Well i just played every mesa and.....

[ColdVayne]

OMG i am so not a mesa boogie man , they should be called muddy boggie. I played everything from the nomad 45 to the triple rect threw a 4x12 and i spent hours dialing every possible sound and these thing couldnt come close to my VHT UL. Does anyone own one and could tell me some good settings because i am thinking of buying my friends who wants to sell his dual for 300$ . The only reason i consider it is because i want a back up for live gigs.

[ April 29, 2003, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: ColdVayne ]

[buzzsaww]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

a dual for $300? thats a steal man! but it and i'll trade you somethin for it. heck you could but it and double your ducks on ebay.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Ya gotta know how to tweak em to get the good stuff. Also you need to run em loud to get the goods.

[LRGman]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Buy the boogie cause its cheap. But you wont ever get close to the clarity of the VHT and doubt you'll play it if you have the VHT. I played my friends VHT CL-100. I played it for about ten minutes then sad screw it cause all I wanted to do was sell my triple and get a VHT. Mesa's are muddy, at least recto's are. That is the bottom line. Buy the boogie cause it will be good trading material later. Better a friend get it cheap than a stranger.

[eaeolian]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Chuck's pretty much right - Boogies are a learning experience, 'cause the tone controls interact more than any other amp I've ever played.

I actually get some good sounds out of my TripleRec at low volumes, but it sounds REALLY good when you open it up.

I wouldn't pass on one for $300.

Of course, the VHT sounds really good, too - especially the 100CL, IMO. The Mesa just has the particular distortion tonality that I really like, and the only amp I've heard sound similar is the 5150. (Makes sense, since they're both Soldano-based amps, if I remember Okla's comments correctly.)

Mike

[Chuckracer]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Ya know, I can't for the life of me figure out where that Soldano based thing got started. 5150s and Rectos sound nothing like Soldanos to my ear.

[Hetfield]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

dude i'll buy it from you if you buy it....

hey....buy the head and a good 4x12 and i'll give you my custom Rhoads [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[ColdVayne]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Well let me go out there and see what he has, the only things he has told me about it was that it was a 94 and has a few scuff marks on it. What i dont get is why is mesa so expensive when sure i bet when dialed correctly it sounds great but damn i mean for they want for some of these heads you could buy damn well near 2 marshall heads.

[Twisteramps]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Originally posted by Chuckracer:
Ya know, I can't for the life of me figure out where that Soldano based thing got started. 5150s and Rectos sound nothing like Soldanos to my ear.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They are all similar amps - you'd be surprised what a tonal difference you can make with different coupling caps, tone stack values and especially component quality. I bet the output transformer in the Soldano cost more than all the transformers put together in a recto and 5150. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

A Soldano, when you get right down to it, is a souped up Marshall with much better parts. Older Mesas (mark series) were hotrodded Fenders. All three amps have more in common with each other and Marshalls than you'd realize... and Marshall started off as a Fender clone (bassman ripoff), and Fenders started off as Western Electric circuits, etc.

There's not a whole lot new under the sun, just different tweaks here and there. The 5150 and soldano are voiced more 'high mids' and the rectifiers are voiced 'low mids' which can sound muddy if you don't know how to dial one in.

Recipe for disaster tone-wise: crank the bass, treble and presence and take all the mids out on a rectifier head. Best way to set one is with the eq all at noon, and make SMALL tweaks. I always kept my eq between 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, with most of em between 10 and 2.

Pete

[slayer]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

I feel the same way, VHT`s are the evil beast!! I have a 1993 VHT Pittbull CL-100 Combo and it is smokin [img]graemlins/drool2.gif[/img] Gain to spare with clarity and a nice mix of Lows-Mids-Highs, I will never buy anything else again. I have it on top of a Madison 2x12 and it is perfect for Speed Metal and Death Metal, well for any Metal [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] It does clean very well also, not that I use it [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] My VHT is built like a tank and weighs as much or pretty close to it [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Jack.

[Guitarzan]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Originally posted by ColdVayne:
OMG i am so not a mesa boogie man , they should be called muddy boggie. I played everything from the nomad 45 to the triple rect threw a 4x12 and i spent hours dialing every possible sound and these thing couldnt come close to my VHT UL. Does anyone own one and could tell me some good settings because i am thinking of buying my friends who wants to sell his dual for 300$ . The only reason i consider it is because i want a back up for live gigs.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This has always been my same experience with Mesas as well...

[Twisteramps]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Originally posted by slayer:
I feel the same way, VHT`s are the evil beast!! I have a 1993 VHT Pittbull CL-100 Combo and it is smokin [img]graemlins/drool2.gif[/img] Gain to spare with clarity and a nice mix of Lows-Mids-Highs, I will never buy anything else again. I have it on top of a Madison 2x12 and it is perfect for Speed Metal and Death Metal, well for any Metal [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] It does clean very well also, not that I use it [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] My VHT is built like a tank and weighs as much or pretty close to it [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Jack.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Get a decent 4x12 and unplug the combo speakers... it'll sound MUCH better for metal.

Pete

[ColdVayne]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Well i got back from my friends house who owned the mesa and im still up in the air about buying it. I tried the 12 o clock thing and it was still way to muddy if i do buy it , its so i can sell it to either one of you guys or on ebay. He dont want to sell it on ebay because he wants it to be taken care of and also wants to still be able to play it once in a while.

[Ace]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

If you guys are in Palm Springs, he can come to my house and play it!! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Chuckracer]

Re: Well i just played every mesa and.....

Twister (OK, I need to call you Pete. That was a trainwreck [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ), yeah I'm aware of the Marshall/ Mesa/Fender/Western Electric connection and timeline.
BTW, that Single Recto you sold my singer is the best sounding Recto I've ever played. I have a good friend with a keen ear for tone who I bounce ideas and tweaks off of (and always learn something from him), and I totally fooled him with that Single Recto. It was a blind Test and he honest to god thought it was the SLO! Let me tell you, THAT got my gears turning!
Now, granted, we had been at this comparing amps, guitars, and pickups at stage volumes for a while and both of us had tired ears at this point, but DAMN!
BTW, settings on the Recto were (all settings in "O'Clock" terms):
Gain at 1
Presence at 3
Bass at noon
Mids at 1
Treble at 1
Channel volume at 10
Master at 9 to 10, or a good "round" of the TungSols, but not to real saturation.
Cabs are my two old Marshall 4x12s with the magic 65 watt Celestions.

[ April 30, 2003, 03:38 AM: Message edited by: Chuckracer ]