I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

[Mr 9finger]

There's still 6 I think on my to acquire/try list. I wouldn't say I'm really burnt out on them, because I do love them...well except for the retubing part, but that goes w/ the territory. It's not that they don't sound different. Each one that I have brings something different to palette of tones available. At their core though, they're all still Mesa sounding. I dunno, I've just been craving different things here lately. I think a lot of it has to do with my guitar lessons.

We've been working on a lot of 80's type stuff a long w/ some Randy era Ozzy. I'm finding it hard to sit down and practice what I've been taught because it doesn't sound "right" to me. An Eleven Rack will be my next major purchase as soon as my LP is paid off next month. I'm hoping that solves some of, if not all of my dilemma, but I'm still a tad skeptical because it is a modeler.

Don't know. Have to wait and see I guess. The rest of this year could be interesting on the amp/pedal front that's for sure.

 

[Farkus]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

We've been working on a lot of 80's type stuff a long w/ some Randy era Ozzy. I'm finding it hard to sit down and practice what I've been taught because it doesn't sound "right" to me. An Eleven Rack will be my next major purchase as soon as my LP is paid off next month. I'm hoping that solves some of, if not all of my dilemma, but I'm still a tad skeptical because it is a modeler.

The Eleven Rack will do that tone all day. I understand where you are going with the thought process because I felt the same way when I had a dual rec as my main amp. Most of the tones that I feel in love with as a kid were made on Marshall amps and the Mesas just sound different. Good, but different. I find myself just more inspired in general when I have the right sound for the job and there are a lot of sounds in the Eleven rack, even if they're "only simulated". LOL.

 

[uOpt]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I think Randy's sound is one of the ones better reproduced with digital gizmos. It really isn't a complicated sound and quite frankly his playing was a lot better than his sound.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I think Randy's sound is one of the ones better reproduced with digital gizmos. It really isn't a complicated sound and quite frankly his playing was a lot better than his sound.

Agreed. Max Norman pretty much butchered his tone on the studio recordings. His live stuff was bigger, thicker sounding with less piercing highs. No doubt the man kept is his mids and treble nearly dimed, but it sounds much better live.

 

[uOpt]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Agreed. Max Norman pretty much butchered his tone on the studio recordings. His live stuff was bigger, thicker sounding with less piercing highs. No doubt the man kept is his mids and treble nearly dimed, but it sounds much better live.

Interesting that he didn't do it to Jake E. Lee.

It's probably because Jake told him to cut out the **** or face a good beating Randy was just too nice.

 

[Farkus]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Tribute blows me away. I know a lot of folks don't dig the tone but I love it. The playing is amazing and the songs are strong.

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I implore you to check out the Blackstar HT5 with white tolex. Not only does it sound awesome, the white tolex is cool too. You would have a lot more fun with it than the Eleven Rack. I used to be a big fan of the Eleven Rack and thought it was everything the AxeFX could be except cheaper. However, much time has passed since then and I have used a few AxeFx units since then. The truth is that it just doesn't stack up. The AxeFx is king of modelers. Anyway the HT5 has a shape feature which lets you shape the sound quite a bit. You can't get a real Mesa Boogie tone, but it does go from an American flavor to a very British sound. For 5w, it pretty loud, but you can do a lot with it. The white tolex isn't necessary, but it looks good.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Interesting that he didn't do it to Jake E. Lee.

It's probably because Jake told him to cut out the **** or face a good beating Randy was just too nice.

I think it's more so that the "80's sound" had taken more of a hold by the time Jake E. Lee had came in to play for Ozzy. You could pretty well hear the 80's tone evolve going from Diary of a Madman to No Rest For the Wicked. More so between the Bark at the Moon and the Ultimate Sin. In 86 when the Ultimate Sin had came out it, was full blown digital extravaganza!

Tribute blows me away. I know a lot of folks don't dig the tone but I love it. The playing is amazing and the songs are strong.

Truth. I like the live set they included on the Legacy edition of Diary. Still blows my mind.

I implore you to check out the Blackstar HT5 with white tolex. Not only does it sound awesome, the white tolex is cool too. You would have a lot more fun with it than the Eleven Rack. I used to be a big fan of the Eleven Rack and thought it was everything the AxeFX could be except cheaper. However, much time has passed since then and I have used a few AxeFx units since then. The truth is that it just doesn't stack up. The AxeFx is king of modelers. Anyway the HT5 has a shape feature which lets you shape the sound quite a bit. You can't get a real Mesa Boogie tone, but it does go from an American flavor to a very British sound. For 5w, it pretty loud, but you can do a lot with it. The white tolex isn't necessary, but it looks good.

Not really a Blackstar fan bro. I've only played the HT1 and the HT20 but I wasn't overly blown away by them. I'll give one a go if I can find one cheap though. No such thing as too much gear.

 

[Lucid_Lunatic]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I think Jolly has 2 HT5 combos. Those things sound bad ass ran in stereo with each other. We played a LP through his and messed with a few of his pedals. I was blown away how huge they sounded. As far as a cheap alternative to a different sound, you might try em out.

 

[B2D]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Tribute blows me away. I know a lot of folks don't dig the tone but I love it. The playing is amazing and the songs are strong.

Oh yeah, I really wore that record out in HS. Randy in the studio just didn't impress me a whole lot, but that Live recording is smokin!

 

[B2D]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

There's still 6 I think on my to acquire/try list. I wouldn't say I'm really burnt out on them, because I do love them...well except for the retubing part, but that goes w/ the territory. It's not that they don't sound different. Each one that I have brings something different to palette of tones available. At their core though, they're all still Mesa sounding. I dunno, I've just been craving different things here lately. I think a lot of it has to do with my guitar lessons.

