Mesa Boogie?

[Bombassa]

I've got two Mesa/Boogie rigs, one is a Mark IV B short-head that I run through a pair of Mesa Thiele 1-12" EVM-12L cabs, and the other is a three space rack with a TriAxis preamp-50/50 poweramp combination. Both are well built, dependable amps and neither has ever failed on me. But most importantly they sound great.

 

I have an old Mesa Boogie Quad preamp, a 50/50poweramp and two Mesa 12" cabinets.

There is a Korg delay i the loop. and two stompboxes on the floor (Blackfinger and Exiter)

If I ever should change that amplification, I would just get another Quad.

I seldom touch the settings, except for the output on the delay. Depending on what guitar is

plugged in.

[MuDBoNe]

I owned a Mark II C+ and could not get a sound that made me happy. I was LOUD! but thin and harsh. I never got the sound I needed to hear. I am running a Vox AC30 with Eminance Red Fangs' as my main amp. It has killer tone.

[Poelbaum]

I am actually in process of selling a boogie studio .22+ (no EQ). I have had it for 20 years, though it has sat unused for 15. Really exceptional cleans, but in my mind it has only 2 modes. Super clean, and way overdone Mesa boogie gain channel. That may suit some quite nicely, but my preference is for a clean channel that breaks up nicely on its own, and at useable volumes. I have never been able to get that with my boogie. That is not to say someone else could. I will say that 20 years later, it has quite good resale.

[Connor]

"I will say that 20 years later, it has quite good resale."

 

Resale is always important! I have recently found that with a couple of guitars that I have sold. It's always fun to win at the buying and selling game.

[VintagePerson]

I have a LoneStar Special. As has been said, it is a killer amp. It is a two channel amp with each channel selectable for 30w, 15w, or 5w. Extremely versatile. As with most Mesa amps, it takes a lot of tweaking to find the sweet spots, but they are always there, and once found yield rich complex tones. Very responsive amp. Lousy for jazz as was said. For most settings, I set channel 1 and channel 2 with the same eq but I put just a touch of extra drive on channel 2. Also a bit more volume on channel 2. I do use a pedalboard, but mine is really stripped down. I use a Ernie Ball volume pedal, and a Dunlop Crybaby Wah. I love Visual Sound pedals, but prefer the older ones. I have a VS H2O chorus/echo pedal, a VS RT66 overdrive/compressor, and a VS Jekyll & Hyde OD pedal. That's it. The RT 66 is a GREAT pedal. Mine is the old one with the OD on one side, and compressor on the other. I leave the compressor on most of the time.

 

I also have an old pair of Peavey Bravo's (25w) 12's. Little blasters with amazing tone and sustain.

 

I also have a Line 6 Flextone XL II. I put Fender amp legs on the Flextone so I can blast the roof rather than people. What I'm about to say will likely cause the purists to heave, but I run a PODXT Live into the effects return of the Flextone. I only use two amp modles in the POD XT. I use a Vox AC30TB model for clean tones and big 80's chorus sounds. I use a Marshall Plexi 100 model for all my other sounds. I use a Rocktron All Access to run MIDI. I have the Voxes on the first bank, the Marshall with univibe on the second bank and the same Marshall with a chorus on the third bank. I'll be the first to admit that the models do not sound quite as good as my tube amps. That said, I get some great tones out of my POD rigs. I have had many a guitar player listen to me play through my rig, and ask how I get such a variety of killer tone. When I show them the PODs, it floors them almost every time. Best of all, I can really crank the POD XT, and since I bypass the preamp in the Flextone via the effects return, I can get everything from clean, to gritty, to flat out burn and at a non-lethal volume. When I face my guitar towards the angled Flwxtone, my note come off the fundamental ont the harmonic with ease. It flips faster than a omelet at Denny's.

[bolero]

I haven't had much luck with mesa boogie amps...takes too long to find a sound I like & too many finicky controls....that seem get bumped when you move them around & it's a pain to dial in again

 

give me a jtm45 style amp over one of those anyday...plug in, sounds good-->play

 

add a fuzz if you need it..simple

[111518]

Interesting tidbit. When I recently took a bunch of my amps to get them checked out/repaired/modded, I had a chance to talk at some length with John Nau, a very well respected amp builder, repairman, and bass player in Rochester, NY, and an authorized Mesa Boogie tech (also authorized tech for several other brands). He was very complimentary of the company, said that they would do anything they could to address questions, find parts --wanted to do right by those that owned their amps, and were a great company to work with, unlike some others.

 

I'm not a huge Mesa Boogie fan --I own an old Mesa 400 6 x 6550 bass amp, and my Blue Angel is for sale, but, it is always good to hear about a company that cares about service after the sale.

