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DOGBOY

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I bought this Mesa Boogie 550+ Express a couple months ago. This has the 5-25-50 watt settings available and 6L6 tubes, black shadow speaker. I'm normally on the 25 watt setting but the 5 watt setting has some really good tones in it and is surprisingly loud with some pedal help. This has a really nice foot pedal with channel 1/2, reverb, solo boost, and equalizer. The reverb on this is really sweet and the solo boost is a cool feature(30% volume boost basically). I'm really just starting to use the 5 band equalizer more and have found some really nice rhythm tones in it so far, need to explore it more. This has two channel settings with Channel 1(Clean and Crunch) and Channel 2(Blues and Burn). I have explored the Blues and Crunch channels a bit, the Burn channel is unnecessary for what I play. I think it was Rob(Yoslate) who said recently he found MB's effects sounds to be "inorganic", I would concur. I've not found anything outside of the clean channel that wouldn't be done better with pedals. Never intended to use any of those channels anyway so not a disappointment at all. I have heard some say these have great Fender cleans, I play this next to a heavily modified hard wired DRRI and they are quite different. The Mesa has way less of that fender shine if you will and way more bottom end(to my ears anyway, YMMV). This is my first Mesa and I have been very impressed with this amp, made in the USA is big with me as well. If your looking for some great cleans and a really solid pedal platform this would be one to consider IMHO.

 

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b558/dwithington/SDC10231_zpsbdkmyslz.jpg

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b558/dwithington/SDC10240_zpsii0fw9fk.jpg

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Congrats Doug!

I actually have the opposite feeling about pedals. In facts with my 5:25 express (let alone the Mark V) I have exactly zero od/boost pedals on my pedal board.

My version is the older one with the contour control instead of the 5 band EQ. What the contour does is basically a mid scoop typically done with a V shape on the EQ (from the pics it looks like you are using the EQ the way the contour works). I found really great lead tones that way.

 

Also, not sure if the knobs are just randomly set up, but I would turn the ch2 bass down, especially if you plan to increase the gain (and I assume you are using humbackers, which would only make it worse). The EQ and the tone controls of the preamp and in very different places in the tone path and increasing the bass in the preamp is not the same as increasing it in the EQ. Especially at higher gains you will lose a lot of definition if you don't dial back the bass knob. YMMV

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Mesa's do sound good... Just don't be a fool like me and see how loud a 2x12 80 watt Mesa sounds.... I permanently damaged my hearing in my left ear. Tinnitus comes and goes now and if I hear anything too loud, I get a sharp stabbing pain my ear. Not fun. Ear plugs are my friend or better yet, playing at low volumes.

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Congrats Doug!

I actually have the opposite feeling about pedals. In facts with my 5:25 express (let alone the Mark V) I have exactly zero od/boost pedals on my pedal board.

My version is the older one with the contour control instead of the 5 band EQ. What the contour does is basically a mid scoop typically done with a V shape on the EQ (from the pics it looks like you are using the EQ the way the contour works). I found really great lead tones that way.

 

Also, not sure if the knobs are just randomly set up, but I would turn the ch2 bass down, especially if you plan to increase the gain (and I assume you are using humbackers, which would only make it worse). The EQ and the tone controls of the preamp and in very different places in the tone path and increasing the bass in the preamp is not the same as increasing it in the EQ. Especially at higher gains you will lose a lot of definition if you don't dial back the bass knob. YMMV

Interesting Gio and frankly I need to explore this amp way more than I have. I have no doubt there are just a ton more sounds in this thing than I've pulled out of it so far. Kind of locked into the clean channel and not moving, your take is duly noted!.
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