Somebody School me on Mesa Boogie amps

SimpleSimon

In 30 years or so of playing i've never managed to try a Mesa Boogie, what am I missing? what is the signature tone?

Jalapeno

Favoured by Teh Brutalz bretheren, but I love my Mini Rectifier (and the Nomad I had for a decade before) - very flexible sounds all round. Like Dumble they were originally souped up Fender designs.

Probably over-priced, but the sound is awesome !

ICBM

If you mean a 'Boogie' - Santana.

But Mesa make a lot of very different amps now. Even the Boogies are capable of a wider range of sounds than just that very smooth, middy lead tone - they do great clean sounds too. 'Mesa' - ie the Rectifier series - are more associated with scooped metal and nu-metal tones (eg Limp Bizkit), but are equally capable of far more.

They do all seem to have a characteristic solid, quite dark tone though - they don't do the bouncy sparkly clean Fender BF sound or the bright ringing Marshall crunch, quite - although they can get fairly close.

The Boogies (Mark series) are Blackface Fender-derived originally, but the Rectifiers are Marshall-derived (OK, Fender Tweed Bassman right at the beginning!) via Soldano. Then there are others like the Transatlantic series which are Vox-derived. But they all sound like Mesas, somehow.

hubobulous

The Lonestar Classic is a lovely amp. The clean channel is pristine if dialled in without gain, but can quite happily crunch up. Channel 2 is a lovely gain sound. There are a lot of switching options per channel to allow for further flexibility.

My Lonestar is an amp I can never see me parting with.

Deijavoo

I've had a few and the Dual Rec 2nd version was by far my favourite. A very under rated clean tone IMO.

gubble

In a nutshell

They are expensive over this side of the pond

They are generally built like a brick outhouse

They all sound great in their own way

SimpleSimon

ICBM said:

If you mean a 'Boogie' - Santana.

But Mesa make a lot of very different amps now. Even the Boogies are capable of a wider range of sounds than just that very smooth, middy lead tone - they do great clean sounds too. 'Mesa' - ie the Rectifier series - are more associated with scooped metal and nu-metal tones (eg Limp Bizkit), but are equally capable of far more.

They do all seem to have a characteristic solid, quite dark tone though - they don't do the bouncy sparkly clean Fender BF sound or the bright ringing Marshall crunch, quite - although they can get fairly close.

The Boogies (Mark series) are Blackface Fender-derived originally, but the Rectifiers are Marshall-derived (OK, Fender Tweed Bassman right at the beginning!) via Soldano. Then there are others like the Transatlantic series which are Vox-derived. But they all sound like Mesas, somehow.

Thanks for all the input chaps, @ICBM seemed to capture what I was after-  There seem so many models I couldn't tell one from the other. I guess I'd be interested in the Boogie or Transatlantics then for Blues/Rock/Americana. Which category does the ElectroDyne series come in?

uncledick

I've had a Subway Rocket Reverb for years which sounds superb.  If I was shopping now for something similar then the Express 5:25+ is full of decent tones.  The controls on a Mesa/Boogie always seem to work in a 'nice' way. Try one - and you'll see what I mean.

ICBM

SimpleSimon said:

Thanks for all the input chaps, @ICBM seemed to capture what I was after-  There seem so many models I couldn't tell one from the other. I guess I'd be interested in the Boogie or Transatlantics then for Blues/Rock/Americana. Which category does the ElectroDyne series come in?

That's actually one I've never played and I'm not familiar with the design at all!

uncledick said:

The controls on a Mesa/Boogie always seem to work in a 'nice' way. Try one - and you'll see what I mean.

That's interesting - most people say the opposite, that they're very touchy and hard to dial in.

Mkjackary

Hard to dial in for one person could also mean "great range if eq control" to the other.

Marshals are easy to dial in because I'm pretty sure their eq knobs aren't connected to anything in the amp. Just there to spin and give you the illusion of change.

I think mesa are the last/most recent brand to give a sound 'type'. That being the rectifier/treadplate sound.
I don't like it, but I get why people do like it.

ICBM

Mkjackary said:

I think mesa are the last/most recent brand to give a sound 'type'. That being the rectifier/treadplate sound.

I would agree with that. It's been over twenty years, and it shows we've reached the end of the road with valve amps in terms of sounds, I think. Obviously there have been a vast number of amps designed since, but all of them have been repackaging older sounds in some way or other.

