First Mesa help

[Hirschberger]

Alright. I'm looking into getting a new amp, and I have heard many good things about mesa.

I play jazz, blues, rock, and metal, so it needs to be extremely versitile. some of the bands I listen to are Metallica, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, SRV, Van Halen, etc.

it needs:
- Amazing Cleans
- able to nail a blues tone (think Red House by Hendrix and any song by SRV)
- Able to go from moderate gain (classic rock) to high gain (hard rock/metal)

thanks for helping!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I get 40% off at guitar center because my friend works there so I need to know where in los angeles there are any GCs that carry mesas. thanks

 

[PnKnG]

Mark III works too.

 

[mrd]

Yea, I'd say MKIII or MKIV.

RK could probably do it too, but that's getting up there in price.

 

[Anonymous]

Road King....but that's expensive. Roadster?

+1 on the Mark IV.

What's your price range?

 

[Hirschberger]

Alright. I'm looking into getting a new amp, and I have heard many good things about mesa.

I play jazz, blues, rock, and metal, so it needs to be extremely versitile. some of the bands I listen to are Metallica, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, SRV, Van Halen, etc.

it needs:
- Amazing Cleans
- able to nail a blues tone (think Red House by Hendrix and any song by SRV)
- Able to go from moderate gain (classic rock) to high gain (hard rock/metal)
- not extremely expensive (I'm willing to buy it used off of ebay/craigslist)

thanks for helping!

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

Only the MKIV :lol:

the part about not very expensive is relative...

One amp does it all for about $1,300.00 seems cheap to me.


Mick

Yeah I have heard great things about the Mark IV. is it relatively easy to get off ebay?

 

[JW123]

Mark IVs are one of the most finicky amps on the planet. They sound great when dialed in but it takes time and patience. If you dont like searching for tones I dont think you will like it. I borrowe one for a couple of gigs and kept accidently pushing the little push pull switches in when they should have been out. I hate those switches.

I have a Triple Rec, a Roadster and a Subway Rocket and have owned a variety of other amps. If I was you and Im thinking about doing this myself is check out a Line 6 POD rackmount and footpedal. It will get every sound you want and will record great. Ive been borrowing one for a couple of weeks and I dont know why I put up with finicky tube amps.

If you want a basic Mesa pick up a 1x12 Rectoverb, its a great starting point if you want a mesa and will have all the power you probably will need. It should cover most of the sounds you mentioned, E-bay they probably sell for 6-800 dollars. Mark IVs are 1200-1500

 

[JW123]

92

I read post on here all day long people wanting an amp that will do everything from jazz to metal, wake up it doesnt exist in the tube world. The only one I know of is a Hughes and Kettner Switchblade that has digital preamps and effects. Ive never owned a Mark IV but I have gigged with one. It has a passable clean, not great but passable. It has some great crunch tones and the best for me was a lead tone I dialed up. It is a great amp, but it wont cover all the things he said. And then the next statement is he wants something not too expensive. If he happens to buy the Mark IV hes kind of stuck now isnt he.

Im not trying to piss you off but maybe he should be steered to something that does have more variety than what we are suggesting, cause Mesa doesnt make what hes asking for.

 

[Hirschberger]

as long as the cleans are somewhat good I can just use some pedals to get the sound I want I guess.

the most important part is the ability to sound good with low gain for blues and high gain for the metal stuff.

 

[JasonE]

I was sort of in this same position. I play country (need serious cleans for that), blues and classic rock. I occasionally like a bit of a more modern rock sound too.

I decided that I needed a 4 channel tube amp to do what I wanted to do. I wanted the tube sound for distortion. I prefer it over any pedals I have ever used. The two best amps I found in the lineup were the RoadKing and the Roadster. I decided I didn't probably need the extra features on the RoadKing so I went with the Roadster. I had a hard time deciding whether to go with the combo or the head with a 2 x 12 cabinet. I found the head and cabinet in a shop a couple of hours away from me. I drove down and took it for a test drive. It came home with me. It does everything I need it to do and it does it well. It however, was not inexpensive. I had to lay some cash out for it. I have found after using it for a few gigs that I realy appreciate the seperate cabinet and head over the combo. It is much easier to transport. It cost me more to go this route but it is easily expandable to a half stack if I really feel the need down the road.

