# Mesa Electradyne



## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

So captainbrew was kind enough to ship his Mesa Electradyne to me.
Wow. What an amp! I'd read nothing but great things about the Electradyne and it turns out they were all true. It's not just a "Fender clean," it's a "Fender-freakin'-Twin!" Clean. Massive, with a throaty growl under the bass frequencies. Best reverb I've heard on a Mesa (but I admit I haven't played a Lonestar, yet.) Not just useable, but sweet and emotive.

I've only tried the red and blue settings for a couple of minutes. I've just been playing the clean channel for a few hours now - this clean tone alone is worth the price of the amp. Tomorrow I'll play extra loud and test the drive channels and stack pedals, but for now I'm extremely happy.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Congrats! I still have yet to try one of these out. What's the guitar?


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

Budda said:


> Congrats! I still have yet to try one of these out. What's the guitar?


Thanks! 
And it's a McInturff FLE, hands-down the best guitar I've ever played. (Also purchased from GC.)

So far this morning I've discovered that the Electradyne _loves_ my Archer Ikon. 
Now I'm off to really test out the Lo and Hi modes!


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Awesome...I had my heart set on one of these or the lonestar...but the wallet was a little bare

Enjoy!


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

So, only an hour now, but the Blue mode! Woo-frickety-Hoo!
This amp would be worth it just for this mode alone. I'm thinking: Bluesbreaker meets Twin - all the midrange complexity of the Bluesbreaker mixed with the sweet highs and powerful bass of a Twin. Huge!

I'm looking forward to introducing the Electradyne to my Rivera Rockcrusher, try to knock down the massive volume of this amp. It is a _very_ powerful amp. I had a Roadster for a bit, and it was the quietest 100 Watt amp I'd ever tried; this 90 watt ED is far, far louder than the Roadster. Like, 70's Hiwatt loud.

I can't gig anymore, but I remember the few times I got to open my big amps up to full volume. This is one amp I'd love to open up full bore. I just have to find a safe distance to try it from!

On to the Red mode!


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## soldierscry (Jan 20, 2008)

I also own an ED combo and you are spot on with the description. It is an incredibly loud amp. It plays great with the rock crusher as that's what I use with mine so I don't pedal the paint off my walls. I do find that with the higher settings on the rock crusher does take a bit away from the headroom but I also run the gain around 3 o'clock. My current setup is Guitar to the ED with a Timeline and a Boomerang looper in the FX loop with the reverb bypassed on the amp.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

Okie-dokie... Red mode!
The Red mode is capable of much higher gain than I'd expected, and with some tweaking is a great, heavy overdrive. 
Lower gain settings provide an "already-boosted" type of sound - good cut and edge - I can see this being useful in a large group. I'm not a high gain player, so I don't know really what to look for, but I can see the Red mode being fun and satisfying for those times I want to play mean. I'd say this channel is worth 1/2 the price of the amp.

So, with the Clean mode being worth the amp itself, and the Lo mode being worth the amp by itself, and the Hi mode being worth 1/2 the amp, that means the amp is worth 2 1/2 times its value! It's amazing that the Electradyne didn't get the market share it deserves. But it's nice to have a hidden gem.

Next: Tube Rolling. (Hopefully at a studio where it can be recorded at least.)


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Re: red mode - just crank the gain way too high, and play really fast. You don't even have to do it well - it's just plain fun.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Moot said:


> Okie-dokie... Red mode!
> The Red mode is capable of much higher gain than I'd expected, and with some tweaking is a great, heavy overdrive.
> Lower gain settings provide an "already-boosted" type of sound - good cut and edge - I can see this being useful in a large group. I'm not a high gain player, so I don't know really what to look for, but I can see the Red mode being fun and satisfying for those times I want to play mean. I'd say this channel is worth 1/2 the price of the amp.
> 
> ...


