Biu
New member
Mesa:
This amp had one of the best cleans I'd had the pleasure of playing. Those 3-notch voicing toggle switches really offer up a simple, but versatile spectrum of cleans. You can go from a really fat Bassman-esque clean to a crunchy, Jimmy Page-style natural OD, and of course, everything in between. Keep in mind I own a '70s Fender Bassman, so this Mesa's clean channel is truly impressive~! The EQ seems like it was built around the most useful frequencies for guitars, I could dial in settings I never really liked and it would sound good enough to be used for something. The bass-response on this amp is ridiculously nice, you can really feel it and it just has this very organic sort of punch to it. Lively is probably the best term to describe it; it makes you think the sound is coming from some all-engulfing sonic waterfall as opposed to a 4x12 cab.
As for the distortion channel...Biu is not satisfied
But that doesn't mean it was bad or anything, just not my taste. I could see it being well adapted to rhythm playing situations, the tone is very bottom-heavy and tight, has plenty of gain stages, and is clear even under high-gain. My main gripe was that it seemed thin at times, especially for solo work. I tried cranking the bass and mids, but that didn't seem to do it. Then I turned down the presence knob. It got closer at that point, but still, not what I wanted. When I solo, I like a very dynamic, fluid, and organic sounding gain. This amp had more of a hard-edged, smash-you-in-the-face gain, maybe like a super-high-gain AC/DC sound or something. Basically, it was too agressive for my liking, but if you like audio warfare, I think this would be an exquisite weapon of choice. Oh yeah, it's really fuggin LOUD~!!! I would probably pee my pants if I had the pleasure of owning one, I LOVE the cleans!!!
Laney:
I had high hopes for this beast, but when I plugged it in, it was super-buzz distortion mania. What first peaked my interest was the fact that Andy Timmons uses it and the simple control layout. Unfortunately, it is more buzzy than a 5150 and overall sounds sterile and unnatural. It has a lot of gain though, so it might appeal to doom metal crank-distortion-to-max people. I was just disappointed; doing solos on it made me sad somehow, it seemed like I just wanted to play a little bit of guitar, but the amp kept fighting me by cutting my sustain short, making my tone artificial, and making me sound like I'd only been playing guitar for 2 weeks
I do not like this amp whatsoever. Well, fellow SD members, it seems I have NEVER found an amp distortion I've liked in a guitar store...but I always seem to find divine cleans. The search continues~! (By the way, I'm really really happy with my home distortion setup
...but it would be nice to enjoy playing some hot licks with serious OD/distortion in a guitar store sometime... :smack: )
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