I think the bottom line that you are going to find is that you can get the versatility you are looking for in one amp. However, you are going to have to be willing to invest some cash to get it.

You also need to determine if you want to get those sounds from your amp, or if a nice pedal board like the Boss GT8 or GT10 is in order. You could run it through your clean channel of your current amp. That will cost you a lot less cash and will be versatile and programmable to what you want it to do.

 

[Tubes Rock!]

Check into Studio Pre, Quad preamp, Fomula Pre. If you need a power section, look into either the 20/20 or fifty/fifty poweramp to go with it.

I agree with the MarkIV, but throwing some options out there for you to research. Ebay has the pre's and poweramps popping up all the time..

Lastly, If I could suggest a versitle amp, the Peavey ValveKing might be candidate for what you are looking for. $500 new. Great leads, sweet cleans, wonderful amp, pretty much plug n play, not much tweaking needed...

Keeping it Mesa, MarkIV or even a Mark III from Ebay would be a performer too.. Problem with that is availabilty to test drive.

Good luck, you've found the right place to ask these questions.

 

[Hirschberger]

Hey thanks guys for all of your input.

What I have been looking at so far is the Mark IV (like many have suggested), the Dual Recto (3 probably b/c of the 2 gain channels, so I can have for for classic rock /blues and one for metal. also, which is better for my needs, the 2 channel DR or the 3 channel DR?), or the DR Roadster (again for versatility) if I can find a good price for one.

I will certainly have to try out the DR (both 2 and 3 channels) and the roadster. is there any place to try out the Mesas in Los Angeles? my guitar center doesn't carry any

I was sort of in this same position. I play country (need serious cleans for that), blues and classic rock. I occasionally like a bit of a more modern rock sound too.

I decided that I needed a 4 channel tube amp to do what I wanted to do. I wanted the tube sound for distortion. I prefer it over any pedals I have ever used. The two best amps I found in the lineup were the RoadKing and the Roadster. I decided I didn't probably need the extra features on the RoadKing so I went with the Roadster. I had a hard time deciding whether to go with the combo or the head with a 2 x 12 cabinet. I found the head and cabinet in a shop a couple of hours away from me. I drove down and took it for a test drive. It came home with me. It does everything I need it to do and it does it well. It however, was not inexpensive. I had to lay some cash out for it. I have found after using it for a few gigs that I realy appreciate the seperate cabinet and head over the combo. It is much easier to transport. It cost me more to go this route but it is easily expandable to a half stack if I really feel the need down the road.

I think the bottom line that you are going to find is that you can get the versatility you are looking for in one amp. However, you are going to have to be willing to invest some cash to get it.

You also need to determine if you want to get those sounds from your amp, or if a nice pedal board like the Boss GT8 or GT10 is in order. You could run it through your clean channel of your current amp. That will cost you a lot less cash and will be versatile and programmable to what you want it to do.

I prefer to get my distortion straight from the amp and not from a distortion pedal. organic distortion sounds so much better than any pedal in my opinion.

my current amp is a crappy solid state kustom that I have had since I started playing guitar. it is 10 watts, and has terrible distortions and barely passable cleans, so I definately need a new amp and not a GT-8/GT-10.

Also I am willing to save up for a while and buy me an amp that will last me a while. I would hate to buy a mediocre amp only to buy a new one in a year. that is jut a waste of money that I don't have.

 

[theaero]

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I get 40% off at guitar center because my friend works there so I need to know where in los angeles there are any GCs that carry mesas. thanks

Your friend will get fired for buying you stuff =\. When I worked at GC we werent allowed to buy stuff for friends or sell stuff until a year after we owned it.

