Express 5:50 sounding "flubby" I think.

[guitarchris76]

I want to thabnk everyone that responded to me. The last reply I got really had the sound down right. I am beyond the 30 day return policy mark so will make the most of what I've got. A lot of people would love to be in a position where they are "stuck" with a Mesa no matter which model it is. This will by no means be my last amp so I think I will enjoy the tones it has and not mourn the ones it doesn't. I am trying to get away from the high gain stuff and have sold off most of my "shred" guitars (RG1527 just put up for sale) and now have mostly Strat's and Gretsch and will be getting a tele. Again, I want to thank everyone for your help.

 

[Newysurfer]

There are all sorts of meaningless adjectives being thrown around this forum to describe tonal characteristics.
"Flubby - soft - mushy - tight" etc etc .
What do they mean? Does anyone know - NO.
They all mean different things to different people and absolutely nothin to most of us. Your flubbiness is my tightness and if it wasn't so soft it might be mushy. Is that good or bad :lol:

I don't know man, generally when people use these "meaningless adjectives" I've got a pretty good idea what they mean.

IME:
-Flubbiness usually means more bass that can be handled and either the amp or cab sort of "Farts out"

-Tightness means a STRONG pick attack, often to where it can knock you over if turned up. It can also refer to a well controlled tone, often cited in the bass region.

Soft/mushy can be substituted for each other. But if I were to separate:

Mushy: An indistinct attack, or one that is not very powerful. Can also be referred to as smearing of the notes. This can be hinted at as compressed as well, but often the word "squishy" (Uh oh new word!) might be used there.

Soft: I'd say an attack that is not very loud, where the envelope develops/blooms more quickly but is more legato feeling.

These things are kind of hard to put into words as what I've written still doesn't fully encompass these words. A lot of it is a "I know what you mean" kinda thing.

As always this is AKAIK, and YMMV.

TTYL.

Hey NuSkool - thanks for the definitions mate. A decent effort and you probably know what these adjectives mean in your own ears. Some of your definitions meant the same to me but then others didn't. Would be interesting if a survey was done to see what the general understanding of these terms was. I'd be very surprised if there was anything close to a concensus.

But getting back to the 5:50. I have one and having been using it for gigs and have never heard anything remotely flubby or soft or mushy coming from its clean, crunch or burn voicings. But tone is all so subjective and it does make a lot of these discussion pointless. The bottom line is - you either like it or you don't - full stop.

 

[123thefirst]

and now have mostly Strat's and Gretsch and will be getting a tele.

Good choice on the Tele. I've always been partial to the beautiful full tone you get with hollowbody guitars but I got a Telecaster a long time ago to play in a country band. I've found it can do everything quite acceptably with EMG pickups. I suspect it's actually better for metal than the guitars most players are using with a Recto. The clarity and punch really allow you to make the best of the gain options. But with a clean setting, which it really likes, it teaches you a lot about how to improve and develop your playing and musical sensitivities.

 

[twally]

For reducing M/B "flubbiness" try cutting back on the Bass and Mid Controls. THis has worked on the three Mesa's I have owned (Mark IV, DC-5 amd Mark IIB). I haven't tried any of the newer amps but I've seen a lot of Posts saying this same thing.

 

[Pageburst]

To my ears the espress distorts like a good black face fender Fender but with a little more gain: a nice moan with a little bit of hair.

However if you push the gain to the max -these amps ain't gonna give you that ultra tight high gain metal distortion. Even the Mark IV while a bit tighter has a looser more rock-n-roll feel than some of these ultra taught high gain amps like Engl.

However with that said I wouldn't call the Express amps flubby they are great blues and rock-n-roll amps -they are just not numetal amps.

 

[Steve P]

However with that said I wouldn't call the Express amps flubby they are great blues and rock-n-roll amps -they are just not numetal amps.

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