Cash in hand....

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Furvel

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
51
Reaction score
0
Thanks to a settlement, I now have more than what I need to purchase a Mesa Express. Having examined this topic for months now, sifting through manuals and youtube vids, I've pretty much decided on a 5:25 1-12 combo. I'd like to solicit opinions from Express users before I make a purchase, though. Our local Mesa dealer isn't keen on stocking another Express (the 5:25 1-10 they had finally sold after a year or more), which means I'd have to pay for it up front without actually playing it, and my only return option would be store credit... not good. There are other dealers within a 90 minute drive (Sweetwater being one of them), but I'll get better warranty service from the locals if I buy local. And I try to buy local, all things being relatively equal. There's no price differential between Mesa dealers that I can see. I'm guessing that either the dealer discounts are very slim, or that that Mesa dictates the retail price, period. Here's some criteria to consider:

The band I'm in plays quite a few smaller clubs and has a very reasonable stage volume. This has been consistent over my live performance career, regardless of the band.

Our drummer is about a 3 on a volume scale of 1-10, so it's not hard to be heard on stage. Turn the amp up too loud and you won't hear our drummer (I made this mistake at a festival once). I should mention that I always mic the amp, as well.

I usually have my keyboard player right behind me, so I can't run the amp too loud anyway or it's gonna blow his head off. I'll probably need some kind of baffle about 6-to-12 inches behind the amp anyway, to reduce aft volume.

While the 5:25 may ultimately lack some headroom in the clean mode, I really don't need spanky clean... I'm guessing I can use a combination of the blues mode and lighter pick attack for cleaner tones. I'm buying an express mainly for the crunch and blues modes. The burn mode will be used a few times a night, and the clean mode would be very infrequent, if at all.

The question is (finally!): Is there any reason I should consider a 5:50 combo?? Let me first say that a combo is imperative... our band practices in a small 3rd floor apartment at very low volume (we barely need mics) so the 5W setting is gonna be perfect for that environment. I'd love a head and closed back cab for live gigs but I'm not hauling all THAT up 3 flights of stairs for practice... besides, I can always run a extension cab with any combo I buy, as the situation requires. Not to mention the cost of a head and quality ext cab is quite a bit more than a combo.

I really like the idea of having a 25W amp that I can work a little harder, as opposed to a 50W amp that would barely be above idle. My last tube amp was a 40W Fender HRD and I had to adjust the volume with extreme caution... you know, you turn it up slowly... it's too quiet...too quiet...TOO LOUD!! And I like the idea of EL84's, versus the 6L6's that I've always had in my Fenders. I do have some reservations about the dyna-watt, but most of what I've read in this forum concerning that is positive.

As if all of the above wasn't too much information, the local store does happen to have a new Mark IV combo (apparently leftover NOS, since the Mesa site lists that model as out-of-production). The Express looks simple to operate by comparison, but a NOS Mark IV is probably a rare find... does this deserve any consideration??

Thanks for digesting all of this. I appreciate whatever information you can provide that will help in my decision making process. I've never really had a good amp... I've been playing for 30 years, I'm completely satisfied with my guitars but I've never had an amp that measured up. The HRD was OK when I bought it (1997) but now I want an amp that gives me more options and more quality. I'm almost 50, so I'm hoping to get the last tube amp I'll ever need. Thanks again for any help that you can provide.
 
Well the 5:25, 5:50, and Mark IV are all totally different amps. The combo's can be good, but a lot of people complain about the stock speaker. If you like the sound of an open back though, go for it. Personally I find both the combos to be much to indistinct for me. Any high gain chords are going to blend too much together. A cab isn't always as bad an idea as you might think. You could get an Avatar 1x12 or even a Boogafunk Thiele, which are always nice. Then again, on the third story, I can understand where you're coming from. The Marks are totally different amps. Although I've never played a Mark IV, the V just wasn't my kind of sound. I'd say try it out and see if it's what you want. I wanted a V for the longest time and a lot of the members on this forum convinced me that although the tweakability is nice, if you can get the Express to do what you want for half the price, then go for it. The 5:50 and 5:25 sound very, very similar to my ears with the stock speakers in the combos. Granted, I haven't owned either, but I still couldn't tell a whole lot of difference. Maybe you could get a cab AND a combo so that at practice you could just run it as the combo, but live you could get a sweet *** speaker. I dunno. Other people will be sure to weigh in in about a days time or so.
 
