JT_Marshmallow
Well-known member
My 50/50 just came this morning. I took it out of the box and noticed the fuse was completely pulverized. Replaced it with another 3 amp fuse I had and then hooked it up. I turned it on for about 30 seconds and realized that I forgot to put in the power tubes. WHOOPS! (I almost wet myself.) I put the tubes in and then turned it on and it worked...ha!
I compared it with my EL84-driven Peavey 50/50 and would have to say the Mesa squashes it. My setup for the test was Guitar > Studio Pre > Power amp > 1x12 cab. (When changing power amps I put them on standby and switched the speaker cable.) I had them both in 50 watt mode and had the volume level identical. I went back and forth several times and here's what I gathered:
- The Peavey is very muddy no matter what you do. EL84's are probably midrangey to begin with, but since my Ibanez JS-1000 and Studio Pre are both very very rich with mids, a muddy power amp isn't really the best thing to have in the chain.
- The Mesa really did have that Mesa tone: it was warm, round, and thick. A PERFECT match for the Studio Pre. Its got Mesa STR-430 power tubes in it which seem to be a great match for it.
- I like the Presence control a lot. I now prefer to cut out a lot of the highs on the Studio Pre's GEQ and then add those highs back in with the 50/50's Presence knob. The tone gets much rounder and warmer this way.
- I noticed that the Mesa has a moderate amount of mids at reasonable output levels, but the mids start to thicken up and become more prominent as you bring up the power amp's volume. If you want a very midrangey sound overall, you can dime the power amp's volume and control the overall volume with your preamp. I like how you can control the amp's mids like this, whereas the Peavey was muddy at any volume.
- I LOVE the low power switch. It kicks it down to 15 watts. You really hardly hear a volume difference, but you can hear it sort of "shrinks" the sound a bit. (Others call this "bringing down the headroom.") Since right now I'm just driving one 1x12 in my studio, the low power switch will remain on indefinitely. I get a much nicer chunky clip from the power amp when in low power mode. High power will probably only shine best if running at least one 4x12.
The guy who sold it to me said he bought it new in 1992. Would this have been the newer model modified for the Triaxis? Or the older design matched for the Studio Pre? It has a purple-ish power indicator light.
I compared it with my EL84-driven Peavey 50/50 and would have to say the Mesa squashes it. My setup for the test was Guitar > Studio Pre > Power amp > 1x12 cab. (When changing power amps I put them on standby and switched the speaker cable.) I had them both in 50 watt mode and had the volume level identical. I went back and forth several times and here's what I gathered:
- The Peavey is very muddy no matter what you do. EL84's are probably midrangey to begin with, but since my Ibanez JS-1000 and Studio Pre are both very very rich with mids, a muddy power amp isn't really the best thing to have in the chain.
- The Mesa really did have that Mesa tone: it was warm, round, and thick. A PERFECT match for the Studio Pre. Its got Mesa STR-430 power tubes in it which seem to be a great match for it.
- I like the Presence control a lot. I now prefer to cut out a lot of the highs on the Studio Pre's GEQ and then add those highs back in with the 50/50's Presence knob. The tone gets much rounder and warmer this way.
- I noticed that the Mesa has a moderate amount of mids at reasonable output levels, but the mids start to thicken up and become more prominent as you bring up the power amp's volume. If you want a very midrangey sound overall, you can dime the power amp's volume and control the overall volume with your preamp. I like how you can control the amp's mids like this, whereas the Peavey was muddy at any volume.
- I LOVE the low power switch. It kicks it down to 15 watts. You really hardly hear a volume difference, but you can hear it sort of "shrinks" the sound a bit. (Others call this "bringing down the headroom.") Since right now I'm just driving one 1x12 in my studio, the low power switch will remain on indefinitely. I get a much nicer chunky clip from the power amp when in low power mode. High power will probably only shine best if running at least one 4x12.
The guy who sold it to me said he bought it new in 1992. Would this have been the newer model modified for the Triaxis? Or the older design matched for the Studio Pre? It has a purple-ish power indicator light.
