NAD: Blue Angel

[woodbutcher65]

OK, I've actually had this amp for about a week now. Blue Angel 1x12 combo, bought it and had it shipped from Nashville to me down here in FL.

I'd been wanting one since they were pretty new and still in production but didn't have the money for one at the time. So I've been watching and waiting for one to come along that was the right one at the right price. I'd been able to borrow one a few times and had always been deeply impressed by its tonal range and amazing transition from clean to overdrive, which is as smooth as any amp I've ever encountered.,

Ideally I'd have gotten one that was built as a head, but I don't mind the 1x12 combo.

Now that I've had several days to play with it, I can say that my remembered impression of the type is, if anything, a bit of an understatement. This amp
is simply outstanding. I'd say to imagine the best blacface Deluxe Reverb or Princeton reverb you have ever heard, and triple it. The Blue Angel is even better than that. It's one of those amps that rewards you by setting it up to play fairly loud and you control it your your guitar's volume and tone controls. Then you've got a good range from pristine clean to a fairly raunchy overdrive right there at the touch of a knob. Need more overdrive? Stick a Tube Screamer set to clean boost in front of it and it can get into some seriously heavy overdrive, you might even say it could do metal.

The articulation and clarity of it is such that it really brings out the differences between individual guitars and pickups and, if you have them, coil split/tap and other wiring options. If you're going to gig this amp, it'll force you to try it with all your guitars and pick out the guitars that have certain sounds to them. Because I doubt that even your most identical two guitars are really going to sound the same through this tonal magnifying glass of an amp.

I find the Blue Angel to be inspirational. It has caused me to greatly increase the time I spend playing and practicing because it has put a lot of fun back into playing. That says more positive things about it than just about anything I can think of. If it makes you want to play more, it's a rampaging success.

I think this may be my "stranded on a desert island with a generator and a guitar" amp. It's simple but has a wide tonal range and that range mostly comes from YOU rather than the amp. I see it as a more or less transparent conduit for getting YOUR sound and playing out into the open air.
If you find one, try it. You may decide that it needs to be yours.

 

[austin sonar guru]

Congratulations!

I wanted to share my experience with my Blue Angel - as I feel in the guitar amplifier community at large - it's a very overlooked, undervalued and misunderstood jewel. Note in fact that the Boogie Forum doesn't even have a section for it.

I've owned a 2X10 version I purchased new in 1996 to replace a 95 Fender Blues Deluxe (Hated that amp - many reasons - at least it was cheap).

There are few things I've ever owned that I value as much. I gigged hard with it for it's first ~4 years. These days it get used in my home studio, interfaced with Torpedo Captor-X for attenuation and to provide signal to my DAW.

I can't recommend more strongly, a high quality attenuator for this amp. Captor-X or Ox Box. As a non-master volume amplifier designed to provoke power tube distortion, it loves to be set up at volume levels that will shake your windows (10-11 o'clock) unattenuated.

Here's a picture of the main circuit board from 2021 - 25 years old at the time. Original Sprague Caps (still good as I'm writing this, although I have a full set of F&T's ready to go when they go down). I take the time to write this as there are so many YouTubers and self-professed amp "experts" who will go on and on about cheap component quality in Mesa's. You will find many "repair/maintenance" people on YouTube who do not specialize in Mesa's and who know very little about them. They prefer to work on vintage amps (very simple) and modern non-custom shop Fenders (exceptionally poor quality components) - where they make the most money by "upgrading" cheap components.

I have my original amp's 10" speakers safely put away. However I recently swapped them out for these Celestion G10 golds. I love them.

Setup from the factory, V1 through V5 preamp tubes come with 12AX7's. This is the only thing I wish Mesa had not done with these amps and in my experience is the source of "Mesa Hum" in this amp - particularly from V2 (second gain preamp gain stage). I believe Mesa simply wanted to keep it easy for customers by utilizing the same triode across the sections. However, the 12AX7 is a bit to hot for the second stage and in many folks experience the reverb driver as well.

Since I've bothered to bring this up - due to it's design - the Blue Angel is a great platform to experiment with NOS preamp tubes. In many modern high gain amplifiers - it's just not possible to hear the impact of

My amp has absolutely no hum and has never sounded better. What I use now is:

V1 - preamp first stage - NOS RCA 7025 short plate
V2 - preamp second stage - NOS RCA 5751 black plate
V3 - reverb input driver (both stages) - NOS Mullard Blackburn ECC-81 (12AT7)
V4 - a stage - parallel effects loop/b stage - Reverb output driver - 12AX7 Gold Lion (not NOS)
V5 - Phase inverter - 12AX7 Gold Lion

I use a matched pair of NOS 6V6-GT/G VT-107A SC278A (old US Army Signal Corps supplied) that I've had for 4 years or so. Prior to that, for over 20 years I had an NOS RCA 6V6 I had pulled from an old amplifier.

