Mesa stiletto deuce ll whats up

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J

just42dave

Well-known member
Anybody have or had one of these
Can ya give me some input??? :rock:
 
I got one. It kicks ass. Best clean of any EL34 amp in that price range. Great crunch channel. Good high gain on the fluid drive channel. Most people complain its to bright. Its fixed bias and biased cold stock. Get some hotter tubes or do a bias mod and it comes alive. I installed a hotter set of JJ's and I run my treble and presence almost off and I like it. You can also play around with the caps on the treble pot. I have the bias mod kit but didn't feel it needed it after I put in the hotter tubes (45's)
I play mostly mid gain and pushed clean stuff on the crunch channel and tite gain channel. It can get heavy though if you go to the fluid drive and crank the gain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihSGJ4tS228
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUj5vh9h47I
 
One of the best amps ive ever played. It took me a while to warm up to it. The gain structure with the master and ch volumes greatly affects the highend of the tone. Hence the rep of being harsh and bright. When you find the spot youll find you can bring the treb back up to a normall level and its not bright or harsh at all. I liked mine with all JJs. Takes boosts and OD extremely well. As BoneSaw said the cleans are some of the best 34 cleans ive ever heard and the play really well. All modes of the amp have a great feel to them. The crunch mode does what it claims and can hit some high gain with an OD. The tite gain is my fav. Its actually pretty thick despite the name. Killer lead tones with the stilettos. I think it could use a bit more lowend. A depth mod of some kind would be nice. I just ran an EQ7 in the loop to bump up the lows a C hair. Badda Bing, Betty Boop!


Now Ill sit here and wait for danyeo to come and disagree with everything I said and tell you to get an electrodyne ;)
 
Elecrodyne is cool but not enough knobs or mini switches. :) seriously though the the bold / spongy switch is another great feature. Also the option to run tube or silicon diode rectification. There's enough options to not get bored with the amp but not so many that it makes you nuts. I still need to try the EQ in the loop.
 
droptrd":10d8y0mh said:
Now Ill sit here and wait for danyeo to come and disagree with everything I said and tell you to get an electrodyne ;)
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:lol: :LOL:
 
pretty damned good amp IMHO! :rock:


only thing i'd want that it doesn't have, is a depth mod. they're short on low end, but running together with a Recto is cool as hell.


the things track super fast, and i'm talking VHT fast.
 
If you get a Duece I, make sure you install the "hollywood mod". It makes all the difference. I have all the info for the mod if you ever need it.
 
I have an Ace head, so it's got even a little less low end then the deuce, but like mentioned above, I run an mxr 6 band with the lowest frequency bumped up a little bit and it sounds pretty big, not a recto, but like a big marshall. The leads are very smooth, very liquid, which I love. You have to run the out put really high and the master's low. Also as you turn down the volume, you need to up the gain and vice versa. It's my favorite amp actually. I prefer it to my old quickrods, mark III, 2 channel recto, 5150, jcm 800's, jvm, dsl....

Also it cuts through a band mix like no other, I never, ever have a tough time hearing myself, even at gigs with a bad sound guy. Again it takes od's and boosts extremely well, I was getting some killer high gain tones just today by stacking the crunch mode with a MXR classic OD with the gain up. Normally I use the fluid drive boosted, but I'm really digging the tight gain now. It cover's a lot of ground lol.
 
Can you say tubby bottom end? I thought this amp was only a good back up. :no: In this price range, I thought the Budda SD45 sounded better. In the end I'd play a Marshall though. :D
 
Didn't really care for mine to much. Couldn't get happy no matter where I put the knobs. Here's a video of my shitty playing with way to much reverb. Boosted with a Kelley SD-1



Jim
 
Lp Freak":1hmt66vc said:
Can you say tubby bottom end? I thought this amp was only a good back up. :no: In this price range, I thought the Budda SD45 sounded better. In the end I'd play a Marshall though. :D
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Tubby is the exact opposite of how I would describe the low end of mine.
 
yngzaklynch":1c5a8n33 said:
Didn't really care for mine to much. Couldn't get happy no matter where I put the knobs. Here's a video of my shitty playing with way to much reverb. Boosted with a Kelley SD-1



Jim
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Did you always run the volume low? The one thing I don't like about it is it's not very good at low volumes. I really only use mine with the band so it doesn't bother me, but it does have to be pretty loud to start opening up.
 
yngzaklynch":38ybkm2c said:
Didn't really care for mine to much. Couldn't get happy no matter where I put the knobs. Here's a video of my shitty playing with way to much reverb. Boosted with a Kelley SD-1



Jim
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First of all you barely have the Ch2 master or the master output cracked. Thats why it sounds so thin. I run them at 12 noon with a volume box in the loop. Also IMO the treble and presence is set to high.
 
BoneSaw":335z8q1a said:
yngzaklynch":335z8q1a said:
Didn't really care for mine to much. Couldn't get happy no matter where I put the knobs. Here's a video of my shitty playing with way to much reverb. Boosted with a Kelley SD-1



Jim
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First of all you barely have the Ch2 master or the master output cracked. Thats why it sounds so thin. I run them at 12 noon with a volume box in the loop. Also IMO the treble and presence is set to high.
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Yeah that's the first thing I thought. I find the presence should be kept under 9 oclock and the treble under 11. I run my out put at like 2:30 and the master at 9:30. Also the send knob on the back effects volume and high end, I leave it at noon.
 
Pretty much if you run everything at noon including the volume, and put your treble and presence at abou 9 oclock your going to get a good sound. adjust it from there. :thumbsup:
 
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