Considering Electra Dyne, looking for advice.

[diddlydan]

Hi there,

Ive owned a good few mesa's over the years, but never played an electra dyne. One has come up that I am considering a trade on. I won't be able to try beforehand, so I have a few questions.

Is the ED a very low mid/bass heavy amp?

There are a few youtube videos but not an awful lot of good quality ones.Even the mesa one is poor audio (was done back before they had decent promo vids). As a reference point, ive had a royal atlantic, lonestar classic and special and I have a road king 2 at the minute.I have owned other boogies too ,but using these as references. Is the ED gain channel brighter or darker the royal atlantic? I liked the gain channels on the RA but found them a bit dark tbh. Like I wished it had a presence knob when I owned it. (mine may have had an issue as most people say its a bright cutting amp) The lonestar gain channels I found a tad boomy and a bit dark for my taste. How does the ED gain channels compare? I have seen some comparison vids with the RA and the ED(haggertys music) would these be an accurate representation of the two?

As I said I have a road king 2 but just fancy something different. Great amp but I was never crazy about the gain. I found modern mode a bit bass heavy for my taste too. Anyone know how the ED would compare to the road king 2's gain? Not so much the character of the gain as they are completely different, but in the low end/low mids.

The ED has me intrigued as I fancy something with some mild gain and not too saturated.I'm just concerned i may find it a bit tubby.

 

[Eevil]

Hello.
I used to have a Roadster and ED heads together for couple of years and compared them every now and then.

Is the ED a very low mid/bass heavy amp?

Yes. It is. More like ballsy and pleasant with right cab than piercing and grindy in my opinion.

...how the ED would compare to the road king 2's gain?

The ED has less gain on tap than RK II but it has just enough with proper pickups - at least for my usual noodling. For heavier spectrum of music it is probably not enough but one can always boost with pedals or with afterburners(or equivalent) :shock:

Currently I’m with my second ED as I liked the amp itself so much that I bought it as a combo for grab-n-go amp (with 31kg it’s not the most enjoyable experience to move around).

As a wrap up they’re completely different animals. I hear the ED as solid amp with great tones and just enough features to go by itself but not too much to be hindrance in live situation.

 

[diddlydan]

Thanks for the reply. So would you say its a dark bassy sounding amp? I'm more concerned with it being a bit boomy sounding than anything else. Is it as bassy sounding as a road king/roadster or less/more? From what I can make out, its a 70's gain sound (which I like). Just once its not too dark and ends up lost in the mix a bit.

 

[Eevil]

Thanks for the reply. So would you say its a dark bassy sounding amp? I'm more concerned with it being a bit boomy sounding than anything else. Is it as bassy sounding as a road king/roadster or less/more? From what I can make out, its a 70's gain sound (which I like). Just once its not too dark and ends up lost in the mix a bit.

It’s not “dark amp” when opening up the treble and presence a bit - the high frequencies are just not so piercing/grating than in other amps. The low end may be a bit overwhelming with bass-heavy guitars and/or oversized cabs but such is case with Roadster also. Yet I’ve had less problems in cutting-just-enough in mix with ED than with Roadster.

One has to test all the options by oneself to see which would fit one’s usage the best :lol:

 

[YellowJacket]

It is such a great amp. I use it a lot for classic rock and blues tones!!! It is also great for jazz!

It does have tonnes of bass but that is why there is a bass knob!

 

[alphasports]

I'll chime in my .02 as well, it's a great amp, I have the 27" combo. But man is it loud...and yes it's bassy but this can be EQ'd down. Did I mention it's loud?

 

[Gordybaby]

Im my opinion its one of the most underrated under appreciated amps Mesa has put out. I gigged with a wide body combo for a few years and it was great. A little touchy on the master volume but don't turn it, tap it and it works fine. My only complaint it alway felt a little stiff and unforgiving. I know it doesn't sound that way but that was my experience. I purchase a head a few years ago because I missed that tone but I settled on the fillmore 100 because it can do some similar things but way more forgiving and isn't so touchy on the master volume. Best used deal out there. I sold it for around 800 bucks. Ridiculous price for a great amp.

 

[Phantasm II]

This thread is a couple months old, so I dunno if OP found an ED or has moved on, but here’s my experience after owning a 27” ED combo for nearly a year so far.

