Mesa Ignorant

[jhadhar65]

I'm new to Mesa and I've never owned a Mesa amp (always been a Marhsall guy). Anyway, I'm really intrigued by the heavy recto sound and I'm trying to find out which Mesa amp is considered to be the "holy grail" for heavy rock, i.e. Metallica, etc. I know they use a lot of different amps and not just Mesa, but I'm looking for that deep, rich, bone-crunching heaviness. I guess if a 2203 JCM-800 is the grail as far as Marshall's are concerned, which amp model(s) hold that title in the Mesa camp?

I know this must sound ignorant, but I have no idea and I really want to know. Thanks in advance!

 

[Guitarist for hire]

Dual or Triple rectifire and the Road King would have those tones.

 

[musicbox]

Mark IIIC+

 

[ctoddrun]

I'm a Mark IV guy myself,

but if I were going for a modern rock tone (ala Nickelback, et al.) I'd get the Rectifier.

No need for the Triple, because how often are you EVER gonna be able to drive a 150 watt amp hard?

Even the dual will be handling the abuse you give it with NO sweat.


If you want Nicklebackish crunchy sound, Rectifier is the way to get it.

 

[TheRazMeister]

The heck with Mesa get a nice roland micro cube and crank that baby and with adding a delay.......hey, get off me, stooooooppppp.....nooooooooo.

Sorry about that guys, my computer was taken over by an evil solid state nerd.....To answer, don't waste your money on a triple...single to dual is fine.

I'm new to Mesa and I've never owned a Mesa amp (always been a Marhsall guy). Anyway, I'm really intrigued by the heavy recto sound and I'm trying to find out which Mesa amp is considered to be the "holy grail" for heavy rock, i.e. Metallica, etc. I know they use a lot of different amps and not just Mesa, but I'm looking for that deep, rich, bone-crunching heaviness. I guess if a 2203 JCM-800 is the grail as far as Marshall's are concerned, which amp model(s) hold that title in the Mesa camp?

I know this must sound ignorant, but I have no idea and I really want to know. Thanks in advance!

 

[tele_jas]

the Rectifier, the Dual or Single... I like the Dual, may not ever need to use all 100wts, but the other options are what I like; like the option to use a tube rectifier and the extra volume if you ever do need it.

I'd say the "holy grail" of Boogies is a Tremoverb (a dual recto with reverb and tremolo) or the new "holy grail" is the Road King (Dual with lots more bells and whistles and reverb).

There are alot of people that say the Mark IV is the holy grail, but it also depends on what your musical taste are. My holy grail is my Tremoverb.

 

[jbird]

The Dual Rectifier 8)

 

[zekmoe]

I'd say a Dual or Triple Rec if you want that sound. Stay away from a MKIV as I've always found it lifeless and overly complex. But I had one of the originals so maybe they've modified it since.
I'm really interested in a Stilletto lately. Like a marshall JCM800 on Steroids with a second channel. Something I'd like to hear myself.

Bob

 

[CudBucket]

The "Holy Grai" would have to be the Mark IIC+.

The new flagship is the Road King.

You'd do well with either of those including any rectifier or Mark III, Mark IV.

 

[no soul]

a Mark model is going to get you a lot more of the classic Metallica sounds over any of the Recto family.

 

[no soul]

the Rectifier, the Dual or Single... I like the Dual, may not ever need to use all 100wts, but the other options are what I like; like the option to use a tube rectifier and the extra volume if you ever do need it.

The "extra" volume you think the Dual has is so minute it could be negated by bad cables. If you want volume, get more speakers, not watts.

The dual, has more headroom than the single, thats really it.

 

[tele_jas]

Yeah, your right on the headroom vs volume thing.. I have a 50 watt Rectoverb amp and if I run that in my 2x12 Genz Benz it seems just as loud as my Triple Rectifier did.

 

[jhadhar65]

This helps quite a bit and I'm amazed at how wide the response is. I guess if I had to nail the sound that I'm hearing in my head it's this: I don't know if any of you guys have heard of a band called Tuff, but they did an '80's metal trbute song called 'American Hair Band' that used Metallica's 'Sad But True' riffs. That's the amp sound I'm talking about. Not a dead ringer for the original Hetfield/Hammett sound, but pretty close to what I'm looking for. I can't find any information on the web for what these guys were using, but if any of you are familiar with the song, maybe you can tell by listening. The only thing I'm sure of - it's not Marshalls.

 

[tele_jas]

I know the song, it's funny as hell!!! "I'm the singer for Tuff, not Pretty Boy Floyd"..... Scarey thing is, I had a tape by just about every band mentioned in that song. I'll have to dig that song up tomorrow and give it a good listen to again and see if I can come up with anything. Later

 

[goneloco]

road king nuff said

 

[OneMoreAugust]

The Mighty Met used many Boogies..... TriAxis, C+, Triple/Dual Rect, Mark IV. They seem to have the latest Boogie as time went on. I believe most of their newer stuff is on triples, duals, and voxes.

 

[Grandor]

I've owned a few boogies.
Mark IV's, recto's...

At the moment, the DR is my amp.

The MarkIV is too touchy for me.
Too much of a biatch to work with...

The DR just works. Great . . - every show.
You can get some early Metallica going with the DR and a pedal...

 

[jhadhar65]

I found a place on the web where I could sample a lot of different clips of different amp manufacturers and models. It's hard to get a true picture of an amp's live sound from listening to a recording of it, but there were some Marshall models I'm pretty familiar with, so I could gauge what the Mesa's would probably sound like from the differences with those.

Anyway, it sounds to me that the Dual Rectifier is probably what I'm looking for. I think you can probably get the same sounds from the Road King, Triple Rectifier, and maybe some of the other amps you guys suggested, but I just don't need all those bells and whistles.

A heavy, gut-pounding overdrive that I can either clean up with a single footswitch or my guitar's volume knob, a decent EQ section (active preferably), an active loop with maybe some sort of level control are all the features I really need. The DR's three channels may even be a bit too much unless I can use the lead channel at a boosted level for solo work so I don't have to worry if the sound man's gonna do his job or not - and he probably won't anyway.

Thanks for all the great input! Now does anyone know where I can get some money to buy my new Mesa?

 

[tele_jas]

Just a little FYI..... If you get a 2 or 3 channel SR, DR or TR thats called a Solo head (most are, except the older ones), it'll have that solo boost your talking about so your soundman doesn't have to bump you up for your leads.

Check Ebay for good deals, but look at the sellers feedback.

 

[Dale B.]

The "Holy Grai" would have to be the Mark IIC+.

Exactly! That's the most prized and sought after amplifier that Mesa has ever made.

If you're wanting something new, either the Mark IV or Road King will take the cake in the options department. The Road King being the most expensive.

If you don't want to shell out the money for a Road King and want the Mesa Recto sound, the Dual Rectifier and Triple Rectifier will get you where you want to go. Also, the Dual Rectifier Trem-O-Verb is another nice Recto that is no longer in production.

If you like the Mark Series, again the Mark IV is a wonderful choice. If you don't want to spend the money for the extra bells and whistles and do not need all of that flexibility, the Mark III's are nice.

Dale