From the information you give, I'd say the 5:25 (I own one) is going to be ideal.
 
EtherealWidow said:
Well the 5:25, 5:50, and Mark IV are all totally different amps. The combo's can be good, but a lot of people complain about the stock speaker. If you like the sound of an open back though, go for it. Personally I find both the combos to be much to indistinct for me. Any high gain chords are going to blend too much together. A cab isn't always as bad an idea as you might think. You could get an Avatar 1x12 or even a Boogafunk Thiele, which are always nice. Then again, on the third story, I can understand where you're coming from. The Marks are totally different amps. Although I've never played a Mark IV, the V just wasn't my kind of sound. I'd say try it out and see if it's what you want. I wanted a V for the longest time and a lot of the members on this forum convinced me that although the tweakability is nice, if you can get the Express to do what you want for half the price, then go for it. The 5:50 and 5:25 sound very, very similar to my ears with the stock speakers in the combos. Granted, I haven't owned either, but I still couldn't tell a whole lot of difference. Maybe you could get a cab AND a combo so that at practice you could just run it as the combo, but live you could get a sweet *** speaker. I dunno. Other people will be sure to weigh in in about a days time or so.

Indeed I have considered that option, buying a 5:25 combo with a 1-10 for practice while adding a 1-12 closed back ext cab for gigs. In that scenario I'd probably look for a used combo, due to the extra expense of the cab. And as if I needed another option, I found a 5:50 for sale on Craigslist about 1 1/2 hours away. Now I got more thinking to do...
 
Im trying to find a used 5:50 head for a decent price. I sold my Express 5:50 2x12 and am regretting it!

Arent there tube differences between the 5:25 and 5:50?
 
Hi,
What kind of music do you play? The 5:25 won’t do metal. I use one (with the 12” speaker) for Church with a Mesa 1/12 extension and love it.

It is the lightest Mesa but is not light on sound. I am still trying to figure out if I like it or my LSS best.

My opinion is get the amp-it is light and has a great sound-both clean and crunch. It is loud enough to cover any venue (especially since you mic at gigs).

Regards,

TW
 
twally said:
Hi,
What kind of music do you play? The 5:25 won’t do metal. I use one (with the 12” speaker) for Church with a Mesa 1/12 extension and love it.

It is the lightest Mesa but is not light on sound. I am still trying to figure out if I like it or my LSS best.

My opinion is get the amp-it is light and has a great sound-both clean and crunch. It is loud enough to cover any venue (especially since you mic at gigs).

Regards,

TW

Guess I forgot to mention that... whoops. We're playing a combination of Classic & heartland rock & roll, blues and Americana. We occasionally venture off into some 90's alt rock, but nothing more severe than STP or 7M3. I'm not a metal player, so no worry there. I can't seem to find the weight of the 5:25 1-12 anywhere. My research shows the 1-10 combo is (depending upon what site you believe) 35-39 lbs; the 5:50 is allegedly 54 lbs. Would someone please tell me what the 5:25 1-12 weighs in at? Our practice will be held on the third floor for the forseeable future, and my back is NOT getting any younger. Too bad there isn't a dealer within a reasonable distance of me that has a 5:25 1-12 available for a test drive.
 
The weight of the 1x10 Express 5:25 according to a music industry review on the Mesa website is 17.8kg.

I have a 5:25 1x12 myself and I carry it up and down stairs all the time. I would not want to do the same with a 5:50. They weigh considerably more and the physical dimensions (they are a lot bigger than a 5:25) mean they are a lot more tricky to deal with.
 
My 5:50 1 x 12 combo weighs about 50 pounds. I'm not a big guy and have a bad back but don't usually have a problem with it. I played a 5:25 but found it to be really different.

I wanted to buy at a local mom and pop store but they wouldn't take the amp back if it didn't work out with my band. I ended up buying it at a chain for that reason.

Keep in mind that these amps are serviced at Mesa service centers which are often not the store that you bought it at I'd gladly drive 90 minutes to where I could trying the amp I was buying.
 
Furvel -
i agree with Don. The 5.25 and 5.50 sound significantly different to me as you'd expect from EL84 v 6L6 tubes and a bigger cabinet. The difference is most pronounced at the 25 v 50w settings. I prefer 6L6 amps so the 5:50 sounds a lot better to me through the whole range. Clean headroom on the 5:50 is much better. As much as you'd ever need. The 1x12" with a Celestion Black Shadow speaker is the best option if you're getting a 5.25. But then it's only a bit more $$ for a 5:50.

Mark IV is a different beast. Haven't heard one in years so can't comment further.

I know you got distance issues but I just wouldn't ever spend near $1000 on anything I hadn't fully tested first.
Youtube clips are next to useless for tone judgements IMO.
But I saw on another thread you're currently using a Cube 60. Not knocking the Cube - I have one and it's an excellent SS amp but.....a 5:25 is a huge step up in quality and a 5:50 is another step up again. So either way you'll be stoked :mrgreen:
 
Newysurfer said:
Furvel -
i agree with Don. The 5.25 and 5.50 sound significantly different to me as you'd expect from EL84 v 6L6 tubes and a bigger cabinet. The difference is most pronounced at the 25 v 50w settings. I prefer 6L6 amps so the 5:50 sounds a lot better to me through the whole range. Clean headroom on the 5:50 is much better. As much as you'd ever need. The 1x12" with a Celestion Black Shadow speaker is the best option if you're getting a 5.25. But then it's only a bit more $$ for a 5:50.

Mark IV is a different beast. Haven't heard one in years so can't comment further.

I know you got distance issues but I just wouldn't ever spend near $1000 on anything I hadn't fully tested first.
Youtube clips are next to useless for tone judgements IMO.
But I saw on another thread you're currently using a Cube 60. Not knocking the Cube - I have one and it's an excellent SS amp but.....a 5:25 is a huge step up in quality and a 5:50 is another step up again. So either way you'll be stoked :mrgreen:

Well, I guess that rules out E-Bay. For me, test driving an amp in the store only goes so far. While it would confirm the functionality of all features, it takes a while to learn all the nuances of an amp, much longer than I can spend in a guitar store. I'm willing to take my chances, I'm a careful shopper and have had great results on E-Bay. Of course now that I said that, I'm likely to be inundated with horror stories :shock:

The 40w-to-50W 6L6 amps I've had in the past were just more amp than I needed, and I didn't get a great sound with the volume stuck at 7 o'clock. I want something in the 25W-to-30W range that I can turn up a bit more.
 
Go on the sound, not the fact that one is higher wattage, there will be no real difference in volume, to make 50 watts sound twice as louder you need 500 watts. To double the volume times the wattage by 10.
They both run on completly opposite valve types, Marshall vs Fender, so I would go somewhere and try them. I think the bloke in the shop is out of order saying you have to pay up front, some shops will charge you a 10 per cent deposit, some will just order it in if they are a dealer of the make you want.
Asking you to pay all the money up front before its even in the shop is not how its done.
 
Furvel said:
Newysurfer said:
The 40w-to-50W 6L6 amps I've had in the past were just more amp than I needed, and I didn't get a great sound with the volume stuck at 7 o'clock. I want something in the 25W-to-30W range that I can turn up a bit more.

25-30 watts, compared to 40-50 watts won't give you any volume change that you can hear.
Wattage is not a measurement of volume and 2 different amps of the same wattage can be massively different in volume. Only db is a measurement of volume.

You won't even get more headroom from 30 to 40 watts, you will get more clean headroom from 50 to 100 watts but the volume will still not be much more.
To double the volume, you have to times the wattage by 10, so 50 watts is twice the volume of 5 watts, you would expect that 5 watts would be really quiet compared with 50 watts, you would think that if 100 watts is twice the volume of 50, the 50 watts would be 50 times louder than 5 watts but it doesn't work like that, 5 watts is half the volume of 50 watts which is why the 5 watt setting is still loud, and you can gig with it on the 5 watt setting if the drummer isn't too heavy.


Usually amps don't do anything past 2 thirds volume anyway, and they use linear pots, so in the shop you think its really loud and only on 2, how loud will it be when I turn it up???????????????????????????? Answer, most of the volume is in the first quarter of the linear pot's travel, its a sales trick. They should ude AUDIO pots.
My F50 and 5.50 don't do much past 2 o clock, the best sound is usually with the volume on half. A lot famous pro's only use half volume.
 
