New member - not your typical Mesa player

[texasdw]

Yup. I'm an aberration. I play clean. Only clean. Clean? Yes. Fingerstyle. Think Chet, Paul Yandell, J Knowles - that sort of thing. My guitar gigs are typically solo - receptions, hospital lobbies, etc.

A few years ago I bought a Mesa bass amp, and fell in love. So, I started looking at their guitar amps. Really really liked the clean tone. Very expansive, three-dimensional, open sounding. But Mesa? I don't need over half the stuff on their amps. Just don't need it. I'm just not a Mesa guy...or so I kept telling myself. But recently I'd read that Mesa actually improved the clean tone on the Express "plus" series. Improved the clean tone?! I just couldn't resist any more. I ordered a 5:50 Plus from Sweetwater - in wine red. It came about a month ago.

I'm on the clean channel, with the gain at about 11:00, and plenty of reverb. Running either a strat or a tele (my LP is in the shop at the moment). I absolutely love it. I've gigged it (solo) and it is phenomenal. Ran the 25 watt setting with lots and lots of headroom, just me, and the amp tilted back slightly (a 2x4 under the front edge of the amp). It filled the hospital lobby, from the mezzanine level, across from the coffee shop. Very nice.

Anyway, there you go. Count me in.

 

[MichaelC4]

By chance, do you know of Hascal Haile's guitars?
http://youtu.be/jduu37-3xco

 

[amrose57]

Yup. I'm an aberration. I play clean. Only clean. Clean? Yes. Fingerstyle. Think Chet, Paul Yandell, J Knowles - that sort of thing. My guitar gigs are typically solo - receptions, hospital lobbies, etc.

A few years ago I bought a Mesa bass amp, and fell in love. So, I started looking at their guitar amps. Really really liked the clean tone. Very expansive, three-dimensional, open sounding. But Mesa? I don't need over half the stuff on their amps. Just don't need it. I'm just not a Mesa guy...or so I kept telling myself. But recently I'd read that Mesa actually improved the clean tone on the Express "plus" series. Improved the clean tone?! I just couldn't resist any more. I ordered a 5:50 Plus from Sweetwater - in wine red. It came about a month ago.

I'm on the clean channel, with the gain at about 11:00, and plenty of reverb. Running either a strat or a tele (my LP is in the shop at the moment). I absolutely love it. I've gigged it (solo) and it is phenomenal. Ran the 25 watt setting with lots and lots of headroom, just me, and the amp tilted back slightly (a 2x4 under the front edge of the amp). It filled the hospital lobby, from the mezzanine level, across from the coffee shop. Very nice.

Anyway, there you go. Count me in.

Welcome to the club!!!

Al

 

[texasdw]

By chance, do you know of Hascal Haile's guitars?
http://youtu.be/jduu37-3xco

Only read about them in many Chet related publications. But never seen or played one. The other that gets a lot of attention in these circles is Kirk Sand. Lots of devotees in the fingerpicking community. Lately though I've been focusing on electric. I still have a couple of nylon strings, but the electrics are far easier less stressful for my hands (getting a touch of early arthritis).

 

[MichaelC4]

I was just asking because Hascal Haile was my great uncle. I usually bring him up when someone mentions Chet Atkins.
He custom built guitars for Chet, Roy Clark, Jerry Reid, Waylon Jennings and a lot of the country legends.
He also built the prototype for the Gibson Chet Atkins CE solid body classical guitar.

 

[texasdw]

I was just asking because Hascal Haile was my great uncle. I usually bring him up when someone mentions Chet Atkins.
He custom built guitars for Chet, Roy Clark, Jerry Reid, Waylon Jennings and a lot of the country legends.
He also built the prototype for the Gibson Chet Atkins CE solid body classical guitar.

Very cool! A brush with stardom!

 

[Heritage Softail]

Ha!

Man I can identify with your post on great cleans. I rarely say it, but I chose to buy the MKIIC I have because of the clean channel. I push it a but to edge of breakup, but it is just phenomenal.

The awesome guitar tone in the Robert Plant song Big Log is that great Mesa cleanish burn.

Seeing Mesa as high gain only is missing quite a bit.

Welcome aboard!

 

[edward]

Yup, Espress has gorgeous cleans! No doubt about it, and you're right, most folks don't associate Boogies with stellar clean tone. BTW, try playing into your Blues channel with gain set low ...I like these cleans better than the Clean channel as it seems to have more mids and mid-highs "chime" rather than the Clean channel which to my ears is more Fender like in its tight bottom end, sparkly top end, and scooped mids. Try it, particularly with single coil guits!

Edward

 

[texasdw]

Thanks Edward. True enough, there are a lot of options to explore on this amp, even if you're staying within the "clean" realm.

 

[JessieEd]

I bought a 550 (not plus) at local music store. It was a rare discount from Mesa. I bought it just for the cleans. I could not get it to not sound "raspy". I had a set of brand new JJ 6L6's I bought for another amp. When I replaced the tubes, the plastic bottom of the tube fell off...so the tube was in there with the base broken. The amp immediately cleaned up and started sounding decent and clear....now to change the Celestion to an EV or an old Scorpion (which really sounded the best to me). I don't "drive" much unless I cover "Born To Be Wild". Thank You, Merf and the MagicTones

 

[knotts]

I think Mesa's are the most misunderstood amps out there. In the spirit of the title "not your typical Mesa Player", I think there are more of you than there are "typical" Mesa players. I'm not a "typical" roadster guy and I love mine.

I bet if everyone who dismissed trying one because they didn't think that it fit their style, more than 1/2 would buy one.

 

[BiggieD]

I'm mostly the same except I have a 5:25+ combo -- I never thought I would be a Mesa guy, I always heard they were for modern hi-gain metal. When my trusted sales rep convinced me to try the 5:25+, I took it home after about 10 minutes.

I play a Gibson ES335, mostly fingerpicking - I typically stick to channel 1 on clean in 5W mode, on rare occasions I go to channel 2 on blues with low gain for a slightly warmer clean, but I usually end up quickly back on channel 1. Every once in a while I toy with the idea of using a cleaned up blues as my clean channel and crunch as my gain channel but that never lasts more than a few days. I use mine for home practice - at reasonable volume during the day and at low volume at night. I occasionally get together with some friends including a drummer and find the 15W setting is more than enough when we play at levels that require musician's earplugs.

Do you use the 5:50+ for home practice as well? I'm curious to hear how it sounds at "bedroom" volume -- I frequently practice at night when the kids are asleep and love the 5:25+ even at low volume.

Yup. I'm an aberration. I play clean. Only clean. Clean? Yes. Fingerstyle. Think Chet, Paul Yandell, J Knowles - that sort of thing. My guitar gigs are typically solo - receptions, hospital lobbies, etc.

A few years ago I bought a Mesa bass amp, and fell in love. So, I started looking at their guitar amps. Really really liked the clean tone. Very expansive, three-dimensional, open sounding. But Mesa? I don't need over half the stuff on their amps. Just don't need it. I'm just not a Mesa guy...or so I kept telling myself. But recently I'd read that Mesa actually improved the clean tone on the Express "plus" series. Improved the clean tone?! I just couldn't resist any more. I ordered a 5:50 Plus from Sweetwater - in wine red. It came about a month ago.

I'm on the clean channel, with the gain at about 11:00, and plenty of reverb. Running either a strat or a tele (my LP is in the shop at the moment). I absolutely love it. I've gigged it (solo) and it is phenomenal. Ran the 25 watt setting with lots and lots of headroom, just me, and the amp tilted back slightly (a 2x4 under the front edge of the amp). It filled the hospital lobby, from the mezzanine level, across from the coffee shop. Very nice.

Anyway, there you go. Count me in.

 

[David Garner]

My 5:50's clean channel absolutely smokes my Deluxe Reverb for cleans. It's not even close.