Lovin' my Stiletto Ace!

[David.W]

I agree completely, however in my inexperience ive come to find with Mesas recto series, the watt cut was reflected in the amount of body available at rehersal levels (think alternative rock heavy handed drummer volumes). The higher wattage amps seemed to retain their shape better when turned up (to my jam volumes). The duels being a great example of this, they are strong enough not to have to over labour to keep up, yet still push the power tubes to work and the result is a thick sounding tone, I find the triples too hard to push and the preamp fizz is usually present.

Back to the Ace! So thats my irrational thinking for questioning the Ace wattage vs the duece and trident tones. Though I think I should try em out and I hear the stage II stuff is goosd also.

 

[zewango]

Just received an ACE 1x12 combo today. I agree with some of the comments on how bright the amp is. With my Wolfgang the treble and presence are kept pretty low but the bass way up. Does the ACE have more midrange kick then low end? Mine does and it's the only one i've heard.

 

[inkwachemis]

Just received an ACE 1x12 combo today. I agree with some of the comments on how bright the amp is. With my Wolfgang the treble and presence are kept pretty low but the bass way up. Does the ACE have more midrange kick then low end? Mine does and it's the only one i've heard.

Hi,

congrats! and welcome to the ever growing Ace family!

yea, the Ace is a bit bright. I was able to tame the brightness and add a bit of girth and thickness with a nice tube change from the stock mesa ones.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Just received an ACE 1x12 combo today. I agree with some of the comments on how bright the amp is. With my Wolfgang the treble and presence are kept pretty low but the bass way up. Does the ACE have more midrange kick then low end? Mine does and it's the only one i've heard.

I've got a Wolfgang also. I think the amp has got plenty of low end. I'm basically using the factory sample settings "Big Clean" and "Brown Crunch" with a little less gain than the samples. I leave it on the "Brown Crunch" settings and flick it into Tite Gain also.

Remember, EL34's are known for their midrange crunch.

 

[zewango]

Just received an ACE 1x12 combo today. I agree with some of the comments on how bright the amp is. With my Wolfgang the treble and presence are kept pretty low but the bass way up. Does the ACE have more midrange kick then low end? Mine does and it's the only one i've heard.

Hi,

congrats! and welcome to the ever growing Ace family!

yea, the Ace is a bit bright. I was able to tame the brightness and add a bit of girth and thickness with a nice tube change from the stock mesa ones.

I will do tubes swaps this week I have Winged SED's to try and plenty of preamps to swap

 

[inkwachemis]

Just received an ACE 1x12 combo today. I agree with some of the comments on how bright the amp is. With my Wolfgang the treble and presence are kept pretty low but the bass way up. Does the ACE have more midrange kick then low end? Mine does and it's the only one i've heard.

Hi,

congrats! and welcome to the ever growing Ace family!

yea, the Ace is a bit bright. I was able to tame the brightness and add a bit of girth and thickness with a nice tube change from the stock mesa ones.

I will do tubes swaps this week I have Winged SED's to try and plenty of preamps to swap

yup!

winged seds are what i put in mine! great results. good results with tungsols and jjs in the preamps too. what preamp tubes u got?

 

[zewango]

Hi,

congrats! and welcome to the ever growing Ace family!

yea, the Ace is a bit bright. I was able to tame the brightness and add a bit of girth and thickness with a nice tube change from the stock mesa ones.

I will do tubes swaps this week I have Winged SED's to try and plenty of preamps to swap

yup!

winged seds are what i put in mine! great results. good results with tungsols and jjs in the preamps too. what preamp tubes u got?

What a difference swapping tubes made on this amp
I felt like I was lacking bass this made a world of difference. I had a mix of Mesa Russian and Chinese preamp tubes.

Put in the Winged Sed's
V1 Tung Sol
V2 EH 12ax7
V3 Sovtek 12ax7wb
V4 Ruby 12ax7a
V5 Sovtek 12ax7lps

Still need to replace the rectifier tube. This sounds awesome, I'm real happy with the ACE. Amps I've been through the last year. They were all good but....

Bogner XTC & Shiva
Budda SD 18 &45
Splawn Quick Rod
Mesa MK III
Soldano Avenger
VHT Deliverance D60
Bad Cat Hot Cat 30R

Thats alot of good amps and this ACE covers most of the best traits from all of them. The master volume is killer , channel 2 fluid I can play on for hours. Now I need to find and Emerald Green 2 x 12 cabinet to sit this on top of. Now I can get some guitars this amp we be here for awhile.

 

[inkwachemis]

I will do tubes swaps this week I have Winged SED's to try and plenty of preamps to swap

yup!

winged seds are what i put in mine! great results. good results with tungsols and jjs in the preamps too. what preamp tubes u got?

