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iltizzone
Published on 10/06/08 at 17:28
Value For Money :
Excellent
Tube amp with a solid-state rectifier. It has six 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 power tubes (22 truly true watts that will rock you violently). Traditionally, Mesa Boogie uses 6L6 power tubes, so this one is different in that respect.
It has 2 channels and a boost (called Contour) on the Lead, which makes the amp a 3-channel combo controllable with the footswitch.
The amp features luxurious connections on the rear: effects loop, headphones out, preamp out with adjustable level, "record" output with speaker simulation, 4 or 8 ohm speaker outputs. The 22 watts are powerful enough to drive a 4x12 cab, try it for yourself.
UTILIZATION
It's not easy to dial in because, like many Mesa Boogies, the tone controls are very sensitive, very powerful and interact with each other, plus, the output level of each channel adds a special coloration due to the power tubes. Finally, the Black Shadow speaker also plays its part as soon as you crank the volume a bit, forcing you to check the presence settings. To say that it's a model without EQ...
The main thing is that you can get a pretty wide palette of sounds and none of them is disappointing. I nevertheless recommend you to download and print the templates from the MESA BOOGIE website (manual.pdf) and write down your settings!
I'm being harsh... 5/10, but this amp is pretty complicated to dial in. As its name implies, this amp can only be used at home or in the studio.
SOUNDS
It's hard to criticize the sound of a Mesa Boogie... I am dumbfounded by it and give it a 10.
What I like most are the clean sounds, which are simply amazing with compression, dynamics, tube warmth... It's an orgasm every time!
You can obviously fiddle with the pots to go from a sweet Bassman distortion to metal... The big Yankee Boogie sound.
To finish, this amp features two qualities that are worth mentioning:
- Regardless of the distortion, the sound is always smooth even at the lowest volumes, it never fuzzes. It's nice to have a superb sound without the need to blast your eardrums.
- THERE IS NO BACKGROUND NOISE! I had never heard an amp with such low noise, even with a run-down Strat copy with lousy pickups. And yet it has no built-in noise gate, which speaks very highly of the quality of the components used by Mesa.
OVERALL OPINION
The Mesa Boogie are expensive, very expensive, but this one is relatively affordable, you can find it secondhand for $900, which is OK for a Boogie. For the price of a Chinese-made Vox AC15, you can get a handmade, quality amp that can be endlessly refurbished (it includes a 7/7 support hotline for life)
It's not an easy amp to dial in, which can be irritating on stage and during rehearsals. But in the studio or at home, there's absolutely nothing in the same size that can do all it does!
It has 2 channels and a boost (called Contour) on the Lead, which makes the amp a 3-channel combo controllable with the footswitch.
The amp features luxurious connections on the rear: effects loop, headphones out, preamp out with adjustable level, "record" output with speaker simulation, 4 or 8 ohm speaker outputs. The 22 watts are powerful enough to drive a 4x12 cab, try it for yourself.
UTILIZATION
It's not easy to dial in because, like many Mesa Boogies, the tone controls are very sensitive, very powerful and interact with each other, plus, the output level of each channel adds a special coloration due to the power tubes. Finally, the Black Shadow speaker also plays its part as soon as you crank the volume a bit, forcing you to check the presence settings. To say that it's a model without EQ...
The main thing is that you can get a pretty wide palette of sounds and none of them is disappointing. I nevertheless recommend you to download and print the templates from the MESA BOOGIE website (manual.pdf) and write down your settings!
I'm being harsh... 5/10, but this amp is pretty complicated to dial in. As its name implies, this amp can only be used at home or in the studio.
SOUNDS
It's hard to criticize the sound of a Mesa Boogie... I am dumbfounded by it and give it a 10.
What I like most are the clean sounds, which are simply amazing with compression, dynamics, tube warmth... It's an orgasm every time!
You can obviously fiddle with the pots to go from a sweet Bassman distortion to metal... The big Yankee Boogie sound.
To finish, this amp features two qualities that are worth mentioning:
- Regardless of the distortion, the sound is always smooth even at the lowest volumes, it never fuzzes. It's nice to have a superb sound without the need to blast your eardrums.
- THERE IS NO BACKGROUND NOISE! I had never heard an amp with such low noise, even with a run-down Strat copy with lousy pickups. And yet it has no built-in noise gate, which speaks very highly of the quality of the components used by Mesa.
OVERALL OPINION
The Mesa Boogie are expensive, very expensive, but this one is relatively affordable, you can find it secondhand for $900, which is OK for a Boogie. For the price of a Chinese-made Vox AC15, you can get a handmade, quality amp that can be endlessly refurbished (it includes a 7/7 support hotline for life)
It's not an easy amp to dial in, which can be irritating on stage and during rehearsals. But in the studio or at home, there's absolutely nothing in the same size that can do all it does!