Total amp overkill

krusty · #1 01-17-2012, 08:19 PM

Wow. I thought my Mesa 2:90 was overkill for jazz, until I picked up a Rectifier 2:100 on the weekend (REALLY cheap). Clean headroom until the cows come home with the Triaxis pre driving it. To be fair, I do play fusion, rock and blues as well, so its capabilities won't be wasted. I have the companion Rectifier Recording Preamp waiting for me half way across the country when I travel there next month. Being now discontinued by Mesa makes them rather hard to find.

I think with the 2:100, I'm going to see what changing the tubes to EL34 will do for the sound, just to give me something completely different from the 6L6 sound of the 2:90. It has a bias switch to allow the swap. The pure jazz tone is remarkably good for this kind of amp. It's certainly not one I would have associated with jazz at all.

CP40Carl · #2 01-18-2012, 06:28 AM

Interested to hear this as I use a Mesa Express 5:50 for jazz and just love it. At the end of the day, these amps have amazing tones with beautiful clean sounds (and expensive!) so they should be good. I also use a Gisbson Les Paul Standard 2008 with it so probably surprise people when I start playing 'All The Things You Are' instead of 'Smoke on The Water!' Lol! I did have a few 'I play jazz therefore require an archtop' issues when I first got it. However, I'm sure that you'll agree that, at the end of the day, the test is whether it sounds good and is great to play on.

Al_F · #3 01-18-2012, 09:01 AM

How is the tone on the lower watt setting ?

whiskey02 · #4 01-18-2012, 09:54 AM

A good amp is a good amp!

CP40Carl · #5 01-18-2012, 10:07 AM

Got to say I thought tone amazing on both settings although I do think that, for clean sounds in a large room/gig, I think that the additional overhead on the 50w setting helped. Only problem with having such a nice amp is that everyone expects my playing to be good as well - and if I do sound good then everyone think it's because of the Mesa! Lol!

krusty · #6 01-18-2012, 10:28 AM

I had a 5:25, and while the cleans on the 5W setting were excellent, I felt that the 5W setting required that the gain knob be wound up to get any real volume, negating the clean aspect completely. I think the 5W setting is for a dirtier, higher gain sound in a smaller setting. Lots of headroom and far more lower end on the 25W setting. Mesa unfortunately made the mistake of saying that they were capable of "Rectifier" sounds on the 'Burn' channel. Big mistake, as the Rectifiers appeal to the Metal crowd, and the Express amps can't do a modern Metal sound quite like its devotees want, so the Express series frequently gets very bad reviews online.

As well, I think the tone control circuitry placement is different in the Express vs. the Rectifiers, so adjusting on the Express to try to get a similar sound has very different results. Mesa amps love to be tweaked, and sometimes a fair bit is required to get one particular sound that you want, because in general, they are very versatile.

CP40Carl · #7 01-19-2012, 03:10 AM

Yeah, I agree that Express certainly no good for metal guitar players. I agree with you iro the 5w setting. Great amp for jazz though. I put it through its paces at a party gig for the first time last year; big space to fill but couldn't have asked for better from the amp. Beautiful sound and clear as a bell. Had to back off on bass eq a fair bit though so as not to compete with bass guitar!

In my experience, you can get a pretty good sound out of most popular amps over a certain price range these days and I agree with a number of recent posts on this forum that simply changing the pick can sometimes make more of a difference to your sound.

Take it easy and thanks for the post.

Carl.

krusty · #8 01-19-2012, 08:17 PM

I stupidly sold my 5:25 over a year ago. I'm sure it could have fit somewhere in my rapidly growing collection, but at that time, I was chasing "The One" amp - the Holy Grail of tone that would define my playing. There's no such thing, and I love the versatility of the 3 Mesa amps I currently have (I have a 20:20 as well as the 2 big boys). I might pick up a 50:50 just for fun as well as a couple more older Mesa preamp options as well as a backup Triaxis in case they discontinue that too.

CP40Carl · #9 01-20-2012, 05:50 AM

Sounds like you've got quite a collection there. Guess my only complaint about Mesa amps is the weight! Nearly got the 5:25 for that reason although worried it might not fill a large room. Considered putting castors on my 5:50 although tech said would have to move reverb unit from bottom of unit to install them. Didn't like the sound of this so bought a (useless) trolley instead. May have to get proper flight case in time. Nice talking to you, keep building that Mesa collection but don't get your house repossessed trying to pay for them all!

Carl.