I am seriously considering buying this amp, but only got to try it out for a little while. If anyone could tell me what they think of the amp, and what style of music they use it to play that would be awesome. I need to know if this is a versitle amp and not just a one trick pony.
Stiletto Reviews Please
- Thread starter MaxxK
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The Stiletto to me is great for a lot of styles that you'd use a marshall for otherwise. It's a british flavored amp that can go from classic rock/blues to searing metal with the right guitar and right settings.
I wouldn't call it a one-trick pony by any means though it's not going to be as versatile as something like a Mark or a RK/Roadster.
I wouldn't call it a one-trick pony by any means though it's not going to be as versatile as something like a Mark or a RK/Roadster.
cvansickle
Well-known member
Every day, I become more and more impressed with my Stiletto Ace. It's definitely the best amp I've ever owned. I have the head, and run it through a 412 cab, dry. I use a separate power amp and two 112 cabs for my rack-effected sound. It's massive!
It's amazing how Mesa gets so much sound from 50 watts. Before the Ace, I was using a Nomad 100 watt model, and the Ace seems to run tighter with more headroom than the Nomad. Chalk that up to the EL34 tubes, I guess. It's like the EL34 tubes are lean and mean kick boxers, while the 6L6 tubes are Sumo wrestlers. Each can do some serious damage when cut loose, but they do it in very different ways!
The hardest part of using the Ace is deciding how to use the two channels, as each has three voices. On the clean side, I'm always torn between Tite Clean and Crunch. I'm finding Crunch to be a great basic sound, and then I can punch it up with a treble booster or overdrive pedal for extra muscle, or I can use a high gain distortion and get great crunchy metal with it. On the dirty channel, I like Tite Gain best. It's great by itself, and it sounds even better when I use my wah.
Any questions? Hope this helps you.
It's amazing how Mesa gets so much sound from 50 watts. Before the Ace, I was using a Nomad 100 watt model, and the Ace seems to run tighter with more headroom than the Nomad. Chalk that up to the EL34 tubes, I guess. It's like the EL34 tubes are lean and mean kick boxers, while the 6L6 tubes are Sumo wrestlers. Each can do some serious damage when cut loose, but they do it in very different ways!
The hardest part of using the Ace is deciding how to use the two channels, as each has three voices. On the clean side, I'm always torn between Tite Clean and Crunch. I'm finding Crunch to be a great basic sound, and then I can punch it up with a treble booster or overdrive pedal for extra muscle, or I can use a high gain distortion and get great crunchy metal with it. On the dirty channel, I like Tite Gain best. It's great by itself, and it sounds even better when I use my wah.
Any questions? Hope this helps you.
inkwachemis
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great descriptions everyone. Mainly in our band situation, fat clean for channel 1, and tite gain for channel 2, works best for me. occasionaly for some tunes I'll switch to crunch mode in channel 2.
this amp is really versatile IMO. If you play rock, blues, metal with Marshall flavors, this is the amp you want to check out. Clean tones are excellent. this amp is definitely not a one trick pony. One of the most impressive thing about this amp is that it actually excels in each mode. There is a good sound found in each of them. Whereas other amps that have alot of bells and whistles have only a good few sounds. I am constantly discovering new tones in this amp.
this amp is really versatile IMO. If you play rock, blues, metal with Marshall flavors, this is the amp you want to check out. Clean tones are excellent. this amp is definitely not a one trick pony. One of the most impressive thing about this amp is that it actually excels in each mode. There is a good sound found in each of them. Whereas other amps that have alot of bells and whistles have only a good few sounds. I am constantly discovering new tones in this amp.
Yes it can.. bands like Killswitch Engage use the Stiletto.
You just need the proper guitar, settings, and possibly an overdrive if you want to get REAL shreddy but stock it does pretty **** well..
This isn't really all that high gain of a clip compared to what the Ace can do with the right settings (in the vid, its set up for my vintage sounding rig, think zeppelin style gain) but check this out, done with guitar straight into amp.
It's kind of a crappy clip but listen to the chug and at the end how the large sounding chords get a nice harmonic overtone.
http://platypus.memoryfire.com/guitar/ace/gain.avi
if you go into the root folder of ace, there are a lot more clips, mostly done with les paul right into amp but a few are other various things.. the clips show off the wide variety of tones I think.
You just need the proper guitar, settings, and possibly an overdrive if you want to get REAL shreddy but stock it does pretty **** well..
This isn't really all that high gain of a clip compared to what the Ace can do with the right settings (in the vid, its set up for my vintage sounding rig, think zeppelin style gain) but check this out, done with guitar straight into amp.
It's kind of a crappy clip but listen to the chug and at the end how the large sounding chords get a nice harmonic overtone.
http://platypus.memoryfire.com/guitar/ace/gain.avi
if you go into the root folder of ace, there are a lot more clips, mostly done with les paul right into amp but a few are other various things.. the clips show off the wide variety of tones I think.
I've had my Stiletto Ace for nearly 3 months now and I get more and more impressed with it each day! I use it almost entirely with my MusicMan JP6 guitars and you can really get that mid-rich tone that's on the verge of harmonic feedback and at volume levels that are so quiet for such a distorted sound. I have to keep checking that I've not accidentally switched on my wah pedal...Perfect for Dream Theater and Satch moments.
I love both the Fat Clean and Crunch on Channel 1 (valve rec) and Tite Gain on 2 (solid state rec). Basically, this amp will go from clean through AC/DC to Led Zepp to Slash to Van Halen to Zakk Wylde and beyond. I've got rid of all my OD pedals as I don't need them and it is a very quiet amp (in terms of background noise and hiss that is).
The Clean channel has that early Hendrix/Marshall clean sound that isn't as pristine as a 6L6 but seems to have more richness, whilst the distorted tones are just great. The solo feature allows you to dial in a pre-determined volume boost for leads.
The amp has a lot of treble but this is easily tamed by reducing the presence. I have replaced the stock Mesa valves with Harma Cryo treated 12AX7s in the pre-amp and cryo treated Groove Tube EL34 Mullard reissues. This has helped the sound but it was pretty good before.
I also like the fact that it doesn't have too many options as I find the wealth of possibilities in the RK series amps to be just a bit too much for me...this is not a criticism of these amps - just a recognition that I'm more at home with fewer controls. The good thing about Mesa amps (compared to some of the other boutique amps) is that the tone controls do actually make a significant impact on the sound of the amp.
Hope this helps!
I love both the Fat Clean and Crunch on Channel 1 (valve rec) and Tite Gain on 2 (solid state rec). Basically, this amp will go from clean through AC/DC to Led Zepp to Slash to Van Halen to Zakk Wylde and beyond. I've got rid of all my OD pedals as I don't need them and it is a very quiet amp (in terms of background noise and hiss that is).
The Clean channel has that early Hendrix/Marshall clean sound that isn't as pristine as a 6L6 but seems to have more richness, whilst the distorted tones are just great. The solo feature allows you to dial in a pre-determined volume boost for leads.
The amp has a lot of treble but this is easily tamed by reducing the presence. I have replaced the stock Mesa valves with Harma Cryo treated 12AX7s in the pre-amp and cryo treated Groove Tube EL34 Mullard reissues. This has helped the sound but it was pretty good before.
I also like the fact that it doesn't have too many options as I find the wealth of possibilities in the RK series amps to be just a bit too much for me...this is not a criticism of these amps - just a recognition that I'm more at home with fewer controls. The good thing about Mesa amps (compared to some of the other boutique amps) is that the tone controls do actually make a significant impact on the sound of the amp.
Hope this helps!
