Help--I hate this Boogie so far--Maverick short head

[jake2105]

Okay...I just bought a Maverick short head--AND I HATE IT! I don't know what the deal is...but I can't get a good clean tone out of it. I'm really not very into the o.d. tone on the lead channel. I got this thing on a good deal, but I'm not happy at all. PLESE HELP! I play a music man axis custom. I would like to be able to get a nice fat, shimmery clean tone on one of the channels, and either a santana--esqu tone or just a good tubescreamer tone out of the lead channel...is this possible? Or if anyone out there would just like to share some settings that they use for both channels to get nice tones I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Jake

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Did you get it used? Maybe it's time for new tubes?

 

[jake2105]

It's got brand new JJ's in it.???

 

[RR]

opps .... kinda embarrassed I talked you into this amp.

Did you set tone controls at 12:00 o'clock and then experiment by extracting or adding. Say turn to 1:00 0'clock, or turn back to 11:00 o'clock.

You see the Mark Series and Caliber Series are straight forward but these Rectifier Series which includes: Dual Tri- Rectifiers, Road Kings, Stilletto's, Trem-o-Verb and you might as well add Maverick are a little different. You have to set everything in the middle then work from there.

I hope to bump this post up and others will chime in.

 

[Rocky]

The Mesa rep that taught me how to tune a Mesa amp in properly told me to start at zero and roll the controls in from there.

Gain at ~ 12:00 to full on. Gain should be adjusted down and the others should be adjusted up.

 

[RR]

The Mesa rep that taught me how to tune a Mesa amp in properly told me to start at zero and roll the controls in from there.

Gain at ~ 12:00 to full on. Gain should be adjusted down and the others should be adjusted up.

jake2105, try this method too.

 

[jake2105]

RR don't sweat it man. I didn't spend enough time w/ the amp before I took the deal. So it's my fault. I did start at 12:00 on the tone knobs...maybe it's the lack of headroom. But I'm not sure...I know it's just 35 watts--but it's 35 watts class A...which I was told by some that would equal the headroom of 100 watts non class A. This is the first class A amp I've owned...So I'm kind of lost I guess. Or maybe it's the speakers. The cab is a cheap 2x12 w/ Jensens--which currently is wired w/ only 1 speaker. So I'm playing the head through 1 crappy Jensen 12.

Does anybody know if it would clean up better going through 2 nice 12's?--Say 2 90watt mesa black shadows?

My last amp was a 75 silverface Twin w/ EV's...clean tone was brilliant. I know I'm not gonna get that out of it, but I thought for sure I could get a nice clean tone out of this amp.

 

[LPClassic]

jake2105 sorry to heard you didn't like the amp, please remember the mid after 12 setting works as a gain so try lowering that one down. Also the only amplifier in the mesa boogie family close to the fender clean are problably the F series.

The Maverick cleans are normally warm so I hope it's not the character of tone of the amplifier that you don't like or it will be impossible to get a better clean. So far try the gain and the mid around 9 setting, have the master higher and hope that work better for you.

 

[RR]

Remember this:

set the treble at 11, 12 or 1 o'clock and no higher. If you set the treble any higher, the Maverick or any amp with the "Dual Rectifier" emblem will sound thin because the rest of tone controls is govern around this treble setting. Then use the presence control as your "treble" control. Set other tone control to your liking.

True, the Maverick is not the most headroom clean amp at 30 watts. Headroom is actually a peculiar term because I would explain my definition of headroom and someone may disagree with me because they have their definition of headroom clean. (Back to the glossary someone suggested)

Now you tell me your previous amps is amp is a 100 watt Twin with EVs. Gosh, that's alot of clean headroom. First its a 100 watts and w/ EVs, can't get any cleaner headroom than that unless you are playing something like a MESA/Boogie's Colesium 300 Series (175 watts that's more like 200 watts). Don't expect the Maverick to duplicate that much headroom. Of course you know this. :wink:

 

[jake2105]

RR wasn't expecting tone like the Twin's at all...the Twin was almost too clean. But I certainly thought I should be able to get a nice warm clean tone out of the Maverick. Hopefully I still can. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give it a shot.

 

[Jops]

Make sure the fat switch isn't on too, if it is, it's mud central. I get plenty of shimmer with an LP on the clean. I prefer the C90's to other lower rated speakers it opens up the sound some and makes it breathe a bit better. With the LP I tend to scoop the clean and keep the treble around the 1-2 o'clock mark. I also run my Mav with an Ayan Smooth & Slim which lets me crank the bass a bit higher on my 1x12.

At the end of the day the Mav doesn't have a lot of clean headroom but that's why I like it :wink: