suislidE03
New member
I sold my 6505+ head about a month ago now, and picked up this Mesa head for tonal flexibility reasons. The peavey was pretty good at high gain rhythm, but it wasnt very good at anything else. It was hard to dial in a flexible tone either, it was always buzzsaw shred-your-face.
1. Clean/Rhythm channel.
The cleans on this head are pretty good. Not the best I have played, but definitely up there. The clean can be round and soft spoken, or with the gain up it can get louder, a bit crunchier, and more grind. With the gain on 10 it gets pushed, like a mean blues tone. Sounds excellent at it also. The EQ is really different from most amps. The tone is always the same.. the treble adjusts the crunch, presence is kinda ice-pick if you go too high, bass is bass, but the mids act funny. With it low, it is very clean, but if you set it high, the whole channel gets waaay louder and there is a huge increase in low-mids and bass.
With the gain knob pulled, this activates the rhythm channel which is based on the Mark series. Not much gain available, but will suit most rockers with an overdrive in front. The bass is pretty loose without a goose on the front also. Sounds just like the clean channel, no real difference in structure.
2. Lead channel.
This channel has a totally different voicing, based on the recto when it was first being developed. Let me emphasize that I said based on, because it still sounds a good bit different than the rectos I have played. There is still that inherent sag that comes with the recto sound, but is very tamable. If you dont want it, you can dial some of it out, but with an OD pedal you can get rid of it. The low end is incredibly loose unless you are using an EMG 81 or blackout in the bridge. Passive pickups will be painfully loose and muddy for high gain use. The Bill Lawrence in my Jackson almost has the output, but the lows are just too flabby. The Spina modded SD1 I have takes care of this all too well. It actually sounds better with my 7 string than the Jackson tone wise.
The EQ on this chan does not function in the same way as the clean either, all of the controls are equally as powerful in tone shaping. Only real standout is the mid control adds a barky quality to the sound, and adds low-mids that can make the sound a bit murky. With the mids down, the channel will not sound scooped. This is no surprise, because Mesas just have a different voicing than most amps. The graphic EQ is what really controls the sound on the lead channel. I use the V pattern more or less, but I dont scoop the mids too much. Just enough to tighten the amp up without losing too much clarity. This channel will do any type of metal, and the amount of gain + the graphic EQ will get as brutal as you want the amp to sound. This channel will also clean up fairly well with the volume knob. Leads sound awesome with the volume knob rolled back to around 5. Very articulate, and sings. I never put the gain over 7.
3. Overall?
I still use my attenuator at all times when I am home, just to give the tubes a little more juice to work with. The amp sounds great at any volume over a loud conversation level. I tried opening it up a bit at practice one day but there really wasnt any tonal change. The amp is a very loud 50 watts also.. possibly louder than my Laney was. The Splawn cab has a Celestion G12-T75 and an Eminence Governer, and the T75 actually fits quite well with the amp. Very crunchy and clear. The Governer sounds a bit muddy though. I would like to try replacing it with a V30 one day.
1. Clean/Rhythm channel.
The cleans on this head are pretty good. Not the best I have played, but definitely up there. The clean can be round and soft spoken, or with the gain up it can get louder, a bit crunchier, and more grind. With the gain on 10 it gets pushed, like a mean blues tone. Sounds excellent at it also. The EQ is really different from most amps. The tone is always the same.. the treble adjusts the crunch, presence is kinda ice-pick if you go too high, bass is bass, but the mids act funny. With it low, it is very clean, but if you set it high, the whole channel gets waaay louder and there is a huge increase in low-mids and bass.
With the gain knob pulled, this activates the rhythm channel which is based on the Mark series. Not much gain available, but will suit most rockers with an overdrive in front. The bass is pretty loose without a goose on the front also. Sounds just like the clean channel, no real difference in structure.
2. Lead channel.
This channel has a totally different voicing, based on the recto when it was first being developed. Let me emphasize that I said based on, because it still sounds a good bit different than the rectos I have played. There is still that inherent sag that comes with the recto sound, but is very tamable. If you dont want it, you can dial some of it out, but with an OD pedal you can get rid of it. The low end is incredibly loose unless you are using an EMG 81 or blackout in the bridge. Passive pickups will be painfully loose and muddy for high gain use. The Bill Lawrence in my Jackson almost has the output, but the lows are just too flabby. The Spina modded SD1 I have takes care of this all too well. It actually sounds better with my 7 string than the Jackson tone wise.
The EQ on this chan does not function in the same way as the clean either, all of the controls are equally as powerful in tone shaping. Only real standout is the mid control adds a barky quality to the sound, and adds low-mids that can make the sound a bit murky. With the mids down, the channel will not sound scooped. This is no surprise, because Mesas just have a different voicing than most amps. The graphic EQ is what really controls the sound on the lead channel. I use the V pattern more or less, but I dont scoop the mids too much. Just enough to tighten the amp up without losing too much clarity. This channel will do any type of metal, and the amount of gain + the graphic EQ will get as brutal as you want the amp to sound. This channel will also clean up fairly well with the volume knob. Leads sound awesome with the volume knob rolled back to around 5. Very articulate, and sings. I never put the gain over 7.
3. Overall?
I still use my attenuator at all times when I am home, just to give the tubes a little more juice to work with. The amp sounds great at any volume over a loud conversation level. I tried opening it up a bit at practice one day but there really wasnt any tonal change. The amp is a very loud 50 watts also.. possibly louder than my Laney was. The Splawn cab has a Celestion G12-T75 and an Eminence Governer, and the T75 actually fits quite well with the amp. Very crunchy and clear. The Governer sounds a bit muddy though. I would like to try replacing it with a V30 one day.
