NAD 5:50+

[spawnofthesith]

Last week I traded my rectoverb 50 combo for this 5:50+. Super happy that I did. I loved the distortion on the ROV but the cleans completely fell apart at band volume. The clean channel on this express is simply breathtaking! Loud, powerful, gorgeous, lush, all the buzz words. I also think this takes dirt pedals than any other amp I've had, including the many vintage, reissue, and "modern" fender amps I've owned. I tried a non plus version like 12 years ago, and really liked it at the time but ended up getting a mark V. But that was like 20 amps ago :lol:

The burn mode is perfect for the high gain stuff I do. Really glad to have an amp with a GEQ again. Real nice and tight gain. Reminds me of the Marks I've owned, but definitely its own unique thing, and I love it. I stopped playing for a while and got back into things about a year and a half ago. Been tone chasing every since, but I think I've landed on the one, for now :lol: so much amp for such a small package. My last two amps were the ROV and a Twin reverb, so I would consider this very light in comparison lol.

Anyone else still loving their expresses? Seems like a real underdog!

 

[Tim1968]

I love my Express’s. I think that they’re the best amps ever.
I’ve had all kinds of new and vintage Marshall’s and Fenders and various other things, but to me the Express’s beat them all.

I have a 5:25+ and a 5:50 non plus.

 

[Donnie B.]

Congrats! Rocked a 5:25 for years before giving it to my son-in-law.
Now he rocks it on stage and loves the little thing!

 

[spawnofthesith]

I love my Express’s. I think that they’re the best amps ever.
I’ve had all kinds of new and vintage Marshall’s and Fenders and various other things, but to me the Express’s beat them all.

I have a 5:25+ and a 5:50 non plus.

Yeah this thing is a real sleeper! Hangs right up there with amps I've owned that cost 2x + as much. I always come back to mesa!

Congrats! Rocked a 5:25 for years before giving it to my son-in-law.
Now he rocks it on stage and loves the little thing!

Thanks! Have a new band in the works that will hopefully bring this express to the stage once more stages start opening up

 

[b00g13mk2B]

Play a 5:25+ most of the time. Great amps with a good variety of tones. I would like more clean headroom in larger spaces, but then pull out the MKIIA. Tried the preamp out form the 5:25+ into the MKIIA at home, seemed to work great.

 

[Matt604]

Just got a 5:25+, loving it. So many tones. Currently using Blues as clean and Crunch as lead, but lots of options.

 

[rgordon7]

Love my Express 5:25+. It's pretty much the most tonally flexible amp I've ever played around with, virtually this side of a modeling amp - but without any of a modeling amp's myriad (digital, etc...) downsides. Though to get there with it, you do need to put aside usual preconceived notions about how you'd think you'd need to go about dialing in what you want, you need to read the manual, and then you need to spend some quality time with all the knobs, sliders, switches - and possibilities! Time consuming, but fun, rewarding and well-worth it.

 

[Rick McCall]

Last week I traded my rectoverb 50 combo for this 5:50+. Super happy that I did. I loved the distortion on the ROV but the cleans completely fell apart at band volume. The clean channel on this express is simply breathtaking! Loud, powerful, gorgeous, lush, all the buzz words. I also think this takes dirt pedals than any other amp I've had, including the many vintage, reissue, and "modern" fender amps I've owned. I tried a non plus version like 12 years ago, and really liked it at the time but ended up getting a mark V. But that was like 20 amps ago :lol:

The burn mode is perfect for the high gain stuff I do. Really glad to have an amp with a GEQ again. Real nice and tight gain. Reminds me of the Marks I've owned, but definitely its own unique thing, and I love it. I stopped playing for a while and got back into things about a year and a half ago. Been tone chasing every since, but I think I've landed on the one, for now :lol: so much amp for such a small package. My last two amps were the ROV and a Twin reverb, so I would consider this very light in comparison lol.

Anyone else still loving their expresses? Seems like a real underdog!

 

[Rick McCall]

Love my Express 5:50+ but just a heads up about moisture and that pedal....

Got caught in a thunderstorm at an outdoor gig last night.. Immediately put the amp in my car but left the footswitch in the rain, thinking it's just a box of switches. Big mistake. When the rain stopped and we were ready to play, reverb didn't work. Could have played without the footswitch plugged in but didn't think of that until later, so I played without reverb. ....Dry as dust!

Reverb still didn't work this morning at home. Fixed it by taking the pedal apart and drying the circuit board inside with a hair dryer. The circuit board had condensation on it like what you find on the outside of a glass of iced tea. Not good.

The foot pedal turns reverb OFF by putting a ground on pin 7 of the DIN plug. Reverb is turned ON when the reverb switch lifts that ground (or you unplug the pedal). An ohm-meter measured 46K ohms from pin 7 to ground, when it should have measured open circuit. The first pass with a hair dryer raised that resistance to 160K but reverb still didn't work. After the 2nd pass with a hair dryer, pin 7 read 2 Meg-ohms to ground, and reverb worked properly.

So....If it's raining put the footswitch in the trunk!

 

[Stinger22]

5:25+ here. Last band I was in was a Grateful Dead cover band. The other gutiar was a real Garcia freak about his equipment and tones and effects. He went out and bought one after a few practices and hearing mine. And we sounded totally different because of how flexible these little babies are.

 

[user 41014]

I regret selling the 5:50 non-plus. For 6L6 it is the best mesa swiss army knife I've plugged into. The TA is the other swiss army for what I've played but that's EL84.