We've been working on a lot of 80's type stuff a long w/ some Randy era Ozzy. I'm finding it hard to sit down and practice what I've been taught because it doesn't sound "right" to me. An Eleven Rack will be my next major purchase as soon as my LP is paid off next month. I'm hoping that solves some of, if not all of my dilemma, but I'm still a tad skeptical because it is a modeler.

Don't know. Have to wait and see I guess. The rest of this year could be interesting on the amp/pedal front that's for sure.

I've kinda been feeling you on getting bored with the Mesa thing... my Dual Rec is a good amp no doubt about it but it's sound is starting to wear on me. Partly because the treble frequencies can get kind of abrasive and so many people use the Dual Rec for what I'm using it for that it's almost a cliche sound. :/

I think what I'm gonna do is sit down with it in the studio one day and just spend some time wiping my settings clean and just re-dialing my whole rig in. Maybe I'll put some EL34s in there too, who knows? I was a diehard EL34 user until about 2010 when I got my Tremoverb and haven't been back since, maybe I ought to revisit them?

A friend of mine turned me on to the Orange Rockerverb MKII's recently and they sound incredible for just about anything. If I can't get my Mesa to work right for me I just might sell it in favor of an Orange.

 

[Rory61]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I have a Rectoverb that I run in vintage mode with the preamp around 1 o'clock and it sounds almost exactly like my Silver Jubilee head. Very 80's modded sound.

 

[Matt42]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I love the "Mesa sound" it's very distinctive, which is both bad and good. My ideal set up would be to have a Blackface Fender of some sort sitting beside a Lonestar Special or Mark V.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

I've kinda been feeling you on getting bored with the Mesa thing... my Dual Rec is a good amp no doubt about it but it's sound is starting to wear on me. Partly because the treble frequencies can get kind of abrasive and so many people use the Dual Rec for what I'm using it for that it's almost a cliche sound. :/

I think what I'm gonna do is sit down with it in the studio one day and just spend some time wiping my settings clean and just re-dialing my whole rig in. Maybe I'll put some EL34s in there too, who knows? I was a diehard EL34 user until about 2010 when I got my Tremoverb and haven't been back since, maybe I ought to revisit them?

A friend of mine turned me on to the Orange Rockerverb MKII's recently and they sound incredible for just about anything. If I can't get my Mesa to work right for me I just might sell it in favor of an Orange.

Bro, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm bored w/ them. Or more to the point, maybe I'm just bored w/ the Rectifier "sound". Lately I've been using the Nomad 55 more than anything. I think w/ some EL34's and the right compliment of pre tubes, It would do a convincing hot rod Marshall, but it still has the Mesa thing going on. I don't really know how to describe it. It's not that I don't like the amps, I do. They just aren't a good fit for everything. I know that's going to be the case for just about any amp company. If I was in a band and needed a consistent tone, that would be one thing. I'm not. I don't. It's wearing me out so to speak.

Funny that you bring up Orange amps. I was chatting with a guy on another forum and he seems to think that an Orange might be the cure for my blues as well. He suggested a Jim Root Terror though. I might have to get on w/ something like that. I have to pick up some kind of modeler though. It's just impossible to plug in to really any kind of tube amp and practice at the times I get the urge to practice.

 

[Van Noord]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

It would be tough only playing my Recto. It's reasons like that why I own a lot of amps. I feel the same way about my VHT, ENGL and 6505. I like them all, but not enough to only play one of them all the time.

 

[sixstringsamurai333]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Tribute blows me away. I know a lot of folks don't dig the tone but I love it. The playing is amazing and the songs are strong.

Tribute has AMAZING tone! What Randy should have sounded like on record. Time for me to dig it up and have a listen, methinks.

9finger - buy a good ol' Marshall head to sit alongside your Mesa. Something like an old DSL50 should be pretty affordable second hand, and will take you into all the ballpark tones for Marshally goodness that you'll need. People may nitpick, and variations on the Marshall flavour are plenty (and of course a Plexi sounds nothing like a DSL bla bla bla), but let's face it - high gain Marshall sounds are generally, pretty similar.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Tribute has AMAZING tone! What Randy should have sounded like on record. Time for me to dig it up and have a listen, methinks.

9finger - buy a good ol' Marshall head to sit alongside your Mesa. Something like an old DSL50 should be pretty affordable second hand, and will take you into all the ballpark tones for Marshally goodness that you'll need. People may nitpick, and variations on the Marshall flavour are plenty (and of course a Plexi sounds nothing like a DSL bla bla bla), but let's face it - high gain Marshall sounds are generally, pretty similar.

Psssst

Had that one covered for awhile

 

[some_dude]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Have you ever considered getting a Mark if some sort?

I only mention it because you say you're getting into 80s tones but you also already have a Marshall.

Boogie amp + chorus or detune + delay/reverb = 80s lead tones.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

Have you ever considered getting a Mark if some sort?

I only mention it because you say you're getting into 80s tones but you also already have a Marshall.

Boogie amp + chorus or detune + delay/reverb = 80s lead tones.

I have and I will at some point. Don't know if it will be a IV or a V. Just whatever's out there w/ the best performance to cost ratio when I go to buy. I have the Nomad 55 to tide me over in that department. I don't know how close they are to each other in the schematics, but that amp shows a lot of Mark series traits.

 

[chadd]

Re: I think I'm going to take a break from Mesa for a little while.

EL34s help change the character of a recto quite a bit. I'm still playing around to find the right preamp tubes to get the sound I want, the EHs have been my favorite so far.