Clean to Mean Rack Tones 12/27/25

[mentoneman]

In my system preamp+power amp and heads work the same now, everything just goes into a Suhr Reactive Load and a Blubox IR before it hits the FX rack and my DAW. It´s all set up for silent home recording, since I moved to a 1940s townhouse where you can hear the neighbors sneezing, that´s the only way I can use the big boy amps on a regular basis. Listening thru monitors down there in the basement room pretty loud works fine, but that´s obviously just a fraction of what the amps actually sounds like thru a cab.

On the other hand I use and enjoy them every day now, which I don´t think I ever have, so there´s two sides to everything. I can also easily repatch everything to run preamps and line outs from loaded heads thru the rack and into my VHT 2150 and cabs, should circumstances allow me to ditch IRs again.

seems like a nice silent setup.

i tried running the syn 2 in the loop of my mark III to tie in the preamp of the III but it didn’t sound cool to me. and although everyone runs IRs now, i’m in the dinosaur holdout camp that hasn’t found one cab IR that sounds or feels enough like a real cab to make me want to ditch the speakers. i still have the best results using analog cab emulation and just tweaking the eq. but i have tried to stay open minded to the IR tech and the tonex VH pack had some of the better cab sounds i’ve experienced.

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, I wouldn´t ditch micing the speakers for speaker emulation unless I had to, which I did. I also used a Palmer ADIG for many years, until I added the Blubox IR box for emulation but kept the Palmer just as the dummy load. I have to say the biggest difference came when I stopped using the Palmer load and went to the Suhr, which really made a lot of difference in the feel. The analog emulation circuit from the Palmer would probably be very nice if the load was as nice as the Suhr. Daisy chaining them would be an interesting experiment.

 

[Anje]

Picking up your brain & experience on old Boogies in that nice thread:
how do you know / tell if a Coliseum is Simul-Class or not? Is it only the sticker at the back? How do you know if it's missing?

 

[Dave L]

I think all the Boogies that have Simulclass have a little toggle on the back to go between Simul and Class A. Pretty sure on the II and III models, at least.

 

[Anje]

Yes this is clear to me for the "regular" MKII/III, but I think the Coliseum didn't have the "on/off" switching capability for the Simul-Class, so it was always "on" if you got a Simul-Class model (or always full pentode in case of a non-simul class version).
?

 

[Dave L]

Sorry, didn´t catch you were talking about the Colis, my bad. My Coli was a Simulclass, and I can´t remember any switch on the back. Have to see if I still have any pics.

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, no switch on mine, so I guess it might be hard to tell if a Coli is Simulclass without the sticker, just like you said. A mix of EL34s and 6L6s would be a giveaway, but other than that I don´t know.

 

[Dave L]

All this Boogie talk made me want to hook up my III+ a bit before dinner. Such a nice amp. I miss the Coliseum from time the time, but mostly because of the rarity. I like this one much better, every day of the week.

 

[Anje]

What do you like in it better than the Coli?

Really curious about those old MKII/III boogies, never had one and regularly think of what particular model to get.

 

[Dave L]

This is a bit less sharp than the blue stripe was, there was always something in that one that hurt my ears a bit. Struggled to get it dialed in just right, in a way I don´t have with this one.

 

[Little B]

I remember when my red strp.coli was in for service, Mike b asked me if I wanted him to make it simul while he was going over it.My blue str.coli has a simul sticker on the back. No switches anywhere. Simul is a softer feel,so to speak,and maybe that's why my blue coli isn't so shrill like others say the blue is.It took the edge off? Idk.but I like it.

 

[mentoneman]

All this Boogie talk made me want to hook up my III+ a bit before dinner. Such a nice amp. I miss the Coliseum from time the time, but mostly because of the rarity. I like this one much better, every day of the week.

i’m with you on the “miss my coli” vibe for the same reason.
my IIB series 300 was wicker/imbuya and signed off by “RS”. i later had it simul-classed by Johnny at the Hollywood store.

great cleans, cool rhythms, but unless i played it loud enough to really dig into the power section which was WAAAAAYY to loud for my day day needs, it never had the legato gain firepower in the lead tone at useable volumes like the IIC+ and III.

 

[mentoneman]

the boogie wiki is pretty informative

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa/Boogie_Mark_Series

my blue simul III sounds identical to my friend’s blue, but there is one for sale at the local GC and it seems to have way more gain and therefore harder to dial in a clean tone. also edgier at the expense of fatness but could be tube related. the reverb on it kills mine. i’m normally not a fan of reverb on the IIIs but this one is very useable.

 

[Dave L]

You´re really nailing what I experienced with that blue Coli. Boogies also need to be cranked at least a little bit, in my experience, and that particular blue was super gainy and sort of trebly and hard-sounding. I´m also an 80s rock dude, really heavy guys might have a very different take on it.

 

[mentoneman]

wonder if Donn had anything to do with Eddie’s tc 2290s at 5150?

max delay setting 1023ms…guess we’ll never know now.

 

[gudbrand]

Honestly, the 2290 is one of my top pieces of gear. The way it throws audio around the stereo spectrum and really messes with your ears is something I can't recreate on anything else. It's just such a unique unit and honestly one of the few that was really truly meeting the hype of the legendary rack gear when I started really pursuing it.

Some great 2290 info in this thread. I have one that I recently got back from getting recapped and serviced. This is getting me even more excited to finally integrate it into my rack setup. I'll have to post it once I do.

 

[mentoneman]

congrats

Some great 2290 info in this thread. I have one that I recently got back from getting recapped and serviced. This is getting me even more excited to finally integrate it into my rack setup. I'll have to post it once I do.

congrats on the healthy 2290 and glad you found some useful info here. it’s a great delay/modulation machine for sure!

 

[Exo-metal]

Afa strat tones the single note lines on Bryan Adams Heaven song sound all pro for that mid gain strat tone but it sounds so good, who is that and what rig does he use/if I was a strat guy and use tones like that I would want to know.

 

[ChurchHill]

No idea, but I think that was Keith Scott. Always loved his tone! Mostly a Strat and a Marshall, I think, not a clue what effects, maybe Seymour Duncan pickups.

 

[Anje]

Love Keith Scott, his work with Bryan since the early 80’s is fantastic and he’s always sounded like a great person to me; back then from memory it was pretty simple: a few old Strat, including his modded 70’s one, some classic boost/OD pedals in front some old JMP (combo I think?) Marshall.
He’s done a few nice interviews over the last years, including a recent tonetalk; would have to check that back for the details, I bet he’d still remember most of the geeky details for each song.