Spongy or Bold power??

[Adambomb]

Whitch do you guys use...Spongy or Bold switch on the Dual Rectos or any other Mesa amp? Why? Thanks

 

[Jay22]

It all depends on what mood im in. I find that with a combination of tube rectifier and spongy settings I can get more sag from the amp which I like. I always loved that saggy chug for heavy riffs. However, sometimes my tastes enjoy the more direct attack of the bold setting. Lately I have been using the silicon diode rectifier as well with the spongy setting. I guess its all in what you like.

 

[Adambomb]

Do I need to power down the amp when I switch it to spongy or bold...or can I do it in Stand-by?

 

[nomad100hd]

putting it on stand by will work. Stand by turns on and off the High voltage.

 

[Jay22]

I always do it in standby. You can do all of that stuff in standby actually.

 

[jdurso]

Do I need to power down the amp when I switch it to spongy or bold...or can I do it in Stand-by?

according to mesa you dont have switch to standby but i do anyway just to be sure i dont screw something up

 

[thejay]

I usually use Spongy but (like what was said before) if I want a direct attack I go Bold. I normally don't switch to standby if the amp was on already.

 

[camsna]

Bold

 

[nomad100hd]

Nice thing you don't have to have two amps to have both!

 

[MikeK]

Spongy ...
with both rectifier tubes kept in and on
red channel cloned to orange
running a pair of EL34's

... this gives me resonant, fat and woody
some very musical tones with sweet harmonics that
become touch sensitive as you push the volume up a bit

I keep the gain fairly low but high enough to add warmth and some character
.. the STR 447's keep their earthy definition and bloom around that core with that EL growl I like

:wink:

 

[nomad100hd]

doesn't it make you chringe to buy an amp from GC knowing that some kid probably flicked all the switches back and forth while strumming a chord.

 

[MusicManJP6]

I switched from bold to spongy without going to standby on my Roadster. I don't see anything wrong with doing so. I preferred spongy on my Roadster FWIW... Bold was too punchy.

 

[cradlefish]

bold

 

[nomad100hd]

I'm thinking more of flicking the diode / rectifier switch. The bold / Spongy probably just takes a cap in and out of the PS.

 

[nomad100hd]

on a lot of the amp building forums they complain it's to hard to find a good tone on a mesa because of to many options. To me it's not a problem, and it' easier than a modeling amp!

 

[Adambomb]

I have recently switched to spongy and notice that channel 3 sounds smoother. What does the spongy really do? I have EL-34's and it seems a little harsh on bold.

 

[thirstypirate]

On an LSC it cuts the input voltage down to 97V and lets the tubes break up sooner. I assume that Spongy does the same thing.

 

[giantstepjoe]

I own an '07 Roadster head and most of the time I'm a Spongy guy. Spongy mode functions as a built in variac that reduces the wall voltage from 120 to 95 to give you more sag and hence a browner sound.

 

[Adambomb]

Aww, I see. I can sure tell a difference. Sounds like more of a traditional tube amp on Spongy.

 

[nitrous2400]

depends what kind of music im playing and what time of day it is... normally i run tube rec/bold when im playing heavy stuff when i play softer stuff or playing later at night when neighbors are home i turn it to spongy to drop some headroom and lower the volume a bit