Also, whats with this whole 40% ordeal? Guitar center employees get stuff for cost + 10% and cost on mesa amps = high. So you wont be getting too much of a discount unless theres something I'm missing...

 

[Hirschberger]

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I get 40% off at guitar center because my friend works there so I need to know where in los angeles there are any GCs that carry mesas. thanks

Your friend will get fired for buying you stuff =\. When I worked at GC we werent allowed to buy stuff for friends or sell stuff until a year after we owned it.

Also, whats with this whole 40% ordeal? Guitar center employees get stuff for cost + 10% and cost on mesa amps = high. So you wont be getting too much of a discount unless theres something I'm missing...

Yeah i probably should have been a little more clear.

My friends mom has connections at the store basically. She works at the store. I don't really know if she is high up like she is the manager of that store, or what, but all I know is that he's gotten gear 40% off before, so he's passing the offer to me.

I'm not complaining :mrgreen:




:roll:

 

[DanSRV]

how about go to the store and play the Boogie's that they have? All of this guitar gear "chatter" is just user opinions more or less. What sounds good to you may sound awful to the next. hit the store and play til you find what you like, it may not even be a Boogie!

 

[Hirschberger]

how about go to the store and play the Boogie's that they have? All of this guitar gear "chatter" is just user opinions more or less. What sounds good to you may sound awful to the next. hit the store and play til you find what you like, it may not even be a Boogie!

I would love to do that but the problem is my local stores and my guitar center don't carry any Boogies. The only place i know that has Boogies is the store in hollywood but i dont go to hollywood very often. i guess ill have to make the like 30 minute drive there im so lazy

 

[JasonE]

how about go to the store and play the Boogie's that they have? All of this guitar gear "chatter" is just user opinions more or less. What sounds good to you may sound awful to the next. hit the store and play til you find what you like, it may not even be a Boogie!

I would love to do that but the problem is my local stores and my guitar center don't carry any Boogies. The only place i know that has Boogies is the store in hollywood but i dont go to hollywood very often. i guess ill have to make the like 30 minute drive there im so lazy

30 minute drive is nothing. I took a day off of work and drove 2 hours to get to the place that had what I wanted to test drive. It was worth it. I bought the amp and am very happy with it.

As for the pricing, I doubt that you will get the amp cheaper than the listed price. Mesa is very strict on the pricing. You will find that any Mesa/Boogie amp is the same price no matter where you find it. If I had to guess, Mesa/Boogie amps are one thing that employees would have to pay full price for. I talked to every dealer in Ohio when I was looking for mine. They all told me the same thing. If they were to sell one amp at a reduced price and Mesa/Booge found out about it, they could lose their dealership for them. None of them are willing to take that risk.

 

[JW123]

I'll jump back in.

I have a 3 Channel Triple Rec, a Roadster, a Subway Rocket, and I forgot but also a Mesa V Twin pedal.

You say you want amp distortion, then of my collection the Roadster is cool. 4 channels, #1 I have set for clean, I can also kick in a little reverb, #2 I have set up in Brit mode, with a Les Paul think Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, #3 I have set for vintage rec sound, this to me is the sound you hear on Nicklback,Creed you know basic radio rock, #4 I have set up in Modern Mode, in cover songs I use it for AIC, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, RATM

A Roadster will cover a lot of ground. I bought the combo because I already have a stack and wanted something a little smaller in one package. The speakers are sealed so it gets the THUNK sound of a 4x12. This amp leans more toward gainer sounds to me, but and this is to my ears all the channels no matter how they are set up still have the same basic tonality. It doesnt really emulate any other amps other than a Rectifier. If you are happy getting close with your tones but not quite nail them it might be the perfect amp. New retail I think they are around $2200, I found a used one for $1400, so its not cheap by any means.

