Subway Rocket non-reverb

[premiumplus]

Hey fellas,

Do any of you play the Subway Rocket non-reverb amp? I just bought one and I've searched out everything I can find about it. I'm not looking for really heavy distortion, more old school overdrive.

Please educate me about this little old gem. I'm expecting delivery in a couple of weeks and I'm excited to hear what it's like. I've heard all the clips on YouTube but first hand experience is priceless. What do you like or dislike about it?

 

[user 21540]

The manual is a good place to start:
https://mesa-boogie.imgix.net/media/User%20Manuals/Subway%20Rocket.pdf

I have the Rocket 44 (1x12') which is double the power section with an almost identical front end (-presence) with a tiny reverb pan that is almost sonically non-existent anyway. I use a delay in the loop. You can get a lot of different sounds out of them though. You can drive the clean channel for retro overdrive tones by running the gain on 10, treble on about 7-8, the mids on 9 and the bass way, way down. The mid knob adds additional gain after 3. The regular OD mode is quite honky. The contour mode scoops out the mids and boosts lows and highs. You do have to compromise a bit as there is shared EQ but I can always pull three foot-switchable sounds for live work without too many issues but for recording I will tweak each mode individually.

The silent recording feature is unbelievably good and allows you to get huge guitar sounds to 'tape' or DAW without bothering anyone.

 

[premiumplus]

Thanks for the info! I've downloaded the manual and schematics for the amp and it looks very cool. The clips I've heard agree with what you say, there are lots of tones in this amp.

Anybody else ever plug into one of these? Can you get a great overdrive with some sparkle or definition to it?

 

[Don]

I had one for a while and thought the clean sound was a little lacking and the OD sound was kinda "middy". I liked the contour sound. I sold it when I built a Mojotone Princeton Reverb. I think I would've liked it better with reverb.

I think Express 5:25 is an improvement over this amp (though it cost a little more). I have a 5:25 1x10 combo now and like the reverb and the mid gain modes.
I thought the 5:25's clean was a little lacking and the OD sound was a little "middy" until I put a Celestion G10 Alnico Gold speaker in it. It probably would've had the same affect on the Rocket.