Mesa Quad vs IV

[LightsOfSorrow86]

The Mesa Quad is the Mark II and Mark III preamps in one housing. Very cool setup. When I owned mine, I treated it as a three channel preamp, as I could never get all four sections to sound good at the same time.

The clean channel proabably is the one that suffer the most.

 

[ChurchHill]

The clean channel proabably is the one that suffer the most.

I usually dial in one side for cleans and one for leads. I've never been able to get the same channel to do both really well, although they are certainly workable. Same for the Studio and either of my Mk IIIs. This has never been a problem for me, though. My Mk IV does good cleans and leads, but it's got separate tone stacks. I like the Quad better, though, but they're all great.

Sounds like your 395 might need new filter caps, they all do at some point. Mine has plenty of bass even without the deep, but I use the deep for leads. That wasn't the only Switch-Track they made, the Strategy 500 would probably be king of the hill, and the idea is in the 2:90, too, but the 395 is more versatile IME. I've got a 295, too, and a Triaxis+2:90 to compare with, but neither are as good as the 395.

That's so cool that yours are together again! Just the way they were meant to be!

 

[LightsOfSorrow86]

I usually dial in one side for cleans and one for leads. I've never been able to get the same channel to do both really well, although they are certainly workable. Same for the Studio and either of my Mk IIIs. This has never been a problem for me, though. My Mk IV does good cleans and leads, but it's got separate tone stacks. I like the Quad better, though, but they're all great.

Sounds like your 395 might need new filter caps, they all do at some point. Mine has plenty of bass even without the deep, but I use the deep for leads. That wasn't the only Switch-Track they made, the Strategy 500 would probably be king of the hill, and the idea is in the 2:90, too, but the 395 is more versatile IME. I've got a 295, too, and a Triaxis+2:90 to compare with, but neither are as good as the 395.

That's so cool that yours are together again! Just the way they were meant to be!

I decided to go.with the 395 for its versatility and because Mesa told me that the 295 is smoother, ot distorts earlier, warmer. The 395 it's tighter, punchier, more bass, huuuuuge headroom and stays clean at extreme volumes. Never tried a 295.