Mesa Vs Marshall

[TravisK]

Since everyone is talking about them...Discuss.

[Dani Pace]

What's to discuss? You can have them both, I'd rather keep my Fender twin.

[Zed10R]

eehh...they are both overrated. Guys who like rock n roll tone tend to like Marshall. Guys who like Nu Metal tone tend to like Mesa. Guys who like GOOD tone buy Hughes and Kettner.

Just kidding. Great tone can be had with either. The one thing most people don't do but should do is try before you but. Compare them. Just 'cause your hero uses Mesa doesn't mean YOU won't sound better with a Marshall. Or a Peavy. Or a Soldano. Or a Bogner. Or a VHT. Or a Crate. Or ......you get the idea. Shopping around is way more important that the brand name.

[DonGraham]

I have one of each-----'76 marshall jmp 50 watt head with '71 4-12 cab with original 30's......and a mesa trem-o-verb dual rectifier head and 4-12 cab................I like them both for different things, and wouldn't get rid of either one..

btw.....Fender twins are great amps but they won't do what a marshall or mesa will do any more the a marshall or mesa will do what a twin will do.

[Dani Pace]

Don is very right, all these amps have their own unique sound and in certain cases are superior than others. It depends a lot on the sound you want or like. It isn't that one is better than another, but for some sounds one will work better than the other. The visual impact (for live gigs) is another thing to consider, people seem to like to see big amps with big logos on them, I guess Marshall wins that one. The point I'm trying to make is simply that there isn't any one amp for everything. Size, volume, tone, distortion level and other factors determine which is best suited for the purpose. We all swear by our amps because they give us the sound we want, and we all have our own oppinion of how an amp should sound. They all have their good qualities and they all have their limitations. Amp preferances vary almost as much as guitar preferances. Enough said, I think I'll still keep my twin.

[themaddog]

Marshall is great for hard rock tone, Mesa is great for heavy metal.

That being said, I play in a '70s era-type hard rock band. I owned a 60 watt Marshall JCM 2000 TSL, and all the thing ever did was croak. The tone was OK, although the rhythm tone was really weak for what I wanted.

I returned it after it broke for the third time in a year and got a Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier. I had to take out a lot of unwanted bass, but now I've got a perfect tone for lead guitar playing. Kinda like '80s stuff but not cheasy or hollow sounding, but nice and full.

I can get a variety of tones with my Mesa, and it's also kind of neat because I can change the bias (with a switch) from SL6 to EL34 if I wanted a more "Marshall" tone.

As for playing live with huge amps, I've played live to audiences with tiny combos as well as half-stacks. The audience doesn't really seem to care or notice one way or another, just the other bands. Personally I'd rather laugh at them as they struggle with 8x10 and multiple 4x12 cabs to play a 20 minute set and let them think they get the last laugh when they see me bring my tiny rig. The small amps, in my opinion, always sound a helluva lot better because of the control you can get from them. My best sounding live rig was my Mesa Boogie through a 2x10 openback cab. My 4x12 sounds good for recording, but the 2x10 has a much better live sound.

-MD

[espskully]

I've had both and both sounded good cranked up. Both sounded like shit at low volumes.

[ibleedburgundy]

Those are my two favorite amp companies. I give MESA the edge because I don't know that they have ever made a bad product. Marshall has made some lame solid state amps in the past.

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

Ideally I would have a rig with 5 or 6 amps (Mesa Triple, Marshall 100w Super lead, Roland JC-120, H&K Triamp, Fender Twin, etc...)

They're all good amps and they can all have great tones that make any one person say "holy shit, that sounds awesome."

It's all about context though. My favorite tones from the bands I like probably wouldn't sound the same when applied to my own music. They might actually sound like shit applied to my music.

[AlfredB]

b4 spending big on a Marshall you might want to look into hiwatts ($$$$$$$$) or into the Sovtek Mig series ($) ... i find that both of those give you more than the M.

[goodbyebluesky]

Originally Posted by ibleedburgundy

Those are my two favorite amp companies. I give MESA the edge because I don't know that they have ever made a bad product. Marshall has made some lame solid state amps in the past.

Amen to that. Marshall has tarnished their own name by those tube/solidstate bastard children they produced called "valvestate", and some pretty bad solid state stuff.
Mesa has never made anything really bad sounding (not accounting for people's personal tastes) and been quite revolutionary. Randall Smith pioneered many innovations that Marshall and all other amp makers copy now and we take for granted. High-gain circuits and master volumes anyone?
As far as reputation in general, I give props to Mesa.

[sile2001]

They both suck next to an ORANGE!!!

[fldrummer]

Ya'll are wrong... go get a Krank amp and play some powerchords

[metalhead28]

Here's my take.

Marshall.
Edgy, Bright, Honky

Mesa.
Deep, Spongey, Gravelly

Marshall.
Classic Hard Rock tone. Excellent for a cutting, traditional heavy metal tone. Rich lead tone.

Mesa.
Standard modern/nu metal tone. Great for bottom heavy downtuned metal. Smooth high gain lead sound.

Marshall.
Way more midrange bite

Mesa.
Way more bottom end.

Oh shit, they both sound great tho

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

I found a picture of my Mesa rig alongside my old Marshall rig. The Marshall now belongs to my father. I really wish I had both.

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/5...arshall8nb.jpg