ilovefuzz.com

dang duder,
that Mesa is flipping dope

So I went to Guitar Center earlier today to test out the Mesa through a cab with the proper impedance so as to not poke the beast. I played it for an hour give or take under the guise of looking for a new pedal (although I actually was, and I found out that the Green Rhino pairs wonderfully with my amp, so I bought one from Reverb lol) and I let her rip. Which on this amp means keeping the master under 3. And I'm the guy that plays loud as fuck. Anyway, here are some thoughts:

I love how easy it is to use. Now I'm one of those odd people that has never found Mesas difficult to in, even roadsters and Mark Vs - probably because I read the manuals. But this amp is one of the easiest Mesas to get a hang of. As long as you keep the bass under 5, the mids at or under 7, you're pretty much good to go. If you can't dial in a good tone with this amp, you should be ashamed.

This is the first amp I've used where the half power switch actually comes close to cutting the volume in half. It's a huge difference. At full power, gig volume is 2 to 3, depending on your style of music and how loud your drummer is. In half power, gigging volume is around 5 on the master. I personally don't like the half power setting as much as the full power, but to be fair I've not messed with it much because the full power mode is so much better. I wonder how much a new set of tubes will change my perception of the amp in general and the power modes in particular. The full power mode is just gigantic sounding - exactly what you would expect from 6 6L6s. It's got more low end than my bassman, and that's saying something.

It should go without saying, but this thing has headroom for days. Now because of the shared gain control, you can't footswitch between a pristine clean channel and a super saturated lead channel - there's a bit of compromise on that front. But pushing the volume so that the clean channel breaks up just a bit gives the lead channel enough saturation to really sing, and they both react extremely well to backing down your guitar's volume. I found that when hitting the dirty channel with a boost (I tried out a few different ones and my favorite with this amp was the Green Rhino) you can get plenty of saturation while still having a pretty clean rhythm channel.

I haven't really explored the mid gain tones in this amp, but what I've heard so far is very impressive. This is the first mark series amp I've owned, and the first time I've played a mark earlier than the Mark IV (and I only ever played one Mark IV). This amp doesn't really lack for anything. I can play pretty much anything with it and just a few pedals.

Now, the only thing left to do is to pummel the rhythm channel with my big muff. I haven't yet, but I have no reason to expect it will do anything less than reduce my neighborhood to a steaming pile of rubble.

I honestly don't think I've ever been more happy with an amplifier. Now I feel like I've got most of my bases down - I've got the perfect Fender tones (1968 Bassman), the perfect plexi and 800 tones (Egnater SW45) and now the perfect Mesa tones. Yeah, there are a few things I'd still like to add to my arsenal - an AC30 would be a lot of fun, and I still want a Hovercraft for doom in a box... but I'm really happy with my amps right now. All that's left to do is to make a pedalboard for the Mesa and I'll be happy for a while.

Side note - I ordered a Scarlett 2i2 and a Sennheiser e906 yesterday that should be getting in on friday. That combined with the SM57 I aleady have should allow me to finally be able to record some decent clips. You can bet that the first thing I'm doing is capturing the fucking raditude that is this amp. Stay tuned.

First clip is up!

https://soundcloud.com/jordan-varona/toan-test

Details:

Most importantly - I didn't think any of what I was playing through before playing it. Completely off the cuff.
Gear: PRS McCarty (Whole Lotta Humbucker set) -> Way Huge Green Rhino -> Mesa (full power mode, master volume at about .9, still pretty damn loud) -> Avatar 4x12. V30 mic'd with an SM57 and Greenback with a Sennheiser e906. Mics are panned hard left and right, respectively.
This was all the gain channel. Yes, even the intro. I rolled up the guitar volume and kicked on the Green Rhino for the gain portion.

Again, this was not meant to be representative of my playing. I'm just sharing a crappy recording I made. It's more a test of the new recording gear I bought and whether I can get good sounds out of Reaper, which I'm still learning how to use.

Enjoy! Or don't - and if not, tell me why.

Please visit soundcloud.com to listen to this content.



Look like you have a good signal chain though and I want to hear it.

Sorry about that. Since I'm not sure how to embed soundcloud, I just put the link in the post.

^ Soundcloud embedding doesn't work anymore with Flash (which is what most boards like this one use), so you'd have to visit Soundlcoud anyway.
I'd shout congratulations but you probably wouldn't hear me over the amp.