ifailedshapes said:
6V6 tubes are a no-go in the Express series. I know that you used to have a LSS. What made you give that amp up, and what are you looking for that wouldn't be found in a Lone Star?
The Express amps are great amps, and they're super versatile. The Contour control works really well, and the reverb is great. The clean and dirty sounds lack the 'magic' of Mesa's more expensive amps, but that doesn't mean they're bad by any means.
If you can get over the 6V6 thing, you'll really like an Express. If you really need the option of 6V6's and want to stick with Mesa, I'd recommend finding a used Lone Star Classic or Mark IV.
Yea but with the LSC, and Marks you have to run them in tweed mode, and the LSC you have to run in 100 watts, the Mark is probably similar. So it's still loud, the problem I'm having is that everything I've had was too loud for my worship team.
I'm pretty much got tired of hearing of the LSS was too loud on 5 watts, the sound guys wouldn't turn me up because the amp did it all on it's own, but that was a problem because on 5 watts the girl bass player standing next to me couldn't handle the volume. So she moved and the horn player came over with me, he then moved.
There is a perception that stage volume is too loud and it's my fault. To me it's all good, the problem is they never had an electric guitar player. It has always been DI acoustics with an unmic'd drummer. I run my Vibroverb on 2.5, I traded the LSS for a Mark V hoping the Master would due it on 10 watts, nope still too loud. Unless I turned it down to barely audible, of course then it sounded like crap.
Sorry to sound like I'm venting, I'm just a little disgusted at this point. So now I'm trying to find a nice quiet alternative with good tone. Talk about an oxymoron. I really don't think attenuating is the answer as they will want me to run it so quiet that will still crush the tone.
So thats where I'm at.