Mesa Mini Rec - Clean?

Re: Mesa Mini Rec - Clean?

I've never gigged my Mini Rectifier but I think that it would be a safer bet to pickup a Single Rectifier instead. The Mini is very loud but the question is "How loud can it get before the cleans start breaking up and will it be loud enough over the rest of the band?". A Bad Cat Unleash and a Mini Rect to attenuate or boost accordingly would be another option. If anything you want some excess headroom because If you don't have enough headroom you are pretty much up $hit creek.
 
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Re: Mesa Mini Rec - Clean?

Depends on what kind of cleans you like.

I always notice that EL84s have a different tone and feel than a 6L6 amp, with the little bottles feeling more compressed than the big bottles and the big bottles having a wider range and more dynamics.

My Mark III Coliseum 200-watt head is incredibly dynamic, almost too much so. Notes just EXPLODE out of that amp on the full power setting; most times I will send it with the half power setting and a compressor with light compression. And the Mesa 412 Half-Back cab with EVMs tracks exquisitely.

My Mark V has 10-45-90 watt options, and if you like the dynamics of a Twin Reverb, the 90-watt setting is the way to go for maximum punch, clarity and dynamics.

The Mark V:25 head/stack I recently bought is a different animal indeed. With Mesa's Dyna-Watt Blender, it feels like a bigger amp. I've only gigged mine once, using the V30 112 Rectifier slant and straight cabs. We were on an elevated stage in a elementary school multi-purpose gym/cafeteria, for a low volume gig with about 200 people dining. I used a G&L Legacy and a Gibson 335, and only got the Master Volume to about 9:00, using the clean channel's FAT mode. I was VERY pleased with the tone (as were my band mates), and no one had any trouble hearing me. The V:25 is a breeze to get great tones out of; setup was really simple. The lead tones were Mesa fantastic, and it turned into one of the least stressed gigs I've had in a while, and gave me a terrific confidence boost.

So while I've always been a "big amp" guy, the V:25 is going to get a lot of work with my current band. So if you are doing small clubs with a drummer not named Keith Moon or John Bonham, I think you'll be fine.

Bill
 
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