[barrymclark]

Roland Cube 60. Cheap and does it all.

 

I have the MicroCube and I am in love with that little thing. The Vox I have is great but the weight is freakish.

[t0aj15]

Roland Cube 60. Cheap and does it all.

You'll have to buy the 60 used because it's been replaced by the Roland Cube 80X.

[Guest tomdread]

I haven't had much luck with mesa boogie amps...takes too long to find a sound I like & too many finicky controls....that seem get bumped when you move them around & it's a pain to dial in again

 

give me a jtm45 style amp over one of those anyday...plug in, sounds good-->play

 

add a fuzz if you need it..simple

I remember the 1st time I was put in a room with a Mesa and left alone. I was convinced some one was taking the piss. What a horrible experience. It made me feel bad. It made me sound bad. I was embarrassed by the sounds I was getting. It was in a crowded guitar store. I walked out and bought a Fender elsewhere determined never to go back to that store again so scarred by the experience was I.

Fast forward 10 yrs. I work in that store. I cant seem to pull a bad sound out of a Mesa(genre specific of course). I have my favourites of course.

When I try or demo other amps I am often surprised at the limited sweet spots in them, as most mesa's have a way of revealing another cool side simply by slightly moving one of the tone, gain or volume controls. I dont have any problem with this as others do. I know what I want to hear and just move the dials accordingly. Theres not a big tweak session if I bump the dials accidentally for example.

Im surrounded by some nice amps from different manufacturers daily and was a total fender amp guy for a long time(vol, treb, bass)(pres and reverb)> Never thought I would become a Mesa convert but I did. Sold my jtm45, dsl50, Fender concert, fender pro reverb and kept the Mesa LS. Also kept one fender and a PV C30.

Up to 6yrs ago I would have said Mesa's are tweaky and grainy and I would never own one. A little bit of time spent with them revealed user error and opened up a whole lot of usable sounds I would never have previously considered.

My Mesa Lone Star sounds great with a D'Aquisto New Yorker playing jazz(not with me playing though) or a strat playing pop, blues or rock. The Heritage sounds absolutely killer playing what ever genre I can manage to fake.

With all that said, I know they are not for everyone and can seem overwhelming(re read my 1st paragraph).

One thing I dont like about them is the fixed bias. They run too cold. I understand some of the reasons for this but I would still like the option of adjustment to tailor it a bit more to my own preference. Ive seen amps from other manufacturer's come alive after a bit of a bias adjustment. There are kits you can get for mesa's and owners that have installed them in their mesa's seem more than happy with the end result.

Just saying.

[lolonyc]

I've got a Mesa Boogie Studio .22 Caliber (Plus EQ) that I've been using for over 15 years. Great little amp. A little like a hot-rodded Princeton. Great for my solidbodies and H535, and very good for my H575--though I'd love to find a great deal on a nice little Polytone Mini Brute II for that fat round old-school jazz sound.

 

 

I have had a Studio 22+ (without the eq.) for over 15 years also and it has been a great amp all along. It took some time to dial in the sound (the master volume and 2 gain controls interact together), but once you have it where you want, it is a great sounding amp. Very under rated and great for the price. You see them on ebay sometimes. The Express is probably more versatile and tweekable but it did not sound as good when I tried it...

[Assumer]

Never been a boogie fan. Great amps, built real well and all but just didn't like them. Now with the electra dyne the story has changed. What a great simple amp. It sounds great on all three channels and is so easy to get a great sound. Not a metal amp. More of a classic and hard rock amp.

[JeffB]

Never been a boogie fan. Great amps, built real well and all but just didn't like them. Now with the electra dyne the story has changed. What a great simple amp. It sounds great on all three channels and is so easy to get a great sound. Not a metal amp. More of a classic and hard rock amp.

The ED is a great amp. Love the low gain mode.

[rjsanders]

several of the better players, all pros, in this area have been using Lone Stars since they came out. sound great, reliable, etc. if you find one that sounds good to you, yer in bidness. in the amp vs. guitar debate i weight each about 50%. speaker selection is critical

[JeffB]

several of the better players, all pros, in this area have been using Lone Stars since they came out. sound great, reliable, etc. if you find one that sounds good to you, yer in bidness. in the amp vs. guitar debate i weight each about 50%. speaker selection is critical

It was A/Bing the LS and ED over about a month that I finally decided that I just didnt need the ED or that I liked the LS better. My initial impression of the ED was to sell my LS. Then after some thought, to have both. But I just kept gravitating back to the LS all the time. It will be interesting to see what Mesa do in their amp range in the future.

[tbonesullivan]

Figured I'd update my stance on Mesa Boogie amps.

 

I do not like the rectifier series. They just don't sound right to me.

