Express Review

[guitarchris76]

I have had my Express 5:50 2x12 now for about three months and after what I have now dubbed the Mesa learning curve I have to say that this is an incredible amp. I need to state the obviuos first: this is not a Recto the literature may say that the burn channel gets you in that territory but it is the extreme outer territory. That being said this amp can give most players all of the gain they will want and the clean channel is gorgeous. I came from a Crate VFX5212 (one of the USA made ones) and it was a great amp but it was time to upgrade. I play for my own enjoyment at home and on occasion with friends and play many different styles of music (note: I have been playing for 20 years and have been in many bands from Death Meatal to Blues and if I must say so am no slouch when it comes to playing) but wanted an amp that was very versatile. I had looked at the Marshall triple lead the Carvin Legacy, Peavey 6505 and Fender Supersonic. It gave me all of the Supersonic tones and then some and in my opinion in a better amp. The music I play is 95% instrumental stuff my own originals and them some Vai, Satriani and Malmsteen and the SRV, Carlton and some country stuff with friends. This amp will take care of all of those sounds nicely with no effort at all. If I wanted to get an amp for real Heavy tones I would not have gone with this, but for a versatile array of sounds I think this is the amp to go with.

 

[clutch71]

The "recto turf" comment in the literature I think has caused a lot of owners to buy them and then swap them out for a Rectifier of some kind if that's what they are looking for.

I tried one because the 5w option really appealled to me for "bed room" volume. I tried one at the GC in Cleveland and just couldn't dial a distortion(in 5 or 50 watts) that I liked. The cleans were phenominal.

Glad you liked it.

 

[Steve P]

Hi GuitarChris,

Glad you are enjoying your new-ish addition to your gear!

I bought a 5:25 over a month ago and am really happy with the purchase. I don't play numetal or thrash, so this amp does it all for me.

Out of curiousity, I'd be interested to know which OD or effect Express users prefer to boost it into numetal tones. I'm also curious to hear how the amp reacts to active pickups. Thus far it reacts very well to my strat clone and a Les Paul clone.

I love the burn channel on the amp, but since I have bought it I have been playing more Voxy Brit invasion music on the clean channel than I thought I would. I am particularly happy with the chimey cleans and reverb on the 5:25.

I think it was a mistake for Mesa to claim these amps can get to "recto territory", though, as it has annoyed a lot of numetal fans looking for a modestly-sized amplifier. But maybe these folks aren't the target market for this amp, as they are well-served by the rest of Mesa's line-up.

 

[Newysurfer]

I think if you're gonna buy anything on the basis of an advertsing spin then you're got a serious problem. Buyer beware ! Like Mesa have some responsibility to tell the truth - duh :lol: :lol: :lol:

Pushing the Express 5:50 into melt your face heavy metal and numetal territory is easy.

For seriously heavy distortion I use a Fulltone 2 Mosfet overdrive pedal on either the blues or burn channel (depending how heavy you want it). This great OD pedal is noiseless, tru-bypass & very transparent so it just drives the tubes harder into saturation and doesn't colour the tone much. Gives a slightly more Marshall/british tone. Best OD pedal on the market IMHO.

For metal & nu-metal the Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff (with boost) will give more distortion than any metalhead could ever use. It's quiet, true-bypass, has great tones and is versatile. Use this on the Express clean channel. This pedal slays the Boss Metal Zone or any of it's competitors.

3rd option is changing tubes to provide more gain but still keep the chimy cleans. I'm presently experimenting with this and have some tubes coming now from www.dougstubes.com. I'll report back when I've tested the new ones.

