FretFire
SingedFingerologist
Well, I've had the Mesa for a month or so now, long enough to get past the "holy crap, new gear rocks!" stage and sit down with it subjectively. I took it out in the garage this morning and cranked it up (each channel's volume around 12-2 o'clock, Master in the same area) and for 50 watts this thing is LOUD. The volumes I had it at would probably be too loud for a band rehearsal situation. Luckily I found I could pull the same distorted tones I wanted at a bit lower volume by dropping the master and turning up the dirty channel's volume.
Anyways, first up, the Channel 1, Clean Mode. This is probably the one part of the amp I'm not 100% satisfied with. Don't get me wrong, the cleans are great, especially considering the amp is known for doing high gain so well. One of my favorite clean tones is from the song "Torn", from Creed's "My Own Prison" album. Tremonti uses Fender Twin Reverbs through cabs with 15" speakers in them, so I've always liked his clean tone. I could actually get very close with a dab of reverb and chorus. My beef is that the clean sections's volume has to be quite a bit higher than the lead's to avoid a huge jump in volume when you switch between them. That's only true of the Clean Mode on that channel though, if you switch over to Pushed mode... watch out.
Channel 1, Pushed Mode can take you from those same cleans with a touch of grit on low gain settings on up to "brown sound" and 80's hair metal with it cranked up higher. I absolutely nailed the tone from SRV's "Pride and Joy" with nothing but reverb on. Very sweet. I also got about as convincing of an early EVH tone as you can get running 6L6 tubes
. Too bad I can't play like either one of those guys haha.
Next up is Channel 2, Vintage Mode. I really like the gain voicing on this channel, it's very smooth yet still has a lot of balls. It doesn't sound like Mesa's Duals or Triples, it's not as raw or bright. This is probably my favorite spot on the amp right now, as you can get very nice fusion, rock, and metal tones with different eq and gain settings. It's also extremely responsive to the guitar's controls. With the gain around 1 o'clock, preamp cranked up around 3 o'clock, bass dropped way back with the mids cranked and treble rolled off yielded a beautiful, singing lead tone.
Last up is Channel 2, Modern Mode. This is what Mesa is known for: loud, mean, hairy distortion. It has a different gain voicing than the Vintage mode, it's a bit brighter, and is tighter on the low end. This channel is geared to sound more like the Duals and Triples I think. Even with the bass down around 9 o'clock or so, I was still rattling the house with some palm muted metal riffs. Leads sounded better than I expected here, I imagined the top end was going to be a tad brittle considering how bright it sounded at first, but that's actually due to more mids than the Vintage mode. So at the same volume and EQ levels, I'd imagine the Modern mode would cut through the mix a little better.
Overall I'm more and more satisfied with this amp every time I play it. This is the versatility and tone I've been looking for. The new tubes I put in (high gain option from Eurotubes, ECC83S and 6L6GC) smoothed out the cleans and gave them more warmth, and also added more punch and clarity to the distortion. The tubes that came in it when I bought it were the original Mesa tubes though, and were probably 5+ years old, so that might have had something to do with it
. BTW, this is a Series I head, so there is no switching between 6L6 and EL34, and it doesn't have the 3rd mode, Raw, on Channel 2.
Now I can't wait to get the C5 and Jazz installed in my Schecter this week to see how they sound.
Anyways, first up, the Channel 1, Clean Mode. This is probably the one part of the amp I'm not 100% satisfied with. Don't get me wrong, the cleans are great, especially considering the amp is known for doing high gain so well. One of my favorite clean tones is from the song "Torn", from Creed's "My Own Prison" album. Tremonti uses Fender Twin Reverbs through cabs with 15" speakers in them, so I've always liked his clean tone. I could actually get very close with a dab of reverb and chorus. My beef is that the clean sections's volume has to be quite a bit higher than the lead's to avoid a huge jump in volume when you switch between them. That's only true of the Clean Mode on that channel though, if you switch over to Pushed mode... watch out.
Channel 1, Pushed Mode can take you from those same cleans with a touch of grit on low gain settings on up to "brown sound" and 80's hair metal with it cranked up higher. I absolutely nailed the tone from SRV's "Pride and Joy" with nothing but reverb on. Very sweet. I also got about as convincing of an early EVH tone as you can get running 6L6 tubes
. Too bad I can't play like either one of those guys haha.Next up is Channel 2, Vintage Mode. I really like the gain voicing on this channel, it's very smooth yet still has a lot of balls. It doesn't sound like Mesa's Duals or Triples, it's not as raw or bright. This is probably my favorite spot on the amp right now, as you can get very nice fusion, rock, and metal tones with different eq and gain settings. It's also extremely responsive to the guitar's controls. With the gain around 1 o'clock, preamp cranked up around 3 o'clock, bass dropped way back with the mids cranked and treble rolled off yielded a beautiful, singing lead tone.
Last up is Channel 2, Modern Mode. This is what Mesa is known for: loud, mean, hairy distortion. It has a different gain voicing than the Vintage mode, it's a bit brighter, and is tighter on the low end. This channel is geared to sound more like the Duals and Triples I think. Even with the bass down around 9 o'clock or so, I was still rattling the house with some palm muted metal riffs. Leads sounded better than I expected here, I imagined the top end was going to be a tad brittle considering how bright it sounded at first, but that's actually due to more mids than the Vintage mode. So at the same volume and EQ levels, I'd imagine the Modern mode would cut through the mix a little better.
Overall I'm more and more satisfied with this amp every time I play it. This is the versatility and tone I've been looking for. The new tubes I put in (high gain option from Eurotubes, ECC83S and 6L6GC) smoothed out the cleans and gave them more warmth, and also added more punch and clarity to the distortion. The tubes that came in it when I bought it were the original Mesa tubes though, and were probably 5+ years old, so that might have had something to do with it
. BTW, this is a Series I head, so there is no switching between 6L6 and EL34, and it doesn't have the 3rd mode, Raw, on Channel 2.Now I can't wait to get the C5 and Jazz installed in my Schecter this week to see how they sound
.
Last edited:
