NOAD 1986 Mesa Studio Series 22

[Don]

I'm a couple of days late on this- I just set up a new account to host pics.

I'm a sucker for these amps. I had a Studio .22+ a few years ago and always wished it has the graphic EQ. I saw this 1986 Studio .22 on CL at a great price and grabbed it. It appears to be complete and all original except for tubes- even the original (or correct) speaker, footswitch and cover.

 

[V3]

Looks nice! I had a Studio .22 in standard black tolex without the graphic eq. It was my first Mess actually. I didn't really know how to dial it in at the time and let it go on eBay. I still hope to add a Studio Preamp some day to make up for letting it go.

 

[Don]

I'm a fan of the amps. I had a Subway Rocket. I liked the dirty sound but I built a Mojotone Princeton Reverb clone and it blew the Rocket's clean sound way to the point that I sold it. The Studio .22+ had a different and good enough sound to hang with the Princeton Reverb but I sold it when I bought an Express 5:25. As much as I like the Express, I wanted another Studio .22.

Now I have the Princeton Reverb, the Express 5:25 and the Studio 22 and plan to hang on to all 3 of them.

For now...

 

[RussB]

I bought a used '89 back in '91 or so. I had that amp for 16 years. I had to sell it (and a lot of other gear) when my son had health issues and we needed the money more...

 

[Scott_hg]

I have a Studio 22+, I gigged with it for several months but I struggled with getting the channels balanced. I ran a distortion pedal for my rhythm tone and then used the overdrive channel as a signal boost. I did love using that amp but I was often washed out by our other guitarist running an AC30.

Ended up buying a used JVM205C and used that right up until I got my MKIII

 

[revgsmall]

http://oneearthmusic.homestead.com/Mesastudio22plus.html

Here is my odd duck find: an 80's era Mesa Studio .22 + that from what I can tell came custom ordered with Mesa's $$$ Hardwood cabinet!!! Snatched it for $500. I thought if anything I may throw my Mesa Mark IIC+ in the cab but I never did.

It's my grab and go amp: Lightweight but not a whole lot of headroom if you have a loud drummer up your backside. Has more of a growly Marshal vibe to it. It is not in the same ball park as my Mark II but I dig the weight. Great for jam sessions, rehearsals, small room/lower volume gigs.

It kept overheating so I had a local guy put in a small fan over the power tubes and it's been great ever since.

 

[Don]

I've noticed that, with an ES-335, even the rhythm mode has a little grit to it. It's a nice sound! The lead mode can be tamed from fairly heavy distortion to more of an overdriven sound by turning the guitar's volume down. I play my tweed Deluxe clone and Avatar 45 (JTM45 based) that way.