Express footswitchable mod

[johnnyguitar]

I have an Express 5:50 and am almost completely sold on what it does apart from not being able to switch between modes (eg Clean/Crunch and Blues/Burn) with the footswitch. I'd be happy to live without footswitchable Contour as I tend to treat it as 'always on'. How simple would it be to route the mode switches to the corresponding pin of the footswitch in order to switch between modes?

 

[ifailedshapes]

This has been talked about a lot already. The reason that nobody has done it (or at least not that I'm aware of) is the difference in volume and tone between the modes. I'm a fiddler when it comes to knobs, so I like to play around with the different modes, and I always have to change the master volume and tone controls when I switch modes. Also, to mod your amp would void your warranty.

I'm a proponent of OD pedals in front of the amp to fill in the gaps. If you really need 4 different sounds from one amp with no pedals, then the Express probably isn't for you. Check out a Road King or even a Mark V (granted, the V only has 3 channels.) The difference in price between those amps and the Express would pay for a couple pretty sweet OD pedals, though. Just sayin'.

Also, which Express are you looking at? 5:25 or 5:50? Personally I think they sound very similar as far as the amp itself is concerned, though if you listen close enough you can tell which is which. We just had a pretty lengthy discussion in another thread about how different cabs and speakers (i.e. 5:25 1x10" vs 5:50 2x12") really affect the tone you hear.

Long story short, I don't think it's worth it to worry about modding the amp. It's great as it is, and for the price, you really can't beat the tones that come from an Express.

 

[johnnyguitar]

I have an Express 5:50

I just thought it would be useful to be able to switch between modes to get different tones to maximise the sounds and opportunities to use those sounds in a live situation. There not really much time for altering settings on the fly, but if you can control the tone you get from an amp by using the volume and tone on the guitar, shouldn't be a big thing to address.
Just a thought.

 

[Newysurfer]

I have an Express 5:50

I just thought it would be useful to be able to switch between modes to get different tones to maximise the sounds and opportunities to use those sounds in a live situation. There not really much time for altering settings on the fly, but if you can control the tone you get from an amp by using the volume and tone on the guitar, shouldn't be a big thing to address.
Just a thought.

I agree it would greatly enhance the Express if the 4 modes were footswitchable.
I wish someone would try it and tell us how to do it.
But it ain't gonna be me cause
1) you'll immediately void your warranty if you do these kinda mod's
2) I wouldn't risk stuffing the amp somehow

Why don't you try it though johnny :mrgreen:

 

[ifailedshapes]

Sorry that I misread your first post. When you said you were almost completely sold, I assumed you were still in the buying process. I have a 5:25, which is technically a different amp, but they share the same preamp, and are therefore very similar. In my opinion, Crunch and Blues are the crossover modes. They don't sound exactly the same, but in a live situation, they're pretty similar. I think you will save yourself a lot of headaches (and maintain an intact warranty) by using a good overdrive pedal to get that in-between sound. I'm personally leaning toward the Fulltone OCD.

My opinions aside, if you do end up modding your amp, you'll have to post a video for all of us to see! Good luck with whatever you decide.

Cheers!

 

[johnnyguitar]

Sorry - yeah, just a phrase I guess - it's almost the perfect amp except that it doesn't footswitch between modes.
Having played with the switches on several occasions I don't see that there's any volume change really when switching through modes and actually, I prefer the 'crunch' to either of the two overdrives but I need to be able to use the clean channel.

I don't think the amp has any lifetime warranty anyway so I guess once it's out of warranty, that's it?

 

[JUS]

As far as OD pedals go, I have actually had good results with a Boss SUPER OverDrive in front of my 5:25. I realize it is not at all 'boutiquey' or fashionable at all these days, but with the amp on clean channel, gain 12 noon, a small amount of boost will break it up nice. My settings on the pedal are Level 10 o clock, tone 9 o clock, drive 10:30 ish. Try it out...for forty bucks what can you lose?

