Marshall Freak":1v8q58fv said:
stephen sawall":1v8q58fv said:
I just spend four hours with the amp using my Les Paul with JB.... Into a recto 2x12 cab. I checked out the entire range of what it can do.
What do you want to know about it ???
What is its entire range? Handle medium to low gain well?
Lead tones? Harsh? Compressed? Sound like a mark series? Sound like a recto? Good headroom, even with just 50.watts?
Or just, what's your initial impression?
Much easier to dial in and to get to know than most Mesa amps. I thought it sounded great and would have zero problems doing a gig with it. It has that upper midrange punch you expect from a 50 watt EL34 amp with some juice on the plates. Punchy and aggressive.
This is a completely new voice for Mesa. I had no problem dialing in any range of gain. The lead channel is fairly compressed. Rhythm channel being a bit more dynamic and not as midrange heavy.
The cleans sounded great to me.... Better than I expected. In the Mesa Mark / Fender family of sounds. I had no problem getting plenty of headroom.
The rhythm channel got pretty highgain.... But much less than the lead channel.
The dynamics were pretty good in this channel. I am accustom to using Fryette often. Most amps just do not have the dynamic range. I could not get it down to clean with highgain with the guitar volume.... But got some good blues tones.
It is a crunch channel. But is not voiced like a Plexi or 800. With the tight switch on I could get it closer to that sound. But it is more saturated and compressed like many Mesa amps. Ît is darker ..... I see the plexi as a fairly bright amp. You could get similar.... But the feel and tone was always different. You could get a modified English crunch sound no problem.
I could see why they say the lead channel is a mix of Rectifer and Mark. It certainly has that easy to play lead feel the Marks have. With the tight switch on it almost reminded me of a boosted Rectifer. The overall sound is smoother.... But still hairy. Below about 1 o'clock on the gain the sound stayed pretty focused. Above that it got more of a Rectifer highs.
Easy to get scooped or midrange heavy sounds from any channel.
Keep in mind everyone I only spent a few hours with the amp. I feel most amps take several days or more to really get to know. This amp was easy to learn.... But take what I say within the context of my experince. I don't think I know it enough for a full review.
