Mesa Stiletto MOD

O

OlinMusic

New member
Saw this on the BOOGIE FORUM - $60:

The HOLLYWOOD MOD

Okay, some of you might remember some of my previous posts regarding me not finding a great tone with my Stiletto. I FOUND IT! First, you MUST...I repeat MUST take your Stiletto to the Mesa store in Hollywood to get it moded! I had to drive 3 hours to drop it off and 3 hours to pick it up. It was totally worth it. They made the FLUID DRIVE setting absolutely perfect. That setting alone makes it a "Marshall killer". The TITE GAIN setting was changed from awesome to incredible! It cost $60 only! I also re-tubed it with the Hi-Gain E34L kit from Eurotubes....Oh my god! Sounds like bliss. You guys have no idea how happy I am that I did this. I was bummed out that I bought this amp blindly and spent a lot of money. Now, I absolutely LOVE it! I am getting all the sounds I wanted from it such as Metallica (KEA and RTL), Van Halen, Slash, and everything in between, If you own a Stiletto, get the freaking mod! You won't regret it.
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

PART II

bought this amp blindly. I also bought it because I thought I could get a "Marshall" sound from it. I was wrong. I was very disappointed in it when I started playing it. After a month of researching how I could "better" it, I decided to switch the tubes. I replaced the horrid stock Mesa tubes with JJ's E34L Hi-gain kit from Eurotubes.com. What a HUGE improvement. Okay, so I was excited about it again. I thought, great it's not "too" bad now. I'm not done....I still felt it could be better. Then, low and behold, I saw a Stiletto on Ebay. The guy had mentioned the amp was "moded" at the Mesa store in Hollywood. I called the store and asked if this was true, they said yes. I asked them what they did. They said that they add more gain to the TITE GAIN setting, add more gain to the FLUID DRIVE setting and removed the flubbiness from the FLUID DRIVE. I was excited to hear that because I absolutely hated the FLUID DRIVE setting because of it's flubbiness. I also wasn't too thrilled about the TITE GAIN either. It was a no brainer at this point. I'm taking it to them and have them "mod" it. When I got it back, I WAS IN TONE HEAVEN!!! I love this god damn amp now!! The FLUID DRIVE is now my favorite setting!!! I get all my early Metallica sounds on it (Kill em all, Ride the light..), and I get my early Van Halen and GNR sounds in TITE GAIN...F-ing beautiful now. Why the hell doesn't Mesa do this mod in the factory??? Why did I have to pay $60 and spend 8 hours of drive time to the Hollywood store to get this done?? If I got these sounds right out of the box, I'd give it an 11...But since I had to spend extra time and money to make it sound like this, it will only get an 8. If you have a Stiletoo, you MUST get it moded! If you are planning on getting one, you MUST get it moded after you buy it. Do it! No really, do it!
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

This "Hollywood Mod" has been a popular topic on other boards.
The main thing is that Mesa is supposed to be releasing this mod to all of the Mesa authorized service shops around the country.

It would be cool to see what the mod entails.
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

Hey I haven't HEARD it... just saw that in passing

$60 is nothing, and if it would sound good, hmmmmm

I thought the Stiletto was - well, I will spare the language

Everyone apparently has the "British" (re: Marshall) tone down. Or does "British" mean Vox, Hiwatt, or old Selmer amps that were popular in London in the 60s? hahahaha hmmmmmmmm I wonder.

Well, assume it means Marshall. I have played and been around soooo many Marshalls. I have heard some great amps, but I haven't heard anything alone, on stage in rock music with a real Marshall (800, Jubilee, Plexi) that ever stood up. I have heard things sound great in tandem - Soldano (Warren Haynes nails this), Matchless, Vox, Bogner. I played a 100w Roccaforte that was killer.

Now if you want to argue about metal, etc without competing with a player layering Marshalls in, you might have something. I am not even crazy about Neil Schon with Diezels alone (he sounds good, but it doesn't lay his old stuff to waste.) Even metal guys I know who use Marshalls in tandem with other brands, seem to necessitate the rhythm player responding with the same kinda thing.

Mesa just did NOT eat Marshalls lunch on this one, so if $60 means we are really getting it right... then hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

Sounds cool, but I'm confused about where you live. If you're in Sherman Oaks, then Hollywood is 15 minutes away.

The main thing is that Mesa had better start producing the new Stilettos with that mod, otherwise they're just shooting themselves in the foot.
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

Sounds like a drastic change..hm..great you could mod it!

I didn´t like and still don´t like the "normal" one..sounds meh to me.
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

lol how are you confused about where I live? NO NO, THAT POST WAS COPIED IN, I DIDN'T WRITE IT!

It's called the Hollywood Mod bc they do it at the Hollywood Store. I DO NOT own a Stiletto, I just love Mesas ideas and quality. Their amps always take a TON of tweaking, which drives me NUTS! I thought hmmmmmm is this the cure for the Stiletto??? 60 dollars?

THAT POST WAS NOT ME, I COPIED IT FROM A FORUM
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

Sweet! A Mesa stiletto is on my purchase list, so far only 4 amps ever blew me away: a Bogner Ecstasy, a modded Marshall JCM 800, a Koch Powertone and a Mesa Stiletto.
I found the Mesa to be the most impressive of all, holy crap I already started thinking about trading in my Bogner for one but then common sense came back to me. I'm keeping the xtc and I'll get a Stiletto to gig with. It's that good :) I wonder how much better this mod will make it!
I think MxPx uses the Stiletto on their new album: Panic. Anyway the guitar player (Tom) uses it live and gets what to me sounds like the ultimate tone!
 
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Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

Mesa gave the ok for the mods a little while back and I think the new price is about $110.

MJ
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

All they basically do is mod it to the current specs, IIRC?
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

NIGHTBURST we need to have a therapy session here

DUDE, uhhhhhhhhhh yeah
ummmm YOU DO NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT TRADE A BOGNER ECSTASY FOR A STILETTO. HELL, just mod the ecstasy if you have to. DO NOT trade for a Stiletto.

BTW I have heard rave reviews from a friend about the Koch.
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

Hey Nightburst... how about this... Just GIVE me the Bogner and I'll BUY you the stiletto. How about that? :deal:
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

OlinMusic said:
NIGHTBURST we need to have a therapy session here

DUDE, uhhhhhhhhhh yeah
ummmm YOU DO NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT TRADE A BOGNER ECSTASY FOR A STILETTO. HELL, just mod the ecstasy if you have to. DO NOT trade for a Stiletto.

BTW I have heard rave reviews from a friend about the Koch.
Click to expand...

Lol yeah thanks, I almost lost it there! :smack:
Anyway I'm NOT getting rid of my Bogner, no way. But I still want the Stiletto, call me crazy.

The Koch Powertone is just brutal EL34 power with a splendit clean channel, the dutch equivalent of the Ubershall dare I say it.

I would opt for the Multitone instead, it has 6l6 tubes and a lot more tonal options, it's just a little more tonefull. I actually played 3 hours through this amp non stop and I got some really nice tones out of it ranging from sweet cleans (Really good!) to Massive Distortion with a capitol D. No use for an OD pedal there! The solo boost function is a nice touch as well.
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

B2D said:
Hey Nightburst... how about this... Just GIVE me the Bogner and I'll BUY you the stiletto. How about that? :deal:
Click to expand...

hehe that reminds me of the time when I almost got a Mercedes for free, I walked up to the guy and asked if he would give it to me. He said no... pretty close heh ;)
 
Re: Mesa Stiletto MOD

IIRC, this Mod is really only necessary on "mk-1" stilettos, because the new ones already have the revised "fluid drive" channel.....
 
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