A Mesa so easy to dial in even Light might like it!

S

sarge117

New member
I tried the 1x12 combo version of one of these overe the weekend
http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/electradyne/electradyne.html

It blew me away.

By far the easiest Mesa to dial in I have ever tried.

I honestly think Light might possibly like this one. No joking.

This is Mesa's take on the modified Marshall sound.

If you look at the front controls you will see a volume and Master, but no gain. The volume is the gain. So don't think you have to crank it to get a great sound. The volume knob should be labeled drive or gain or pre, just not volume.

This demo doesn't do it justice, it sounded better in person. But you can still get the picture.
http://www.mesaboogie.com/demo/ElectraDyneDemo700.html

Also, pay attention to that gain cut switch in the back. If you have it in Hi/low, you won't get much gain out of the hi gain setting. It needs to be off or in clean.

I am selling my Road King to get one of these.

The clean was incredable. Headroom for days if you want it.

Lo had a great mid gain breakup perfect for classic Rock,

Hi would do hard rock and venture into Metal territory.

The amp was tight as hell. Great for muted palm stuff.

You guys gotta try one of these
 
If it's got a master volume, I won't like it much. The problem is I don't like to overdrive preamp tubes, and if you've got a master volume, that's what you are doing. For me to like it, you've got to be hitting the power tubes hard - that's the sound I like. Also, I'm not a fan of most amps that are good for "muted palm" stuff.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I ain't heard of no Mesa :cool: That thing looks like my grandma's television! :p

. . . if one doesn't like a master volume control, why not just leave the master volume on 10? Presumably they included the parallel load of that pot in their tube gain calculation :confused:
 
Well, to some degree it depends on the type of master volume (there are any number of ways you can do it); and then of course there is the way they design the amp - if you are designing an amp to make the most of the preamp distortion, you're going to design it differently than if you design it for power amp distortion; and finally, there is the temptation to think, "oh, I've got a master volume, I can turn this down," and then it sounds like junk, but you get used to it and then your tone sucks. Plus, of course, any unused feature is going to be some degree of a tone suck - I am not one who believes more features are better on an amp.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I have a Mesa Blue Angel that Light would like because it's not a typical Mesa.
Only one channel ...... no master volume. It's a great blues amp and sounds awesome cranked.
But since I play stuff ranging from blues to twangy country to AC/DC ..... it's just not versatile enough and I have to use a buttload of pedals.

That's why I'm getting a Mesa Mark V.
 
ocnor said:
Anyone that would pay 1700 bucks for that POS is nuts. It sounded like a tuba covered with a wet horse blanket. For $1500 you could buy a Carvin V3 halfstack with Vintage 30 speakers. The V3's tone and features makes that Electra Dyne look like a transistor radio. http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=V3412-30
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That may be true, but they're really targeted to different demographics. The V3 is (on some level it HAS to be) a response to the Rectifier series, where you have a ton of gain, multiple channels, multiple modes per channel, etc. It's targeted to players who want a ton of flexibility from an amp. This, meanwhile, is more suited to the oldschool plug-and-play crowd, and is probably more comparable to a JCM800 than it is a Recto-inspired beast.

(though, Mesa being Mesa, they do seem incapable of making anything without at least five or six different modes that you can set the amp to :p)

That said, while I haven't played one of these yet, I'm a little surprised to see Mesa going here, considering how much the Stiletto kicks ass at the modern modified Marshall thing.

Light's opinion BTW (and not that he needs any external validation here, but speaking as a high gain preamp guy) is totally valid. For some sounds, the best (arguably only) way to get them is by simply driving a poweramp into clipping, and even with a high gain pre you can get a surprisingly large number of sounds just by working your volume knob and pickup selector. You don't have to "just" be into blues or "not be gigging" to prefer non master volume amps - AC/DC springs to mind. I happen to prefer amps with tons of channels and more switches than I could ever need (I'm in the process of finalizing a deal to sell my Rectoverb and grab a Roadster, which puts the V3 to shame in terms of front panel and rear panel complexity), but I've also had a blast playing low wattage non master amps, and to this day have to continually fight the urge to grab a Dr Z Carmen Ghia based on recollections of one afternoon with one of those, a Strat, and a Fulltone OD. :)
 
mshilarious said:
I ain't heard of no Mesa :cool: That thing looks like my grandma's television! :p

. . . if one doesn't like a master volume control, why not just leave the master volume on 10? Presumably they included the parallel load of that pot in their tube gain calculation :confused:
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That is what I am thinking. I would think that a master volume amp would be more prefered amp for blues because of the better gain resolution.
 
