phil_104
Cheesesteakologist
Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 1x10 combo
I’ve had this combo since august, and have brought it to a few gigs, and now feel confident enough that the honeymoon phase is over to review it. I was amp searching pretty hard before this amp, going from a peavey windsor, to a marshall JCM, to a fender blues deluxe, to a traynor YCV40, and finally to the Mesa that was everything I wanted. I would just like to share a little about this amp with you guys.
First of all, the amp itself is a 1x10’’ combo, with a black shaddow speaker in it, typical of mesa. It is covered in nice black taurus tolex, and wellf finished in black with accents of cream, giving it that traditional not-so-modern look. The speaker itself took about 2 months to break in nicely. The amp itself has 2 EL-84 Power tubes, producing 25watts, and 5 12AX7 preamp tubes. The big difference betweent he 5:50 and 5:25 is that the 50 watt version runs on 6L6 power tubes. I decided to go with the 25 for 2 reasons ; because of the reduced weight and portability (the 50w is not offered with a single 10inch), and because I wanted that classic EL tube sound. The two models sound great, but it’s a question of personnal taste.
A feature that really sold me to this amp was the 5 watt switch, that activates just 1 power tube in class A mode, dropping the amp to 5 watts total. This of course means nice full distortion at home compatible levels. This also means that you have a choice between A class and AB class for the studio. Switching between the two will affect the overall tone of the amp, and change the sound of the channels, and the modes in the channels.
The amp has 2 channels, both with 2 modes. The first channel is switchable between clean and crunch. Clean will give you that glassy nice shimering tone, but retains the more british flavour of the EL power tubes. Although the cleans are great, and are my personnal favorites, they will not quite go into fender territory (I had a blues deluxe as my main amp for a year, and the cleans are different). The crunch channel is very nice, almost reminicent of very, very early days marshall tones, Kinda Billy Gibbons style on Sharp dressed man.
The second channel is split between 2 more modes ; blues and burn. Blues will give you dirty delta blues cleans, that break up when you start playing with heavier picking. Being a big blues player, this was a feature I really dug. The burn channel is a monster. Capable of doing anything from vintage Santana tones up to Black Sabbath’s first album distortions, up to modern high gain stuff, it has it on tap. The natural harmonix coming from this amp are also very nice, and very natural sounding.
The amp also has 2 independent reverb knobs for each channels. The reverb is nice and organic, but not as ‘deep’ as on fender models. Still, it would be very usable in live situations, and does indeed sound very nice. The best way to describe it would be that it is very much like a ‘hall’ reverb, instead of a liquid shifting one.
The most usefull knob on the entire amp, in my opinion, is the contour knob. Each channel has one, and they are activated by footswitch. This knob accentuates certain frequencies and dynamics of your sound, a little like a tone knob on steroids. It also seems to add a bit of an EQ boost as you turn it up. This is a great option, as it really gives the amp a dynamic, full, present feel. Channel switching, contour and reverb can be activated via a footswitch.
As most Mesa players will tell you, this amp takes time to dial in. It took me a good solid 2 weeks to get it exactly where I wanted my sound to be. This, in retrospect after the innitial frustration has passed, is a good thing, as the EQ on the amp, and all the other knobs, are very responsive, giving you a sound that is easy to shape.
The amp also comes with a effects loop, and different out jacks for extension speaker cabs. I intend on grabbing a 2x12 to pair up with this little monster. It’s loud enough to jam with a drummer already, but the 2x12 will make it even more stage worthy.
I’ve had this combo since august, and have brought it to a few gigs, and now feel confident enough that the honeymoon phase is over to review it. I was amp searching pretty hard before this amp, going from a peavey windsor, to a marshall JCM, to a fender blues deluxe, to a traynor YCV40, and finally to the Mesa that was everything I wanted. I would just like to share a little about this amp with you guys.
First of all, the amp itself is a 1x10’’ combo, with a black shaddow speaker in it, typical of mesa. It is covered in nice black taurus tolex, and wellf finished in black with accents of cream, giving it that traditional not-so-modern look. The speaker itself took about 2 months to break in nicely. The amp itself has 2 EL-84 Power tubes, producing 25watts, and 5 12AX7 preamp tubes. The big difference betweent he 5:50 and 5:25 is that the 50 watt version runs on 6L6 power tubes. I decided to go with the 25 for 2 reasons ; because of the reduced weight and portability (the 50w is not offered with a single 10inch), and because I wanted that classic EL tube sound. The two models sound great, but it’s a question of personnal taste.
A feature that really sold me to this amp was the 5 watt switch, that activates just 1 power tube in class A mode, dropping the amp to 5 watts total. This of course means nice full distortion at home compatible levels. This also means that you have a choice between A class and AB class for the studio. Switching between the two will affect the overall tone of the amp, and change the sound of the channels, and the modes in the channels.
The amp has 2 channels, both with 2 modes. The first channel is switchable between clean and crunch. Clean will give you that glassy nice shimering tone, but retains the more british flavour of the EL power tubes. Although the cleans are great, and are my personnal favorites, they will not quite go into fender territory (I had a blues deluxe as my main amp for a year, and the cleans are different). The crunch channel is very nice, almost reminicent of very, very early days marshall tones, Kinda Billy Gibbons style on Sharp dressed man.
The second channel is split between 2 more modes ; blues and burn. Blues will give you dirty delta blues cleans, that break up when you start playing with heavier picking. Being a big blues player, this was a feature I really dug. The burn channel is a monster. Capable of doing anything from vintage Santana tones up to Black Sabbath’s first album distortions, up to modern high gain stuff, it has it on tap. The natural harmonix coming from this amp are also very nice, and very natural sounding.
The amp also has 2 independent reverb knobs for each channels. The reverb is nice and organic, but not as ‘deep’ as on fender models. Still, it would be very usable in live situations, and does indeed sound very nice. The best way to describe it would be that it is very much like a ‘hall’ reverb, instead of a liquid shifting one.
The most usefull knob on the entire amp, in my opinion, is the contour knob. Each channel has one, and they are activated by footswitch. This knob accentuates certain frequencies and dynamics of your sound, a little like a tone knob on steroids. It also seems to add a bit of an EQ boost as you turn it up. This is a great option, as it really gives the amp a dynamic, full, present feel. Channel switching, contour and reverb can be activated via a footswitch.
As most Mesa players will tell you, this amp takes time to dial in. It took me a good solid 2 weeks to get it exactly where I wanted my sound to be. This, in retrospect after the innitial frustration has passed, is a good thing, as the EQ on the amp, and all the other knobs, are very responsive, giving you a sound that is easy to shape.
The amp also comes with a effects loop, and different out jacks for extension speaker cabs. I intend on grabbing a 2x12 to pair up with this little monster. It’s loud enough to jam with a drummer already, but the 2x12 will make it even more stage worthy.
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