What a difference swapping tubes made on this amp
I felt like I was lacking bass this made a world of difference. I had a mix of Mesa Russian and Chinese preamp tubes.

Put in the Winged Sed's
V1 Tung Sol
V2 EH 12ax7
V3 Sovtek 12ax7wb
V4 Ruby 12ax7a
V5 Sovtek 12ax7lps

Still need to replace the rectifier tube. This sounds awesome, I'm real happy with the ACE. Amps I've been through the last year. They were all good but....

Bogner XTC & Shiva
Budda SD 18 &45
Splawn Quick Rod
Mesa MK III
Soldano Avenger
VHT Deliverance D60
Bad Cat Hot Cat 30R

Thats alot of good amps and this ACE covers most of the best traits from all of them. The master volume is killer , channel 2 fluid I can play on for hours. Now I need to find and Emerald Green 2 x 12 cabinet to sit this on top of. Now I can get some guitars this amp we be here for awhile.

haha! yup!

I put tungsol in V1 too.
V2 tungsol
V3 JJ ecc83
V4 JJecc83
V5 JJecc83 (matched triode)
winged SED EL-34s

I do feel like a broken record for saying this, cause i have said it many times in other threads, but man, a tube change for this amp was simply the best tube change i did for any of my amps, and i change them all! Instantly the amp was warmer, thicker, and more touch responsive. It got even better after a few more jams with the band and the tubes cooked in.

Wow, thats an impressive list of amps you have owned. You really prefer the Ace over all those amps u listed?? How did the ace compare to the splawn? how about the deliverance? damm! u had a hotcat???? :twisted:


other amps I've owned:
Marshall DSL50
Mesa Rectoverb
Laney GH50L

I agree as well, the Stiletto has the best qualities of these all. Besides the Ace, I only have the Laney left for backup purposes.

 

[zewango]

haha! yup!

I put tungsol in V1 too.
V2 tungsol
V3 JJ ecc83
V4 JJecc83
V5 JJecc83 (matched triode)
winged SED EL-34s

I do feel like a broken record for saying this, cause i have said it many times in other threads, but man, a tube change for this amp was simply the best tube change i did for any of my amps, and i change them all! Instantly the amp was warmer, thicker, and more touch responsive. It got even better after a few more jams with the band and the tubes cooked in.

Wow, thats an impressive list of amps you have owned. You really prefer the Ace over all those amps u listed?? How did the ace compare to the splawn? how about the deliverance? damm! u had a hotcat???? :twisted:


other amps I've owned:
Marshall DSL50
Mesa Rectoverb
Laney GH50L

I agree as well, the Stiletto has the best qualities of these all. Besides the Ace, I only have the Laney left for backup purposes.

I agree 100% about the tube swap the most dramatic tone effect ever for me buy a simple tube swap. Amp was clearer and bassier. Huge difference.
Man all those amps were great if I had $$$$$$$ I'd of kept them all. Thats basically the order I had them in just kept selling and trading.

Bad Cat was the most musical sounding amp if I was in a Matchbox 20 type band that would be the amp. It was the worse for metal tones. Tons of gain, non usable for me.
Splawn louder than hell, felt it had 1 really good sound with 3 different levels of gain. 2nd version clean was nothing special. VHT was great if they had a 1x12 combo that would be cool. It didnt have the lead sounds I can get from the ACE and that classic Boogie feel.

 

[dstefani]

Back to the points about the Ace not having a power drop capability. ( a good thing)

Even though you can't cut the power with a 25/50 switch, as mentioned the variac does that a bit. But the different channels all seem to have different power levels.

If the top channel switched to fat clean, you have to push the volumes more. If you stay on channel one, tight clean goes up a bit and then crunch even more. Go to channel 2 start with crunch and the process starts again where channel 1 left off. Channel 2 set to Liquid screams!!!

To me it makes perfect sense. (at least for my playing needs).

With my LP I use mostly the ch1 crunch set pretty clean (think Peter Green) and ch2 crunch (sot of a Allman bro LP sound) or to tight gain for a Robben Ford tasty overdrive tone.

With a Strat, same for ch1, but then I go right to tight gain for an Eric Clapton 461 Ocean Blvd. Start w/ grit tone.

I'm interested in the tube upgrade, because the only thing about this amp that you have to watch is the brightness. It can cut your hair. I will usually back down the top end somehow. But it's not a bad thing, I like to have everything available to me if I want it. I'd rather have to back off the EQ than to try and add the brightness somehow if I wanted it. More is better!

I'll venture off this set up, but that's my main set up.

This amp is interesting, because I'm sure many of you here are using this for a more overdriven tone, I guess I'd call it more of a 'modern' sound.

But I started playing in '68 (heavy metal for me is Zep, Hendrix and Deep Purple!) and this amp has a very vintage sound, yet it's in control, the tone is together.