Lt. Bob said:
That's why I'm getting a Mesa Mark V.
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You'll have to post a review once you get it and have a chance to put it through its paces. I keep finding myself ogling the ads for them in Guitar World, and I've read their website for the Mark V about a dozen times now. It looks like the be-all-end-all Mesa. If I ever get another amp, that Mark V would probably be at the top of my list. It looks like the last amp a player would ever need.

I'm a little intimidated by all of the options, especially considering how it took me a couple of years to truly get to know my current 2x12 tube combo. That Mark V makes my amp look like a practice amp, which makes me think that it'd take half a decade to really get to know something as complex as a mark V.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Light's opinion BTW (and not that he needs any external validation here, but speaking as a high gain preamp guy) is totally valid. For some sounds, the best (arguably only) way to get them is by simply driving a poweramp into clipping, and even with a high gain pre you can get a surprisingly large number of sounds just by working your volume knob and pickup selector. You don't have to "just" be into blues or "not be gigging" to prefer non master volume amps - AC/DC springs to mind.
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That's one of the cool things about the Mark V. You can assign 10, 45 or 90 watts to any channel.
So you can have a channel set for 10 watts and have it dimed out. You're into power tube distortion.

Tadpui said:
You'll have to post a review once you get it and have a chance to put it through its paces. I keep finding myself ogling the ads for them in Guitar World, and I've read their website for the Mark V about a dozen times now. It looks like the be-all-end-all Mesa. If I ever get another amp, that Mark V would probably be at the top of my list. It looks like the last amp a player would ever need.
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Will do although it'll probably be a month or so before I get it. I have to sell some stuff first to raise the money. I have a BUNCH of amps so I'm gonna sell all of 'em and get a Mark V combo and the little Express 5:25-10.
That ought to handle everything I need to do.
 
Lt. Bob said:
That's one of the cool things about the Mark V. You can assign 10, 45 or 90 watts to any channel.
So you can have a channel set for 10 watts and have it dimed out. You're into power tube distortion.


Will do although it'll probably be a month or so before I get it. I have to sell some stuff first to raise the money. I have a BUNCH of amps so I'm gonna sell all of 'em and get a Mark V combo and the little Express 5:25-10.
That ought to handle everything I need to do.
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I'm a total Mesa fanboi, you're preaching to the choir. :D

Though, I'd say pass on the Express. I was pretty underwhelmed with the one I played - the cleans were decent but not as good as the F series it replaced, and the gain sound was pretty.... Eh, it neither got as smooth and liquid as a Mark or Lonestar, nor as crunchy as a Recto or Stiletto. And even at 5 watts it was still pretty damned loud. It was the least inspiring Mesa I've ever played, and if you had a Mark-V I can't imagine ANY playing situation where you'd be happier with the Express.
 
ocnor said:
That statement leads me to believe that that you only play blues or/and you don't play many bar gigs.
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Well, I'm not gigging much right now, but I am NOT a blues player - which is probably why I'm not gigging much around here, come to think of it. :rolleyes:

I have one pedal (a digital delay); and I play around a lot with my volume control, which gives me far more variety than a 4-5 channel amp with a master volume (the volume control just doesn't work right on those amps!). My amp (which I made) has five controls - volume, boost (switchable, it adds another 12ax7 section to the chain), tone, and speed and intensity for the vibrato (which I need to fix, because it's only doing one speed and a very limited range of intensity). Does just about everything I could ever want. So, my pedal board has the DD-20, a tap tempo pedal, and switches for the amp's boost and vibrato. Really simple, incredibly versatile, and it sounds great!

Learning how to use the volume on my guitar was a pretty steep learning curve, though, once I got away from the master volume amps. It's a totally different experience. It's more like a channel switch - for every little turn, you get a completely different sound - and while every sound is related, they are all really good!


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I think I'm going to make a pickup with a power MOSFET strapped onto its bottom plate, which will double as the MOSFET's heatsink. Put DC across a speaker, route the speaker to the guitar's output (MOSFET drain). Et voila, the power pickup! No volume controls, tone controls, resistors, capacitors, anything!

You would need a speaker capable of dissipating several watts of DC power . . .
 
ocnor said:
That statement leads me to believe that that you only play blues or/and you don't play many bar gigs.
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Not really. I play in jazz, blues and covers bands as well as a few that do Stax covers and funk ala The Meters etc and I think pretty much the same way as light about it. It's the guitar I change and my style of playing limited though it is. On the gig I'll set the amp for the room and use either a floor pedal or the volume and tone on the guitar to colour the sound.
 
ez_willis said:
I'm a big fan of Marshall's take on the modified Marshall sound. They really nail it.
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While I get your point, Mesa has gone ahead and taken it to the next level.

You get great cleans and IMO better then modified Marshall drive.

Besides, it's not Marshall's take anyway. If it where Marshall's take it wouldn't need to be modified!
 
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