Re: mesa express on the 5 watt class A is KILLER!

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:28:39 GMT, Rick N. Backer
<ken.wilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:25:52 -0500, "E=Fb" <abc@xxxxxxx> did
courageously avow:


"Squier" <squier@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:240720070025043773%squier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
ok - I am playing now with the 5 watt class A setting -
and I have to tell you this is KILLER GOOD STUFF.

I am actually liking this a lot. I never realized
how loud just 5 watts can be - but it is a manageable loud
in a smaller room. Well - loud on its own is nothing -
and the tone in this little boogie is incredible.
ok - here 's the thing - the 5 watt class A setting
really shines in Channel 1 (rhythm and crunch voicings)
On Channel 2 (the high gain channel) the 'blues' setting
and then on up to the super gain "burn" setting do not
sound as good (imho). However when you take the lower
gain rhythm or crunch and dial up the gain and master volume
you start to get this slightly crunchy singing sustain that
is absolutely awesome sounding. You don't want to stop playing.
And the really nice thing is that Mesa has a really nice
tone stack (once you get used to the mesa way of doing things)
that lets you get all sorts of tonality out of it - not just
a singing honking mid push. The contour control lets you
easily dial in the boogie 'scoop' or defeat it and just use
the tone stack. The double-fat strat (humbuckers) really come
alive in this class A thing - whoo hoo! And the single coils
just peel out and can actually 'sing'. The strange thing is
that it feels like reverb is on (it's not) so it gets you
this 3 dimensional kinda sound or maybe its the unreal sustain
going on. The harmonics just jump out on this class A setting.
And gain it up some more (on the channel 1 that is) and you
start to get this controllable feedback too. (well if you
move around it's there in front of amp - walk away and it's gone
and of course muting the strings cuts it off too) But when gained all
the way - you can just give a pinch and away it goes on and on and on.
And add in some more master volume and it doesn't get much better.
Dial it back down and you're ready to do some cleaner playing.
Lots of sparkle and chime too - my single coil strats sound great
when wind down and clean playing through the 5 watts.

This is now my favorite setting and best sounds I ever got.
Of course it is 5 watts so what the heck - I can't use it
to play live or anything - but what sweet sounds!!

The regular 25-30 watt class AB setting (as previouly stated
in some other posts) is also fantastic. But this 5 watt class A
is blowing me away - personally I think mesa did a great job
because it gives me sparkly to mid push to bottom end chunk
and all with 5 watts and little EL84's lighting it up.
And the reverb is nothing special - but it is enough to give
a nice fill out of the sound. No *** dale stuff here - just
a nice reverb that sounds good on cleaner stuff and I don't
overuse it or attempt to turn it up past about 1/3 way.

ps. Ok - I changed out the stock mesa tubes. There seemed to
be a lot of 'hiss' coming out of the amp - the amp is only a few
months old from previous owner - so it can't be caps (???)
Anyways - I changed the 5 preamp tubes and used Electro Harmonix 12ax7
and then I changed the 2 power tubes and used JJ's EL84.
Wow! the amp is quiet now - the only 'hiss' that is audible
is when you turn up the gain on an already overgained channel 2 'burn'
setting
(and in a live setting you won't hear the minimal hiss).
The clean channel 1 is completely quiet now. Even when you
turn the gain up on the clean channel (rhythm and crunch settings)
Obviously if I kick in like 3 overdrive pedals at once - sure the
pedals are gonna create some hiss - but it's not the amp any more doing
it.

So - I would recommend changing the stock Mesa tubes if you
get that incessant hiss sound even on the clean channel.
The tubes I used sound great and made the amp whisper quiet.

all for now.

now you know why we like our vj so much. :)


It also explains why I like my LoneStar Special so much. 5, 15 or 30
Watts and it runs class A in all modes. :) About 3 times the cost of
the Express though.

Nah, only twice as much. :-)
--
Bob Mann

Sex is like air; it's not important unless you
aren't getting any
.

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