Mesa pedals = WOW!!!

[MrFlexx]

Yesterday I bought the Tone Burst and the Grid Slammer and I must say I'm really impressed by these two pedals. I've been playing around with both pedals and I found out that the Tone Burst makes all three modes on channel three sound even more impressive than they already do on their own. The tone, the punch, the sustain, the string separation, controlled feedback...everything!!!
Then I tryed the Grid Slammer on channel 3 as well and I was really disappointed becuase it sucked all the good stuff away and made the channel sound thin. But when I switched to channel 2...WOW it really blew me away. The edge and crunch modes never sounded this good. Best sound I ever heard...PERIOD!!! It literally kills my BB Preamp, TS-808 and TS-9 in keeping the original tone impact while adding punch, clarity and string separation. The dynamics of the Grid Slammer in the Edge or Crunch mode is ridiculously good . So now I'm as happy as I was when I first got my Mark V head. These two pedals have made my Mark V sound even better than before.

I was into buying a Friedman BE as well to complete my sound arsenal, but after combining these two pedals with the Mark V, it's no longer an option. Channel 2 with the Grid Slammer sounds better to my ears.

 

[toneseeker911]

Any chance you could put up a couple of clips on Crunch mode with and without the grid slammer? I've been looking for some more punch in the crunch channel for when the chorus hits and am wondering if the grid slammer would really be more different than the bb preamp that I have.

 

[MrFlexx]

Any chance you could put up a couple of clips on Crunch mode with and without the grid slammer? I've been looking for some more punch in the crunch channel for when the chorus hits and am wondering if the grid slammer would really be more different than the bb preamp that I have.

Unfortunately I don't have any recording gear that can make justice for the differences at the rehearsal studio. But I can tell you this. The BB Preamp has been the "holy grail" for me shaping my sound since the release of this awesome stompbox and I still think it sounds amazing in getting smooth leads like Andy Timmons and such. But the problem with the BB Preamp is that it's coloring the sound and makes the gain smoother, which is nice when you want it to, but the Grid Slammer don't colour the sound at all. What it does is enhancing what's already there. It makes the amp sounds tighter and punchier with the full tonal quality of the amp. It sounds great on the other channels too, but it really shines on the Edge and Crunch modes on channel 2. For channel 3 I believe the Tone Burst is the best one. When it comes to channel one, they both sounds great in their own way.

My advice is to keep the BB Preamp and buy the other two as a complement. I will sell my TS-808 and the TS-9 and keep the BB Preamp, Tone Burst and Grid Slammer.

I can post pictures of my settings if you want me to.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I have the Tone Burst. Best overdrive I've ever owned.

What I like about it is that instead of cutting bass to maintain definition it fattens the whole signal up without making it muddy. When I solo, I don't typically give a **** about how tight my sound is... I just want it to sound bigger and more saturated than when I'm playing rhythm, and this pedal does it.

 

[toneseeker911]

Thanks guys, definitely will be checking these pedals out.

 

[Dreamtheaterrules]

I've wondered about the Mesa pedals for several years now, but there's not a lot going on in the pedal section of this forum.

I'm not sure I'm clear on the difference between these two pedals. From what I hear, the Flux/Flux5 is supposed to sound like a Mark, and the Throttle Box is supposed to sound more Recto. But, I haven't read much about the character of the Grid Slammer and Tone Burst. I've been looking for the perfect solo boost pedal for my V25 and Mini Rec.

 

[MrFlexx]

I've wondered about the Mesa pedals for several years now, but there's not a lot going on in the pedal section of this forum.

I'm not sure I'm clear on the difference between these two pedals. From what I hear, the Flux/Flux5 is supposed to sound like a Mark, and the Throttle Box is supposed to sound more Recto. But, I haven't read much about the character of the Grid Slammer and Tone Burst. I've been looking for the perfect solo boost pedal for my V25 and Mini Rec.

If it's more of a boost pedal you want, go with the Tone Burst. If you want anything in the territory of an overdrive pedal, go with the Grid Slammer.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I've wondered about the Mesa pedals for several years now, but there's not a lot going on in the pedal section of this forum.

