Mesa Newbie Needs Advice

[sgstrat1]

Hello all,

I am a relatively new Mesa user (Express 5:25). I had been using a '73 Twin since, well... 1973. I play out about once a month (small venues) and my aging (and aching) back dictated a shift to a smaller (lighter) amp.

I had been using my Twin with a GX-700 and then a GT-8 for the last year or so. Really fell in love with the Class A sounds on the Express 5:25, like the AB setting also and use this for performing. Still have to mic the amp through the FOH for performing. After playing my Twin (for almost 35 years), my ears were opened to "tone." The extent to which the amp responds to picking intensity is truly phenomenal (at least compared to my Twin).

I have been using my GT-8 through the loop and it works fine for all the time based effects, but (as has been pointed out on numerous threads and posts) not any of the OD or Distortion settings.

MY ISSUE IS THIS. I am very happy with the clean sounds on the clean setting and with the Burn setting for lots of OD and sustain. However, I REALLY NEED to be able to switch to a setting that has a small degree of OD (mild crunch or grit) to it. I need to have access to all three settings in a single song.

I have tried the 4 cable technique for the GT-8 (listed on this and the Boss forum), but I still get some degree of tone sucking. In fact, I actually can hear a small (very small) difference between simply having the GT-8 in the loop and not having it in the loop. Don't know why it works, but I have solved this by placing a Boss Line Selector between the input on the GT-8 and the Send on the back of the 5:25.

5:25 Send --> Boss LS-1 input --> Boss LS-1 output --> GT-8 input

I have the LS-1 set to the A - Bypass mode and when I have it set to "A" the sound I get is the non-tone sucked sound of the 5:25.

I have tried placing my old MXR Distortion + through the front of the amp, but it is noisy and sucks the tone out of the amp.

Any suggestions for getting all three options (clean, small amount of OD, and burn) available and foot switchable, while maintaining the integrity of the 5:25's tone would be GREATLY appreciated.

I would like to keep my pedal use down if possible. In fact, I would probably be willing to get rid of the GT-8 (don't use much other than the noise suppression, volume pedal and chorus) if I could find a pedal I could just use with the 5:25 footswitch and a volume pedal. I have an Ernie Ball volume pedal, but I actually think it sucks a little tone, too.

Thanks

 

[jab]

great question, us 2 channel Stiletto users have the same problem. Need 3 channels (clean, crunch, hi gain) but only have 2 to work with. I just went through a fairly grueling process with the local boutique pedal dealer on how to accomplish a 3 channel scenario on a 2 channel amp. I brought my amp in and lined up ~10 boutique OD/Preamp type pedals and went through them one by one, on/off, repeat, on/off, repeat, etc.

The best solution I found was to keep Ch 1 clean, Ch 2 higher gain, and use a pedal to put some grit on my clean channel and/or put a little more gain in my Ch 2 for leads. The pedal winner was the Xotic AC+. Transparent, didn't mess with my Mesa tone hardly at all compared to other pedals, and quite frankly sounds tremendous. The customers & workers in the store were coming by wanting to know what I was using as the tone was sounding so good. I'm anti-pedal when it comes to messing up the tone of a great tube amp, but this one is ok. The Xotic RC came in 2nd (a bit lower gain than AC), and something called Foxy Lady was also quite good.

The thing I found though is pedals sound different with different amps so not sure how the Xotic will work on the 5:25. There is a thread in Effects on this website too titled OD on a 2 Channel Amp which talks about this. Check out the Xotic demos though on their webpage and there are plenty of You Tube demos. Killer pedal.

 

[Mullenski]

5:25 here, also with exactly the same needs. Have been getting there two ways:

1) Set clean or crunch to the desired amount of dirt, then back off the guitar volume and/or split a coil to get clean. Works much better in 5 watt mode and can't go really dirty to super clean without volume loss, but does work in a fairly useable range.

2) Also had really good results with a boost pedal; used either a Catalinbread Chili Picoso or a Fulldrive 2 in comp-cut mode.

Have only had it a month so haven't nearly figured out all the ins and outs. Very cool amp.

 

[sgstrat1]

Thanks for the quick responses (jab and Mullenski). I will probably go down to Minneapolis and check out some pedals at the new American Guitar Boutique store and at Willies in St. Paul (bought my Express at American Guitar). Lots of good reviews on this site and Harmony Central for Fulltone and Keeley pedals, but don't know if I can find either at the two stores in the Twin Cities. The xotic site says that both stores carry their products, but they don't show up on line. Guess, I will get on the phone to find out.

Really do wish there was another channel on the 5:25. There are a wide variety of settings across the two channels that work well for a WIDE Variety of grit (low distortion/overdrive settings). If it weren't for the weight, size, etc.., I would certainly move to a three channel MESA.

Anybody else out there with additional feedback, ideas, options, etc... I am all ears.

Thanks again.

 

[Mullenski]

Hey sg, just tried this last night and seemed to work for me.

Tried a Subdecay Liquid Sunshine, it has two drive controls; one pushes the overall gain, the other only mids and highs. I set the overall gain very low/almost off and the mids/highs all the way up.

Through the clean channel of the 5:25 got a really sweet break-up that would dirty up more when I dug in. Again, my opinion only, a very useable, kinda dirty, rhythm sound. Plus some delay and a tiny bit of chorus, it was way nice.

Also, swapped the Fulldrive 2 for a Barber Small Fry -- wow, did that seem to open up the amp.

So, FWIW, into clean am using the Liquid Sunshine for light O/D, then the Small Fry to kick it up.

Good luck and am very interested in your take on the pedals you try.

 

[sgstrat1]

Well, just to put some closure (or at least temporary closure) on this thread.

I now have the following setup:

GT-8 --> BOSS LS-1--> Mesa Express 5:25 Combo (Loop)

Strat or LP --> Dunlop 535Q Crybaby -->Fulltone GT-500 -->MXR (1975) Noise Gate/Line Driver --> Instrument input of Mesa Express 5:25 Combo

More than I wanted to deal with on the floor, but I am able to pretty much maintain the tone of the amp this way. Don't know why buffering the GT-8 with the Boss Line selector does this, but it does. My ancient MXR Noise gate is crude, but works fairly well. The Fulltone GT-500 can crank that noise level up there.

I have put about 3 hours or so into using the Fulltone and I am sure I am still not done finding neat combinations of the boost/od on the left side and the distortion, volume, and that cwazy mid control on the right side. Lots of very usable combinations. It will keep me occupied for quite a while.

Bottom line is that I can get a pretty good replication of many of the low, mid, and high gain sounds, by using the GT-500 with the clean channel on the Mesa. The pickups can make a large difference in how much overdrive you can get out of this pedal. Set full out I can get the sound I want out of my Strat; with the Burstbuckers on the LP, I get that much gain with the OD at about 1:00.

Thanks for all your comments they were helpful.