DC vs. .50 Cal vs. Maverick vs. Heartbreaker?!?!?!?!

[Monsta-Tone]

I'm looking for a new amp for the band that I play in.

I have several DC's and absolutely love them, but I find that they are way too high gain for a Southern Rock/Country band. I must be getting old, never thought I would be in a Country band.


Anyway.......

Out of all of these amps, which one has the best cleans?
Which one has the best Classic Rock/Southern Rock overdrives?
Which one has the best Reverb?


I've owned the .50 Caliber and loved it, but it wasn't that great at lower volumes.
I've owned the Heartbreaker and loved it, but always felt like it was missing something.
I have the gain on my DC-10 at 3 and it is too crunchy for my band. (this makes me both sad and intrigued at the same time)

I've never owned a Maverick, so I don't know how they sound.


I'm looking for very warm cleans with great reverb and some nice Steve Miller type crunch for leads.

 

[nosajwp]

Here's my take...of all the Mesas I have owned, the DC-10 by far had the best cleans. Smooth, glassy, with a 3D-like spaciousness to them. The cleans on the HB are great too, but I think the DC-10 is slightly better for cleans. The Maverick I used to have had good cleans at low volumes, but the amp just broke up too fast for the outdoor gigs I do...felt too "mushy" too. Reverb was about the same for me between the DC, HB, and Mav. Lead tones on the DC I really liked, and they could be varied greatly with the graphic EQ. I'm finding the high gain leads on the HB to be a little bright for me (maybe I'm not a Marshally guy after all!), but the mid gain crunchy stuff is ok. I could never really dial in a lead sound I liked on the Mav...seemed like the amp always had a mind of it's own, and it did not think like me!

I know how much I like a DC-10, but with all the stuff I've read on the Tremoverbs, I feel like I would be selling myself short if I didn't try one.

The other option I may look at would be to go with an Acoustic Image Clarus (200 watts at 5 lbs)...some of the best jazz cleans I've experienced. This route would also let me use several good pedals for lead sounds for a really lightweight and powerful rig.

 

[Jmango]

I think this might be an easy fix.

LSS LSC? I played them and the cleans are fat and beautiful.

The gain is no where near the gain on the DC and is a good fit for what you describe.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Thanks Jason,

You know I'm still jones-in for that Heartbreaker. That was a great amp.

I kind of thought that would be the problem with the Mav. I've had a Blue Angel & a few DC-3's and they both suffered from this same lack of headroom with a loud drummer problem.



Jmango,
I had an LSC & an LSS. I really liked the LSS the most, but still not enough headroom. We'll be playing outdoors a lot this spring.

The LSC was great at higher volumes, but not so great at lower ones. I had the 1x12 though and I don't think it was allowed to breathe the way a 2x12 does.


I might have to try a 2x12. The problem I had with both Lonestars is that the lead channel sucked in my opinion. It just seemed to lack in luster, sustain, and character. All I could get was mud.

Also, that damned Reverb glitch when changing channels drove me nuts.


I've been looking around at Marshalls & Fenders, but nothing seems to match Mesa for build quality, quality of components, etc.

 

[siggy14]

Stiletto is your amp, trust me you will get great classic rock tones. A nother option is a roadster on the britt channel.

 

[djw]

Monsta, baby... I know I'm a broken record when it comes to this, but with the specs you're talking about here it's gotta be:

LSC, and do the Reeder mod(s).

No mud on Ch2 with the Reeder mod/pot swap. You get all the glassy, chimey character back. Did you not try this? Or did it not do it for you? Or maybe you had an LSS... totally different beast. The LSC will get you there, ESPECIALLY if you're looking for a good, brisk low-gain drive tone. And that clean tone is, you know, phenomenal.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Had the Roadster. Way too many options. I found that I only used channels 1 & 4.


Haven't tried a Stilleto, but I'm a sucker for great reverb. Which leads me back to the LSC always......

I did the Reeder mod, the 1st one anyway. Didn't really help mine though.

