Can I justify myself to buy a Maverick or a Blues Angel

[gtraddict]

Hey guys new here and was looking for an answer to this question. I have a Subway Rocket 440 it has the reverb and trem and the 4x10's I like. Will buying a Maverick or a Blues Angel will give me any real different tones to really justify it being in my guitar room taking up room and having to share playing time with some other amps. In short I guess I am asking how different tonally are these beasts to what I have since there is not a Mesa dealer near. Thanks

 

[tele_jas]

What type of tone are you looking for?? A certain tone or just something different?

 

[RR]

Good question but complex answer.

All uses EL84s, but Maverick and Blue Angel is "ClassA" operation while the Rocket 440 is Class A/B (I think). I put ClassA in quotes because that's a debate on its own.

Are you familiar how rectifier tube -vs- silicon rectifier debate? Both the Maverick and Blue Angel has a switch to either use the tube or silicon rectifier where the Rocket 440 is only silicon. These feature maybe important to you, maybe not.

The Blues Angel is more "old school" where a guitarist also relies on power stage tube distortion. You crank up the master volume. Or you could use stomp boxes for your gain. Jay Leno's Band Leader Kevin Euwbank is a Blue Angel user.

Not sure of your questions or your situation if you are looking for something new or these are possible purchase.

Sorry if Open a Can a Worms with your question. :?

 

[musicbox]

This may or may not be relevant to your decision, but in the blue angel, it's only the 6v6 that use the single tube rectifier. The EL84's run a solid state, which leads to a little more brash, aggressive tone compared to the el84's in the maverick which can use a tube rec.

As for versitility, the Maverick deffinilty has the Blue angel there, with two channels. Although the clean channel on the Angel is the better of the two, the Maverick isnt far behind, and it also has a pretty decent gain channel if you can get into the sounds it makes. The Blue Angel is pretty useless at anything over a mild grit.

Also, don't be misled by the lack of a Master Volume. The Blue Angel IS a Boogie and does have an extra gain stage in the pre-amp. Alot of the grit you will hear is coming from that pre-amp which was carefully tuned by boogie to interact with the power-amp.

Infact, this is one of the biggest hoaxes on internet forums. That there is anything called 'pure power-amp saturation'. By the time you crank a nonmaster-volume plexi/fender up, what your hearing at mid level is actually mostly pre-amp gain. You just can't control it independatly of volume level. Yes, by the time the level is dimed you are hearing alot of power-amp saturation, but theres also a ton of pre-amp gain mixed in there.

Also, headroom is deffinilty an issue with both of these low wattage amps. You'lll have a hard time keeping clean over a loud drummer unless your mic'd up. This may of may not be a good thing.

I haven't had a chance to use pedals infront of a Maverick, but the Angel takes them fairly well. The only problem is when you get it really cranking with higher gain pedals, its mostly midrange and kind get very honky and unpleasant while recording.

In conclusion, if you want the best cleans boogie has to offer, get a Blue Angel. If you need loud cleans, get a lonestar or something else. If you want some versititliy with decent cleans and gain, get the maverick. If you want versiilty with decent cleans and gain at high voluems, get a lonestar.

Hope this helps more then it confuses!

 

[RR]

Hope this helps more then it confuses!

It sure helped me out. I have experienced with a Blue Angel since my friend had one. But I was (and still am) intrigued with a Maverick if it have some "Vox AC30 chime" in it. I sure like its dual channel each with two modes so you have a few preamp gain options.

Thanks musicbox for your evaluation and inputs.

 

[gtraddict]

Thanks that does give light to my situation, I am more into the mids and honking sounds hence the 10"s. I do not need very clean headroom but something small enough or something I can push to get a nice distortion/cruch sound out of. I just have a Vox Ad60VTx that I am trying to break away from a little bit more, but I keep running back to it for the Princeton the AC15 and the Marshall JTM sound. If the Bassman sound on the Vox I have was a little better I dont know if I would be looking for another amp or even keep my Mesa Sub Rocket 440 I already got rid of my Mesa Dual Rect.

 

[dylan7620]

andrew's BA 4x10 cranked on the 6V6 setting.... swimming through cream... and this was with the stock mesa tubes. some day... when i don't need distortion (don't see this happening anytime soon) i will have a BA again. :lol:

 

[LPClassic]

The Maverick 4x10 can get a very nice crunch, I had a rocket 44 and with the 1x12 was very loud but the clean was simple not as beautifull as the Maverick, I like better the distortion of my maverick than the rocket but I can heard that the rocket has a very great more "modern" distortion. Hope you can test one so you can hear if you like it or not. The Maverick seems to me a little more "old school" the way it sound and get saturated. Unfortunatelly I haven't had the chance to compare it to a Blue Angel.