# Your thoughts on Mesa Boogie amps



## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

Pretty simple. I'm playing with friends and we are thinking about starting a band soon. Make our own songs and rock like we were real rock stars! 
Actually, I am playing with a Fender 30 (2 channels and reverb) with a delay a tuner and a Rat. I would like to keep it simple. More simple.
I had some problem with power outlet and some power soure, sometime practice space don't have many plugs in the walls!

Mesa seems interessing but I wonder how reliable they are? Are versatile they can be? I know they can do the NU Metal sound, they are popular for that, but if I'm playing punk/grunge/blues/stoner stuff are they able to cover everything?

From the Mark V to Rectifier Roadster or single rectifier wich one is the best?

The mark V seems cool but too much options for, I think. The single rectifier is nice too, but maybe too simple since I am really using 3 sounds: clean, little dirt and really dirt!
The roadster seems the perfect match. But I need some inputs.

What you guys think about the mesa?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

There's something in the lineup for everyone. It's BS to assume that they're "Nu-metal" amps - they are popular in metal, rock, country, punk...

I'd go Triple Rec (headroom of 150W = the most punch and control of the recto line), Road King, Stiletto or Mark. It depends on what voicing you want, what type of tone you're after. Any of those amps will do a wide variety of styles.

I own a roadster, I've had it coming up on 2 years. Metal band: check. Punk riffs: check. Rock band: check. Blues/jazz tones - check. But I know I can get that type of tone from a Mark V, Stiletto, Lonestar (except maybe modern metal haha).

I love mesa. You do need to read the manual to get the best tones, and these amps fit into band settings ridiculously well - they were designed to. You *do not* have to a) turn up the gain b) play metal just because you own one.

What kind of music, what budget, how many guitarists, etc?

*There is no "best" mesa, only the best one for you.*


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2011)

Budda said:


> *There is no "best" mesa, only the best one for you.*


+1000 to this.

Jeff Buckley played a Trem-o-Verb.

The guys from My Morning Jacket rock Rect-o-Verbs.

I played a Rect-o-Verb II head for years and absolutely loved it. If I was going back to tubes I'd seek out that amp and a 2x12 V30-loaded Rectifier cab again in a heart beat. Not too loud. Tons of versatility. So very *not* nu-metal.


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## screamingdaisy (Oct 14, 2008)

My recommendation is to figure out which bands produce a sound you really like, then research what gear they're using to achieve it. If you're like me you'll notice some trends and those trends may point you in the right direction. 

When I bought my first tube amp I was all set to buy a Marshall, however I after researching I found most of the dudes I wanted to emulate were using/had used either a Mark or a Recto... so that's what I eventually bought.


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

Whoa, thanks for the comments Budda! Really well describded!
In fact we are (will be) a four pieces band: drum, guitar, guitar/singer and bass.

Our music in mainly punk but with some influences from grunge, blues, stoner, folk.
I really want to do it simple. No pedalboard, only a tuner and a delay depends on the songs, but I think I can do everything with just the amp and guitar!


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

@screamingdaisy: Humm can be difficult, bands I tend to loves seem to play whatever they have on hands. Depends on the venue, sound tech or else! This is a good hints, I'll look at that!


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## Destropiate (Jan 17, 2007)

I really love my Dual Rectifier. Obviously it is great for high gain stuff but the clean sounds I get out of this thing are unreal. I honestly play jazz through my Rectifier and it sounds really good.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

They also do well for mid gain .

Ti-Ron, what kind of punk sound? Can you name a couple of bands?


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## screamingdaisy (Oct 14, 2008)

Ti-Ron said:


> Our music in mainly punk but with some influences from grunge, blues, stoner, folk.
> I really want to do it simple. No pedalboard, only a tuner and a delay depends on the songs, but I think I can do everything with just the amp and guitar!


I play grunge (Alice in Chains, Soundgarden), thrash (Metallica, Lamb of God), sludge (Melvins, Electric Wizard), stoner (Corrosion of Conformity, Kyuss) and every once in awhile I go through an Offspring phase (early Offspring... before they brought on the suck). The singer in my last band had a thing for NoFX and Pennywise while the drummer was an unabashed Blink 182 fan.

I have a Dual Rectifier (2 channel), Roadster, Mark V, Electra-Dyne and Lone Star Special. I'll use any of those amps to play any of that music, which the exception of using the LoneStar Special for metal... it's not really that amps bag. It will do a killer old school driven Fender punk tone however.