Yes it is rather bass-heavy. I might even call it “wooly.” There are two fairly simple ways to mitigate this:

1. Keep the presence dimed. I think this will work for a lot of folks.

2. use an EQ pedal in the loop. This is what I end up doing most of the time. I already had an MXR 6-band pedal laying around. I keep it flat at 100 and 200, cut 3-6 db at 400 and 800, and boost 3-6 db at 1.6k and 3.2k. I’m effectively shifting some of the emphasis from the lower-mids to the higher-mids. It works awesome for me.

I think this amp may have been designed with a Duncan JB and/or Tubescreamer user in mind, someone who typically already has a lot of higher-mids in their chain. I was thinking about picking up a cheap used TS9 or SD-1 to use up front, but the EQ in the loop works great and ain’t broke.

 

[fendermesa]

Have a look at this:

Johnathan Cordy playing
J Rockett The Dude into Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP_54KtU5TA&t=61s&ab_channel=johnnathancordy

 

[fendermesa]

Sorry here is one more demo of electradyne.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GMdQNXw9uk&ab_channel=johnnathancordy

 

[diddlydan]

Have a look at this:

Johnathan Cordy playing
J Rockett The Dude into Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP_54KtU5TA&t=61s&ab_channel=johnnathancordy

Hi, I see you have a lonestar as well. How would you compare the cleans on both? Also regarding gain, is the ED bassier than the lonestar? Always found channel 2 too bassy on the lonestar . You should do a comparison vid

 

[rarebitusa]

Have a look at this:

Johnathan Cordy playing
J Rockett The Dude into Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP_54KtU5TA&t=61s&ab_channel=johnnathancordy

Hi, I see you have a lonestar as well. How would you compare the cleans on both? Also regarding gain, is the ED bassier than the lonestar? Always found channel 2 too bassy on the lonestar . You should do a comparison vid

Ch 2 on my LSS does have that "blanket" thrown over it, but with a GEQ in the loop and some slight trimming of 80hz does wonders.

 

[YellowJacket]

I have much to say about this amp, especially in regards to the conversations talking about bright vs dark, excess bass, etc.

I had my Electra Dyne out for the first time since the pandemic / lockdowns hit. (I've been recording in the meanwhile)
I've gotten so used to recording and playing great gear that I was used to it, so I was shocked by the number of comments I was getting about how killer my tones is. I will say that this amp is one of the most magical amps I have ever played but it is also one of the most squirrelly. It's designed to be used by professionals with the right hand sensitivity of a cellist, not for hobbyists. It's really easy to sound bad and it takes hard work to sound great but man, can it ever sound great!

RE: Tones. The bass knob can add and remove bass. The volume (Gain) changes the gain saturation in the preamp and as the knob comes up, more and more bass is added into the signal. On the clean channel, this is warmth, saturation, and compression. On the gain channel, this is more gain and thicker distortion. Because the volume adds bass as it adds gain, the bass knob has to have a wide range of function so it can be used to shovel off excess bass. With higher volume settings, lower bass settings are necessary.

The treble control works after the gain control and it shapes the character of the amp. The higher the treble is set, the brighter the tone will be. The lower it is set, the darker the tone will be. Add to this power amp involvement as the master comes up and this amp has incredibly many faces. Keep in mind I have several guitars and quite a range of pickup voicings so I have explored more of the extent of what this amp can handle.

The mid control is very, VERY powerful. Mesa went all in with this design. As the mid goes above 12 noon, it adds upper mids into the signal, creating more of a'british' kind of a voice. If the mid control is below 12 noon, it removes upper mids with the midrange, giving the amp a more lower mid focus to the tone. It starts to have a more 'mark-ish' character here.

Presence adds sparkle to the tone.

I think the point of the aggressive master taper is to allow players to overdrive the power section, particularly in the '45 watt' mode, which actually saturates at a lower wattage level than the 45 watts that are advertised. Someone on the forum here figured out exactly what that was.
90 watts is great for clean poweamp headroom while 45 watts is better for clipping in the power section. Cool design choice here!

