Mesa Boogie Bottle Rocket

[mikeh]

I've been trying one of these for the last two days - it's on consignment at a local music store for $150 and they let me take it home to try out (the advantage of doing business with local stores vs. the big box stores and/or on line buying).

Anyone else have any good or bad experiance with the Bottle Rocket? I did a search here and found very little. I did a much wider internet search and found surprisingly little information. For some reason the Harmony Central User Review link to Mesa Boogie would not let me in.

So far I've been fairly impressed. I've been running my Boss ME50 effects "pedals" into the Bottle Rocket - in essense using the Bottle Rocket as a "tube preamp" and then taking the signal to either one of a few solid state low watt amps (it sound pretty good with a Roland Cube 15 through the clean channel) - or - into a POD 2.0 or a Johnson J-Station.

I've been less than happy with guitar tones - both through low cost solid state amps and through amp modelers. The overdrive sounds all seem a little too harsh - but the tube overdrive from the Bottle Rocket seems to "warm up the sound" and "fatten the sound" - I'm now getting that "tube distortion sound" without having to get too loud (a big deal since I live in a condo). In fact, the need to get a decent "overdrive" sound with minimum volume has become a fanatical mission for me. I record mostly "new country" singer/songwriter demos - so I need a relatively clean sound with just a little "bite" - but not a digital sounding "bite"

I had thought about buying a tube amp (I've never owned one) and had briefly tried a Blues Jr. a Crate Palomino and the Epihone Valve Jr. - but only in the music store with no way to actually track. Accordingly, I don't have a good point of refernece to really judge if the Bottle Rocket "sounds like a tube amp" - I do know the Crate and the Blues Jr. would be too loud for when I do a lot of my recording (after 11:00pm) I can only trust my ears, which tell me the recorded tones thru the Bottle Rocket are warmer. I find in particular it sounds really good with single coils ( a Strat and a Tele), but humbuckers (an SG and a Yamaha) almost sound too muddy through the Bottel Rocket).

I know I have to trust my own ears, but I only have this thing for one more day and then I have to either give it back or buy it - and I would really like some real world opinions. So, anyone tried one, used one, owned one, loved one or hated one????

[Outlaws]

Even a cheap Fender solid state amp will provide a good clean tone to mic at almost any volume. Then the Mesa will be able to be heard since the Fender won't alter too much of the natural sound.

The Blues Jr. is not a clean amp. Don't get me wrong, its a great amp and I used to own that and the Pro Jr., but the clean is no where near the Fender shimmer. Even some of Fenders $100 amps have hit the Fender clean better than the BJ. But the shimmer is the DeluxeReverb and TwinReverb (also a lot of newer country use Fenders for their distortion..along with modelers galore).

I think the Mesa into a solid state Fender should give you that ever so slight break up you want, all the way to a nice full on real rock tone.

[mop93]

It looks pretty sweet although I've never used one myself.