A good long session with my new Express 5:25

[Bob Womack]

The gloss is off, the honeymoon is over, and it's down to business getting my Express 5:25 12" combo amp integrated into my rig! I spent a pretty long session the other day working out the details of my sound with the amp and I'm pretty happy with the results. My work is pretty studio heavy these days, and I've gotten used to a group of lead sounds that are lower on gain but still have the sustain I want. These sounds have just about always ended up needing a compressor to accomplish. Let me state that my basic palette is classic rock stuff. Alone without any processing, the Express in Crunch mode gets really close to most of the sounds, really close, much closer than anything I've worked with before, but I threw my Barber Tone Press inline with a little touch of compression and I was there.

After working within the basic suggestions offered by Mesa for starting control positions, I felt like I was a wee bit off from my sounds and feels, so I took the time to monkey aboot and push things a little. First off, I found that I wanted REALLY reduced bass and middle on my gained up sounds in Crunch. I also discovered that I liked the gain offered by the Treble knob above 12 o'clock. Not too far, but a little. In fact, I like that gain more than pushing up the gain control itself above 12 o'clock. Because my starting point is humbuckers but I don't want a dark sound, I also found that I liked a bit of contour control spun in and again it was a bit beyond the first suggestions by Mesa. I'm sure this will change when I sit down with the Single coil guitars.

So, it pays to push the envelope a wee bit in order to get your own sound and feel. These amps are extremely flexible and take a bit of getting used to. The starting points offered by Mesa are a great... wait for it... starting point, but it makes sense to do what it takes to make 'em provide your sounds.

Bob

 

[Don]

I've found the Express amps to be great working man's classic rock amps!

 

[jsabo]

I've found the Express amps to be great working man's classic rock amps!

that can also get nasty if you so choose

 

[Bob Womack]

I've found the Express amps to be great working man's classic rock amps!

that can also get nasty if you so choose

Yeah, that's one of the things I liked about it: I could get the basic sounds I needed and then could also get some of the others that I might need but might be outside my usual box, like modern high gain and Class A small-box sound.

Bob

 

[Don]

I've found the Express amps to be great working man's classic rock amps!

that can also get nasty if you so choose

Yeah, that's one of the things I liked about it: I could get the basic sounds I needed and then could also get some of the others that I might need but might be outside my usual box, like modern high gain and Class A small-box sound.

Bob

I agree with you both.

 

[audiotaxi]

good to hear. I'm still tweaking on mine at rehearsal. Only had it a month or so.
I'd really love to use Crunch, but I also like burn for soloing and harder edged classic stuff.
So that precludes me from using blues for clean...so far :?

So right now I'm using Ch1 clean and then OD pedal for crunch rythym, which keeps burn freed up.

How are you guys achieving clean/crunch and solo sounds?

 

[Bob Womack]

I'm doing the blues for clean thing. My crunch is the same sound as my lead, just with less gain, so I back off my volume at the guitar.

Bob

 

[MrMason]

I know it's a different amp, but I recently got a Weber Mass Lite 100 for my Express 5:50, and that enabled me to turn my crunch channel volume up to about 2:45 and the gain down to about 11:00....now I can roll back my volume on my guitar a little and get a great clean sound, turn up the volume on my guitar for some crunchy AC/DC type rhythm sounds or bluesy stuff with the neck pickup...kick in an overdrive and get a great mid-gain lead sound. Switch over to my Burn channel for the heavier stuff

 

[hotraman]

I'm doing the blues for clean thing. My crunch is the same sound as my lead, just with less gain, so I back off my volume at the guitar.

Bob

I'm doing the same with my Mesa.
But I like pushing a few OD pedals ( Wampler Paisley and Fulltone FD2)
I am really liking the 5 watt option.. there's some nice tone in them tubes.

 

[Bob Womack]

You know, I came from the age where fuzzes were junk and dinosaurs roamed the earth, but my son brought by a Big Muff and pushed me to put it ahead of my drive channel. I was rather amazed to find that the combination made some sounds I actually liked. Fancy that. An old dog continues to learn new tricks.

Bob

 

[Don]

I love Big Muffs (and fuzzes in general)! The Express amps take all kinds of pedals well.

 

[Wolfboy1]

I agree with the pedals comment. I have 2 fuzzes I run through mine a Russian Big Muff and a DanElectro Cool Cat fuzz (the orange one). It is by far the cheapest pedal on my board but after reading so many positive comments about it on TGP I decided to try one. Not only do I like how it sounds but my band mates really like the creamy fatness it adds.