Rumored Mesa Mark James Hetfield signature

thegame said:
Interesting that no one is taking issue with Mesa apparently lifting some of the Roland and VH4 circuits, if this James amp is what it seems. The trend I've observed over the years is that when one esoteric boutique amp builder begs, borrows or steals from another esoteric boutique amp builder, the guy is bad. When a larger company does the same to any other company (big or small) and makes it affordable, then it's ok because then the "me's me's me's" can easily get one.
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Good commentary and valid points here. That said, I doubt that they intended to incorporate the actual carbon copy circuits from the JC or VH4...Nor do I think it would be reasonable to do so logistically. It would be nearly impossible to replicate Roland, Diezel and Mesa tones contained in one head, I suspect that James wanted them referenced for certain qualities and Mesa would do "their take" on those sounds and tweak from there. If they could pull off anything even close, count me in...Would be an incredible amp. Just my opinion.
 
Philhouse said:
Absolutely.
I can understand James asking for those type of tones in a sig amp as they are the foundation of his sound now, but I was surprised to read that Randall was actually referring to those amps and I wonder how close to the original proprietary circuits they had gone.
Now if it was the other way around and Diezel and Roland were openly discussing how they were going for very specific Mesa amps/circuits into their own new product development I'm sure Mesa/Gibson wouldn't be so happy.
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It's not like Randy hasn't done it before.
 
The Mesa theory is null & void as "metallica" has been using the sNax fx III for about 13 yrs now. :checkthisout:
GREED.
 
shar-vell Dan said:
The Mesa theory is null & void as "metallica" has been using the sNax fx III for about 13 yrs now. :checkthisout:
GREED.
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And sound like shit live for it. Snax can sound decent if everyone is modeling especially drum kit and other guitar player but otherwise it phase cancels with tube power sections.
 
shar-vell Dan said:
GREED.
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Pourquoi? James shot down the amp because Mesa didn't want to make it cheap enough and James wanted people to be able to afford it.

Mike Oxhuge said:
And sound like shit live for it. Snax can sound decent if everyone is modeling especially drum kit and other guitar player but otherwise it phase cancels with tube power sections.
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Phase cancellation can happen between tube amps. Tons of amps are phase reversed from each other. In fact many amps in the Axe are phase reversed from each other because they model.ghe phase. You can just flip the phase too if it's an issue. But once it's stereo panned it doesn't matter anyway because at a distance phase changes anyway?
 
Mike Oxhuge said:
And sound like shit live for it. Snax can sound decent if everyone is modeling especially drum kit and other guitar player but otherwise it phase cancels with tube power sections.
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Huh?

Guessing this is not a voice of experience here.
 
Mike Oxhuge said:
And sound like shit live for it. Snax can sound decent if everyone is modeling especially drum kit and other guitar player but otherwise it phase cancels with tube power sections.
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That's not exactly how things work. Phase just refers to the timing and orientation of the peaks and valleys of sound waves. As @IronSean pointed out, lots of amps are out of phase with each other. With tube amps, every time you add a gain stage, the phase reverses. Because of this, you can infer that as far as amp phase goes, you have two camps, amps with an even number of gain stages and amps with an odd number of gain stages.

If you have two players in a band, each using an amp out of phase with the other guitarist's amp, it won't really matter because they're not going to be playing precisely enough to phase cancel.

If you're using stereo amps, most people just put a signal splitting buffer with a phase flip button right after the guitar and set the phase button so both amps match phase.

However if one guitarist is using a stereo setup with a tube amp on one side and a modeler on the other, then yeah that's not really gonna work because the input lag of just one or two milliseconds will screw up the phase in a way that a phase reverse switch won't help.
 
All I know is every time I have seen a 2 guitar band and one has a tube amp and the other has a modeler you can't hear the player with the modeler in the live mix. I experienced it myself being the guy with the modeler. Now put it into a tube power section and it gets better but then what is the point of the modeler? What else besides phase cancellation can be the cause? Literally both can be played on their own and match the volume but then together the modeler just disappears in the mix. I am genuinely wanting to know what the cause is if it isn't phasing?
 
All i know is when i go to concerts and see metallica and other bands with modelers my ears dont ring after the show, but in the days when metallica and other bands was using real amps my ears is ringing for hours after the show and sometimes still ringing a day later. I just wanna know why modelers at the same volume doesnt do that to me??


Btw I also hate metallica’s live tone the past 10 or 15 yrs.
 
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Mike Oxhuge said:
I had one and it was a great guitar. Sounded like a proper Explorer. It was light but sounded the way a proper Explorer should sound. I only swapped pickups but the factory ones were okay just not my style.
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I had one too and it was crap. Bridge was bottomed out and the action was not too low and neck relief was in the normal range. The fit and finish are just incredibly average.
 
I just love that big knob. Gibson needs to release several versions.
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Mike Oxhuge said:
All I know is every time I have seen a 2 guitar band and one has a tube amp and the other has a modeler you can't hear the player with the modeler in the live mix. I experienced it myself being the guy with the modeler. Now put it into a tube power section and it gets better but then what is the point of the modeler? What else besides phase cancellation can be the cause? Literally both can be played on their own and match the volume but then together the modeler just disappears in the mix. I am genuinely wanting to know what the cause is if it isn't phasing?
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Any one of a hundred variables? If I had to put money on it, I'd guess it's that modelers are more difficult to tweak on the fly due to having to go menu diving, so when players dial them in at home, they scoop the amp out and make it sound big, which makes it also disappear in a live environment. Basically it's the players dialing in a lack of mids. User error.

There is no magical "hear it better / cut through the mix" quality about tubes. Seriously. What specific thing about tube amps would you say makes them magically louder or more "mix cutting" than a modeler using a great class AB solid state amp that can output equal decibels?
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Any one of a hundred variables? If I had to put money on it, I'd guess it's that modelers are more difficult to tweak on the fly due to having to go menu diving, so when players dial them in at home, they scoop the amp out and make it sound big, which makes it also disappear in a live environment. Basically it's the players dialing in a lack of mids. User error.

There is no magical "hear it better / cut through the mix" quality about tubes. Seriously. What specific thing about tube amps would you say makes them magically louder or more "mix cutting" than a modeler using a great class AB solid state amp that can output equal decibels?
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Experience. If a JCM 800 patch dialed to sound like the real deal next to it then doesn't cut through it isn't the dialing. I'm far from the only guitar player with this experience. Modelers are the fuck dolls of the guitar world. Some are cheap blow up versions some are like the more real ones but none are as satisfying as the real thing.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
There is no magical "hear it better / cut through the mix" quality about tubes. Seriously. What specific thing about tube amps would you say makes them magically louder or more "mix cutting" than a modeler using a great class AB solid state amp that can output equal decibels?
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The uncompressed, dynamic and punchy nature of audio signals that do not travel through A/D and D/A converters. Plus there's so many more potential points in a digital signal path for the sound to travel through components powered with comparatively lower voltages than tube circuits, which tend to smear your tone with that shitty digital hazy sheen (easy to hear in person).
 
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