I'll talk tone on any of Mesa amp I'm familiar with, however my recommendation would be to start with the current Multi-Watt Dual Rectifier. It covers a lot of territory, has a great clean sound, and will do the three channel clean/dirt/more dirt thing you want in spades.... plus it's probably the sound you're imagining in your head if you're already thinking about using a Mesa.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

If you like the dual, buy the triple - it stomps all over it due to the extra 50W of headroom 

If you want hot rodded marshall, look at the Stiletto


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

I'll list some band that I have as influence:
Nirvana, Metallica (old days glory only), Earthless, Sleep, Witch, Meat Muppets, Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Jimi Hendrix, Refused, Soulfly, Green Day (before all the policitc stuf), Primus, Two Gallants, RVIVR, Silverchair (early days) there's many french bands I won't list but in the of nirvana, offspring, nofx. A small list of what I love.

I did the exercice of the gear used by those bands (not all of them but a couple) and what is my favorite sound is the Fender amps and Orange Amps tone! Cover both of them would be cool!


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

The Roadster/Road King/Lonestar will get your fender-style cleans, but Orange-style dirt... the Stiletto if any of them.

I will admit to not really knowing what pretty much every one of those bands uses live. But I will tell you try out the Stiletto and the Triple rec.


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## bluesmostly (Feb 10, 2006)

If I were going back to tubes I would get a Dual Rectifier or Tremoverb. I love it for blues too.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Budda said:


> The Roadster/Road King/Lonestar will get your fender-style cleans, but Orange-style dirt... the Stiletto if any of them.
> 
> I will admit to not really knowing what pretty much every one of those bands uses live. But I will tell you try out the Stiletto and the Triple rec.


Just a warning here, I had 2 Stilettos (Ace combo, Deuce head) and returned both of them because I couldn't make them sound good. Very punch and harsh, thru multiple cabinets. Never could get the EQ'ing to sound anything like a Marshall. Even bought a 10-band MXR Equalizer just to try and get it to sound 'right', with no luck. Man, I hated those Stilettos.....I love amps and have been through tons of them, these 2 stand out as the worst I have owned. One man's opinion obviously and YMMV. And they sure as hell didn't sound like my Orange Rockerverb 50 head I had, which is my single biggest gear selling regret.

I have had other Mesa's that I did like, this is not a blanket denouncement of Mesa-Boogie just the Stiletto model. I've wanted to try an ElectroDyne (sp?) and a LoneStar for a while, though I've slowed down the gear swap train the last year or so.

To Ti-Ron, lots of good product out there that will do what you want. We (my kids play) have owned a Marshall JVM 410H since they were a brand new model and love it still. Great cleans, then up to sorta JCM800 territory, then modded higher gain 800, then on up to modern metal levels of gain. If you want to run a halfstack, I'd sure give this a listen. I (spam warning) also have an Engl in the emporium that would fill the bill (spam ends).


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## screamingdaisy (Oct 14, 2008)

Ti-Ron said:


> I'll list some band that I have as influence:
> Nirvana, Metallica (old days glory only), Earthless, Sleep, Witch, Meat Muppets, Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Jimi Hendrix, Refused, Soulfly, Green Day (before all the policitc stuf), Primus, Two Gallants, RVIVR, Silverchair (early days) there's many french bands I won't list but in the of nirvana, offspring, nofx. A small list of what I love.


For that, I'd start with a Recto. Some of those bands are known for using Marks (Metallica, NoFX, Offspring... and even Nirvana in an odd sort of way), so if those are higher on your influence list maybe look in that direction, but most of them also used Rectos at various points in time.

Foo Fighters was a Recto for a long time, and the Recto's Vintage high gain was the sound of pop-punk for a long time... so even though Green Day used a modded Plexi you can still hit that same sort of vibe. Nirvana was obviously a distortion pedal... famously using the DS-1 on Nevermind, however he'd moved more towards using a SansAmp dialled in to produce a Mesa Mark sound for In Utero. Silverchair is a Boss Metal Zone.

You won't be able to achieve the kind of breakup that a band like Sleep uses as it's a totally different form of breakup than what you'd get out of a Recto... but if you're not hell bent on nailing that sort of sound then it's less of an issue. That said, achieving the sound that a band like Sleep produces generally requires a lot of volume... levels which most bar owners will probably shy away from unless they specifically cater to really loud bands.

The only problem with Rectos is that they don't really sound all that great at bedroom volumes. They're monsters once you can drive the speakers hard enough to get some movement... but at low volumes they're a little on the fizzy side.


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## screamingdaisy (Oct 14, 2008)

Budda said:


> The Roadster/Road King/Lonestar will get your fender-style cleans, but Orange-style dirt... the Stiletto if any of them.
> 
> I will admit to not really knowing what pretty much every one of those bands uses live. But I will tell you try out the Stiletto and the Triple rec.


The Electra-Dyne is more along the lines of an Orange... although truthfully they're not all that similar (used to own a few Oranges).