Apparently, it had too many knobs and was just too confusing to dial in LOL (at least for significant, vocal majority over at another site). I'm glad those 6 knobs (maybe a couple more on the back) didn't intimidate you. I've been watching for blowout prices on a head, but it's gotta be cheap because they're way more amp than I need.


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

Just stumbled across one of these today. Wow is all I have to say. Have it on hold while they check the tubes. There was a crackle that swapping should fix.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

fretzel said:


> Just stumbled across one of these today. Wow is all I have to say. Have it on hold while they check the tubes. There was a crackle that swapping should fix.


You'll be happy, I'm sure.
I took mine to a friend's place last night and we were able to turn up the Master to 12:00 and the Volume to Max, and, boy, what fun we had! I could live just with the Lo mode - at that volume my guitar's Tone and Volume knobs became super useful; I could clean up beautifully just with the volume knob without losing body in the tone.


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

I can't wait to hear back from them. They put me in a soundproof room so I could give'r a good go. Never got as loud as you but was definitely in heaven.


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## bigboki (Apr 16, 2015)

Moot said:


> You'll be happy, I'm sure.
> I took mine to a friend's place last night and we were able to turn up the Master to 12:00 and the Volume to Max, and, boy, what fun we had! I could live just with the Lo mode - at that volume my guitar's Tone and Volume knobs became super useful; I could clean up beautifully just with the volume knob without losing body in the tone.


And your house is still standing?  I would expect repetition of Back to Future scene 

great great amp


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

fretzel said:


> I can't wait to hear back from them. They put me in a soundproof room so I could give'r a good go. Never got as loud as you but was definitely in heaven.


And you're currently a yc90c owner?


fretzel said:


> I can't wait to hear back from them. They put me in a soundproof room so I could give'r a good go. Never got as loud as you but was definitely in heaven.


@fretzel, you're currently a YCS90 CS Player, no? thats my current but the ED has me drooling too...waiting to see if you bite the bullet


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

I have the ycs50c. It is a great combo. But this amp seems on another level. The cleans are crazy good. I played an hss strat on it for quite a while. All channels sound good. There was also a LP standard in the room so I plugged that in as well. Same, sounded fantastic. And with the stronger humbuckers it really pushed the drive channels. The strat was a Mexican Dlx with S1 switching and in single cool bridge mode really rocked the dirt channels too. 
Also read online that it takes pedals exceptionally well. 
All that said, as long as the issue is resolved it is coming home with me. 
Can't wait......


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

bigboki said:


> And your house is still standing?  I would expect repetition of Back to Future scene  ...


My friend is the "record everything full volume" type engineer and his studio is set up for that. But the Electradyne had parts of his studio rattling that had never rattled before! Something fell off the wall. The acoustic guitars on the wall of the other room were vibrating audibly.
This thing has power and presence - they'll _know_ when you're playing!

But I really enjoy it at low volume, too. I tried using the Rockcrusher to take down the volume, but no matter what settings I've tried I can't get it to sound better than just using the Master Volume on the amp. The Rockcrusher does nicely blend out some of the bass. I'd use it if I were in a large group to help sit in the mix better.

There is a very strong bass flavour to this amp. I've heard it compared to a Marshall Super Bass (which I've never tried ☹.) There have been a few times it took several tries to get the bass right with humbuckers. I'm not sure this would be the right amp for a large ensemble; with a three-piece power-rock, power-blues trio, though, it would rule the roost (if I had to guess.) It nails Bridge of Sighs with a Strat!
Bonus! The more you turn the bass down the more the whole amp becomes very vintage sounding - not Fendery, but early 50's type Silvertone, or Oahu.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

I picked up one of these for lower volume playing on my new to me Blues Deluxe. Looks like a great solution for amps with a loop. I'll give it a review after using it for awhile. Should be here next week.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZHHIVI/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

This is the only MESA that really gives me GAS.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

davetcan said:


> I picked up one of these for lower volume playing on my new to me Blues Deluxe. Looks like a great solution for amps with a loop. I'll give it a review after using it for awhile. Should be here next week.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZHHIVI/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


That's a feature of Rivera amps that I wished other amps had - variable send and return controls. The device you're looking at seems (at first glance) to be that of thing. You'll have to let us know how well it works - it could be an ideal solution.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

cboutilier said:


> This is the only MESA that really gives me GAS.


