danyeo1 said:
And the Stiletto's, Electra Dyne, and Royal Atlantic are turning out to be failures as far as popularity. The resale on those amps is horrid and there's just way to much competition in the "Marshall" tone war. There's just soo many amps out there that do the Marshall thing better than what Mesa can dial up. And I think the Ed and Royal are decent sounding amps. But when you look at the price and what you get, compare it to the competition then they don't look so good.
I don't think there is any problem with Mesa trying new things. The Mark series amps got the company a lot of recognition and sales but they decided to develop the Recto rather than sticking what they did best. Randall Smith has gone on record stating that the Recto is not the sort of amp Mesa would make. The fact that they built an amp that was based off of an amp (SLO) that was based off an amp (Peavey5150) that was was based off of a modded JCM800 with a cold clipping circuit means that they were trying something new that may or may not have worked. It just happened to have caught on and now the company is known BECAUSE of it.
I think the Stilettos, Heartbreaker, Electra Dyne, and Royal Atlantic all are great pieces of gear in their own right and they aren't somehow inferior to other amps that do a similar thing. I happen to think the Electra Dyne is an astounding piece of equipment in terms of tone and responsiveness and most people who hear it vastly prefer it to my Recto. Shared EQ aside, I have yet to play another production amp that is as musical and responsive as the 'Dyne is.
I don't believe that Mesa's intention is to chase Marshall tone, at least not since the Stilettos. The Electra Dyne and Royal Atlantic heads are unique flavours that are inspired by British high gain (I'm sure Orange is an inspiration as well as Marshall) but that are then tempered with boogie sensibility. i.e. they have their own unique voices that would not be mistaken for something else.
In the case of sales, it is not necessarily a competition problem as much as it most likely is about brand recognition. For instance, you don't expect McDonalds to start serving gourmet cakes. Nobody would want to spend $60 on a cake from McDonalds, right? Also, you don't order double cheeseburgers from Starbucks. I think the biggest problem with these amplifiers is that the people who would be interested in buying them would never plug a patch cable into something that said 'mesa' on it.
Anyhow, I'm rambling. I personally hope Mesa keeps on trying new things because for all the disappointment and complaints, there just happens to be guitarists who are looking for a special sound and one of these 'odd duck' amps just happens to fit the player's need perfectly. It is what happened with me and I'm **** glad they made the Electra Dyne. If they hadn't, I'd still be bleeding money chasing for 'that' sound I heard in my head but could find nowhere at all.