mesa pre? or current efx

jrhoden

jrhoden

...And Justice For All
i have an mg100hdfx marshall half stack - 100 watt hooked to that is my gnx3 with my gibson les paul studio - i understand its all preference however fo me to get the best tube sound short of getting a mesa head would it be wise to dump the gnx3 and go with a mesa preamp with stomp boxes - forget about the other efx on gnx im talking just tube ....im not concerned at this point with the other effects....right no im using gnx3 for a simulated solo rec tone - it does ok...could be better

thanks in advance

- Joe :cool:
 
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Here's your problem:

The mesa preamp will go a long way towards getting that sound, but if you are going to run it through the power section of a marshall solid state amp, you are cutting yourself off at the knees. (I'm assuming you knew enough not to plug the preamp into the guitar input on the Marshall)

Most of the tone of a tube amp comes from the power section and the interaction it has with the preamp section. Your Marshall is not capable of outputting a Mesa sound. Not even a tube Marshall can. (A Marshall will sound like a marshall no matter what you stick in front of it)

You might have better luck with the gnx3 and a Mesa power amp (like the simulclass 90/90) even though digitech makes nothing but cheap garbage.
 
change in plans

thanks for your input however i am selling both the marshall head and CRAP digiLOSER efx- what a freekn waste of damn money - i will NEVER NEVER make that STUPID mistake again

im going back to mesa - something i can DEPEND on
 
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Farview said:
Most of the tone of a tube amp comes from the power section and the interaction it has with the preamp section. Your Marshall is not capable of outputting a Mesa sound. Not even a tube Marshall can. (A Marshall will sound like a marshall no matter what you stick in front of it)
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Sure a tube power amp will be better but to say that a Marshall power amp will make his boogie pre sound like a Marshall? Have you ever changed pre's with the same power amp? Are you saying no matter what you plugged into your power amp they all sounded the same because of the power amp?
 
i have hooked up a mesa dual rec to the marshall 4x12 and it sounded great - non marshall
 
hoops said:
Sure a tube power amp will be better but to say that a Marshall power amp will make his boogie pre sound like a Marshall? Have you ever changed pre's with the same power amp? Are you saying no matter what you plugged into your power amp they all sounded the same because of the power amp?
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That isn't what I was saying. The point I was trying to get across was that the marshall power amp will not sound the same as a mesa power amp, no matter what preamp you use. If you truely want the mesa sound, using anything that marshall makes is a waste of time. (especially if it's solid state)

Sorry for being unclear.


BTW, if the marshall cab had vintage 30's in it, those are the same speakers that are in most mesa cabs. The mesa cabs are a little bigger (they have a couple different models) so that affects the tone, but not the response as much.
 
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