I couldn't turn the gain past 5 without the mud. Maybe I had a lemon. I experimented with tons of tubes and speakers and just couldn't bond with it.


Plus, I can't afford one. That's why I was looking at a Maverick.

 

[djw]

Had the Roadster. Way too many options. I found that I only used channels 1 & 4.

Haven't tried a Stilleto, but I'm a sucker for great reverb. Which leads me back to the LSC always......

I did the Reeder mod, the 1st one anyway. Didn't really help mine though.

I couldn't turn the gain past 5 without the mud. Maybe I had a lemon. I experimented with tons of tubes and speakers and just couldn't bond with it.

Plus, I can't afford one. That's why I was looking at a Maverick.

Hmmm. Lemon, possibly. It made a HUGE difference for me. Or, maybe it just wasn't the amp for you.

You could always just get a Fender Deluxe and throw a Barber LTD in front of it....

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Are you playing your Les Pauls through it or your Strat?

Both of mine really seemed to like Strats much more than my PRS's.

 

[djw]

Are you playing your Les Pauls through it or your Strat?

Both, and they both sound excellent.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Thanks Djw,

I really don't think that the Lonestar was a good match for me.

I do have a Heartbreaker that I just modded in my shop for a fellow board member. I played it for about 30 minutes and really loved it.

The cleans and reverbs are nowhere near as good as the Lonestar's, but the distortion tones were sooooo much better. Plus, there is no glitch when changing channels.


The price is a huge factor as well.
$650 - $750 for the HB or Maverick.
$1,100 to $1,400 for the LSC or LSS.

Not sure that the cleans and reverb are worth the extra charges.

 

[212Mavguy]

Would hate to get you mad at me if It turned out to be something you did not like, but the Maverick has lots of clean headroom on the bright side of the bright/fat switch on the clean channel. It is designed for that. But the fat side of that switch does some of the sweetest low to mid dirty tones, especially when turned up a bit. And the reverb on the clean channel is f-ing gorgeous. The problem is that the way the amp comes the bright/fat on the clean is not footswitchable. Not sure if you would find the dirty channel to be the most wonderful in stock tube configuration, but I do know what worked for mine using old stock tubes... Siemens e83cc or less spendy nearly identical sounding ecc83 v2, Mullard shortplate ecc83 or Tesla e83cc in v3 does some very good dirt.

Perhaps the Heartbreaker with some vintage old stock tubes in the preamp would fill the bill better on the clean headroom/clean tone and also not be so spendy as some of the other amp choices. You alrady like it. GE longplate 12ax7 or Raytheon long blackplate organ tube from 1960-62 would sound great. The Raytheon has a partial third mica to help with microphonics, and it works.

May the tone be with you, Monsta!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Thanks Mav guy,

I already have the Shwartz with me, now I just need the Tone!


I keep coming back to the Maverick & Heartbreaker.
I know for sure that the HB with a few choice mods will get me almost there.

I've never had the pleasure of trying a Maverick though. It just might do the trick with a 2x12 or 4x10 version.

I guess I could always mic my amp if the gig needs it. I could also mod it to be footswitchable between Bright & Fat.

Is there a big volume difference between Bright & Fat? On my DC-5 & 10, the Crunch on channel 1 is much louder than the clean setting.

Also, can you play an outdoor gig without compromising the clean tones?




I really do love the HB though. Vintage tones, no channel switching glitch, no crap that I'll never use like R2 on the Mark IV. The only thing it's missing is the Solo boost function, which is extremely easy to add.

 

[cb101]

Have you ever tried a Blue Angel? I tried one about two weeks ago and it sounded pretty good both clean and dirty.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I had one for a while. 1x12 combo.

Great amp, but not a lot of headroom. If I played in a Blues band, that would definitely be my amp of choice hands down.


I've basically narrowed it down to the following:
.50 Cal or .50 Cal +
Heartbreaker
Maverick
or possibly Blue Angel

Seems like they are everywhere for low prices when I'm broke. Then, when I have the money, they are scarce or people want way too much for them.