The only issue with the Electra-Dyne is that it's more into Plexi/modded Plexi territory and won't cover a lot of the high gain sounds he's looking for.


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

Thanks guys for all the greats comments. Alot of help and great widsom words in all the answers! I'm glad I asked the question before going in store!


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

Two other questions. How easy is to get dirt (drive, distortion, crunch many ways to name it) on a mesa amps? Since I want a straight up set up do I have to crank it to eleven or the gain is pretty usefull? How is the reliability of thos amps? Since I'm playing in a punk band we don't have tech/roadies or others outside help so I hope the amp gonna survive to almost any situations.

Thanks again for the feedback!


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## Guest (Aug 22, 2011)

Ti-Ron said:


> Two other questions. How easy is to get dirt (drive, distortion, crunch many ways to name it) on a mesa amps? Since I want a straight up set up do I have to crank it to eleven or the gain is pretty usefull?


The Rectifiers are quite famous for their preamp gain, no need to crank the master there. I thought my 50W Rect-o-Verb sagged in awesome ways without bleeding ears.



> How is the reliability of thos amps?


There's a reason you don't see Mesa's in the shop very often: built like tanks. I traveled without a backup for years. Even dropped it down a small flight of stairs loading in to a club one night and still played the gig with it. Built like tanks.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

keto said:


> Just a warning here, I had 2 Stilettos (Ace combo, Deuce head) and returned both of them because I couldn't make them sound good. Very punch and harsh, thru multiple cabinets. Never could get the EQ'ing to sound anything like a Marshall. Even bought a 10-band MXR Equalizer just to try and get it to sound 'right', with no luck. Man, I hated those Stilettos.....I love amps and have been through tons of them, these 2 stand out as the worst I have owned. One man's opinion obviously and YMMV. And they sure as hell didn't sound like my Orange Rockerverb 50 head I had, which is my single biggest gear selling regret.
> 
> I have had other Mesa's that I did like, this is not a blanket denouncement of Mesa-Boogie just the Stiletto model. I've wanted to try an ElectroDyne (sp?) and a LoneStar for a while, though I've slowed down the gear swap train the last year or so.
> 
> To Ti-Ron, lots of good product out there that will do what you want. We (my kids play) have owned a Marshall JVM 410H since they were a brand new model and love it still. Great cleans, then up to sorta JCM800 territory, then modded higher gain 800, then on up to modern metal levels of gain. If you want to run a halfstack, I'd sure give this a listen. I (spam warning) also have an Engl in the emporium that would fill the bill (spam ends).


*if you want a marshall, buy a Splawn.* I've heard lots of good things on the Stilettos - it's Mesa's take on the Marshall/British tone. Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it, but I've tried the ACE and I enjoyed it immensely.



screamingdaisy said:


> For that, I'd start with a Recto. Some of those bands are known for using Marks (Metallica, NoFX, Offspring... and even Nirvana in an odd sort of way), so if those are higher on your influence list maybe look in that direction, but most of them also used Rectos at various points in time.
> 
> Foo Fighters was a Recto for a long time, and the Recto's Vintage high gain was the sound of pop-punk for a long time... so even though Green Day used a modded Plexi you can still hit that same sort of vibe. Nirvana was obviously a distortion pedal... famously using the DS-1 on Nevermind, however he'd moved more towards using a SansAmp dialled in to produce a Mesa Mark sound for In Utero. Silverchair is a Boss Metal Zone.
> 
> ...


My recto sounds great at low volumes :S



screamingdaisy said:


> The Electra-Dyne is more along the lines of an Orange... although truthfully they're not all that similar (used to own a few Oranges).
> 
> The only issue with the Electra-Dyne is that it's more into Plexi/modded Plexi territory and won't cover a lot of the high gain sounds he's looking for.


If it's got enough gain to be mid gain, you can boost it and EQ it to do modern metal (more often then not) 



Ti-Ron said:


> Two other questions. How easy is to get dirt (drive, distortion, crunch many ways to name it) on a mesa amps? Since I want a straight up set up do I have to crank it to eleven or the gain is pretty usefull? How is the reliability of thos amps? Since I'm playing in a punk band we don't have tech/roadies or others outside help so I hope the amp gonna survive to almost any situations.
> 
> Thanks again for the feedback!


How easy? Damn easy! The gain is pretty useful - my rhythm and lead distortion gains are set to 5 and 6 respectively. You have to really *read the manual* to get an understanding of how the EQ works, and how it reacts to the gain. I was starting to get a little dissatisfied with my Roadster, tried another forums suggested settings and BAM - the rock tone I wanted was there. Some Mesa Boogies are an industry standards for higher gain sounds, but perform perfectly well at low gain and clean as well. Again, you have to get the amp best suited to what you play.


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