Me, too, until I saw that the Royal Atlantic has a built in power-soak settable for each channel. Now (damn it) I want to try one of those.

I lost a few hours last night to the Electradyne again. That Lo mode is amazing. No-one up here who's heard this amp would have guessed it was a Mesa. 

The artists that sold me on the ED were Kevin Eubanks and Bruce Springsteen. I read somewhere that after 24 years of using a Mark IIc+ Bruce has now switched to an Electradyne.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Moot said:


> That's a feature of Rivera amps that I wished other amps had - variable send and return controls. The device you're looking at seems (at first glance) to be that of thing. You'll have to let us know how well it works - it could be an ideal solution.


Here's a video of a similar product.






Glow Baby Tube Amp Master Volume Control

Keep in mind most of these are looking for a Series FX loop, as opposed to parallel.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

I went to that Amazon link you showed above, @davetcan , and I was horrified at some of the comments. I think some people are using these as power attenuators. Whether the ad is misleading or not can be left to interpretation, I guess, but power attenuators seem to confuse people (even Traynor). These will not 'work your power tubes harder'.




Moot said:


> That's a feature of Rivera amps that I wished other amps had - variable send and return controls. The device you're looking at seems (at first glance) to be that of thing. You'll have to let us know how well it works - it could be an ideal solution.


My Sunn T50C (Fender's 90's attempt at a Mesa-like amp) has that on both channels. And the loop is footswitchable. So if I don't insert anything in the loop, I can use that button to boost volume and/or distortion depending on the send/return level settings, and have different settings on each channel. Pretty cool feature.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Moot said:


> I lost a few hours last night to the Electradyne again. That Lo mode is amazing. No-one up here who's heard this amp would have guessed it was a Mesa.


Mesa's seem to have earned a reputation as a metal-only brand. Silly. Sure, they started a lot of that with cascading gain and the Mark Series. The Dual Rec became a heavymetal poster child. But if anyone disputes their ability to build a clean channel, may I introduce you to the Mark series, the LoneStar series, and the ED. Even my Dual Rec Roadster had a great clean channel (2 of 'em, in fact). 

I think a lot of people would be surprised with what a Mesa can do, if a) they dropped their preconceptions of the brand and b) got over their fear of 'too many knobs' and 'too hard to dial in'.

I had a blast Wednesday night. First band practice in a couple months. I've taken my LSS out quite a bit during the summer break, used it with lots of different guitars and really messed up the settings. Getting back to the 'G6120 into LSS for rockabilly' mode took quite a bit of tweeking. But, admittedly, I like tweeking and found it really enjoyable (and educational) to go through the process and hear the huge range the amp has. Also, I'm not a 'one sound in my head' kinda guy. I'm more a 'sound du jour' kinda guy.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Wow, I guess people don't read. Hope to God they're not plugging speakers into this. I used a GE-7 in the loop of my old Hot Rod Deluxe to do the same thing, it worked fine with no tube or transformer issues. I don't use it to allow me to crank the amp to full power though, I'm just using it to give a little more control of the volume between 0 and 3 or 4. These amps are extremely loud at that setting. My GE-7 was a little noisy so I'm just buying this to see if it will do a similar thing but quietly.