Newysurfer said:
I know you got distance issues but I just wouldn't ever spend near $1000 on anything I hadn't fully tested first.

1000 USD, thats not so bad, the 5.50 here is around 1600 GBP here, making it around the 3000 USD price range, you got those amps so cheap you don'y know how lucky you are.
 
UKBoogieboy said:
Newysurfer said:
I know you got distance issues but I just wouldn't ever spend near $1000 on anything I hadn't fully tested first.

1000 USD, thats not so bad, the 5.50 here is around 1600 GBP here, making it around the 3000 USD price range, you got those amps so cheap you don'y know how lucky you are.

5:50 combo's cost around $US 1100 in the US.... lucky bastards for sure :mrgreen:
Mine cost me US$2500 in Australia 2 yrs ago.
 
UKBoogieboy said:
Newysurfer said:
I know you got distance issues but I just wouldn't ever spend near $1000 on anything I hadn't fully tested first.

1000 USD, thats not so bad, the 5.50 here is around 1600 GBP here, making it around the 3000 USD price range, you got those amps so cheap you don'y know how lucky you are.

I thought $940 (excluding shipping) was a fair price on mine, considering it has the Vin 30.
 
UKBoogieboy said:
Furvel said:
Newysurfer said:
The 40w-to-50W 6L6 amps I've had in the past were just more amp than I needed, and I didn't get a great sound with the volume stuck at 7 o'clock. I want something in the 25W-to-30W range that I can turn up a bit more.

25-30 watts, compared to 40-50 watts won't give you any volume change that you can hear.
Wattage is not a measurement of volume and 2 different amps of the same wattage can be massively different in volume. Only db is a measurement of volume.

You won't even get more headroom from 30 to 40 watts, you will get more clean headroom from 50 to 100 watts but the volume will still not be much more.
To double the volume, you have to times the wattage by 10, so 50 watts is twice the volume of 5 watts, you would expect that 5 watts would be really quiet compared with 50 watts, you would think that if 100 watts is twice the volume of 50, the 50 watts would be 50 times louder than 5 watts but it doesn't work like that, 5 watts is half the volume of 50 watts which is why the 5 watt setting is still loud, and you can gig with it on the 5 watt setting if the drummer isn't too heavy.



Usually amps don't do anything past 2 thirds volume anyway, and they use linear pots, so in the shop you think its really loud and only on 2, how loud will it be when I turn it up???????????????????????????? Answer, most of the volume is in the first quarter of the linear pot's travel, its a sales trick. They should ude AUDIO pots.
My F50 and 5.50 don't do much past 2 o clock, the best sound is usually with the volume on half. A lot famous pro's only use half volume.


I was also factoring in the smaller cabinet size of the 5:25 and that I won't need to set the gain as high on the Express as I did on my Fenders to achieve the same relative amount of crunch. I'll find out when I get the amp next week, and I'll be sure to post my findings at that time.
 
Furvel said:
UKBoogieboy said:
Newysurfer said:
I know you got distance issues but I just wouldn't ever spend near $1000 on anything I hadn't fully tested first.

1000 USD, thats not so bad, the 5.50 here is around 1600 GBP here, making it around the 3000 USD price range, you got those amps so cheap you don'y know how lucky you are.

I thought $940 (excluding shipping) was a fair price on mine, considering it has the Vin 30.

so you bought a new 5:50 1x12 combo with a Vintage 30 speaker for $US940....is that right :mrgreen:
 
Newysurfer said:
so you bought a new 5:50 1x12 combo with a Vintage 30 speaker for $US940....is that right :mrgreen:


My bad, I totally messed up this part of the discussion :oops:. I bought a used 5:25 w/Vin 30... My mistakes: A) I had mixed in comments about various new and used options throughout the thread, so I should have been more specific when mentioning exactly what I purchased. B) I failed to notice that a 5:50 was specified in the US/UK price comparison by UKBoogieboy. Apologies all around, folks. Hope you can understand I was a little excited when I initially posted about my purchase. It is my first Mesa, after all. :D

I'm still happy with the deal I got, though. Fed Ex says it'll be here Friday. That gives me a week until the next gig to get comfy with it.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top