Where does the Mesa Triple Crown fit in the lineup?

MadAsAHatter

MadAsAHatter

Well-known member
You hear more talk about Rectifiers, Marks, and all of their respective variants. In the lineup Rectifiers are on one side and Marks on the other. Don't see too much on the Triple Crowns. They seem like solid amps but where do they fall tone wise? Do they sit between Rectos and Marks? Or are they a branch of their own?
 
They have nothing in common with Rectos or Marks tone wise. They are pretty much a higher gain Royal Atlantic. Pretty mid-forward and very compressed. Even more compressed than the Mark V's lead channel, which is pushing it for me. There's a ton of power section saturation and the harmonics are off the charts. It's a very unique sounding amp. I wish I kept my TC100, but I almost always go straight for my Mark V so it wasn't getting much use.
 
They’re (heavily) based on the 90’s Zinky designed Fender Tone Master’s I think with the typical kind of Mesa extras crammed into the chassis. Whether that counts as British or American or what IDK.
 
sometimes I have a hard time understanding mesa's designs. Last one I had was a roadking and while cool...there was just to much going on. However they usually do something really well, no matter the model.
 
I would think they would have more of a mark lineage as they were built for the guitar player from Lamb Of God. He was their test subject.
 
HarryCooter said:
They have nothing in common with Rectos or Marks tone wise. They are pretty much a higher gain Royal Atlantic. Pretty mid-forward and very compressed. Even more compressed than the Mark V's lead channel, which is pushing it for me. There's a ton of power section saturation and the harmonics are off the charts. It's a very unique sounding amp. I wish I kept my TC100, but I almost always go straight for my Mark V so it wasn't getting much use.
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This right here.

Awesome amp btw. If you needed some type of guidance of the familiar however, I'd say its more in the Mark family than the Recto but again...It's neither amp nor expect it to be. I only say Marks series due to the tightness of it as well as mid bark. I tried this amp expecting to hate it but was super impressed by its nature. Glad it gets its praises now.
 
Like others said it's imo more similar to marks than recto's, still kinda it's own thing, but definitely has a Boogie flavor and feel. I honestly wasn't impressed with them. Sounded generic to me from what I remember. Even when AB'ed with a JP2C (which is very lacking vs a real iic+) it to me sounded worse in most ways. I know we're always curious to try new things, so worth trying I guess to scratch that itch, but definitely compare with something else as a reference point. Especially given your Naylor I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for the TC. Like most other Boogie amps outside the Recto's & Mark's I don't predict it staying in their line up too much longer
 
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braintheory said:
Like others said it's imo more similar to marks than recto's, still kinda it's own thing, but definitely has a Boogie flavor and feel. I honestly wasn't impressed with them. Sounded generic to me from what I remember. Even when AB'ed with a JP2C (which is very lacking vs a real iic+) it to me sounded worse in most ways. I know we're always curious to try new things, so worth trying I guess to scratch that itch, but definitely compare with something else as a reference point. Especially given your Naylor I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for the TC. Like most other Boogie amps outside the Recto's & Mark's I don't predict it staying in their line up too much longer
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Yeah, the Naylor has been freaking great! I'm loving it. I suspect you'd be right in saying I'd find the TC a letdown compared to it. I'm mostly just interested in knowing what a Triple Crown is all about than actually owning one. I don't know what Mesa's goal was with this amp and there's not that much talk or demos to get a good read on it. Mainly just trying to figure out what they were wanting to accomplish and where it would sit in their lineup.
 
I've never dipped into the Mark Series, but have a Tremoverb, Stiletto, Electradyne, Royal Atlantic, and TC 50 (and others but those are el84 based).

I used to run the Tremoverb and Stiletto together as my live rig because they compensated for each other's weak points.

Moved on to the Royal Atlantic and that's been the main rig for several years. Does the job of the two other amps for me in one head. Just recorded some demos with it a few weeks ago and remembered why. Lots of low end thud but still very good at cutting through.

The Electradyne is nice, but doesn't have as much gain as the RA and the shared EQ between channels can be challenging for using all three gain stages.

The TC50 is the newest one I've acquired and I haven't had a chance to try it in rehearsal/gigs, but I find it's sort of like a bit more refined RA. The separate EQ for each channel is great, and there is more gain available in each channel.

On the RA I typically use the red channel, on the TC50, I feel like the blue get's close to that and the red can be used for more when needed.

I really like the additional features on the TC, the midi control an rack mount format is great and I have it racked with a helix so I can get weird with it.
 
Regardless of where the amp "fits" I will say it is a very nice and solid amp across the tonal spectrum. I have the 100 watt version and the attenuation is nice if you need to play at lower volumes. The cleans are nice, the crunch tones are nice and the high gain stuff handles business. Boosting the amp works well if you wish to go that way and I have found several pedals that cooperate with the amp in that regard. I was really impressed with the crunch, rock, 80's type metal tones on the amp. They were better than I expected and better than I get on other Mesa Amps. As is usual with Mesa (and should the case on any amp), you need to dial knobs with your ears and not your eyes and certain controls contribute and blend with other controls. Once you figure the amp out ( read the manual, it is helpful and why it is there ) ;) It is pretty simple and easy to get a ton of usable quality tones out of all three channels. I really like the amp a lot. I could see people using it for so many different things and having it work for them.
 
This was one of those amps that sounded quite good but never clicked for me. Had the 50 and 100 and got great tones with both in all 3 channels, but I just never got attached to either way and didn’t keep them long. They are missing something for me, I just don’t know exactly what that is
 
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