for 50 bucks!
My mark 2a had its reverb stripped out.

The EQ is OK to have, but for many it just adds a whole other set of knobs to fiddle with which sometimes can be a dteriment. (many peoples complaints about boogies are that they are hard to dial in.

Again My mark 2a doesnt have the EQ sliders, and it still has more EQ options than 95% of amps because of the Pull bright, and pull shift knobs.

If the Iron is good and the amp is in good shape, you wont be sorry.