Soon there won't be any Mesa Boogie's left.

[Digital Jams]

Go grab a mesa and a good 800 or modded SL start playing, all I can really offer you.


I like Mesa, owned a MK IV for 6 years so no fanboi direction on my part.

That's great if that works for you. However those are amps that were designed decades ago. There's not a single Marshall I'd care to own that's made right now. I'd much rather have a Stiletto, Royal Atlantic, or ED. They all do British sounds better, and are far more versatile than either of which you mentioned.

Different strokes, I guess.

PLayed an outdoor town gig two weeks ago with a single channel modded SLP, from STP, Iggy, Social Distortion, and Foo Fighters and had zero issues nailing the tones caught on tape with a large pedal board and guitar volume.

The crap reissue SLP with the temp being 90 degrees 70% hum.

Different stokes indeed.

 

[thiswaythatway]

 

[thegame]

Mesa Boogie's product sheet on the Dual Recto circa 1992 :

About the Recto's orange channel :

"Takes you back to Panama 1984 where the strings are elastic rubber bands and each note is squeezed till the tone drips out"

About the Recto's Rec channel :

"Its sure to confound the critics and will likely introduce us to a whole new camp of friends, especially those with a jones for hyper-modified English crunch".

Really Mesa ?

 

[Badronald]

I'll take ANY new Mesa over the crap Marshall has been putting out any day. Geez, wasn't it like 1982 when marshall made their last best amp?

Out of curiosity, have you seen the build quality on any of the new Marshalls? Their quality keeps getting better, and the Mesa stuff has been going downhill... the choke on my Fortin Natas is bigger than the output transformers in the new Rectos/Road King/Roadster, and I'm not even exaggerating

The JVM is one hell of an amp, especially for the price. Marshall isn't slacking any longer.

Can you point me to some threads where people have been complaining about the reliability and/or construction of Mesa amps? Because I haven't really seen any.

Agreed. To put Mesa and unreliable in the same sentence is laughable.

<Laugh


But seriously, I haven't had any troubles with my boogies. The only trouble I am having, is with my .50 caliber plus because it started to hum. It went 20 years without ever going to the tech, or getting a re cap.

I have never heard anyone complaining about mesa quality.

I gigged with a MK Mesa for 12 straight years. Never once took a backup to a gig. Maybe re-tubed it 3 times. Ridiculous. Did someone say Mesa's don't cut as well as Marshalls? Now I'm a Marshall guy at heart, but that old Mesa of mine would take the top of your head off.

 

[some dude]

Mesa Boogie's product sheet on the Dual Recto circa 1992 :

About the Recto's orange channel :

"Takes you back to Panama 1984 where the strings are elastic rubber bands and each note is squeezed till the tone drips out"

If you play an early Recto on the orange channel with the volume way up and the tube rectifier on it produces an elastic lead tone. Roll the gain back to around 10:00 and run it through a Marshall cab loaded with Greenbacks and it's a totally different experience from the gain above 12:00/Recto 4x12 tone we're used to hearing.

Beyond that, I agree... but I also never thought the Boss DS-1 sounded like a wall of Marshall full-stacks either.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Mesa Boogie's product sheet on the Dual Recto circa 1992 :

About the Recto's orange channel :

"Takes you back to Panama 1984 where the strings are elastic rubber bands and each note is squeezed till the tone drips out"

About the Recto's Rec channel :

"Its sure to confound the critics and will likely introduce us to a whole new camp of friends, especially those with a jones for hyper-modified English crunch".

Really Mesa ?

Mesa's marketing team must drop some XTC or Shrooms before they write their stuff. They make themselves look silly unless they really believe the bullshit they come up with.

 

[Bxlxaxkxe]

who cares

 

[thiswaythatway]

who cares

You do. You commented.

 

[Meathead]

who cares

Well said!
I could basically go into any thread that doesn't interest me and type that. I think I will.

 

[polaris20]

Mesa Boogie's product sheet on the Dual Recto circa 1992 :

About the Recto's orange channel :

"Takes you back to Panama 1984 where the strings are elastic rubber bands and each note is squeezed till the tone drips out"

About the Recto's Rec channel :

"Its sure to confound the critics and will likely introduce us to a whole new camp of friends, especially those with a jones for hyper-modified English crunch".

Really Mesa ?

Mesa's marketing team must drop some XTC or Shrooms before they write their stuff. They make themselves look silly unless they really believe the bullshit they come up with.

Marketing for any company is full of hyperbole anyway, and anyone dropping serious cash based on said hyperbole is a moron anyway. It's not like you can't play the amps and form your own opinion anyway.

Unless you buy whatever's popular on the Internet, in which case the folks here will do it for you.

 

[ACShreds]

My Mark V is a pre 2000 SN and when i got it after trading in my mark IV i was in love with it. Then a couple of months ago i put in a high gain preamp tube set from dougs tubes and ive been in heaven ever since. I get so much great tone out of this head its unreal. For the first time ever have i been able to plug straight into the amp and get the tone i've always heard in my head. I'd always been taking a head and trying to sculpt the tone with other OD's, EQ's, Compressors, etc... trying get close. Im finally at the point where i know the head sounds great and now i can focus on the effects side of things that only adds to experience.