High/Deaf said:


> I went to that Amazon link you showed above, @davetcan , and I was horrified at some of the comments. I think some people are using these as power attenuators. Whether the ad is misleading or not can be left to interpretation, I guess, but power attenuators seem to confuse people (even Traynor). These will not 'work your power tubes harder'.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

High/Deaf said:


> Mesa's seem to have earned a reputation as a metal-only brand. Silly. Sure, they started a lot of that with cascading gain and the Mark Series. The Dual Rec became a heavymetal poster child. But if anyone disputes their ability to build a clean channel, may I introduce you to the Mark series, the LoneStar series, and the ED. Even my Dual Rec Roadster had a great clean channel (2 of 'em, in fact).
> 
> I think a lot of people would be surprised with what a Mesa can do, if a) they dropped their preconceptions of the brand and b) got over their fear of 'too many knobs' and 'too hard to dial in'.
> 
> I had a blast Wednesday night. First band practice in a couple months. I've taken my LSS out quite a bit during the summer break, used it with lots of different guitars and really messed up the settings. Getting back to the 'G6120 into LSS for rockabilly' mode took quite a bit of tweeking. But, admittedly, I like tweeking and found it really enjoyable (and educational) to go through the process and hear the huge range the amp has. Also, I'm not a 'one sound in my head' kinda guy. I'm more a 'sound du jour' kinda guy.


I still regret selling my old LSS head, it was a beauty.


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## purpleplexi (Nov 5, 2014)

This is the amp Bruce Springsteen uses on tour. He used Mesa MKIIC+ amps for 20 years and switched to the ED.

Here is a link to a pic of his tech (Kevin Buell) with a couple ED heads under the stage. 

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/p320x320/13391264_143035302769461_512645157_n.jpg


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I didn't know he was one of the Mark IIC+ crew. That's a cool little tidbit.

If you want a new mark IIC+, Mesa re-introduced them as the John Petrucci (Dream Theater) signature head last year. A few DT fans lost their collective marbles.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

Tried my Effectrode PC-2A compressor into the Electradyne and it's marvellous! Levelled out a bit of the bass and brought out it's usual magic. 
Once I've moved I'll record stuff, I swear.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Update on the "volume box".

Does it work? Yes. But it adds quite a bit of line noise to the signal path and it does cut highs at higher attenuation (or lower volume) At first I thought it was likely just the BDRI as my GE-7 was also a bit noisy in the loop. I tried it in my Koch Studiotone, which is superbly built, and had the same issue. So imho save yourself $30 and put it towards a good speaker attenuator or do what I'm going to do and use a GE-7.

Another option might be a volume pedal in the loop. Anyone tried that? I have an Ernie Ball MVP kicking around here somewhere. Or just stick it at the end of my pedal chain as usual I guess. Duh !!




davetcan said:


> Wow, I guess people don't read. Hope to God they're not plugging speakers into this. I used a GE-7 in the loop of my old Hot Rod Deluxe to do the same thing, it worked fine with no tube or transformer issues. I don't use it to allow me to crank the amp to full power though, I'm just using it to give a little more control of the volume between 0 and 3 or 4. These amps are extremely loud at that setting. My GE-7 was a little noisy so I'm just buying this to see if it will do a similar thing but quietly.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

davetcan said:


> Update on the "volume box".
> 
> Does it work? Yes. But it adds quite a bit of line noise to the signal path and it does cut highs at higher attenuation (or lower volume) At first I thought it was likely just the BDRI as my GE-7 was also a bit noisy in the loop. I tried it in my Koch Studiotone, which is superbly built, and had the same issue. So imho save yourself $30 and put it towards a good speaker attenuator or do what I'm going to do and use a GE-7.
> 
> Another option might be a volume pedal in the loop. Anyone tried that? I have an Ernie Ball MVP kicking around here somewhere. Or just stick it at the end of my pedal chain as usual I guess. Duh !!



Good to know! 
I'm going to try my MXR 10-band EQ and see how that works. I think you can lower the input by -12db and the output by -12db. I'll let everyone know how that goes.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Moot said:


> Good to know!
> I'm going to try my MXR 10-band EQ and see how that works. I think you can lower the input by -12db and the output by -12db. I'll let everyone know how that goes.


