TC-100 vs Badlander 100, What is your opinion please?

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bandit2013

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I do currently have both. However, I am seeing opinions from others if they had owned or tried out the Badlander or Triple Crown.
What did you like about it or disliked about it. I have my preferences but perhaps I am missing something. I am not doing market research, just curious on how others feel the amps in question meet their needs.

Not looking for the differences between the two. That is obvious, but if that was your deciding factor to get the amp or reason why you liked it more, say so.
 

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I have the 50 of both. TC-50 is my favorite Mesa amp I have owned. I had a Mark V, Mark v:35, TC-50 and Friedman BE50 all at the same time 5 years ago and sold them all to go full Kemper (which i still love). My FRFR had issues and it look almost a year dealing with the issue until it died and then 6 months waiting for the manufacture to replace the amp in my FRFR cab. I got frustrated with the whole situation (and other life issues happened) and stop playing for a year. 2 months ago I got the FRFR cab running and got the Kemper fired up again and it renewed my enthusiasm of playing. However, I wanted to make sure I had a backup and missed my tube amps. (sorry about the side-show there haha)

I found a Mesa 2x12 vertical cab for sale locally and grabbed it. Next thing I bought was a TC-50 again. Since I bought it used it didn't sound great at all when I got it but I purchased some Mesa 6L6 448 tubes and man this thing came alive! There's the amp I love! Man I missed the TC-50. It has everything I want in an amp, its easy to use and sounds great. 3 simple channels, per channel volume, master volume, solo option, reverb, great pedal for switching... love it.

Also picked up a Badlander 50. Still running the EL34s and it also sounds fantastic. The clean is amazing on it. I feel it is much better than the TC-50. Love the layout of this style of amp. Obviously much different than the TC-50 and thats what makes them fun to have together.

And to add to all of this, I picked up a new JP-2C which lasted 3 days before it had some wild non-stop popping that I couldn't fix. Worked with Mesa troubleshooting things, swapping out tubes and nothing could take the popping out. Mesa told me to send it back and swap it out. So dropped that off today and now the waiting game starts for the replacement. Ugh.... 3 amps in the last month .... here I go down the rabbit hole again haha


Anyway, here is my current tower of power:

IMG_9538.jpg
 
The Royal Atlantic has always been my favorite and still is. However, with the two Badlanders running in stereo I am digging the sound even more than the two Royals I used to run. In the second picture you will have to use your imagination where the Royal head was. The other is the combo on the right.

So far, blending cleans, Lo gain and crunch, hi gain and crunch and crush has been an interesting experience. I may dig out the MWDR and replace the Royal just to see it that works out. I changed the cabs from 412 to 212 on the Badlanders as I do not have a third with V30s. Besides, it would be too much for three 412 cabs in the small room to start with.
 

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