 

[Deleted member 8761]

My Mark V is a pre 2000 SN and when i got it after trading in my mark IV i was in love with it. Then a couple of months ago i put in a high gain preamp tube set from dougs tubes and ive been in heaven ever since. I get so much great tone out of this head its unreal. For the first time ever have i been able to plug straight into the amp and get the tone i've always heard in my head. I'd always been taking a head and trying to sculpt the tone with other OD's, EQ's, Compressors, etc... trying get close. Im finally at the point where i know the head sounds great and now i can focus on the effects side of things that only adds to experience.

What tubes did you get and what is the tonal difference with the stock ones? I'm pretty happy as it is now, but always curious to try out new things.

Ps I have the post 2000 sn model

 

[chunktone]

A close friend of mine is an engineer at Curb records here in Nashville. I asked him the other day, how often he sees Mesa Boogie amps in their sessions. He said virtually never. Plenty of Bogner, Fender, Bad Cat, Bruno, 65 amps, \13 , Matchless, Vox etc.... No Boogie.

 

[polaris20]

A close friend of mine is an engineer at Curb records here in Nashville. I asked him the other day, how often he sees Mesa Boogie amps in their sessions. He said virtually never. Plenty of Bogner, Fender, Bad Cat, Bruno, 65 amps, \13 , Matchless, Vox etc.... No Boogie.

Boogies uncommon in Nashville? HOLY SHIT!!!

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

 

[some dude]

Boogies uncommon in Nashville? HOLY SHIT!!!

I was thinking the same thing.

The gear list was making me think they mostly record nu-country bands.

 

[Badronald]

A close friend of mine is an engineer at Curb records here in Nashville. I asked him the other day, how often he sees Mesa Boogie amps in their sessions. He said virtually never. Plenty of Bogner, Fender, Bad Cat, Bruno, 65 amps, \13 , Matchless, Vox etc.... No Boogie.

I'm not sure the amp makes much difference in Nashville. Everything coming out of that town sounds the same. I recorded some stuff with someone who works for Curb a few years ago as well and it sucks. Sounds like typical corporate crap.
Man, do I have bad feeling about that place.

 

[lolzgreg]

Can you point me to some threads where people have been complaining about the reliability and/or construction of Mesa amps? Because I haven't really seen any.

Have you seen the size of the transformers? they're obviously skimping out; the old Rectifier transformers were roughly 25% larger, and the amps sounded a shit ton better. Have you had an older Dual Channel Rectifier in the same room as one of the newer ones? I have, and I did a few days ago, and it's LAUGHABLE. The biggest issue is INCONSISTENCY. If you have three new Boogies in a room, they are likely sound more different than three different MAKE of amp. It's really insane. My friend has a dual and a triple from around rev F that are 100 S/Ns apart and they sound practically identical, despite one being a tad louder.

 

[snowdog]

Can you point me to some threads where people have been complaining about the reliability and/or construction of Mesa amps? Because I haven't really seen any.

Have you seen the size of the transformers? they're obviously skimping out; the old Rectifier transformers were roughly 25% larger, and the amps sounded a shit ton better. Have you had an older Dual Channel Rectifier in the same room as one of the newer ones? I have, and I did a few days ago, and it's LAUGHABLE. The biggest issue is INCONSISTENCY. If you have three new Boogies in a room, they are likely sound more different than three different MAKE of amp. It's really insane. My friend has a dual and a triple from around rev F that are 100 S/Ns apart and they sound practically identical, despite one being a tad louder.

Welcome to 2011, if you aren't spending $3500 plus you are probably not getting the best there is. I have a MKIV that I'm real happy with, and a 4 hole Marshall too. Speaking of INCONSISTENCY, old Marshall's are well known to be slapped together with whatever parts they had sourced at the time...a lot of them don't sound the same either. Jim Marshall mentions it himself in one of his older interviews with Guitar World.

 

[kasperjensen]

Man some of you must have some seriously loud bands if you can't make a full stack cut through.

 

[some dude]

Can you point me to some threads where people have been complaining about the reliability and/or construction of Mesa amps? Because I haven't really seen any.

Have you seen the size of the transformers? they're obviously skimping out; the old Rectifier transformers were roughly 25% larger, and the amps sounded a shit ton better. Have you had an older Dual Channel Rectifier in the same room as one of the newer ones?

Yes.

I have, and I did a few days ago, and it's LAUGHABLE. The biggest issue is INCONSISTENCY. If you have three new Boogies in a room, they are likely sound more different than three different MAKE of amp. It's really insane. My friend has a dual and a triple from around rev F that are 100 S/Ns apart and they sound practically identical, despite one being a tad louder.

I own a 1992 (rev F) Dual Recto and a 2009 Roadster and play through both regularly... once you bypass the FX loops they sound pretty much the same.... although the Roadster obviously has more features and much better cleans.

Although I've never busted out a calliper and measured them I think the 25% size difference in trannys is a bit of an overstatement. If I remember I'll measure them when I get home tomorrow.