Multi-mode operation?. If the tone controls are all near 12:00 the multi mode operation is pretty useable but it's kind of squirrelly and not always practical while playing live. When the tone controls are around 12 noon, navigating modes is useable and with the clean trim pot, useable levels can be possible depending on the output of the pickups in the guitar. (Vintage pickups make having enough headroom on the clean channel difficult) But once the settings become more and more 'extreme', it becomes necessary to EQ the channels separately and that's simply not possible with this design. As someone who grew into my guitar playing with clean / high gain heads, I think my frustrations with the Electra Dyne's limitations caused me to change my approach to playing. I moved from trying to use amp modes to change tones to using my guitar controls and picking hands to change tones.
These days, my favourite way to play is to use my strat with vintage output single coils, then I just use the volume pot and my right hand to control my tone. The harder I play, the more grime and midrange bark I get. The tone is pretty much clean, then as I dig in it starts to sparkle and crunch lightly, and as I hit harder that midrange bark starts to become audible. Vintage Hi is the similar voicing with an additional gain stage so it is available if necessary. *IF* I want to use this mode in the future, I'll have to have some kind of noise cancelling solution installed in my guitar so I don't get drowned out by the HUM. The kryptonite of all single coil guitars.
My humbucker guitars also sound great and also work while riding the volume pot but there's something special about that strat... (It has Bare Knuckle Mother's Milk pickups in it)

When recording I can basically dial whatever tones on whatever modes I want because I don't have to worry about live channel switching.
I think that this amp can be best thought of as two amps in one chassis. Vintage Lo and Hi are one amp and Clean is a different amp.
The point of this amp is to be an old school amp to attract old school players and this is why it does not appeal to the modern kind of players most Mesa amps attract. (My other amp is a Revv Generator 120 MKII which has all the channels and all the options, so it's really the polar opposite of this beast) But when a player lets this amp shine where it is strongest, the amp makes a strong case to be a keeper forever.

Volume taming tricks: I use a Torpedo Live a lot of the time for recording and live playing. I can set the dials exactly how I want this way and my tone is exactly my tone: Cab, micing, amp, and settings. As long as I have a sound engineer who knows how to set up a stage monitor properly, it's tone for days.

(I have a matching 1 x 12 for when I need one and it also sounds awesome. The same amp characteristics are present with the 1 x 12)

This amp is so great. So inspiring to play. What an absolute gem.
I hope this helps.

-YJ

 

[Wyzard]

I just got my ED out for the first time since the whole pandemic thing started too: so at the moment, I've got a fair number of different Boogies around to play with and compare.

Pedal in front is an Ethos Clean-Fusion, and there's a Free-The-Tone Ambi-Space in the loop. Up against my MkIIA, Coli IIB and MkIV, it more than holds its own.

Never dismiss the ED - in the right hands*, it can stand up with any number of truly great amps. It shares the "maximum fun factor" with my Two Rock Akoya, for a single amp capable of covering a lot of ground, up to (and well beyond) proper gigging levels. It's even doing pretty well at lower volumes, while the rest of the family is at home.



[*anyone know where can I buy the right hands? I think I've got two lefts here........]

 

[Eevil]

I just got my ED out for the first time since the whole pandemic thing started too: so at the moment, I've got a fair number of different Boogies around to play with and compare.

Pedal in front is an Ethos Clean-Fusion, and there's a Free-The-Tone Ambi-Space in the loop. Up against my MkIIA, Coli IIB and MkIV, it more than holds its own.

Never dismiss the ED - in the right hands*, it can stand up with any number of truly great amps. It shares the "maximum fun factor" with my Two Rock Akoya, for a single amp capable of covering a lot of ground, up to (and well beyond) proper gigging levels. It's even doing pretty well at lower volumes, while the rest of the family is at home.



[*anyone know where can I buy the right hands? I think I've got two lefts here........]

Well.. the ED is one killer amp for sure 8) last weeks I’ve been toying with middle control and the grind it’ll produce when cranked a bit. Having fun playing with just guitar vol & tone - and actually started an itch for a Plexi and a 4x12.. oh dear

 

[Wyzard]

After a couple of weeks with the Ethos pedal, I've swapped over to a KOT V4.

I'm also running the amp into my Cornell/Fane Crescendo cab, instead of the onboard Celestion Black Shadow: it just keeps on getting better as I re-learn the various ways to set it up.