 

I now have in my possession a DC-5 combo, and it is just an incredible amp. The clean channel is nice and warm/chimey, but it can get some snarl with a pull boost. The lead channel does everything from light blues all the way up to hard rock, and with the EQ, you can get total metal out of it. I've heard that a good portion of the Metallica "black album" was recorded on DC-5's. NOt sure if this is true or not. But definitely a great amp, and picked it up used for not much money.

 

Of course, I still love my marshall, and my carvins.

[DetroitBlues]

Back to the original Post:

I've played a Mesa Nomad a friend has. Very, very loud amp. In fact, recently he opened it up (cranked it) for the very first time. I couldn't hear right for three days. Extremely loud, three channels, 5 band eq, lead switch, reverb, etc. Great amp, but way too heavy and really not sutiable for anything but a big stage.

[Sparky]

I've heard a lot of good things about Mesa Boogie, but I'm not familiar with the sound. I've watched a few YouTube videos etc but that it.

 

I'm looking for a clean amp, with a second channel that is slightly overdriven. I have a Fender Blues Junior and an older Ampeg J-12T now. They are plenty loud for what I need, but they lack that second channel.

 

I saw the 5 watt / 50 watt feature of Mesa Boogie with two channels and began to think maybe it was the one for me.

 

Any ideas?

 

May I suggest instead of a new amp, you might try a Boss Overdrive pedal. They're not really a "distortion" pedal, but they'll add some gain and some depth to your tone if used in moderation. As far as Boogie amps are concerned, I've had the 50/50 rackmount (WAY too much power) and I still own a DC3, but the damn thing weighs like 58 lbs. and has

a single carry strap on top of it.

[GuitArtMan]

I think one reason some people give Mesa amps a bum review is they are harder to dial in than other amps. They aren't a "anywhere you set the controls the amp sounds great" kinda amp. Also the midrange control works different than on some Mesa amps than on other amps and almost doubles as a gain control.

 

Mesa amps I've owned:

Super 60 Head (Mark I) from '77 - '92. This amp did one thing and only one thing well imho - the Boogie Lead Tone, and even then it had to be LOUD to really boogie. Many people rave about the Mark I cleans - I didn't find that. My Silver Face twin reverb cleaned the Mark I's clock as far as clean tones are concerned. This amp was also a compromise as the cascading channel design made it impossible to go from crystal clear to singing Mesa lead - you had to compromise. You either had some dirt in your clean, or you couldn't get as high gain as you wanted.

 

Original Dual Rectfier - this was a frickin' great amp that got a bum rap because of all the drop tuned knuckle dragging neanderthals that used them. I got some great cleans out of it (better than my Mark I) and some killer distortions as well. I remember getting a great version of the Gary Moore scortched earth tone with my Les Paul. I also nailed a killer SRV/Hendrix tone with my SRV strat that just felt so juicy and great the guitar almost played itself. There were some great vintage tones in this amp, the problem is the people who used them seemed to go for the more modern grungey tones. Great amp!

 

Blue Angel - this was a departure for Mesa. Single channel, no master volume. You could run either two 6v6s, four el84s, or combine them. Very touch sensitive and organic sounding. Also, this amp had one of the, if not the best reverb I've heard. Very lush, almost chorus like. It felt very natural and really enveloped the sound and didn't feel artificial are tacked on in any way. A seriously underrated Mesa amp.

 

I'm really wanting to try the Lonestar Special. The other guitar player at church uses one (the 4x10 version) and gets great cleans and dirts out of it. I'm also interested in checking out the Transatlantic and the Express 5:25 and/or 5:50.

[DetroitBlues]

Transatlantic sounds like a great amp. I've seen some cool demo's, only wish it was a little more umph than 15 watts.

[GuitArtMan]

Transatlantic sounds like a great amp. I've seen some cool demo's, only wish it was a little more umph than 15 watts.

???

5/15/25 watts selectable output.

[koula901]

Can't wait to hear reviews of the Transatlantac Amp. Does it have EL 84s, or something else?

[JeffB]

Can't wait to hear reviews of the Transatlantac Amp. Does it have EL 84s, or something else?

My initial reaction to the TA was I didnt like it. I thought if I had to choose I would get the Mesa Express.

After demoing it more and more my mind changed and I would take it easily over the Express. Even with out reverb and an FX loop. The only problem I see is that two of my favourite modes are on the same channel. I could work around it easily enough though. Its just too smaller output for me. Its loud enough. I just prefer the sound of a bigger amp.

I have tried the TA along side an Orange Tiny Terror and Egnater Tweaker as well as the Express. I think the TA probably has more of something I would look for in an amp. It lights up blue. Every amp should.