The real question for me is whether electric guitars can move on beyond the sounds we've got up to now, or whether they will become more or less like classical instruments from now on, used for only a fixed range of sounds.

telehack

Serious question: Why are Mesas so flippin' heavy? Cab, xformers, made of lead...? 

Cabicular

I've got a MKIV combo and I hate it

It just sits in the corner and resents me

I cannot get a good sound out of it, it is far too heavy and has far too many controls

I liked the stilletto, not tried a Dul or triple rec yet

welshboyo

telehack;1093636" said:

Serious question: Why are Mesas so flippin' heavy? Cab, xformers, made of lead...? 

Talking combos here (III and IV's) it's normally to do with the frankly comical dinner plate sized magnets on the EV's (which probably don't even break into a sweat) and also the o/s transformers.

I used to love leaving the over friendly punter to carry this to the car for me!! Never ever a chance of him/her running away with it as they would never make it more than 25 steps without having to take a rest and change hands!!

DaevidJ

Not all Mesas are heavy... My Studio 22+ is rather light

webrthomson

DaevidJ said:

Not all Mesas are heavy... My Studio 22+ is rather light

And that is one of Mesa's most underrated gems IMHO!

ICBM

telehack said:

Serious question: Why are Mesas so flippin' heavy? Cab, xformers, made of lead...? 

Cabinet, transformers and speakers - which is the main culprit depends on the model. Sometimes all three…

Cabicular said:

I've got a MKIV combo and I hate it

It just sits in the corner and resents me

I cannot get a good sound out of it, it is far too heavy and has far too many controls

I'm sure I could find someone to buy that, via the shop. We sold a MkIII a few weeks ago, I hated that too!

nick79

I've got a Mesa F50 and i'm chuffed with it. Like most (all?) Mesa's its voiced quite dark, wonderfull clean channel with as much headroom as i'll ever need. Clean channel with the gain all the way up gives a lovely blues tone. Pedals also sound really good through the clean channel, been running a Guvnor through it lately to nail the Marshall crunch and it's superb. 

The drive channel gives me classic rock type stuff, and with the contour engaged (slight boost while cutting mids) gets me into old school metal territory. Sounds kind of recto-ish, but not quite. It can be a bit of a bitch to dial in and i'm still finding my way with it but i'm happy so far. 

And its loud, very loud. 

I really like that old school Metallica type distortion that the Mk's can do, but they are way out of my price range at the mo, so i'll stick with the F50 for now. 

Maynehead

I have a Boogie Subway Rocket Reverb and a Mesa Dual Rec.

The Rocket Reverb does the typical Boogie smooth mid heavy crunch very well, but it's a bit of a one trick pony. Not much breadth to the sound and lacks both bass and treble. That could be due to the stock 10" Eminence 50W speaker though, and I've got plans to upgrade it with a Celestion Vintage 10. It's very light though, has bags of gain and very loud. Great for lugging to rehearsals.

The Dual Rec is quite different. The sound is huge, with lots of bass and lots of treble, almost the opposite of the Rocket. The tone can sound quite harsh though, almost buzzy if not dialed in carefully. Compared to something like an Orange, Engl or Blackstar it sounds rather fizzy and ice-picky in the higher frequencies, with an inherent scoop in the mid range. Although not perfect, its huge sound does make up for any peculiarities it may have. I find it good enough to use as my main gigging amp, but I have heard a PRS Archon though the same cab and I do prefer the PRS!

ICBM

Maynehead said:

The Rocket Reverb does the typical Boogie smooth mid heavy crunch very well, but it's a bit of a one trick pony. Not much breadth to the sound and lacks both bass and treble. That could be due to the stock 10" Eminence 50W speaker though, and I've got plans to upgrade it with a Celestion Vintage 10.

Have you heard a Vintage 10?

Maynehead

ICBM said:

Maynehead said:

The Rocket Reverb does the typical Boogie smooth mid heavy crunch very well, but it's a bit of a one trick pony. Not much breadth to the sound and lacks both bass and treble. That could be due to the stock 10" Eminence 50W speaker though, and I've got plans to upgrade it with a Celestion Vintage 10.

Have you heard a Vintage 10?

Only what I can find on YouTube, but it's hard to find good 10" speaker reviews. I've also plugged it into my (Chinese) V30 loaded cab which expanded the sound nicely and reduced the nasal mid honk. I'm hoping the V10 might do something similar.

I would appreciate any suggestions for a better alternative though!