Apologies for the derail but thought you'd like to know. Tried a few different things into both amp loops, by far the best solution is my EB MVP volume pedal. It has a "min" setting on it which allows me to set the lower volume level very accurately. I should have thought of this before but I'm getting old and senile. It's also extremely quiet in both amps, and no noticeable loss of tone that I can hear. Really pleased with this solution, it's turned a good amp at volume to a great amp at any volume.

Ernie Ball MVP Volume/Gain Expression Pedal

"Minimum volume control allows for the heel position to be set at zero up to 50% for any rhythm level. Gain control allows for the toe position to be set at 100% up to a boosted 20+ decibels of gain for powerful lead levels. Tuner output can be used at any volume, with any tuner, without any effect on audio signal. No high frequency loss at any volume. Works with active and passive audio signals. Can be placed anywhere in the signal chain. Improved sweep for ideal volume control, 9v batttery or AC adapter powered. (adapter not included)"


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Volume box now working fine. See post #16 at the link below.

Paging Mr Hammer


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

I was poking around the chassis of my ED and found a 1/4" jack right beside the reverb transformer.
The second last paragraph explains it. It's a jack to remote switch the reverb on and off.
I'd missed this every time I read the manual - I had to ask Mesa via email.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

My LSS has that as well.

I think of it as Mesa's confirmation that hardly anyone footswitches verb on and off anymore. Personally, I don't use verb like an effect, I add a tiny bit on the clean channel and none on the dirt channel. I think footswitching reverb went away with surf music. But, shhhhhhhhhh, don't tell Fender.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

High/Deaf said:


> My LSS has that as well.
> 
> I think of it as Mesa's confirmation that hardly anyone footswitches verb on and off anymore. Personally, I don't use verb like an effect, I add a tiny bit on the clean channel and none on the dirt channel. I think footswitching reverb went away with surf music. But, shhhhhhhhhh, don't tell Fender.


Ain't that the truth. I can see it being useful if you're using a fancy, multi-unit setup and need your G-System to remote switch it. I know I've never needed to switch it on or off. Like you, I use a wee bit of 'verb on the Clean channel only.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

I'm still not set up in my new place - might not happen until Spring now. So no recordings yet.

But I can't leave the Electradyne alone. The ED is the amp I've played the longest without swapping out the stock tubes, it was just so good. But I got curious enough to do some tube swapping last night.
A judicial use of three Preferred Series 7025's (cleans and PI) and four old RFT 12ax7's, plus a quad of Preferred Series 6L6GC's. I love these RFT's!

The ED is no longer Bass-heavy! Chinese 12ax7's have a lot of lower end, and 6 of them were too much for the preamp. Now I can run the Bass pot two numbers higher and there's no hint of flubbiness.

The cleans are richer, a bit bouncier, and the Presence is much easier to blend in; the Lo drive comes on super smoothly and can be controlled easily with the guitar's volume and pick attack, and has a the wonderful harmonic quality that those RFT tubes are known for. The Hi channel I still have to work with - I haven't found an "Oh, yeah!" setting with it yet (which is fine, I bought the Electradyne for its Clean and Lo channel, anyway.) [Update - I was using a JJ ECC803 for Hi Gain, and it wasn't very good. An old RFT worked much better.]

I'm very, very satisfied with this upgrade. Not only is this going to lengthen my honeymoon with the Electradyne, it's like my new bride just invited the cute waitress up to our room! (Ok, a wee bit hyperbolic, but it's close to how I feel.)

Next: a Celestion Cream? Yes. Definitely yes.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

If it was half the weight I've have one


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

davetcan said:


> If it was half the weight I've have one


The Cream will shave off a smidgen over a pound. Only 34 pounds more 'till we get to half the weight!
Hmmm.,. those knobs look heavy.... 

Luckily I rarely need to lift it.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

I couldn't resist. The Celestion Cream is a lovely looking speaker.
I've only played it for 30 minutes at med-low volume (volume 7, master 3) and in many ways it sounds amazing. Definitely more "vintage," well controlled bass.... It lacks note separation right now - I'm hoping that'll improve over time. It also has a subdued attack compared to the stock MC-90, but a tweak of my compressor took care of that.

