I totally understand if I'm coming across a bit snobbish with this. I am generally not in the market for combos and think many brands put lesser components into them compared to heads & cabs, even nearly identical ones. I don't think MB does that but there are a lot of threads on here where everyone is severely polarized about MB, extreme love or extreme hate and in between is no man's land. Without doing science about it, seems many of the bad experiences are with combos. I own two combo amps, both Peavey Combo 300s from the 80s. My small at home rig is a PF50-T into a TC RS212. So that's one part I'm generally not fond of, but more important for you I apologize I don't have much in the way of which combos to recommend.
I think MB are more proud of their gear than they ought to be. I don't love all the colour schemes, in the car audio world generally yellow cone speakers used to be an indication that looks were more important than sound. Some of the heads in particular have what looks like cheap plastic faces that would easily crack or discolour in the sunlight. So that's part of it also.
I think the sound of most MB heads is about the same flat, the vintage sound they're able to achieve is good yes, but for the money you spend to sound like old tube gear you could buy old tube gear in good condition. For the money you spend to get a very crisp clean modern sound, you can do it better for less (Carvin would have been my counter-example there), or 'better' now for about the same (Mesa, Quilter, Darkglass, Aguilar) depending on your version of better and your cab selection. Like you I also like my mids, and especially the mid-high range where the honk is, but you need a microscope to dial it back (assuming MB head & cab, or combo) enough to tame it without losing what you do want. MB head into a generally more 'clean' cab (in my case Carvin BRX10.4 with the tweeter off) does let a much nicer sound shine through. The reason I do use the MB primarily with my 5 (Carvin LB75 with Roto 66) because of the clarity I get out of the B string; the upper mid & high EQ knobs are actually what really gets it there.
There is something I can't quite put my finger on about MB that, while I'm a fan of Ampeg I hate their SS stuff; while I love classic 70s-90s Peavey I tried but couldn't like the Mini Max; Bassman yes, Rumble no. It's not fair to compare classic Acoustic to the current 'Guitar Center owned Acoustic brand', but that's another one. Maybe by giving these examples you can understand where I'm coming from, MB straddles the line for me between what I like and don't like.
Generally I play covers. Could be any kind of rock from 60s-early 00s, my ideal band would sound like Kozmic Blues or CTA era Chicago, maybe some E-Street, Wallflowers in some songs, and MxPx or the Misfits in others.