 

[MCK]

I have an Express 5:50

But it ain't gonna be me cause
1) you'll immediately void your warranty if you do these kinda mod's
2) I wouldn't risk stuffing the amp somehow

Don't forget the other reason which I think is the scariest

3) You can get killed trying ...

Please people. Don't try to even peek inside one of these things if you're not trained to service tube amplifiers.

 

[ifailedshapes]

As far as OD pedals go, I have actually had good results with a Boss SUPER OverDrive in front of my 5:25. I realize it is not at all 'boutiquey' or fashionable at all these days, but with the amp on clean channel, gain 12 noon, a small amount of boost will break it up nice. My settings on the pedal are Level 10 o clock, tone 9 o clock, drive 10:30 ish. Try it out...for forty bucks what can you lose?

$40

 

[Furvel]

As far as OD pedals go, I have actually had good results with a Boss SUPER OverDrive in front of my 5:25. I realize it is not at all 'boutiquey' or fashionable at all these days, but with the amp on clean channel, gain 12 noon, a small amount of boost will break it up nice. My settings on the pedal are Level 10 o clock, tone 9 o clock, drive 10:30 ish. Try it out...for forty bucks what can you lose?

The Boss Super OD (SD-1) is rather pedestrian by most standards, but I use one for more meaty leads while using a Boss Blues Driver (BD-2) for less "gainy" leads. I should note that I use these pedals for solo boosting while in crunch or blues modes, so far the clean mode is the one I haven't used live.

In defense of the SD-1, it appears in quite a few pro players rigs. Check out the "A Vulgar Display of Power" feature in the very back of Guitar World magazine for the last few years. The SD-1 appears more often than I would have ever imagined... in fact it appeared in this month's issue (Feb '10). If the SD-1 was good enough for Zakk Wylde, it's good enough for me.

 

[soundchaser59]

The SD1 can be made into a much nicer pedal with the Monte Allums mod. It will never be booteek, but it will certainly turn it into something that is worth the $40 bucks. I think I bought a new one and modded it myself and paid about $55 total for the whole attempt, it sounded much better after that.


Of course, my first taste of a modded Tube Screamer and a Barber Direct Drive cured me of my fascination with Boss pedals.......

 

[Furvel]

The SD1 can be made into a much nicer pedal with the Monte Allums mod. It will never be booteek, but it will certainly turn it into something that is worth the $40 bucks. I think I bought a new one and modded it myself and paid about $55 total for the whole attempt, it sounded much better after that.


Of course, my first taste of a modded Tube Screamer and a Barber Direct Drive cured me of my fascination with Boss pedals.......

Finances won't allow me to upgrade pedals any time soon, since I've drained my equipment upgrade allowance for 2010 on a used Express. Fortunately I take good care of my gear, so my rack of dependable old Boss pedals will have to do for the foreseeable future.

 

[Newysurfer]

As far as OD pedals go, I have actually had good results with a Boss SUPER OverDrive in front of my 5:25. I realize it is not at all 'boutiquey' or fashionable at all these days, but with the amp on clean channel, gain 12 noon, a small amount of boost will break it up nice. My settings on the pedal are Level 10 o clock, tone 9 o clock, drive 10:30 ish. Try it out...for forty bucks what can you lose?

actually something much more valuable to me than $40.....
Tone loss from the amp.
Like most Boss pedals the Super OD is a well known noisy tone sucker.
Defeats the purpose of buying an expensive amp if you strip it's tone with ordinary quality pedals.
Mesa's deserve the best IMO.
There's lots of great true bypass OD pedals around that don't need mod'ing :mrgreen:

 

[Furvel]

As far as OD pedals go, I have actually had good results with a Boss SUPER OverDrive in front of my 5:25. I realize it is not at all 'boutiquey' or fashionable at all these days, but with the amp on clean channel, gain 12 noon, a small amount of boost will break it up nice. My settings on the pedal are Level 10 o clock, tone 9 o clock, drive 10:30 ish. Try it out...for forty bucks what can you lose?