And, damn, this Electradyne keeps impressing me! Humbuckers, singlecoils, Strats, Teles, Hollowbodies... everything sounds great through it but keeps its own identity; they sound like the guitars, not the amp. 

Now that the bass has been controlled with the tube swap and speaker change, I'd say the Clean channel sounds less like a Twin and more like a giant tweed Deluxe; a lot richer in the midrange. 

So, I gotta play the heck out of it for a few days and see what happens with this new Cream. My neighbours are going to hate me. HNG^%$


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Moot said:


> I'm still not set up in my new place - might not happen until Spring now. So no recordings yet.
> 
> But I can't leave the Electradyne alone. The ED is the amp I've played the longest without swapping out the stock tubes, it was just so good. But I got curious enough to do some tube swapping last night.
> A judicial use of three Preferred Series 7025's (cleans and PI) and three old RFT 12ax7's and one JJecc803 (drives), plus a quad of Preferred Series 6L6GC's.
> ...


Mmm. I love cute waitresses.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

cboutilier said:


> Mmm. I love cute waitresses.


Quite common in my experience.


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

I'd say the Cream is a huge success with the Electradyne! It only took four or five hours of regular playing to break it in.
The Cream isn't as aggressive as the Gold (which I have in another cab of similar dimensions) and definitely imparts a vintage vibe to most tones. I preferred the Gold on the Hi channel, but not by much, and it's the channel I use least. And there's barely a difference between the two speakers, anyway.

I feel like I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this ED. I'm happy every time I plug in! Tele, Strat, hollowbody, humbuckers... everything sounds great and I can always dial in a great tone in seconds. (NB: I only play at home these days, so I have no idea how this sits in a mix. But I would have _loved_ to have this amp when I was performing.)

Kudos to Mesa and Celestion!


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

I swapped back to the original Black Shadow speaker. The Cream made _everything_ on the amp sound vintage. Great, but vintage. I have amps for vintage already. 
The Black Shadow is a big part of the ED's Twin sound - the Cream made it sound like a (big!) tweed amp. Which was sweet, but I really missed the girth and foundation that the ED had originally possessed. The Black Shadow brought that right back.
Over all, the tube swap was the biggest, best change (remember that the tubes I got the amp with were pretty ragged and used,) and the speaker swap just changed the flavour from Modern-Vintage to Vintage-Vintage.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Interesting!

I have the gold in my LSS so long I just accept it as part of the sound. Some cold rainy day (I'm expect a few in the near future), I should swap my C90 back in to hear the difference going back that way. It would be an interesting experiment - and another excuse to mess with an amp for a day or two. Good idea. Thanks!


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## TubeStack (Jul 16, 2009)

I picked up an Electra Dyne head recently and have been really enjoying it with a Recto 2x12 (V30s). Such a responsive and touch-sensitive amp on all modes (clean/lo/hi) and just absolutely huge-sounding. Been using it with an LP plugged straight in and getting insanely good sounds very easily. I'm generally a Marshall/hard-classic rock guy and this amp seems absolutely perfect for that.





  








MESA/Boogie Electra Dyne




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TubeStack


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Jul 26, 2017


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1


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

TubeStack, that's a gorgeous rig! I've always liked the look of the Electradyne as a head/cab.
Open-back cab + V30's = Classic Rock.
Congratulations!


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

davetcan said:


> Update on the "volume box".
> 
> Does it work? Yes. But it adds quite a bit of line noise to the signal path and it does cut highs at higher attenuation (or lower volume) At first I thought it was likely just the BDRI as my GE-7 was also a bit noisy in the loop. I tried it in my Koch Studiotone, which is superbly built, and had the same issue. So imho save yourself $30 and put it towards a good speaker attenuator or do what I'm going to do and use a GE-7.
> 
> Another option might be a volume pedal in the loop. Anyone tried that? I have an Ernie Ball MVP kicking around here somewhere. Or just stick it at the end of my pedal chain as usual I guess. Duh !!