For the EL-84's I use Tube Amp Doctor EL84CZ's as I'm not spending the cash for 4 Mullards, and these sound great.

There are less expensive ways to do this - I only listed mine as an example. You can do a great deal of good by swapping V2/V3 with quality new 12at7's. I think you'll be surprised. Some folks even use a 12at7 in V5 and claim it opens the amp up.

By the way, I find the amp works great with pedals - but perhaps the most compelling one I own is a UA Woodrow, hooked up through the parallel effects loop. As you said in your post - you already have the sounds of a Blackface Deluxe - the Woodrow, gives you Tweed. I've seen negative reviews of the UA amp simulators - but I'm fairly convinced that these are folks who didn't install in the pedal into a quality parallel effects loop. The Blue Angels Effects loop is outstanding and to me, one of it's best features that most people don't use.

That parallel loop gives you direct access to the EL-84/6V6 power sections directly and allows you to drive them to distortion at low levels, even without an attenuator.

So when coupled with a Woodrow, you have a "better-than Deluxe" and a Tweed Deluxe with all it's gain potential - driving the same 6V6's that the originals did.

I'm sure you've noticed how heavy the combo is, right? It's mainly due to the high spec transformers. If you examine a Fender 65 Deluxe you'll find their much smaller. Even though it breaks my back, I'm happy to have these monsters, they'll last a lot longer than me.

Last note. You can find a lot of terrible amp techs who rage against the Mojo module and how it's "unfixable". I've never had a problem with mine, but just to double check the rectoric - I called Mesa (yes they actually answer the phone) and ordered one just to have a spare.

It cost me $34 with shipping and sits in my closet unused so far.

Sorry for the book I just wrote but - I picked your post to dump info in that's rare and hard to come by. The Blue Angel is a very special amp with features you simply can't obtain in others.

Best of luck, hopefully some of this may be helpful.

 

[woodbutcher65]

If people are willing to contribute knowledge of the Blue Angel to this topic, they are more than welcome to do so! I'm glad to have your contribution here.

I've been an electronic technician my entire adult life and I know my way around a tube amp better than some people who call themselves tube amp techs. I'd know, as some of them come to ME for help when they find a problem they can't figure out. The notion that Mesa uses low quality components in ANYTHING is absurd. They're just components some "techs" are not familiar with. I've never seen a cheap component in a Mesa that was put there in the factory. The bulk of the resistors are Vishay and are the color banded version of the RN60 precision resistor type. All the parts are of comparable quality.

I can, but usually don't, run the Blue Angel with an attenuator. I'm in a situation where cranking ANY amp will not cause a problem. I've stood in front of a pair of Marshall Superlead full stacks with hearing protection on, set it up in stereo, and cranked it all the way. Had a REALLY good time. Nobody complained. Nor will they. The sound that does escape the walls is at a very low level.

 

[austin sonar guru]

If people are willing to contribute knowledge of the Blue Angel to this topic, they are more than welcome to do so! I'm glad to have your contribution here.

I've been an electronic technician my entire adult life and I know my way around a tube amp better than some people who call themselves tube amp techs. I'd know, as some of them come to ME for help when they find a problem they can't figure out. The notion that Mesa uses low quality components in ANYTHING is absurd. They're just components some "techs" are not familiar with. I've never seen a cheap component in a Mesa that was put there in the factory. The bulk of the resistors are Vishay and are the color banded version of the RN60 precision resistor type. All the parts are of comparable quality.

I can, but usually don't, run the Blue Angel with an attenuator. I'm in a situation where cranking ANY amp will not cause a problem. I've stood in front of a pair of Marshall Superlead full stacks with hearing protection on, set it up in stereo, and cranked it all the way. Had a REALLY good time. Nobody complained. Nor will they. The sound that does escape the walls is at a very low level.

Thank you. I'm envious of your environment where you can run your amps fully! Maybe in my next house next year when I move back up north and at least get a basement. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and scarf a barn or small building in the back of the house.

In my first four years in the U.S. Navy starting in 1975, I worked on an AN/SQS-23G sonar system. 220+ dB//mpa at 1 yd. Transmitter tubes 2 1/2 feet long. I went on to do many other things, but I still remember how to use a shorting probe, multi-meter and solder which has served me well with my amps.

Once in my life, at a jam in Frederick MD, they had a Marshall 4X12 stack (maybe two). It was the coolest thing - I swear I could feel the air on my back when I played.