Unfortunately, they're up against a pretty big market and haven't really caught on. I think the price hurts them; people see the Grid Slammer and think it's just an expensive Tube Screamer, and they think they can get the same thing out of a Bad Monkey for a fraction of the price. But, looking inside these things shows Mesa isn't skimping on the cost of parts. IMO, you're getting what you pay for.

Personally, I initially tried them because most OD pedals are voiced around Fenders or Marshalls and I've had a number of highly rated ones that were good, but never sat quite right. I figured these Mesa ODs would be voiced around Mesas, and so far I haven't been disappointed.

I'm not sure I'm clear on the difference between these two pedals. From what I hear, the Flux/Flux5 is supposed to sound like a Mark, and the Throttle Box is supposed to sound more Recto. But, I haven't read much about the character of the Grid Slammer and Tone Burst. I've been looking for the perfect solo boost pedal for my V25 and Mini Rec.

IMO, the only time the Flux Drive sounded like a Mark is when I plugged it into a Mark. Plugged into a Recto it sounded like a Recto and plugged into an Electra Dyne it sounded like an Electra Dyne.

From what I've been able to find out online, the Grid Slammer is basically a Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive with the clipping diodes in a Timmy arrangement. What made the Landgraff DOD special was that the original Tubescreamer had no headroom, so it clipped and compressed pretty much immediately. Landgraff tinkered with component values to open the headroom up, which gave it more dynamics and a more natural feel. From what I've read about the Timmy clipping arrangement is that some people can hear a slight difference in the top end, although Paul Cochrane (who designed the Timmy) has said he did it for utilitarian reasons.

I haven't been able to find out nearly as much detail about the Tone Burst or Flux Drive. The Tone Burst is a low gain OD in line with an RC Boost, EP Boost, etc. The Flux Drive is a higher gain OD in line with the BB Preamp. What I suspect (but have no proof of) is that Mesa took the basic concept of the Landraff OD and built more headroom into pre-existing pedal designs. But - IMO - the circuit layout only tells part of the story. The other part is component selection. Mesa's not skimping on component quality in these pedals... part of the reason for both the tone and the premium price. The thing I've noticed with both the pedals I own (Tone Burst and Flux-Drive) is the character of the distortion. It's not thin and buzzy. It's a bit bigger and more hairy, which I think does a better job of blending in with an amp's own distortion.


The little bit I've found on the Throttle Box is that it's an entirely new design, and probably the most complex distortion pedal ever made. Some of the DIY guys have made clones of it, but no one's really offered a circuit analysis. I've never tried one personally, thus can't really comment on how it sounds. I do suspect however that it sounds about as much like a Recto as the Flux Drive sounds like a Mark.

I had no real interest in the Throttle Box until I saw a guy on YouTube making use of it to layer guitar tracks. The EQ on the regular and graphic EQ version was allowing him to get some pretty good alternate guitar tones. I'm thinking about picking one up because in the grand scheme of things it's a lot cheaper than using another head for the same purposes.

 

[Dreamtheaterrules]

I had heard Tone Burst = boost, Grid Slammer = TS type. This is interesting though. I'd love to read more if you have any links comparing the circuit to the LDO. I tinker a bit with the DIY and have some BYOC and other kits I've built.

My local Boogie dealer is now in a mall store (after the former Mesa dealer closed, which was a small local chain). I hate asking them to move amps into the practice rooms to demo, but I'm also a little shy about unleashing some 110dB noise on them to demo gear. LOL I need to try a couple of these pedals. I got really interested when they came out, but then several things happened. 1) I started concentrating on getting better amps for my gain, and using less pedals w/ clean amp. So I stopped being a pedal flipper at TGP, sold a bunch to help fund Mini Rec, TA15 and Mark V25. 2) I kept looking here, but there's not much talk about them. And I quit spending so much time in the pedal forums at TGP and more in the amp section. So I really didn't read much about the Mesa pedals.

I'm all for whatever can do a quasi "third channel" or something that can make the solos scream.