Re: Mesa/Stiletto Ace
GUITAR ONE magazine finally has a review of the Stiletto Ace in the new October 2006 issue, just got it today. They give it their "GUITAR ONE Mark of Excellence Award", so I would say it is no slouch.
Mesas such as the Stilleto and Lonestar are not known as "plug and play" amps. There is a LOT of sonic territory there with all the different modes, different rectifier/diode selections, and different power settings. It would take hours/days and a lot of tweaking to come to the conclusion that there are no useable tones in there. I had a chance to play one for a few minutes on only a couple of settings, and the clean and crunch channel sounded spectacular to me. I only wish I has had a chance to tweak it more and crank it up. I was running a Deluxe American Strat w/ 2 SC single coils and one DH-1 Humbucker through it, good quality puckups make a difference too.
According to GUITAR ONE mag, it plays as good as it looks, and ya gotta admit, its a beautiful amp.