Searching for a very boogie mesa.

[musicbox]

It's hard finding used mesa's round where I live, so it would be easier to have one in mind, and then go search down in washington for one. I'm looking for that dark creamy, might even say slight honk, mesa overdrive for my lead sound, in a 1x12 combo. I've owned 3 mesas, but non have been very traditional, so guide me! Clean has to be exceptional, no if's and's or but's. Looking for a blackface bassman sort of clean, very round, bouncy with headroom to spare. Atleast something that could stand up to my old deluxe reverb? I rarely play anything harder than indie rock, so metal and hard rock are out of the question. Just a good jazz tone, and a smooth creamy lead tone with a touch of bite to replace my old amps. Am I going to find this in a 1x12 mesa, at under 1000?

Amps I am considering...Fender supersonic, mesa f-50, mark series, dc-50????

 

[TheRazMeister]

The F-50 might be the ticket...my only complaint about it was the overdrive tone, it doesn't rip like us old 80's rockers like 'em to. 8)
But everything else about it seemed VERY nice, especially the cleans. I'll be honest in saying that I think the newer Mesa's sound better than older ones. I've tried to like 50 calibers, DC-5's, mark whatevers, nomads, mavericks, etc ...but I'll be honest in saying that I think Mesa is really refining the tonal qualities of their current models.

If you don't need that gain-ey hard rock sound, the F-50 should do just fine and would probably do most hard rock as well.

It's hard finding used mesa's round where I live, so it would be easier to have one in mind, and then go search down in washington for one. I'm looking for that dark creamy, might even say slight honk, mesa overdrive for my lead sound, in a 1x12 combo. I've owned 3 mesas, but non have been very traditional, so guide me! Clean has to be exceptional, no if's and's or but's. Looking for a blackface bassman sort of clean, very round, bouncy with headroom to spare. Atleast something that could stand up to my old deluxe reverb? I rarely play anything harder than indie rock, so metal and hard rock are out of the question. Just a good jazz tone, and a smooth creamy lead tone with a touch of bite to replace my old amps. Am I going to find this in a 1x12 mesa, at under 1000?

Amps I am considering...Fender supersonic, mesa f-50, mark series, dc-50????

 

[hans-jürgen]

I'm looking for that dark creamy, might even say slight honk, mesa overdrive for my lead sound, in a 1x12 combo. I've owned 3 mesas, but non have been very traditional, so guide me! Clean has to be exceptional, no if's and's or but's. Looking for a blackface bassman sort of clean, very round, bouncy with headroom to spare.

I don't know how much an old Mark IIB 60w head without EQ or reverb would cost in your country (or on eBay), but I think it's possible to cover those sounds that you describe here with mine. On the other hand you would need a 1x12" cab, too, I built one myself with an EV12L back in the '80s.

Recently I've uploaded quite a bit of samples done with that amp (and others) to my homepage, either our old band demos or a humbucker comparison done at bedroom level. I should mention though that I changed the tone circuit and lead drive to have a better balance between rhythm and lead channels. The most clean samples are the ones with the Strat and the rhythm channel, by the way.

List of band demos and the gear that I used:
http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=28073#28073

Pickup comparison:
http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4630

Some of the clips (and the pictures) may not be available at the moment, because the homepage server of my current ISP is being updated, but most of them are still located on the web space of my older ISP.

 

[Cheez]

LSC... don't know if you'll find one <$1k, though. MkI Re... same problem. Heartbreaker? I think someone here just scored one for around that price. Or, from what I hear, F50 maybe.

 

[strumminsix]

+1 on the LSC suggestion. Out of your range but sounds like it will meet your musical needs.

 

[dylan7620]

you know my vote goes toward the f-50 combo. i found some old NOS tubes and it gets the sabbath/santana thing goin on no problem (no worries about classic mesa tone). but if you could find a mark IIb then that would be awesome too.

 

[RR]

Yeah, I would vote a Mark IIB

... but what would even get closer to a BlackFace Fender is: have a technician add a tube rectifier / diode switch where you could could select the tube rectifier.

But then you have to worry about having a rectifier socket hole drilled and if its a 100 watts, two drilled sockets ...

And if you ever looked into chassis in a Mark Series, all the parts are so squished in there no room for modification. Not to mentioned, destroy the value of the amp for this modification ...

Aw

"Never Mind..."

 

[musicbox]

Thanks for the great replies everyone. Loved the clips hans, excellent playing. I think I'll have a look for an f-50 or a markii and see how it goes from there. If anyone spots any deals or a markii at a local guitar center in washington, please let me know! I'd very much appriciate it.

 

[Cheez]

... but what would even get closer to a BlackFace Fender is: have a technician add a tube rectifier / diode switch where you could could select the tube rectifier.

But then you have to worry about having a rectifier socket hole drilled and if its a 100 watts, two drilled sockets ...

and by that you mean... LSC!? :wink:

 

[musicbox]

wish i had the spare cash to afford one...

 

[RR]

... but what would even get closer to a BlackFace Fender is: have a technician add a tube rectifier / diode switch where you could could select the tube rectifier.

But then you have to worry about having a rectifier socket hole drilled and if its a 100 watts, two drilled sockets ...

and by that you mean... LSC!? :wink:

Cheez, that's true (6L6s, rectifier tubes), only problem with these newer MESA Boogies is that the tone control interact with each other, this give these amps more flexibility but at the expense "hard on the learning curve".

BlackFace tone is there "somewhere" in the LoneStar Classic, but to me, Mark II is like a Fender with extra gain. Easy to obtain Fenderish sound.

But yes, if I was looking for an "All-Out" versatile amp that has some Fender flavor, LoneStar Classic would be the one. :wink:

 

[hans-jürgen]

Thanks for the great replies everyone. Loved the clips hans, excellent playing. I think I'll have a look for an f-50 or a markii and see how it goes from there.

Thanks, if you score a "cheap" 60w head without any extras like mine, I can look up the changes I've made back then in the circuit, that is if you're interested.

Today I changed the output tubes from EGRO 6L6GC to Mesa / Sylvanias with blue logo and was surprised about the difference even at bedroom level (smoother and louder at the same time). I use it at home, so I can easily provide more clips if necessary.

 

[musicbox]

wellp... went to long and mcquade today and played the f50 next to a super sonic. for everything but metal, the fender absolutely slayed the f50. the cleans on that fender are absolutely beautiful, not quite a blue angel, but very bouncy and 3d compared to the flat clean of the f50. the gain channel on the fender was much more usable, with alot more variation then the 2-3 decent sounds i could get out of the f50. if i played heavy rock or even metal, it would be the boogie, but for what i do, the fender super-sonic is the ticket. gonna have to wait till the prices come down on the ebay market...

 

[Russ]

Be patient and buy a Mark IV. It covers a lot of ground. Plus it is very versatile. The Fu-3 is nice to have for control over your channels, eq, and loop. It will do most of the Mark series sound.

The F and DC are very close to each other soundwise. I don't care for either if you are looking for Boogie tone.

So if you are looking for the most Boogie for your buck then go Mark IV.

 

[nocluejimbo]

Mark II or IIb, no question.

 

[musicman10_1]

I just bought a "like new" Mark IV for $1000 plus shipping. 1x12 widebody combo. I am still working with the amp to dial in settings for my tone but it is versatile. The clean channel is wonderful - hard to find a bad tone. The gain side is proving a little tougher for me to dial in. I'm sure the tones I want are there but it is a sensitive little beast in terms of setting it.

It took a while for me to find this - actually, it found me as the original owner saw a post I wrote detailing my frustration about finding a Mark IV and emailed me with the offer.

 

[musicbox]

what a steal you got! keep with it, i've been told by many people that the mark iv is for tweaking. it's a little out of my price range, but if i can find one, ill pick it up. make sure you check the manual for the factory suggested settings and then tweak from there! good luck.