Mesa Boogie DC-5

[Magou]

I am interested in getting a new amp and after playing a Mk3 many a year ago quite fancy a Mesa Boogie. It seems all the Mk3's and Mk4's are a bit out of my price range. But I have seen a few DC-5's for around the right price.

Can anyone recommend if the DC-5 is any good, as I have yet to play through one. And how would it compare tonally to the MK3 & 4's?

Thank you

[Shawn Lutz]

I can't compare it to MKIII or MKIV but I can tell you they are a great bang for the buck. I have the wide body combo version and the only Mesa amp I have. They are prety versatile, good clean, reverb, footswitchable EQ. I paid like $500-550 for mine on eBay a few years ago. It sounds good on it own and better with an ext cab

[Foulacy]

i have a dc-5 1x12 combo. LOUD amp, easily enough to gig with. it's not metal but it has a great amount of distortion, enough for almost anyone. it's more of a hard rock amp and it has great clean tones. back when i first obtained mine I played a lot of rush. it almost has "generic" sound to it but that can be considered a good thing because it is a top notch "generic" sound. it is a mesa after all. i'm not a fan of the effects loop on it, as mine has a slight hum (maybe fixable? very slight with the loop maxed). also the effects loop isn't footswitchable.

[anothersomeone]

DC-5 Combo

I have been using a DC-5 combo for about 4 -5 years now. LOVE IT! My biggest gripe is what was mentioned in here earlier, the humming effects loop. The more you soak your signal into the effects loop, the louder the hum gets. I haven't looked far enough into it to see if this can be resolved or not.

I love metal and I think the tone is in there personally, but I haven't been blessed enough to play through a mrk III, etc.

There is a pretty sweet mod out there that really opens the amp up though and makes the master volume alot more usable (another big complaint about this amp that exists). The amp by nature is quazi usable at 2, but the further up you go, it gets unbearably loud and then you see no difference in volume from like 8 to 10.

[Magou]

Thanks for the info guys - Appreciated

[fuel0707]

I guess I'll be in the dissenting minority here. I bought a DC-5 combo in '96 and had it for a few years. After living with it for a while, I just didn't care for the way that the distortion seemed to completely obscure whatever guitar I plugged into it. I also thought the clean channel was fairly stiff and sterile. But that's my opinion and other guys here obviously love their DC-5's. The bottom line is to try out the amp before you buy it.

And lest anyone accuse of me of not liking Mesa products, I have a Stiletto Ace that I really like.

[anothersomeone]

I agree with Fuel and the other posters here in one thing. From all I've read and researched about the MKIII and IV's, the DC-5 is nothing like it at all. But the DC-5 IMO has alot of bang for the buck.

If you are curious about other Mesa amps that might have the sound your looking for, there is a great forum at http://forum.grailtone.com/ called the boogie board. Anytime I've ever had questions or needed help regarding my mesa, the posters there are pretty helpful.

[kmanick]

What are you going to be using it for?
I have a Rectoverb head and I absolutely love it.
Plenty of power, plenty of balls to it and it even has a nice clean,
but it definitely has the "Recto" tone so I use it mainly for 7 string metal
and some shred, but for evertything else I use my JSX.