Is it just me or does the single-ended Class A 5 watt mode

[Barracuda]

basically suck.


The Mesa marketing material raves about the nuance and harmonic glaze etc. and I feel that I should be hearing something sublime and uber special. And I don't! Dammit. Anyone else does?

 

[simonich]

5W mode on your LSS, or one of the Expresss amps?

On my LSS, I don't think the 5W mode "sucks", but I'm also not hearing a *huge* difference with the presence of the 2nd harmonic. However, I do like the fact that I can drive that 1 tube hard and get some pretty sweet tube saturation at relatively tolerable volumes.

I haven't yet played one of the express amps, nor the new 10W LSC, which oddly enough is 2 tubes, but still single ended. They must not have wanted to change the circuit enough to add the capability to get to a single tube.

 

[phyrexia]

I think your ears suck. Have you turned the master volume up on your amp?

 

[Barracuda]

I guess suck is a hard term but its all relative. Relative to the marketing hype I think its fair to use it. Yes I've turned up the volume etc etc. I have a LSS and I dearly love my amp in 30W and 15W modes. It just does not have any "extra magic " per se in 5W - at least to me. Not bad but nothing that gives me wet dreams.

Or perhaps I need to clean my ears eh?

 

[eweise]

I can only hear a very small difference between the 5 and 15 watts at lower volumes and 5 watt doesn't necessarily sound better. The biggest advantage to me of the 5 watt setting, is to get better distortion at lower volumes for recording.

 

[rickc007]

I think your ears suck. Have you turned the master volume up on your amp?

that, and try turning it down and diming the gain

I just read that on this forum, from a Mesa clinic at Rockit Music

I stopped down there and John was showing how the Mesa rep
said to adjust

try turning all the tone controls all the way off
( not like me who puts them at 12, and leaves them there for the life of the amp)

have the master half way, and just turn on the tone controls
enough to get the desired tone

this give me a much warmer thicker tone
I actually yanked a Celestion Blue out of mine cause
it was too bright, gonna put it back in and try

I really really like the 5 watt tone on this amp

but then again, I did go through a few speaker changes
C90 is not my favorite in this amp
have a 30 watt Weber Blue Dog in now

cheers

 

[JAZZGEAR]

I think your ears suck. Have you turned the master volume up on your amp?

+1, sorry...but I certainly hear it.... :shock:

 

[Joshusama]

There is a definite difference, especially noticeable when recording. The second-order harmonic of the 5W setting adds discernable consonance to solo passages (esp. long, sustained notes up the fretboard) and minor/major third distorted chords, esp. when arpeggiated. The lack of second-order AND prominence of third-order harmonics associated with the 10 and 15W setting give the sound a lot more "cut". Perfect intervals (P4 and P5), like those in your basic power chords, jump from the mix (in a good way) in these settings. However, those major/minor intervals sound slightly dissonant and can somewhat difficult to fit into certain sound-scapes. String theory dictates these intervals are not be beatless to begin with, and the third-harmonic just adds to this effect (not always bad, depending on the part, of course).

To generalize I would say that open-ended class A P/T saturation will tends to melt into the mix, whereas push-pull stands above and cuts through. What makes having both options on one amp so "special" (da, dum, dum) is that you can use each to taste. There's no struggling to get two different amps to compliment eachother, which is a major, major part of getting a pro recorded sound (time consuming, though a lot of fun). There's more to this, but that's the best way I can summarize it.

I will say though that when you're playing alone, the difference is less noticeable.