New Maverick Owner with questions!

[Monsta-Tone]

I just picked up a Maverick 1x12 combo.

It sounds phenomenal with both of my humbucker guitars!
The McCarty has Duncan Alnico II humbuckers.
The Custom 22 has DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck and Megadrive in the bridge.
Both of them just sing through this amp!


But.....it leaves me incredibly wanting with a Strat. The Strat has Lace Hot Gold pickups with the 13k bridge pickup. It's a bit ice-picky.

Any tonal or tube advice would be greatly appreciated.

Right now it has the original Mesa preamp tubes from 1993 & Fender/Sovtek EL-84's.
They work just fine, but I haven't experimented with others just yet.

The lead channel sounds the way I originally expected my LSS to sound.

 

[RR]

Cool, don't you find these amps not your typical Boogies or Rectos?

I toggle between 2x12" enclosure Celestion Heritage / Greenbacks and combo's Weber's Silver Bell / Blue Dog Alnico. The Celestion pair gives that classic Rock tone while the Weber's gives me a Dumblesque smooth sustain tone.

A local amp tech said also try a pair of Tone Tubby Ceramic and Alnico combo.



Note: I almost was going to purchase a LoneStar Special because I was looking for an amp with the typical quartet EL84s (Vox, Matchless, Bad Cat etc ...) type amp. But I find for me these amp sounds best using ALL 4 EL84s running. But the drawback with the LoneStar Special, its using only the solid state rectifier running all EL84 tubes. What if you wanted to use the tube rectifier runnning all EL84s? The Maverick has this option using either solid state or tube rectifier.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Yeah, that 'Rectifier Tracking' thing is tragic!
It's a great idea, but the fact that you can't use the tube rectifier on any of the full power settings is crap!
The manuals all say that the rectifier tubes can't handle the current, but what about all of the Dual and Triple Rectos that are doing just fine in the world.
My Heartbreaker has a single GZ34 and it does just fine at super high volumes.



I have the MC-90 in it now, but I do have a few speakers just laying around.
I'll probably experiment with preamp tubes before I do anything else though.

 

[RR]

oh another thing, according to Mark Samson, (founder of Matchless, desginer of some Bad Cat amplifiers and now has his own amp company "Star Amplifiers") and is an EL84 guru claimed these "so-called" Class A EL84s amps sounds best after 30 minutes of warming up.

... but a member on this board who's in the minority claimed his EL84 based amp sounds best the first 30 minute then afterward it has a different characteristic that he did not prefer. I guess he was looking for headroom sterile cleans perhaps[?].

 

[Monsta-Tone]

That's interesting. I'll have to give Mark's advice a try.

I really wanted the 2x12, but this one kind of fell into my lap.


What tubes are you using in yours?

 

[RR]

uh ... I meant to say, the amp (quartet Class A EL84s inc. like the ones mentioned above Brunos, Budda, Dr. Z models too) sounds best after 30 minutes and on. You don't have to put the amp in standy by for 30 minutes then play.

I think my tubes are stock. I just had it for two years. Bought off Craiglist from a "flipper", you those guitarists that has to get a something different every few months.

One member here claims the 4x10" really projects and cuts through and could compete with 100 watt amps volume wise. I'm so fond of this amp I'm looking for either a small chassis head or 1-12" combo.

Do you think the small chassis Maverick like the 1-12" combo can be house with Mark Series cabinet, 17-1/4" chassis width? I have dovetail poplar canewick combo and 1-12" ext. cabinet that I would like to house a Maverick.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I did notice that it took a few minutes to get up to the volume that I had it set at. I was trying out a Maxon compressor pedal with it and it seems like the amp got louder and louder over the course of a few minutes.


I seem to like the lead channel with the following settings so far with the McCarty:
Gain 2:00
Treble: 12:00
Mids: 12:00
Bass: 2:00
Reverb: 9:00
Master: 2:00

It seems to really open the channel up and make it smooth and warm with the Gain and Master set at the same levels.

 

[Nanno]

Mav 1x12 owner here - first off, my experience is that you have to be REALLY careful with the treble and mid controls on the lead channel. These can get really nasty! I run both at 9:00 clock max!
Then, speaker choice makes all the difference. I put in a Celestion Gold about half a year ago (and it is well broken in by now) - night and day difference to the stock C-90. The C-90 is a decent to good spreaker, but I feel it doesn't live up to the Mav. Nice with a 1x12 extension with the Gold though, although I parallel the Gold with a 2x12 cab loaded with G12H Heritages. Really nice! Remember though: these treble and mid controls are very powerful. Turn them down all the way with you desired amount of gain and then bring them in very, very slow. I'm sure you'll find your sweet spot, even (and especially!) with a single-coil guitar. This amp was made for single-coils!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Thanks! I'll try that tomorrow.
It's funny, with most Mesa amps, I have found that it's best to start with all tone controls in the middle. I rarely move them very far from the middle.

I was playing it the other day and noticed that if I turned the Mids down to around 9:00 it really made the amp just sound better with a Strat.
With my McCarty, it sounds incredible with all of the tone knobs at noon or 1:00 though.

 

[212Mavguy]

FWIW, here is my tube lineup for my Mav:

clean channel: V1 Brimar cv4004, v4 Raytheon labeled cv4004 type, (only one I've ever seen)

dirty channel: v2 Siemens e83cc, V3 Mullard shortplate 12ax7, v5 is a Hoges labeled Tungsram 12ax7, and PI is Siemens e83cc. Power tubes are Russian mil Panno 6p14p-ev, rec tube is Sylvania 5v4 ga.

I went euro, mostly military for the preamp tubes to get more harmonics of the type I like for a given amount of gain. 5v4 handles the plate current draw of four el84's quite well in the Mav, and puts out a bit less b+ so the plates have no red, with a 5ar4 there was a tiny bit of glow.

The Russian power tubes are among the fattest and tightest sounding el84's and they distort very nicely. They are also rated for 7189 type (heavy duty el84) voltages, which is appropriate in a Maverick. They were originally designed as a low frequency tube, the cathode is more massive than any other el84. Takes a good 40 seconds to get that cathode hot. They are rated for 5000 hours and sell for peanuts on eBay, like mid-upper 20's for a quad.

Speakers are a pair of JBL MI-12. Cast frame speaker, very smooth, warm and fat. Rare and surprisingly inexpensive when you find them. Nobody knows about 'em. Darker, but more consistent in tone brightness low to high volumes than Celestion vintage 30's that came in it.

I voiced my Mav with tubes and speakers selected for the benefit of the lead channel, the clean is so good that it would take care of itself.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I voiced my Mav with tubes and speakers selected for the benefit of the lead channel, the clean is so good that it would take care of itself.

Surprisingly enough, it is! I'll take a look into those power tubes.
I kind of like punchier tones rather than smoother. That is the only reason I just sold the 4 Telefunken tubes I had. They sounded very sweet and incredible in my Blue Angel, but were just too soft for my tastes.


I'll probably start with tubes. I tend to like the MC-90's in 1x12 combos. If it were a 2x12, the Weber Californias from my Heartbreaker would already be in there!

Thanks for the advice! It is greatly appreciated.

 

[212Mavguy]

If you go for the 6p14p-ev you will find that they are a bigger, heavier bottle/tube than any other el84, and they can be quite punchy with the right speaker(s). Built with thicker, leaded glass I think. You might have to get a couple of quads to get a set that would work without redplating, unlike a lot of Mesa Amps, the Maverick is biased hot into a semi-class a setting. But these tubes seem to tolerate high temps very well, and at the price they go for, no biggie. The ones that draw too much can be used in a class AB amp. They will open up even more after 15 minutes in operation like other el84's.

If you ever come across any of those JBL's and have a chance for a listen, you outa do it. I bought mine with no experience just because of the JBL name, construction, specs, and low price on eBay. 40 bucks plus shipping!

The sounds are very smooth and controlled at all volumes, yet it responds to palm muting with a very good and punchy chug, and no cone cry issues at high volumes. I think that the way that JBL does their VC's with flattened wire to put more material in the magnetic gap is one of the main reasons why they sound so good and have such good control over all sounds within the speaker's frequency range at high volumes. 2 inch edgewound aluminum VC, with a paper dust dome. Cone has curved sides for stiffness and is beefy. This speaker solves ice pick problems in just about any amp. Although upper mids and highs are a bit softer than some other speakers, turning down the bass knob to 8-11:00 REALLY opens the tones up, and there is ALWAYS control from the speaker at that setting with still plenty of bass in my 2/12 Mav... Absolutely no flubbiness, rated for 75 watts continuous, 150 peak, one of those would just sit there and giggle no matter how much you pour the coal on with your Mav. Makes me think of it as a poor man's Tone Tubby in sound.

Best of luck to you!

 

[tiktok]

I just picked up a Maverick 1x12 combo.

It sounds phenomenal with both of my humbucker guitars!
The McCarty has Duncan Alnico II humbuckers.
The Custom 22 has DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck and Megadrive in the bridge.
Both of them just sing through this amp!


But.....it leaves me incredibly wanting with a Strat. The Strat has Lace Hot Gold pickups with the 13k bridge pickup. It's a bit ice-picky.

Any tonal or tube advice would be greatly appreciated.

Huh--my experience with my Maverick was the other way round--my single-coil guitars sound amazing, humbuckers lacked definition. I have the 2x12 version. I ended up just using with my Fenders.

Personally, I'd recommend trying a few different speaker/cab combinations before I went after tubes.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I really like the Black Shadow speaker. I experimented with speakers in both of my Lonestars, LSS & LSC, and eventually came back to the Black Shadow in both amps. Best combination of spanky clean and over the top gain I have found.

I do plan on trying it with my Weber Californias though!


I have tubes out the wazoo though, so that is always where I start. So far though, I'm really digging the tones with the original tubes.

I did change the pups in my Strat to Klien handwound 65's, traded them straight across for the Hot Golds! What a dramatic difference that made. I will definitely need some time to get used to true single coil noise again though!

 

[vitor gracie]

MONSTA!

I actually found better success with single-coils or tapped humbuckers as well. I also think that the Mav sounds better with a 2X12 cab. The first one I bought was the stock 2X12 config, the second one (which I kept) was a head. I run the head through a closed back orange 2X12 and I think the stock open back Mesa combo sounds better with the amp. It may have a hard time with the "spread" of the sound in a 1X12. As far as tubes, both Mavs I owned when compared side by side in the same cab with all new tubes had the same clean but really different dirty sound. It's odd... the combo when compared to the head sounded brighter in a good way. The head was slightly darker sounding. There may be weird idiosyncrasies between models.

Lastly, I ended up keeping the head and use it in a studio in Nashville for some country rock stuff. It is a great amp and I am kinda glad I didn't have you mod it. I still have the V-30 head and I think the Mav is a smoother sound now that I have gotten used to it's natural tone.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Man, that is pretty in black!

I really like the combo. If I need more, I'll just put a 1x12 1/2 back under it or next to it.

Haven't had much time to play with it lately though. I recently started a band and we're playing mostly hard rock and newer hard rock. Anything from Flyleaf to Rush. Some of it is boring, but at least we're not playing Living After Midnight or Breaking the Law! :lol:


I think the Maverick is definitely a keeper though. I really think that this is how my LSS should have sounded. It's much more natural sounding and the distortion channel is hands down much more clear and concise! Plus, not stupid lag on the Reverb when changing channels and no 'Recto-Tracking!' I think it's stupid to make it so that the tube rectifier is only used on the lower wattage settings. They obviously haven't been listening to their customers!


So, now I've got a DC-10 head, Heartbreaker combo (with the SLO mod!), and a Maverick. Not sure what other tones I could possibly need!

 

[94Tremoverb]

I sometimes wish I hadn't sold my Maverick 1x12" now. I always had a bit of a love/hate thing with it - I totally agree that the clean channel could look after itself and sounded fantastic no matter what, but the overdrive channel was just *so* fussy... with settings, guitars, tubes, speakers, rooms, time of the month, who knows. When it was just right it sounded out of this world, but if you moved anything or left it alone for a day or two and came back to it, it sounded awful - then it would take ages to get it just right again, though I was never quite convinced it was the same as before. I did think it sounded better with a V30 than the Black Shadow, but still not quite right. The design of it is quite weird, it has more gain stages for the clean channel than the overdrive, so every stage in the overdrive channel is pushed to the very max... which might explain why it's so touchy and the clean channel isn't. But I do still miss it occasionally. It's kind of like an ex girlfriend that was really hot but just too high maintenance .

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I haven't played it out yet. My current band situation needs the DC-10 or heavily modded Heartbreaker. The Mav is more of my go to the jam amp.

So far, I've really been able to dial it in with humbuckers. I haven't had much time with it yet though.
I seem to spend far more time fixing and modding amps than playing them. :lol: Sort of sad when your passion turns into a profession! At least I'm doing what I love though! :lol:

 

[RR]

I sometimes wish I hadn't sold my Maverick 1x12" now. I always had a bit of a love/hate thing with it - I totally agree that the clean channel could look after itself and sounded fantastic no matter what, but the overdrive channel was just *so* fussy... with settings, guitars, tubes, speakers, rooms, time of the month, who knows. When it was just right it sounded out of this world, but if you moved anything or left it alone for a day or two and came back to it, it sounded awful - then it would take ages to get it just right again, though I was never quite convinced it was the same as before. I did think it sounded better with a V30 than the Black Shadow, but still not quite right. The design of it is quite weird, it has more gain stages for the clean channel than the overdrive, so every stage in the overdrive channel is pushed to the very max... which might explain why it's so touchy and the clean channel isn't. But I do still miss it occasionally. It's kind of like an ex girlfriend that was really hot but just too high maintenance .

Ironically, or should I say coincidently[?] that's what I think of my Trem-o-Verb. Friends would come over and say: "That's a great tone [Trem-o-Verb]." I would be all proud, and then I haven't change any settings and when I'm alone playing, it not quite like when my friends were there. Maybe its psychological.

As for the Maverick, the Vintage 30s that came with are excellent all-around speakers but when I tried different combinations, I found some combos to my liking. [mentioned above] Blue Dogs / Silver Bell combo (ea. 30 watt versions) and Heritage / Greenback Celestions. The foremore for smooth blues sustain, and the latter for classic Rock.

Now this is one Boogie I would buy all over again. Just missed out on a 1-12" combo on CL for $550. :x

 

[94Tremoverb]

Now that is funny .

I actually sold mine because I came to the conclusion that this is what amps do when they're not the right amp for you (kind of like girlfriends, actually... ).

What I think happens is that it doesn't sound quite the way you want, so you start fiddling with the knobs, and after a long time you either forget what it sounded like in the first place and/or your ears get attuned to the sound it's making, and you eventually convince yourself that you like it. Maybe even your technique adjusts slightly without you noticing, so it *does* actually sound better. Then you turn it off, and come back to it a day or two later... and the sound of the amp has *not* really changed, but you're now back at the start of the process again so it sounds bad to you, and before taking a deep breath and leaving it alone until it sounds right as you play it, of course you start fiddling with the settings. So I took this as a sign that the natural tone of the Maverick, although wonderful, is not the right tone for me and my playing style.

The Tremoverb on the other hand I can set any random way at all, plug into it and within about thirty seconds adjust it so it's perfect - whatever I'm aiming for, and it's capable of so many great sounds that it's not even as if it has to be the same one every time. And it never seems to go bad when it's turned off and left alone. This I think just means that it's perfectly tuned to me... but with you, it was like me with the Maverick, constantly fighting against a sound that isn't *quite* right for you.

So I do still miss it, but I would never buy another unless it was cheap enough to make a little on it if (ie when!) I still can't quite get on with it.