NoiseUnderTheFloor
Active member
I'm not in a band these days and between my job, renovating my house, and going back to college in my 40's to finish up a degree I started 20 years ago I don't have a lot of time to play as much as I once did. I mostly play now for my own enjoyment, hobby, unwinding. Its become a much more secondary activity for me but I still try to sit down and indulge as much as I can. I'll never give it up.
My Mesa RA sits unused most of the time, not sure why I even bought it....way more amp than I need given the situation I've described above. Seriously thinking about downsizing. I love tube power, just don't need that much power at this point. Not sure what direction to go in though as far as a rig. I'd like something that works across several fronts....practice (especially with headphones), recording, but also "in the room" live playing as well. I do still get together with friends and play sometimes. I definitely don't need 100 watts, or really even 50, as long as I have decent headroom. Not a big fan of the attenuator on my RA though.
Here's a few routes of thought about:
Modeller + a power amp of some kind (preferably tube) + the cabinet I already have. That would facilitate being able to grab the modeler and a pair of headphones and play anywhere in my house, away from the cab/amp set up, but if I wanted to play "live" in the room I could hook up and do so.
My pedal board + something like the Torpedo CAB + maybe some additional drive/preamp pedal(s) to cover not using an amp/modeler when going headphone/interface + just get a smaller/lower powered amp to run the pedalboard through for when I need to play "live".
An amp like the Mesa Mark V 25. Easy to tote around (like the modeler idea) + my pedalboard = basically the same idea as the first, just using a single amp and my own effects instead of a modeler.
Anyone else been in this situation and have thoughts/advice/input?
My Mesa RA sits unused most of the time, not sure why I even bought it....way more amp than I need given the situation I've described above. Seriously thinking about downsizing. I love tube power, just don't need that much power at this point. Not sure what direction to go in though as far as a rig. I'd like something that works across several fronts....practice (especially with headphones), recording, but also "in the room" live playing as well. I do still get together with friends and play sometimes. I definitely don't need 100 watts, or really even 50, as long as I have decent headroom. Not a big fan of the attenuator on my RA though.
Here's a few routes of thought about:
Modeller + a power amp of some kind (preferably tube) + the cabinet I already have. That would facilitate being able to grab the modeler and a pair of headphones and play anywhere in my house, away from the cab/amp set up, but if I wanted to play "live" in the room I could hook up and do so.
My pedal board + something like the Torpedo CAB + maybe some additional drive/preamp pedal(s) to cover not using an amp/modeler when going headphone/interface + just get a smaller/lower powered amp to run the pedalboard through for when I need to play "live".
An amp like the Mesa Mark V 25. Easy to tote around (like the modeler idea) + my pedalboard = basically the same idea as the first, just using a single amp and my own effects instead of a modeler.
Anyone else been in this situation and have thoughts/advice/input?
A few weeks ago a friend of mind brought his POD over, wasn't even the HD...was an older XT if I recall. He didn't feel like lugging his Marshall combo and just ran the POD through my KRK monitors. It sounded ok, but then for the hell of it I decided to run it through my RA-100 power section, into the effects return. Kinda pissed me off a little because I could practically nail the sound of the red channel on the RA by using the POD's Recto model into my tube power section and cab. Not completely sold on the idea of a L6 gear (had bad luck in the past with them) but I have to admit to myself, it sounded good through the tube power.
