Yeah, it's official now ...I love this thing! Yeah, the little 10" combo even. FWIW, I am no stranger to Boogies as I have a DC5 keeper (which has served me faithfully for over a decade and is still my #1 go-to amp), Mark III Simul, DC10, and Subway. I wanted a small grab-n-go and rolled the dice with this one. First impressions were admittedly shakey.
I just spent over 4 hours straight experimenting with its myriad voices. Right off the bat, I liked the clean, but was less than happy with the OD tones. Some good crunch here, but not enough bottom there; some good dirt there, but a bit too aggressive here; not enough mids; too much mid-bottom flub; ouch with the icepicky highs here ...I was getting a bit disheartened with the OD tone (again, digging the cleans, though).
Then I finally found what I wanted: with the Blues channel for my "cleans" (I never play spanky, ever), and the Crunch channel for my OD tone, and just a hair of Contour for each channel to add bottom (and roll off the Treb to compensate and avoid the ice-pick), I found the love! Wow!! What I had liked about the Clean channel beforehand (with the gain pushed), I like even better with the Blues channel (with the gain pulled back ...these two channels can get really close to one another). But using the Blues channel as my "clean" yields a nice, round, edge-of-breakup that is just soooo sweeeet; and more mellow than the Clean channel with the gain pushed. Just gorgeous!
And now my primary OD tone (in the Crunch channel) sounds more musical and natural to me, with much better note definition than the Burn, and slightly better than the Blues with the gain set high. Funny how Mesa voiced these two channels. And even funnier that I like them "reversed" so to speak.
Maybe I'm late to the party on this one, but anyone who has not tried their Express "reversed" like this has got to give it a go. I have to get used to the lights and channels being opposite of what I am accustomed to, but that's small potatoes. I never thought I'd actually dig the 10" version and would just use it as a backup, but man is it sweet! Yeah: tried it with my EVM-thiele, as well ...it rocks, but that's a different post. This diminutive combo has its own cool thing going in its own right.
Just thought I'd share my excitement, and the small tip if anyone is interested. Amazing little beast whose speaker I was considering swapping out ...that may have just changed.
Edward
I just spent over 4 hours straight experimenting with its myriad voices. Right off the bat, I liked the clean, but was less than happy with the OD tones. Some good crunch here, but not enough bottom there; some good dirt there, but a bit too aggressive here; not enough mids; too much mid-bottom flub; ouch with the icepicky highs here ...I was getting a bit disheartened with the OD tone (again, digging the cleans, though).
Then I finally found what I wanted: with the Blues channel for my "cleans" (I never play spanky, ever), and the Crunch channel for my OD tone, and just a hair of Contour for each channel to add bottom (and roll off the Treb to compensate and avoid the ice-pick), I found the love! Wow!! What I had liked about the Clean channel beforehand (with the gain pushed), I like even better with the Blues channel (with the gain pulled back ...these two channels can get really close to one another). But using the Blues channel as my "clean" yields a nice, round, edge-of-breakup that is just soooo sweeeet; and more mellow than the Clean channel with the gain pushed. Just gorgeous!
And now my primary OD tone (in the Crunch channel) sounds more musical and natural to me, with much better note definition than the Burn, and slightly better than the Blues with the gain set high. Funny how Mesa voiced these two channels. And even funnier that I like them "reversed" so to speak.
Maybe I'm late to the party on this one, but anyone who has not tried their Express "reversed" like this has got to give it a go. I have to get used to the lights and channels being opposite of what I am accustomed to, but that's small potatoes. I never thought I'd actually dig the 10" version and would just use it as a backup, but man is it sweet! Yeah: tried it with my EVM-thiele, as well ...it rocks, but that's a different post. This diminutive combo has its own cool thing going in its own right.
Just thought I'd share my excitement, and the small tip if anyone is interested. Amazing little beast whose speaker I was considering swapping out ...that may have just changed.
Edward
