Express 5:50 is a winner!

[brucesinger]

I'm a long time Mesa user. I bought a MkIIC+ in the mid-eighties and gigged with it for 20 years without fail.

In 2004, I decided to retire the MkII, and went with a F50 head and 2x12 cab. This was a good, but not great set-up.

That all changed last week when I took delivery of an Express 5:50 head and a 2x12 vertical slant cab.

Wow!

What an inspiring amp! Yes, there is a hiss, but I will try a tube swap to lessen the noise. In a live application, though it is totally acceptable.

All hissing aside, this is a great sounding rig. Right out of the box, I was able to dial in cool tones on all channels. So much so, that I gigged with it a few days later without so much as a tweak during the set!

The crunch and burn channels with the Contour on, are my faves. Very dynamic and "live" sounding.

The Clean channel is full, crystal clear and is very pedal-friendly. Classic Mesa clean.

The Crunch channel (with the Contour on) is like my F50 clean channel boosted with a Klon. Very dynamic, edgy and crisp. Can easily get into AC/DC rhythm guitar sounds.

I don't use the Blues channel much, but it sounded pretty smooth when I was playing around with it.

The Burn channel is perfect for classic rock. IMHO, it sounds very British when cranked. Not a modern-sounding gain, but absolutely perfect for my style and needs.

In the end, this amp knocked two pedals off of my board: the Klon, (clean boost), and the MI Audio Crunch Box, (Marshall in a box). Great pedals, but the Express gets there without them.

Again, I am a classic rock player—Springsteen, Seger, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Mellencamp, Bad Co., Stones, Collective Soul, etc.—and these channels cover all of it, (with only a stock 52RI Tele!), perfectly. Add a light OD here and there, and the tonal possibilities are endless.

This is a great choice for those who need a little more than a standard two-channel amp, and a little less than a Lone Star.

 

[jamme61]

i have the 5:50 1x12 combo and love it. My band does classic rock and blues, mostly. I love the two channels you don't use LOL. I love the clean channel and the blues setting on 2nd channel. I'll have to put in some more time with your two faves. I love just carrying the 1x12 to the gig. I changed the stk speaker to a red fang alnico, which sounds great IMHO. This amp is a great buy.

 

[brucesinger]

I swapped speakers too. I use a mix of one Mojotone Black Beauty and one Mojotone BV-30V. They sound a little clearer the than the stock V30s.

 

[Steve P]

Congrats on your 5:50! I bought the 5:25 in the summer and also love it.

I'll be curious to know how your tube swap goes ...

 

[Newysurfer]

I did a full tube swap on my 5:50 1x12 combo with tubes recommended by Doug at www.dougstubes.com. Big success. It made a significant improvement and

1) reduced hiss a lot
2) increased gain on the burn chanel while still keeping the same chimy cleans
3) made the tones even smoother and clearer on all channels

Made a great amp even better. Well worth an extra $US100 :lol:

 

[Hobo]

I have an F-30 but I would love to try the 1x12 5:50. I play classic rock also. Sounds like the perfect amp for me.

 

[andy]

I am new to messa amps having used marshall laney ect , I brought the express 50 , but i found it had a lot of back ground hum and hiss , so i sent it back to messa vier coda music in stevnage.messa changed all the valves for better quilaty one and the amp is 100% free of back ground noise , what gets me , when you spend £1300 on a amp it shouldnt have to go back to the work shop, I had the 25 watt first off , but suffers from not cutting through the rest of the band , I am very happy with the 50.50 as i have a good crunch channel with the burn as the lead , which gives the volume step up.

 

[Hobo]

I am new to messa amps having used marshall laney ect , I brought the express 50 , but i found it had a lot of back ground hum and hiss , so i sent it back to messa vier coda music in stevnage.messa changed all the valves for better quilaty one and the amp is 100% free of back ground noise , what gets me , when you spend £1300 on a amp it shouldnt have to go back to the work shop, I had the 25 watt first off , but suffers from not cutting through the rest of the band , I am very happy with the 50.50 as i have a good crunch channel with the burn as the lead , which gives the volume step up.

I had the same experience with my F-30. I bought it used and it had a lot of hiss but I didn't think anything of it.