Let's see...
I've never been a country enthusiast, at least not the stuff that's on the radio most of the time, but I dig good players no matter what they play. Some modern country is produced very well, the guitar sounds are killer. My old super sounds great, but it's kind of loose, I'm not sure how to describe it.

The ace on the other hand creates studio quality tones all the time, tight and precise, yet fun to play like a vintage amp. Sometimes I plug in my G&L ASAT and start rockin' some country and does it sound good. Tele clean or ripping overdrive.

I guess vintage has finally met modern. (yeah)

I'm starting to consider it my budget Dumble. I bet if this amp wasn't being produced by Mesa on a large scale and the production numbers where allot smaller, the value would go through the roof. If they ever discontinue it, you'll have a collectors item for sure.

Coffee and killer gear... somebody stop me!
:shock:

 

[SoCalSteve]

Very well said, dstefani. In addition, I don't know if you have any humbucker equipped guitars, but I've also found a very cool vintage overdriven type tone in Fat Clean with the gain all the way up.

I grew up in the classic rock era myself and this amp is giving me all those great classic rock EL34 tones plus some of the more modern EL34 rock tones - everything a Brit-Rock tone lover needs.

 

[dstefani]

Yes, I have a LP 58 RI that sounds like heaven through the ace.
I have my ASAT in it right now on ch1 all EQ set to aout 10:00 gain at 10:00 master on 9 - crunch.

So clean and precise, I feel like a sax player, every note, every nuance of intonation. It's a beautiful instrument (amp) .

Side note: I love my G&L

- dstefani

 

[UDAMANN]

SoCalSteve said it best !

[I grew up in the classic rock era myself and this amp is giving me all those great classic rock EL34 tones plus some of the more modern EL34 rock tones - everything a Brit-Rock tone lover needs.]

That's what this amp does so well ! It's like a great modded 80's amp made just for getting tones from bands like Extreme, Dokken, Ratt as well as some of the new stuff too.

The clean's are the best I've ever heard from a EL34 based amp. Ever ! A legacy is my only point of reference on this , but they are known for there great cleans.

The Ace takes pedals very well too. The Keeley modded blues driver pedal (don't let the name fool you) sounds just like the Ace's (ch #2) crunch or tight gain mode thru channel #1. I use this for my distorted rhythm tone. That's leaves me the fluid drive setting for all leads. It also blends very well w/ the already distorted channels making it a very thick 3d type of sound.

Just some of my thoughts & observations to help everyone in there quest for the holy grail (tone).

Peace !
UdaMann

 

[dstefani]

This is a great example of the diverse tones from the Ace.

Mine is late 60's early 70's, and you guys are getting into 80's Marshall crunch.

Any virtuoso guitar players out there?
Jason Becker or Steve Vai type of playing? George Lynch?

I'm out of my element here.

- dstefani

 

[UDAMANN]

Virtuoso guitar player ? Only when I sleep (dreaming) my man. I can pull off a few Andy Timmons licks & the begining of Vai's "K'm-Pee-Du-Wee". I only attempted the Vai tune to see if the Legacy combo could pull of his tone. It did !

Volume notes (original topic I think) : The Legacy combo is switchable between 50 & 100 watts modes. I never played it in the 100 watt setting & I play out. Even in the 50 watt mode it was still too loud if you turned it up to get the power tubes really going. The Ace's volume pot is much more linear & it has a more useable sweep to it. The Legacy went from a set (low) volume at 1 1/2 & anything after 3 1/2 was like being on at full volume and still to loud. Thank god the Ace is not this way at all.

Keep in mind that w/ the closed back on the Ace's 2x12 combo it realy pushes allot of air. Do not stand in front of this thing. Wow !

If you play in a band where everone uses 4x12's go w/ the 100 or 150 watt version & melt some faces off ! If I could I would !

Peace ! Tim

 

[zewango]

I'm real interested in adding a 2x12 Emerald Green Cab to my combo. Has anybody seen any Stiletto cabs out there.

 

[dstefani]

When I called Mesa as to the best ext cab for my Ace, he did not like the sound of the Stiletto cabs.

He recommended the standard horz. 2x12 recto.
I have to agree, the recto sounds killer. Very loud to! :twisted:

I'd call Mesa and get the info first hand.

- dstefani

 

[fsmith]

I'm real interested in adding a 2x12 Emerald Green Cab to my combo. Has anybody seen any Stiletto cabs out there.

I bought an Avatar 2x12 with a Hellatone 30 & 60 in it. Love it.

 

[cant play pool with a rop]

Nice setup!The Avatar really looks classy with the Ace. I bet it sounds sweet!!!!

 

[dstefani]

That looks great.

At what point did they reverse the controls of the Ace, or am I seeing things?

My combo has the mini toggles on the left and the master outputs on the right