Roadster love/hate

[twostring]

I had a chance to jam with a friend of mine yesterday, and for the most part, it was just going to be a little blues jam with our Epiphone Valve Jr heads (both modded, mine with the Fender values and Hammond 125ESE tranny). After about an hour or so, I fired up the Roadster, and I was blown away. For some background, I've been less than happy with the amp for the past few months. I just haven't been able to get the sound I'm looking for...it's either too muffled, missing the high end, or whatever. What a difference volume makes. I'm not really able to turn the amp up past 9 o'clock at the house, but even just having the amp up half way made a huge difference in the response. I had channel 2 in brit mode cranking some of the best SRV/Hendrix/Mayer strat tones I've ever had. Bright and clangy on the neck pickup, and the neck/middle mix was superb. And I was amazed at channel 4 vintage...if you've ever heard Joe Bonamassa's Marshall tone, I was convinced I had it yesterday. I even had some nice Joe Perry coming through on channel 3 vintage, and some nice Clapton blues tones were there when I dialed my tone controls down. Hell, the amp even made me feel good about my 535q wah, which I've also been unhappy with for quite some time. I know some of you will probably be confused at my tone goals given the amp I chose, but still, I feel confident now that I've had a second chance with the amp and can hear how it really sounds now that the honeymoon period is long over.

I guess the moral of the story is this...for all those unhappy with Mesa, wait until you can crank the volume up a bit. I've had a feeling that my dissatisfaction with the amp had to do with either my deficiencies as a player or the fact that I was limited to a very low volume level when playing at home. There's an attenuator in my future for sure.

Have any others had the same revelation about their amps?

 

[clutch71]

...I guess the moral of the story is this...for all those unhappy with Mesa, wait until you can crank the volume up a bit. I've had a feeling that my dissatisfaction with the amp had to do with either my deficiencies as a player or the fact that I was limited to a very low volume level when playing at home. There's an attenuator in my future for sure.

Have any others had the same revelation about their amps?

Yes, I call it the 100w Realization. Even though there is only a 3 to 5db difference between 50w to 100w, most folks (myself included) tend to choose the higher output amp only to realize that it cannot be tamed for lower volume usage. I stopped short of purchasing an attenuator. IMO amps like the Roadster designed for 100w, but with the ability to the ability reduce wattage, seem to lack something when reduced. Might just be my ears. I prefer, for my usage, amps designed for 50w.

I loved my old two channel DR. Problem was, I am not a gigging musician so I was only getting the proper tones out of the amp once a week. Everyone is stoked about the Mark V. and that's great. I hope Mesa does release one. Me, I want a true Single Rectifier to come out. By that I mean Tube Rectification or SD and a Channel Assignable Serial Loop. If they do, I would pick one up quicker than you could say Petaluma Dog Shack.

 

[twostring]

I had mine turned on Bold but all 4 channels were on the 50 watt setting.

 

[Daxman73]

Man, it's a great feeling isn't it?...I've had this problem as well and the Roadster is killer when opened up!...One lessoned I learned a long time ago, especially being a gigging musician, is the difference in practice tone to stage/live tone...Two completely different animals...Even my bass player said after a gig once, "man, that thing just sounds incredible when turned up!"...I have a 2x12 Roadster combo and it's just meant to be played loud...Don't get me wrong I have found great tones in the amp at lower volumes and settings, but the truly sweet ones are at higher volumes...I think this is why the lower watt amps are becoming the fad right now, you can crank them and squeeze all those great tones out of them that you get from a cranked amp without going deaf! ...Kudos to you for finding your happiness again in an incredible amp.

 

[twostring]

Thanks...it is a huge weight off of my shoulders. For the last two months or so, I've been worried about selling off the amp (like how much am I going to get ripped on the price, how will I go about financing a replacement, etc). When I bought the Roadster, the timing was just right and I had a decent amount of cash laying about. Right now...well, that's not really the case. That, and I'm trying to build up my pedalboard (two custom built overdrive/booster pedals, deja vibe, modding my wah, Ibanez AD-9, etc etc) and trying to buy parts for a new guitar. And if that isn't enough GAS for you, I've fallen in love with the Epiphone Dot (standard or studio, doesn't really matter to me). After playing a studio model through a Lonestar Special and Classic at GC last week, I've been itching to drop the little bit of money I have on that instead of a guitar that's a bit more "realistic" for what I need.

 

[LnTh]

I never had a problem with falling in love with my roadster at any volume. But again, I already developed a good feeling for rectifiers in the past so it wasn't a big difference. Except, I now have 4 channels that blow me away instead of 1 (i didn't like the clean channel on the 2 channel recto)

Glad you like your amp again. Amp search can be fun but also painful.

 

[twostring]

I had found the replacement for the most part, but I'm confident that it wouldn't cover all of the tones I want. The combo of an Esquire and a Lonestar Special killed me for over a month at guitar center...a friend of mine and I would go over there and jam nearly everyday after work to talk about company matters. I can't tell you how many times I wished I could just take both that guitar and amp home with me.

 

[lyman]

I guess the moral of the story is this...for all those unhappy with Mesa, wait until you can crank the volume up a bit.

Have any others had the same revelation about their amps?

absolutely! i went for a while without really getting to crank up my amp and man, what a difference! but it makes sense, amps are designed to be turned up. it's like using a ferrari only for a newpaper route for months and then finally getting to uncork it on an open highway. it's a nice feeling to stop worrying about tone and gear and just freakin' play.

 

[Mr_You]

FYI, I wouldn't bother with an attenuator. The reason why most amps sound better with some volume is because of air movement from the speaker. An attenuator isn't going to help this.