NAD!! I guess Badlander goes in this section?

[spawnofthesith2]

It’s here

Obligatory Mesa tower

This thing is AWESOME. Never played a Mesa that was this straight forward to dial in. Dead simple, but also tons of different sounds available every knob seems to be usable across the range

Cleans are nice, not as good as a mark but beats the 5153 for sure. Lots of cool breakup sounds going up the the gain knob. The high gain tones are just though. What a rocking amp. Certainly doesn’t sound like your traditional rectos but I knew that going in. Bottom end is sick though that’sthe Biggest similarity to a rectifier imo. Plenty of gain for “modern metal” so not sure who started that rumor lol. Briefly experimented with boosting but honestly I just rarely prefer it. I automatically went to crush mode to get my high gain tones going but after some playing around found that I like crunch mode with the gain wide open was sounding epic for the brootz:love

I won’t comment on any “Marshally-ness” I’m not really a Marshall guy. My Marshall experience has mainly just been the jvm210. Which is an absolutely awesome amp but these gain tones tickle my fancy far more I can tell off the bat.

I spent most of demo time so far with my ce24 which is my de facto #1 at this point in time. But then I plugged in my Les Paul and holy **** it was like Zeus himself came down to nut lightening and thunder into my ear holes

Now my grievances:

1. No reverb. I know that’s a plus for some but I prefer onboard reverb even if it’s middling. All good though I can just add some simple reverb blocks to all my patches on the stomp and I’m good to go

2. Mesa makes my favorite tones but they always gotta have SOMETHING up with the loop that presents challenges for my hyper specific use case regarding looping. For my loops to be the same volume when changing channels the masters have to be set almost identical. There’s a little bit of wiggle room but not much. The thing is the modes definitely get louder progressively. I was able to get a “good enough” balanced levels but it did require running the gain knob for cleans slightly higher than I’d prefer so that I’m not losing too much volume. I’ll keep fiddling but I may just have to get more accustomed to tweaking volume knobs on the guitar to get my more pristine cleans when using this amp

 

[bandit2013]

I would agree with you. The BAD is bad as it gets without sounding bad. If that makes any sense at all.
The clean channel reminds me of the MWDR clean. The exception is that you do not need to have a drive mode for it. Push the gain up and you get into some vintage vibe of sorts. Probably because the amp makes use of a dc coupled cathode follower tone stack driver at the back end. I assume the 50W has Variac power mode like the 100W. If it does, Try that with the crunch and you do get into the Rectifier territory (when using the MWDR in spongy power with tube tracking). It will get a bit more scooped. Badlander is one of my favorite amps. So easy to use too.

Just a note on where the channel masters sit, they are after the FX loop. If you ever slave into another amp, make sure it has a master after the FX loop too or you will be getting full volume from that power section.

 

[rarebitusa]

It’s here

Obligatory Mesa tower

This thing is AWESOME. Never played a Mesa that was this straight forward to dial in. Dead simple, but also tons of different sounds available every knob seems to be usable across the range

Cleans are nice, not as good as a mark but beats the 5153 for sure. Lots of cool breakup sounds going up the the gain knob. The high gain tones are just though. What a rocking amp. Certainly doesn’t sound like your traditional rectos but I knew that going in. Bottom end is sick though that’sthe Biggest similarity to a rectifier imo. Plenty of gain for “modern metal” so not sure who started that rumor lol. Briefly experimented with boosting but honestly I just rarely prefer it. I automatically went to crush mode to get my high gain tones going but after some playing around found that I like crunch mode with the gain wide open was sounding epic for the brootz:love

I won’t comment on any “Marshally-ness” I’m not really a Marshall guy. My Marshall experience has mainly just been the jvm210. Which is an absolutely awesome amp but these gain tones tickle my fancy far more I can tell off the bat.

I spent most of demo time so far with my ce24 which is my de facto #1 at this point in time. But then I plugged in my Les Paul and holy **** it was like Zeus himself came down to nut lightening and thunder into my ear holes

Now my grievances:

1. No reverb. I know that’s a plus for some but I prefer onboard reverb even if it’s middling. All good though I can just add some simple reverb blocks to all my patches on the stomp and I’m good to go

2. Mesa makes my favorite tones but they always gotta have SOMETHING up with the loop that presents challenges for my hyper specific use case regarding looping. For my loops to be the same volume when changing channels the masters have to be set almost identical. There’s a little bit of wiggle room but not much. The thing is the modes definitely get louder progressively. I was able to get a “good enough” balanced levels but it did require running the gain knob for cleans slightly higher than I’d prefer so that I’m not losing too much volume. I’ll keep fiddling but I may just have to get more accustomed to tweaking volume knobs on the guitar to get my more pristine cleans when using this amp

Congrats... I totally concur with those BAD takes. Having 4 other Mesas the Badlander was noticeably different right off the bat. Yea the clean voicing is not FAT like a IV/V but for sure dropping pickup vol helps.

What pickups are in your Les Paul? What's your take on 20 vs 50W?

 

[spawnofthesith2]

I would agree with you. The BAD is bad as it gets without sounding bad. If that makes any sense at all.
The clean channel reminds me of the MWDR clean. The exception is that you do not need to have a drive mode for it. Push the gain up and you get into some vintage vibe of sorts. Probably because the amp makes use of a dc coupled cathode follower tone stack driver at the back end. I assume the 50W has Variac power mode like the 100W. If it does, Try that with the crunch and you do get into the Rectifier territory (when using the MWDR in spongy power with tube tracking). It will get a bit more scooped. Badlander is one of my favorite amps. So easy to use too.

Just a note on where the channel masters sit, they are after the FX loop. If you ever slave into another amp, make sure it has a master after the FX loop too or you will be getting full volume from that power section.

Just was experimenting with variac mode a bit albeit at very low volumes, it was pretty awesome

I’ll be able to play around with it on Thursday with proper band volumes. Gonna get to my drummers earlier than usual to dial in settings some more

Congrats... I totally concur with those BAD takes. Having 4 other Mesas the Badlander was noticeably different right off the bat. Yea the clean voicing is not FAT like a IV/V but for sure dropping pickup vol helps.

What pickups are in your Les Paul? What's your take on 20 vs 50W?

Thanks!

My LP has an SD Pegasus in the bridge and the stock burstbucker pro in the neck

Only tried 20w briefly so far, I didn't like it as much for some of the more modern high gain tones I gravitate towards but it sounded cool for low-mid gain stuff

 

[spawnofthesith2]

I'll wait til after my first band practice with it, but I think I'd like to check out 6L6s in here too, I have a feeling it may help keep the cleans a bit cleaner for dealing with my aforementioned channel balancing looper "issue" lol

 

[rarebitusa]

I'll wait til after my first band practice with it, but I think I'd like to check out 6L6s in here too,

I've tried the 6L6s briefly early on and they certainly stiffen / fatten up the tone. They also pushed the Clean voicing more into that familiar Mark clean area. They are a viable option IMHO. The pentode 50W mode has that punch.

FWIW I hauled the BAD out to rehearsal for the 1st time and where it sat in the mix was certainly different then the V. We're more Classic 80's rock focused with keys and no 2nd guitar and the shift from that midrange focused honk blended differently, especially with the piano parts. Chose to take the same cab (WB 1x12 w/G12-65) as not to stray too far tonally from what the band mates been used to. I do think the EVM gives it a more focused wider bottom end. Will give that a whirl at some point.

 

[bandit2013]

Depends on what 6L6 tubes you run with. BAD is a Class AB amp. What I did like were the STR445 in green codes, and the STR448 in gray. The color codes will make a huge difference on overall character. the more early distortion of the power tube the better so green or gray would be the better choice over red or yellow. Most of the STR447 run in the gray and blue codes.

6L6GC tubes will sound very similar but with a volume drop penalty. My first run with 6L6 tubes was with the STR440 tubes as I did not have the others on hand. It was sort of meager and I much preferred the STR447. The new STR446 is much on par with the STR447 but with more detail. I feel Mesa nailed it with the design for the STR447. Compared to the Triple Crown, that tends to sound harsh at times until you get some burn in time on the power tubes. Not necessary with the BAD as it just sounds good right out of the box. Still have the stock tubes in the first BAD. So far, no issues yet. I became a stereo junkie so I have two BADS. Also have two Mark VII (That hurt a bit more $$$$$$ but I will get over it, already have).

 

[rarebitusa]

Depends on what 6L6 tubes you run with. BAD is a Class AB amp. What I did like were the STR445 in green codes, and the STR448 in gray. The color codes will make a huge difference on overall character. the more early distortion of the power tube the better so green or gray would be the better choice over red or yellow. Most of the STR447 run in the gray and blue codes.

Hmmm IIRC they were the fairly used STR440 yel that came out of the V:90. Do need to revisit this since I'm more familiar with the BAD now.

 

[rarebitusa]

I'll wait til after my first band practice with it

Hurry up

FWIW rehearsal last nite. Second time I've taken the BAD. Over the weekend had been cranking in patches at a remote location and grabbed this 2x10 cab with Celestion G10-40s, only cause it was light and compact. Well I was not expecting it to sound as good as it did. These speakers have an exceptionally well balanced tone that has real Celestion pedigree. Clear upper mids and an articulate well-defined top end. However they are 10" and they never were earth shattering with the Marks. So on a whim took the Thiele EVM along with the 2x10 cab instead of the trusted WB 1x12 cab.

Well this really worked out. The blending with the keys was the best it has ever been. The Thiele had alot of bottom and projection and the 2x10 added to the top end just enough. So this gets a 2nd try for sure.

 

[spawnofthesith2]

Haha I know tomorrow night can’t come soon enough! Dying to really open this up

Earlier today I plugged it into my EVH 2x12 with H30s and was digging the results. I don’t have a ton of dirt pedals and typically don’t really like boosting but did try boosting it with an sd1 the other day which was cool, but what I REALLY liked today through the EVH was boosting it with the pillars model on my HX stomp (eqd plumes model I believe) that was an epic boosted tone. Sounded great in both crush and crunch modes

 

[spawnofthesith2]

Finally got to use this with the band. I was running it through my EVM loaded thiele. It performed excellently and sounded awesome, it’s really hard to dial in a bad sound in this amp, very usable sweeps on most knobs across the entire range. Mic’ed up very nicely. My concerns regarding the post fx loop masters and my looping when changing channels have completely evaporated as well. They’re actually surprisingly balanced going from clean to crush with the exact same master settings. That’s the only thing I have to be mindful of is that they’re set at pretty much the -exact- same level or my loops will get wonky sounding while changing channels



I will say, I don’t think the EVM/thiele is the most suited cab/speaker combo for this amp. It was really nice for the clean channel, guessing that the high headroom of the EVM helped out there. For distortion, the amp is super thick and it seemed almost -too- thick with the EVM. It still sounded awesome but I think other cabs are a better match. So far I think the EVH cab with H30s is in the lead for me



Very satisfied with the results though. Taking some time off of shows now to record an EP and work on other new material but looking forward to taking it out live for the first time. I have the day off work tomorrow I might try and have a go with 6L6s and see how I like that

 

[rarebitusa]

I will say, I don’t think the EVM/thiele is the most suited cab/speaker combo for this amp. It was really nice for the clean channel, guessing that the high headroom of the EVM helped out there. For distortion, the amp is super thick and it seemed almost -too- thick with the EVM. It still sounded awesome but I think other cabs are a better match. So far I think the EVH cab with H30s is in the lead for me

Ahhh very cool the maiden voyage is off to a good start. I agree, by itself the EVM had a very thick (good description) tone. I definitely liked the tone by itself, but in a band mix yea it needed some upper end balance. I got that from a 2x10 but I could see a V30 or H30 providing that. Nice to hear the loops worked out.