Best Mesa Amp?

[Zerberus]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

The V-Twin has great cleans...

If i WANTED to misunderstand that, MRID....

[mrid]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

If i WANTED to misunderstand that, MRID....

I'm serious! It, like, "Fenderized" my Marshall! Mmm...sparkly! Didn't care for the distortion, though.

[some_dude]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

If you own one, DON'T buy Mesa tubes.

I own a 2:100.

For my next experiment, I plan on putting a good set of 6L6s in the left channel, and good set of EL34s in the right.

I wonder how that will sound?

[mrid]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

If you own one, DON'T buy Mesa
tubes.

Don't go giving away all your tone secrets, GJ! BTW...totally agree.

[HardRockSinger]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

could someone fill me in on why the mesa triple rectifier "sucked"?

I liked the effects loop feature, and they always sound ok at guitar center (although I can't crank em that loud w/o upsetting employees). I thought the 1st 2 godsmack albums sounded good.

I am not planning on buying one soon, although I would like to know just for general reference what is wrong (tone?). I have played with dual rectifier bandmates
... anyone know?

[Mincer]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

i think people think the trip rect is a cliche sound...lots of lows, no mids. Also, it doesnt help that not only the sound is cliche, but the detuned playing style is. My blue angel is technically a dual rect, but it uses bot rects at the same time, so i am told.

[B2D]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

I gave a vote for the Lone Star, because IMHO it IS better than the other amps Mesa puts out. The cleans are far superior to it, in fact, the cleans do put some Fenders to shame (Sorry B2D, but I disagree with you there... that's a bold statement saying it beats all Fenders).

If Mesa continues releasing stuff like the Lone Star, I may actually desire to buy one. The tones are more refined and sophisticated than the others (beating out the Road King).

Well I admit I did overexaggerate a bit there... but seriously I've never heard a brand new amp nail such a genuine, vintage, soulful tone like that. The only the amps' I've heard with a better clean tone were a Vintage Vibroverb with cream vinyl (not sure of the year, but it was definitely pre-CBS), and a '66 Deluxe Reverb with the original GE tubes and a well-broken-in Vintage 30 speaker. But in all seriousness this amp does beat most vintage Fenders.

[HardRockSinger]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

OK, thanks for the triple rectifier explanation

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

Besides the cliche of it all with Rectifiers period, the Triple Rectifier lags in some other areas. Unfortunately, to really get it to open up, you have to crank it all the way, and if your signature is right HardRockSinger, you won't want to be within a mile of that amp when it does The single and double just sound better at more reasonable levels. You realistically just don't need that kind of power and the Triple just won't sound good on anything lower than dangerous.

[HardRockSinger]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

of course, I wear earplugs (band practice is an environmental hazard, concerning hearing!!) ...I can hear my head voice when I sing, and don't really need the expensive earplugs =-)

I did not think about the extreme loudness though - this occurs even through a halfstack (not fullstack)?

Ive read a bunch of reviews that say the cleans are better with the triple rectifier rather than dual, and that the sound is more focused.

Glad to know that it is really bassy though (no treble) as I have not heard the triple rec at loud volumes, only semi-low volumes and on Godsmack cds. sounds pretty limiting if it is that bassy. thanks.

[papersoul]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

I'd love to hear the new Stiletto.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

One analogy, regarding the Triple Rec and Roadking is....
Think of an amp as a garden hose. Every feature you add to an amp is the equivalent of punching another hole in the garden hose. The water that trickles out of the garden hose is the tone that comes out of a bells n whistles amp.
A point to point boutique amp with nothing but a power section and 3 knobs,
like a Dr. Z Rt. 66, is a garden hose with no holes. The tone just pours out of that
proverbial garden hose!

[some_dude]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

i think people think the trip rect is a cliche sound...lots of lows, no mids. Also, it doesnt help that not only the sound is cliche, but the detuned playing style is. My blue angel is technically a dual rect, but it uses bot rects at the same time, so i am told.

Don't forget that a large part of the reason for the cliched sound is the person tuning it. I get plenty of mids out of my rectifier, but that's due to the fact that I like to turn the mids up and the bass down. You can get some serious 70's mojo from Rectifiers, if people would only stop dumping the mids and tuning down to low H.

But I do agree that Triples are a little bit of overkill.

[HardRockSinger]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

OK - I get it - that extra 50 watts is punching a big hole in the waterhole. thanks

[XXX-FACTOR]

Re: Best Mesa Amp?

Rectifiers have this eq knob on them that says, umm, bass, I think you can control it that way, Not that many do, but you can. Sorry, had to say it. You can also change to EL-34 power tubes which will change the charateristics of the tone, if that makes sense, less bass, more mids and highs, earlier breakup etc. It's still a Rectifier, so the tone is basically the same, but it has a slightly differnt twist to it.


I played the Stilletto back in January, not impressive at all. I heard a lot of people said the same I said about it and Mesa went back and redesigned it. I'm looking forward to playing the production version.