In an earlier post I recomended a Rectoverb. I recently played on a 1x12 combo and I thought it sounded really good. It had a better clean sound to my ears than the Roadster. I liked the Vintage recto sound it had. These 2 sounds with a couple of pedals will cover a lot of ground. Its 50 watts so its plaenty of power. Its a simple amp compared to the bigger amps and therefor a lot cheaper. I see them used in the $600-800 range.

Of all the Mesas Ive played the Mark IV has the best lead tone. I played a combo for a couple of gigs and feel in love with its lead tone over my Rectifers. However they are hard to come by, have been around for awhile and are a hard amp to get a handle on. Mark IV combos on e-bay run in the $1400-1600 range.

I hope you pick a Mesa because even thou I may have come off a little pissy at them in an earlier post I love them, and I can afford whatever I want and chose Mesa over the rest.

All that being said, recently my cover band and I have been laying down some classic rock cover songs and Ive been micing up my little Subway Rocket and getting some of the best tones Ive heard in a while.

Dont over look the smaller Mesas. Its nice to use a big amp, but if you are just playing by yourself you really dont need a huge amp. I have attenuators for my larger amps and use them to practice at home. A smaller combo will sound better at lower volumes than the big amps. A kid I teach a little guitar too, got his parents to get him a DR Halfstack. I go to his house one day to see it and they will not let him turn it up to the point the tubes are cooking. Thats just a waste of a killer tone machine. From my standpoint they dont sound good till the master is past noon or halfway. If you are in a situation where you cant push the amp it will not sound that good. Ive tryed everything with these amps and they dont sound good down low. You need to decide what your real use is going to be. Be honest with yourself about your needs and you will be happier for the long haul.

Good Luck

Oh yeah definitely make the drive somewhere to play any of them before you buy one. Take your own guitar so you know what its goin to sound like. Find a shop that has an amp room where you can turn it up and really see what it will do. You are talking about a major investment that could last a lifetime do your homework.

 

[MF]

A kid I teach a little guitar too, got his parents to get him a DR Halfstack. I go to his house one day to see it and they will not let him turn it up to the point the tubes are cooking. Thats just a waste of a killer tone machine.

Not to get off topic, but situations like this really bug me. I grew up in a middle class home and worked very hard to pay for EVERY SINGLE piece of gear i've ever owned (i bought my first guitar at 13) and nowadays i'm constantly seeing spoiled little kiddies at the music store getting their parents to drop thousands of dollars on equipment they can barely play (i'm not saying your student can't play).

For example, I witnessed a kid a few weeks ago trying to convince his dad to buy him the $1600 Les Paul over the $1400 one and it disgusted me. IMO, a big part of the satisfaction I get from a piece of gear is knowing how hard I worked to get it. I did my research, I saved up, I bargain hunted and after months of waiting i finally got my prize. I didn't have my dad zip down to Guitar Center and drop 3 grand on his Visa Platinum because I decided I want to be a rock star.

Or maybe i'm just jealous. On the plus side though, 2 years from now long after that kid has given up on playing guitar me or someone just like me will be there to buy that sweet gear at bargain basement prices :twisted: 8)

 

[JW123]

Ha Ha

No he cant play well enough to justify the amp, but his father called me and quized me about amps and what I play. I primarily play Triple Rec and he asked would I buy another one. I said in hindsight I probably would have bought the Dual. A few days later after the kids birthday he had it. Am I jealous? No I dont understand your logic in being mad, I think its more jealousy. I started playing music in the mid 70s and have bought all my gear cause my old man couldnt stand rock music. Im jealous of the technology available to an aspiring musician these days than I am the fact that some kid just got lucky being born to someone that will buy him a nice amp.

And yeah if he quits playing I might get first dibs on the amp

 

[Herbie the Rad Dorklift]

What really grinds my gears is Dad Roadies.

I know a band, bunch of young uns, the guitarist has a PRS Custom 22 for a BACKUP guitar....

Anyways, they have Dad Roadies, even got the "CREW" shirts on.. :lol: