Stupid Question: Inspiration for Vintage Mode?

[bandit2013]

Since you inspired me about the vintage mode, I had to try a comparison between the Roadster, RA100 and Mark V (since I do not have a Mark I, this was close enough). The RA100 comes close to the Vintage voice of CH3. I was enjoying the two amps so much I almost forgot about the V. In other words, Vintage voice of CH3 of the Roadster (with tube rec. tracking at 100W ) sounded very close to the Hi gain channel of the RA100. The Mark I mode was much more compressed and a bit deeper, crunch voice of CH2 with lower gain setting was almost similar. If I had two Mark Vs, one in crunch and the other in Mark I mode (normal setting) operating simultaneously, it would probably be in the running to match the vintage mode of the Roadster. Apparently, the manual indicates the vintage mode was a preservation of the original Recto voice especially designed to use the black magic tube rectification. Perhaps it is more of a continued legacy, and not necessarily geared to a specific classification. Perhaps the original manual would shed some light on the Vintage mode if so equipped. As for the RA100, it was inspired by the classic brit tones which is surprisingly similar but yet not quite the same as the vintage voice of the Roadster.

 

[domct203]

I think "Vintage" mode is more about the topology of the amp. Modern mode changes the interaction of the power section's NFB & input sensitivity.

Randall Smith was more about tech innovation than just tweaking, & I think that's what "Modern" is all about.

My $0.02

Dom

 

[jnoel64]

Just a slight deviation....what about the Raw mode? What's the inspiration from that supposed to be?

 

[siggy14]

I love raw mode with the gain maxed, take a tube screamer place in front with Level all the way up and gain mid level and it gives a great tone

 

[ryjan]

Y'all are looking too hard at the names. Vintage tone = more mid range and modern tone = scoopy tone with huge lows.

 

[Dreamtheaterrules]

I have a Mini as well. I bought it thinking I would melt peoples faces off with the modern mode, as all of us over 50s rockers are prone to do. I absolutely LOVE the vintage mode, and actually use it 90% of the time. I don't know what it's based on, but it sounds killer! Unlike my man KiwiJoe, I run the gain around 12:00 to 1:00 in Vintage mode, so I can still at least melt off the noses and occasionally lips of anyone nearby. :mrgreen:

 

[3124+]

The Rectifier circuit is not based on any previous Mesa design. It is a copy of the Soldano SLO. Looking at the schematics, the orange channel in Vintage mode is essentially a part for part copy of the SLO. Mesa did add a couple of small value capacitors to reduce high frequency content, making for a better tonal match with Vintage 30 speakers. Switching to Modern just opens the negative feedback loop in the power amp.

The biggest difference is the Rectifier uses 100uf of filtering in the power supply, whereas the SLO uses over 200uf. Mesa reduced the filtering to permit the use of 5U4 tube rectifiers and a smaller power transformer.

Soldano uses only silicon diodes and the SLO power transformer is much beefier. This is because the 200uf filter caps pull more current when charging. The greater filtering makes the SLO design superior for high volume levels, but the amp doesn't play well through Vintage 30s. Too much high frequency content. The SLO sounds better through speakers with smoother treble response, such as the G12M Greenback or Eminence V1216...