I just threw a volume pot into an enclosure and stuck that in the loop of my F50 combo, that worked pretty well with no noise. That was another underrated amp, I still miss the hauntingly good cleans. I used it in a funk/hiphop group with good success but the drive channel wasn't really to my taste at the time. Ended up switching to Oranges.


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## TubeStack (Jul 16, 2009)

Moot said:


> TubeStack, that's a gorgeous rig! I've always liked the look of the Electradyne as a head/cab.
> Open-back cab + V30's = Classic Rock.
> Congratulations!


Thanks, Moot. I've been enjoying it at home for a couple weeks and finally get to play it with my band tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

TheYanChamp said:


> I just threw a volume pot into an enclosure and stuck that in the loop of my F50 combo, that worked pretty well with no noise. That was another underrated amp, I still miss the hauntingly good cleans. I used it in a funk/hiphop group with good success but the drive channel wasn't really to my taste at the time. Ended up switching to Oranges.


Agreed, I had an F50 years ago and felt exactly the same way.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

The form factor of the 1x12 combo was perfect for me at the time though. I was living in Vancouver without a car so I'd strap my guitar, amp and pedal board to a rubber tire hand truck and take transit. That thing held up great to that kind of abuse.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

davetcan said:


> Agreed, I had an F50 years ago and felt exactly the same way.


Felt the same way about the gain too? I forget what it was about it I wasn't a fan of, but for some reason Im still gassing for some sort of Mesa combo again.. I also didn't experiment much with OD's or boost pedals much as I was dirt poor and couldn't experiment.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

TheYanChamp said:


> Felt the same way about the gain too? I forget what it was about it I wasn't a fan of, but for some reason Im still gassing for some sort of Mesa combo again.. I also didn't experiment much with OD's or boost pedals much as I was dirt poor and couldn't experiment.


Yep, exactly the same, i found it too harsh and impossible to dial in a usable sound for me, it's why I unloaded it eventually. I had a Lonestar Special that was perfect on both channels. of course i sold it.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

I've been toying with the idea of buying a LS, but don't know if I should go combo again or a head. Those C90 speakers seem perfect with mesa's for some reason. I'd hate to get a head or something and then realize its not what I want with my usual 1960 bottom cab.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

I sometimes put my LSS through a vertical 212, just for something different. I think it helps with the gain channel, focusing it a bit. But it takes away from the airy-ness of the clean channel.

Since I use the clean channel probably 75% of the night, I've never gigged it with that config. I kinda get the best of both worlds using my LSS (open back with a Celestion Gold) sitting on a closed-back widebody cab with the C90. Still opened and airy, but a bit more solid bottom end for the heavier stuff. 



davetcan said:


> Yep, exactly the same, i found it too harsh and impossible to dial in a usable sound for me, it's why I unloaded it eventually. I had a Lonestar Special that was perfect on both channels. *of course i sold it.*


LOL The grass is always greener. 

I used to sell stuff to try new stuff when I rented apartments and moved a lot. Now, with a house, I think I'm gradually working towards having my own music store. Thankfully, some of the threads here and at other sites make me see that my affliction is far from the most severe. I'm just nicely mid-spectrum obsessive compulsive, not like weird or crazy or anything.


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## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

davetcan said:


> Yep, exactly the same, i found it too harsh and impossible to dial in a usable sound for me, it's why I unloaded it eventually. I had a Lonestar Special that was perfect on both channels. of course i sold it.



I still have my F100. I found that if you turn the treble on the gain tonestack side completely off, the driven tone comes to life. Rolling back the guitar tone knob to taste makes it even sweeter. The Contour switch makes it insanely delicious. Since I learned that trick the Amp has earned a spot in my collection.


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