When I retubed it with Eurotubes all of the hiss went away. Very quiet now.

 

[jonmm66]

andy,

what replacement tubes did you use?

thanks

 

[Reg]

Poor old Coda Music in Luton & Stevenage. They must be fed up of sending back faulty / noisy Expresses!
I had four of the bloody things and they all had problems (and all were noisy).
Gave up and got a Koch Twintone in the end.
Shame really as I really wanted to like this amp but I think I gave it more than enough chances.

 

[jamme61]

the express amps are biased really hot so if the tubes aren't up to it, they'll go fast. Mine was running at 40 ma at 425 volts, i llet mesa know this and they sent this response.:

"Hello there Jerry,

The E50 is biased slightly hotter than most other Boogies, but it is not too hot to pose any danger to the tubes or the amp.

Best Regards,

Marcus Daniel
Customer Service/Product Specialist
Mesa/Boogie

 

[andy]

andy,

what replacement tubes did you use?

Hi .I have no idear what tubes were used , I have a look tonight and check them out.It went back to messa repair centre and tken two weeks to sort out before I got it back.It is now 100%

 

[andy]

Poor old Coda Music in Luton & Stevenage. They must be fed up of sending back faulty / noisy Expresses!
I had four of the bloody things and they all had problems (and all were noisy).
Gave up and got a Koch Twintone in the end.
Shame really as I really wanted to like this amp but I think I gave it more than enough chances.

Its last chance for the express any more problems and I will be looking to get a refund , the sound and channels are great , over the moon with it , but I am very very nerves of the express letting me down at a gig.i am only using it once \ twice a week for gigs no home use at all , and still carrying a spare amp with me to gigs.

 

[brucesinger]

I ordered new tubes from Doug's and The Tube Store. I'll report back when I get them.

 

[beachjammer]

the express amps are biased really hot so if the tubes aren't up to it, they'll go fast. Mine was running at 40 ma at 425 volts, i llet mesa know this and they sent this response.:

"Hello there Jerry,

The E50 is biased slightly hotter than most other Boogies, but it is not too hot to pose any danger to the tubes or the amp.

Best Regards,

Marcus Daniel
Customer Service/Product Specialist
Mesa/Boogie

I just had to replace the poweramp tubes in my Express 5:25 that had virtually no playing time on them. My tech gave me some kind of industrial tubes that he said would hold up better. If it goes through this set then we are going to lower the bias setting if Mesa won't fix the issue. I'm hoping that it was just a faulty tube but with what's being said in this thread it makes me think otherwise....

 

[Newysurfer]

Poor old Coda Music in Luton & Stevenage. They must be fed up of sending back faulty / noisy Expresses!
I had four of the bloody things and they all had problems (and all were noisy).
Gave up and got a Koch Twintone in the end.
Shame really as I really wanted to like this amp but I think I gave it more than enough chances.

Its last chance for the express any more problems and I will be looking to get a refund , the sound and channels are great , over the moon with it , but I am very very nerves of the express letting me down at a gig.i am only using it once \ twice a week for gigs no home use at all , and still carrying a spare amp with me to gigs.

Andy - I heard in Australia that Mesa sent a consignment of faulty Expresses to Europe some months back. Unless you're unlucky and you picked up one of them I don't think you should worry about the 5:50. I've been using mine at home and regular gigs with zero issues. The tube swap I did with great success (as explained in my previous post) was done with these tubes recommented by Doug at www.Dougstubes.com

Pre-amp
V1 - Tung-Sol reissue 12AX7 Part ID: TS12AX7 = 15.00
V2 - High gain JJ ECC83S Part ID: JJECC83HG = 12.50
V3 - Penta Labs 12AX7C Part ID: P12AX7C = 12.00
V4 - Shuguang 12AX7C9 Part ID: SHUG12AX7C9 = 9.00
V5 - Sovtek 12AX7LPS Part ID: 12AX7LPS = 10.00

Power Amp - SED 2x6L6 = $18 each

 

[andy]

thanks mate , I still think messa should change the valves for free and sort out any problems , Ive 2 gigs this week and hopfully i will start to trust the amp and that it wont pick up taxi and radio stations , which now seems to be sorted, the back ground hum been kicked into touch too.
andy