actually something much more valuable to me than $40.....
Tone loss from the amp.
Like most Boss pedals the Super OD is a well known noisy tone sucker.
Defeats the purpose of buying an expensive amp if you strip it's tone with ordinary quality pedals.
Mesa's deserve the best IMO.
There's lots of great true bypass OD pedals around that don't need mod'ing :mrgreen:

I live in the rust belt, and was fortunate to land a job recently, at half of my previous wage. At this point in my life I can't afford to be a gear snob (although I won't give up being a beer snob ). I agonized long and hard over the decision to dip into my savings to buy an Express, and a used one at that. My rack of "tone-suckers" works just fine for me... in fact they work much better with my Mesa that they ever did with my old Fender HRD. No hard feelings on my part, just saying that not every one can afford a Mesa Boogie AND a rack full of boutique pedals, especially in these trying times.

 

[MrMason]

As far as OD pedals go, I have actually had good results with a Boss SUPER OverDrive in front of my 5:25. I realize it is not at all 'boutiquey' or fashionable at all these days, but with the amp on clean channel, gain 12 noon, a small amount of boost will break it up nice. My settings on the pedal are Level 10 o clock, tone 9 o clock, drive 10:30 ish. Try it out...for forty bucks what can you lose?

actually something much more valuable to me than $40.....
Tone loss from the amp.
Like most Boss pedals the Super OD is a well known noisy tone sucker.
Defeats the purpose of buying an expensive amp if you strip it's tone with ordinary quality pedals.
Mesa's deserve the best IMO.
There's lots of great true bypass OD pedals around that don't need mod'ing :mrgreen:

I live in the rust belt, and was fortunate to land a job recently, at half of my previous wage. At this point in my life I can't afford to be a gear snob (although I won't give up being a beer snob ). I agonized long and hard over the decision to dip into my savings to buy an Express, and a used one at that. My rack of "tone-suckers" works just fine for me... in fact they work much better with my Mesa that they ever did with my old Fender HRD. No hard feelings on my part, just saying that not every one can afford a Mesa Boogie AND a rack full of boutique pedals, especially in these trying times.

+1 on that. It's nice to have the best gear, but that's not always an option. I'll tell ya what though, if you have some soldering experience and do enough research you can turn a $60 overdrive into something that sounds as good as a $250 overdrive for around $15 in extra parts. And you can turn ANY pedal into a true bypass pedal for the cost of a $5 3PDT footswitch (although boss pedals require you to drill a hole for the switch, still I think it's a good investment)

 

[Furvel]

+1 on that. It's nice to have the best gear, but that's not always an option. I'll tell ya what though, if you have some soldering experience and do enough research you can turn a $60 overdrive into something that sounds as good as a $250 overdrive for around $15 in extra parts. And you can turn ANY pedal into a true bypass pedal for the cost of a $5 3PDT footswitch (although boss pedals require you to drill a hole for the switch, still I think it's a good investment)

[/quote]

My soldering skills aren't the best, not to mention I would need to buy a good fine point solder pencil. But in the past I've swapped pups & pots by myself, so pedal mods may be within the realm of my capability. I have also considered sending pedals to Keeley for mods (which is not cheap)... I'll have to weigh the pros and cons of both options (pro mod vs DIY).

 

[ifailedshapes]

Well, this thread is getting a little off topic. Most good conversations tend to do that, though.

I agree whole heartedly with liking the best gear, but not being able to afford it. You can't even just look at the cost of the pedals, because you also have to think of the pedal board, the interconnects, a power supply, and whatever else you choose to do. That all gets really pricey!

For that very reason I have decided to go with a TC Electronics Nova System. It's not my "ideal" solution, but it sure gets close enough! I plan on getting one with my income tax refund, and I'll definitely be posting my opinions about it on the forum. The only way I have to take video clips is with my iPhone, and since there are already a few good video reviews of it, I'll spare you the crappy audio quality. I will definitely let you know how It grooves with my Express, though.