Back To Mesa And Here's Why

  • Thread starter Thread starter shogunlegend
  • Start date Start date
S

shogunlegend

Guest
the supersonic is a beast with awesome tone. unfortunately, the mesa won me over with it's clean tone and articulate sound.

i really liked the way my pedals sounded with teh bassman channel, but once if finally got a chance to crank my volume past 3 (which is loud on a fender), the bassman channel turned into a distortion channel. it was an awesome sounding channel, but i can't use my pedals with that.

i tried it several ways on the vibrolux channel, but it was too thin and trebly to use pedeals. everything sounded a little off. i wanted to keep it just for the overdrive channel, which seemed to be the most popular, but opted for a more versatile amp.

the mesa can operate at 5 or 50 watts, and it has an immaculate clean channel. the gain is very nice and certainly comprable to the supersonic, but not as much character and not as much gain. there is enough gain for many applications, but i would have liked just a little more. then again with my budget, i guess i can't have my cake and eat it too. oh well, i can't complain. i've got a mesa boogie!!!

not to say anything bad about the supersonic. it's probably the best sounding overdrive i have heard on any amp besides my beloved marshall. what a great sound. i wish i could afford to have that amp just for the overdrive.
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

i've heard a lot of people say that, but i think they're referring to other mesas. the 5:50 is a newer breed and somewhat different that other mesas. it does actually sound much closer to a fender than any other mesa that i can think of. i had them side-by-side for several days and i would have to say that there are more similarities in tone than not.

i chose the mesa for several reasons. one is that it's made in the USA. the other is that the tone, although not EXACTLY what i was looking for, it super high quality and close enough. it's more versatile and practical for ME in my situation. it can also run in 5 watt mode too, and that's great for recording and bedroom practice.
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

I thought the Supersonic was a "close but no cigar" amp compared to any of my Mesa Boogies.

The Supersonic WISHES it could be a DC-5.

I'd take a used Mark III Simul-Class, Reverb, EQ, 112 EVM combo any day of the week over a brand new Supersonic.

Bill
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

yeah, but i'm talking about amps in an affordable price range. the supersonic is $1,100 new retail
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

shogunlegend said:
i've heard a lot of people say that, but i think they're referring to other mesas. the 5:50 is a newer breed and somewhat different that other mesas. it does actually sound much closer to a fender than any other mesa that i can think of. i had them side-by-side for several days and i would have to say that there are more similarities in tone than not.

i chose the mesa for several reasons. one is that it's made in the USA. the other is that the tone, although not EXACTLY what i was looking for, it super high quality and close enough. it's more versatile and practical for ME in my situation. it can also run in 5 watt mode too, and that's great for recording and bedroom practice.
Click to expand...

i heard your clips, was that the 5:50?
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

For all the crap Mesa gets, I think there are some really great tones - it just takes more tweaking than some other amps. The Road King 2 looks like it's one of those "end-all" amps. If you've ever played the Lonestar then you know how good the cleans are and if you can get tones like that mixed with their higher gain rhythm and lead channels then you know you've got a winner.
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

yeah, that pretty much describes the 5:50. it's got awesome cleans and more gain than the lonestar. the thing is that it doesn't have a lot of gain. it certainly won't qualify as a metal amp, but it can do some metal. the thing is that the clean channel is so good (maybe even better than the lonestar clean), that for some reason pedals sound really nice. i just put my amp on the clean channel and put all my pedals directly to the input.

i think mesa recommends that overdrives and wahs be put direct, but reverb, delay, etc... be put through the effects loop, so that's the way i have it set up. sounds great to me
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

I know you're into the combo thing, but I'm telling ya if you ever get a head, and want to stick with mesa go with the stiletto trident.
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

i did check that out, but i haven't found anything that i like better than my marshall dsl head. i actually thought the stilletto was kind of thin in the top end and sounded rather mid scooped. it sounded great, but i like a thick sounding midrange kind of amp.

i also checked out the mesa triple rect, peavey 6505, and jvm heads, and must say that i was very impressed with the triple rect over all. the only thing is that it sounds kind of a like a one trick pony. great metal tones through and through, but i'm not sure what else i could do with it. then again, i only played it for about an hour.
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

Supersonics are great amps, but you have good reason to prefer the mesa!
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

I thought Supersonics were made in the US too, no? My taste leans towards the SS. It seems to be way more versatile and the tones have more character. Maybe not the character you're looking for but for whatever reason the character I prefer.
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

Gamera said:
I thought Supersonics were made in the US too, no? My taste leans towards the SS. It seems to be way more versatile and the tones have more character. Maybe not the character you're looking for but for whatever reason the character I prefer.
Click to expand...

fender makes their amps in mexico now
 
Re: Back To Mesa And Here's Why

i'd really like to hear a clip of the lonestar. not the 30 watt, but the 100watt full-size combo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
Ceriatone 18W Questions
Replies
0
Views
232
fretburner
F
xxxplorer
Played a Peavey JSX and XXX cab
2
Replies
26
Views
3K
Fender_Punk
Fender_Punk
uOpt
Anybody tried the Mesa JP-2C (John Petrucci signature amp)?
Replies
12
Views
729
d1dsj
d1dsj
MikeS
NAD - Friedman JJ Jr.
Replies
1
Views
375
justFred
justFred
Coma
EVH 50w midi switching
Replies
4
Views
439
Mincer
Mincer
Back
Top