Picked up a Boogie Stiletto ACE

[Loudness250]

So I picked this up yesterday. Sounds pretty good but when I got it to my practice space and turned it up for a length of time, I noticed that it has some harshness going on in the mids and highs. It seems like it can be dialed out of tweaked out somehow. I put my pair of RFT el34's in it. I am wondering if a preamp tube swap could help alot? Maybe the pre's are worn and are sovtek? Also wondering if maybe a swap of one of the speakers for a 75 could help? "i have one". Anyone who's had one of these, your opinions are welcome thanks. It sounds good just maybe needs a little something here or there to squash the harshness.

 

[Lord Toneking]

A friend of mine bought one a while back and I remember thinking how awful that thing sounded. Thing reminded me of a crispy chicken nugget

 

[kasperjensen]

I have played one once for a rehearsal, and didn't care for it very much.

But Timmons uses them though right? And he is a Golden God.

 

[Gainzilla]

Ive always wanted to play one of these. IIRC, They were basically billed as Mesa's take on a Marshall and since I love both Marshalls and Mesas, I figured that I might like it.

Ive never played one and have heard a lot of negatives but Ive also heard a bunch of great clips...

 

[bigangryguitar]

from what I have read they are designed to run the treble at near zero. JJ preamp tubes are always good for a bright amp too. I played one a while back and thought it was a cool amp for sure, also one of the sexier amps on the market too imho.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Yes, you need to run the treble and presence basically on zero and push the bass up high or it will have no bottom end. If you ask me it's pretty stupid to have the tone controls like that. If it sounds like shit at most settings and only sounds good at limited dial settings, then doesn't that take away a lot from versatility? To me it does. I'd rather have an amp that have to dial in to make sound shitty instead of an amp that I have to dial a lot to make sound good.

That being said, I had a stage 1 and it sounded good but needed a lot of volume and the treble and presence were basically off. The Ace and Deuce II's have more gain going on.

I think Mesa released a much better amp with the Royal Atlantic though.

 

[Loudness250]

Thanks, I guess I'll get some jj 12ax7's and turn down the treble. An adjustable bias would probably help too. I wonder how difficult that would be to put in, I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron. I can definitely do it if I know exactly what to remove and which wires to attach to the legs of the bias pot and resistors.

 

[ConcreteVampire]

I was hell bent on buying a Trident with a recent service, touring musician owned, good deal, etc....
After two hours could NOT jive with it.... hella loaded with features, including a backwards tone stack that was just all wrong. No treble, or mid as a starting point. Ain't no starting point...
good luck, JJ's, (and fuck with the tone stack values...)

 

[Loudness250]

So, I put some different preamp tubes in it. I put a Tesla, a Groove Tube Mullard RI, A Mullard ecc83, and an EH 12ax7. And as I said I have a pair of RFT el34's in it. I eq'd it the way it is supposed to be with the treble and mids down quite a bit, The amp sounded way better. I like it. I don't understand why they make the tone stack like this but I can dial in pretty good sounds. Good amount of gain, not brutal but good hard rock amp. Next I'll try goosing it with an overdrive to see what that does. But I definitely got the harshness pretty much gone at it sounded really good actually. Makes me gas for some other el34's to try in it. Or maybe if I had all mullard pre's in it...... We'll see.

 

[just42dave]

let me know if ya sell it

 

[Gooseman]

Yes, you need to run the treble and presence basically on zero and push the bass up high or it will have no bottom end. If you ask me it's pretty stupid to have the tone controls like that. If it sounds like shit at most settings and only sounds good at limited dial settings, then doesn't that take away a lot from versatility? To me it does. I'd rather have an amp that have to dial in to make sound shitty instead of an amp that I have to dial a lot to make sound good.

That being said, I had a stage 1 and it sounded good but needed a lot of volume and the treble and presence were basically off. The Ace and Deuce II's have more gain going on.

I think Mesa released a much better amp with the Royal Atlantic though.

+1 on the Royal ...

 

[wIsEbLooD]

i had a stiletto stage 2 here for a couple of weeks. i just couldn't get anything good out of it.
i can usually get along with about any amp but that one was terrible imo.

 

[Chris6870]

Thanks, I guess I'll get some jj 12ax7's and turn down the treble. An adjustable bias would probably help too. I wonder how difficult that would be to put in, I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron. I can definitely do it if I know exactly what to remove and which wires to attach to the legs of the bias pot and resistors.

I have an unused Stiletto bias mod kit from Mansfield I'll sell cheap. Comes with instructions
I had a Deuce and threw some hotter E34L's in and it warmed it up big time. I was going to do the bias mod so I could run 6L6's but got a trade offer for a mark IV and off it went. May want to tty an eq in the loop too.

 

[Loudness250]

Thanks, I guess I'll get some jj 12ax7's and turn down the treble. An adjustable bias would probably help too. I wonder how difficult that would be to put in, I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron. I can definitely do it if I know exactly what to remove and which wires to attach to the legs of the bias pot and resistors.

I have an unused Stiletto bias mod kit from Mansfield I'll sell cheap. Comes with instructions
I had a Deuce and threw some hotter E34L's in and it warmed it up big time. I was going to do the bias mod so I could run 6L6's but got a trade offer for a mark IV and off it went. May want to tty an eq in the loop too.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind in case I decide to do it. I have a bias rite so I might just check what it's running at now and buy tubes accordingly as far as headroom........of course that's still going to vary some.