 

[Beserkr]

I picked up my 5:50 2x12 yestarday and could not be happier. I have always been a knob twister and have not been able to find a tone that I'm real happy with in the 3 years I've been playing. I know your saying 3 years, what's this guy know but I've owned and sold fender blues junior, twin, 65 super reverb, custom vibrolux reverb , 57 deluxe, hotrod deville 4x10, blues deluxe reissue, mesa f30, f50,lone star, lone star special, marshall TSL60, DSL50, JTM45, JCM800 2204 and JMP50, and a few others. This amp has me happy, I've only touched the knobs a couple times and I'm getting a very nice blues tone so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the amps I listed above, they are all great amps, but I couldn't get a tone that I was real happy with. I'm into Texas Blues and I'm intrested to see how this amp act with a fuzz thrown in the mix also how it play 80's rock, ala Scorpions, Accept, and Priest.
Sorry if I'm rambling, but I'm happy with this amp, I mean REAL HAPPY Mesa did me a big favior when they made this amp!

 

[yettoblaster]

These are the new models like the F-30 and F-50 in bigger cabinets, right?
They drop the F-100?
Any other differences?

I tried Brewski's F-50 once and liked it fine, especially on the clean channel.
After owning a couple of Subway Blues combos in the past I thought maybe the F-30 would be the one for me, but eventually went for a Mark I (RI).

 

[Beserkr]

Not sure what model but I'm guessing the original f30 and f50. I tried those 1 1/2 years ago or so. I didn't no there was a new model, shows what I know :lol:

 

[yettoblaster]

Aha!
Tell your dealer you need a new wishbook Mesa/Boogie catalog! :twisted:

The F series is gone, and now there is the 5:25 and 5:50, at about the same price and specs, but they're bigger in person than the F's.

One of the local dealers still have some F's at the same price. What's up with that? I know Mesa doesn't discount but c'mon!

 

[Beserkr]

They probably figure since it's discontinued they can sell it as NOS :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Steve P]

Has anybody used the effects loop on this amp yet?

The Express doesn't have a level adjustment on the line out, so I'm wondering how it fares with chorus, delay, phaser & flanger effect pedals that aren't higher-end rack mounted systems.

 

[wilerty]

Has anybody used the effects loop on this amp yet?

The Express doesn't have a level adjustment on the line out, so I'm wondering how it fares with chorus, delay, phaser & flanger effect pedals that aren't higher-end rack mounted systems.

I used to run an ME-50 in the loop that worked fine. Now I only use a DD-20 and an RV-5 and am very pleased with the results.

 

[Newysurfer]

Has anybody used the effects loop on this amp yet?

The Express doesn't have a level adjustment on the line out, so I'm wondering how it fares with chorus, delay, phaser & flanger effect pedals that aren't higher-end rack mounted systems.

I mainly use the FX loop with a Boss GT8 plus an analog delay stomp post the 5:50's preamp. I also emailed Mesa about this before I bought it. The FX Loop is Series & 100% wet when you plug in. Works fine

 

[Digirat]

I've been an Express 5:50 owner for one whole week now Some conclusions so far:

:arrow: Clean tones/reverb to die for

:arrow: Nice blues lead tones

:arrow: Excellent, cultured lead tone in Burn mode - plenty of gain for me :!:

:arrow: Not so great crunch/rhythm tones so far I just can't dial in a killer crunch tone so far - don't like the Crunch mode at all. The best I've come up with is by backing off on the guitar volume in Burn mode.

:arrow: This monster is louder than anticipated in the home studio environment(and I use it in 5W mode all the time). I'm using it with a Weber minimass attenuator, which helps but is a bit of a tone-sucker. I'm going to get a Koch Loadbox II to replace this and allow silent recording.

:arrow: Overall impression so far - looks fantastic, sounds wonderful for most things and I'm looking forward to many years of tonal pleasure.

By the way, I also just bought an Orange Tiny Terror and while it is almost the "anti-Express" in many ways (looks wild & funky instead of classy, has a horrible, honking clean sound), it does a wonderful Brit-crunch and dirty, saturated lead and in many ways is the perfect complement to the Express. It is also incredibly cheap, not much more than a boutique distortion pedal :shock: Think I'll use the Express 75% of the time at least, but it's nice to have this extra option for those other sounds (and I couldn't afford to get a Stilletto just now!)