Tell me about the Blue Angel

[GD_NC]

Ok, So there's a Blue Angel on craigslist for a decent price. I've always been courious about this amp. Who's played one? What does it sound like? How does it compare to the Maverick?

 

[94Tremoverb]

It has the best clean sound and best reverb of any amp I've ever played, in my opinion. But it's really very limited in what else it will do - it does distort when cranked, but not that much and it's certainly nothing like any other kind of Mesa distortion. It also sounds nothing like either a Tweed Deluxe or a Vox AC30 despite what you might think from the tubes - I would describe it as more of a darker, more compressed Blackface to early Mesa Mark series (clean) sound. Like the Maverick, it's quite fussy with tubes, and can be noisy.

I had both at the same time and sold the Mav because I preferred the BA's clean sound to the Mav's clean channel, and the Mav's dirty channel was too fussy for me. But in hindsight I think I may have done the wrong thing since the Mav is much more versatile. I eventually sold the BA too, although I do sometimes miss it.

If you get it, try it with different tubes, they improve the tone and take away a lot of the noise - try a 5751 or 12AY7 in V2, and 12AT7s in V3 and V5.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Buy it. If you don't like it, ship it to me... :lol:

 

[vitor gracie]

94Tremoverb

Ok, so I have often wondered about the BA. I had a chance to play one MANY moons ago...and have owned a Lonestar, two Mavericks, Roadster, Dual Rec (2 channel old school) and two TremOVerbs.

I have never owned a BA. If you where to put both the Blue ANgel and the TOV next to each other, how would you say the cleans compare? I know they are completely different amps all together, but there needs to be a way for me to settle on it and not want one just cuz I never had one. :lol:

TOV has crisp highs, works well with Humbucker equipped guitars, will distort (on the clean) if you turn your clean gain up past 12 o'clock-ish, and if you just used it as a clean amp with pedals for your dirt, would make a fine tube amp.

How does the Blue Angel compare to this? I am very familiar with that old school Mesa Mark series clean that has way too much low end, is pretty dark, and needs it's mids scooped a lot to make it not sound nasally. (I hate that type of clean sound btw) Would that tone be similar to a Blue Angel? Or is it like a Maverick in which it just sounds kinda like itself?

For the record, I totally miss my Mavericks for lower powered rootsy type sounds on the clean. I may just get a Maverick again for that.

Thanks bro, you always have great things to say on this forum.

 

[94Tremoverb]

This is going to sound confusing, but the Blue Angel and Tremoverb cleans are massively different in responsiveness, even though they can be dialed in to sound similar tonally...

The Tremoverb is a Marshall-style amp ('59 Tweed Bassman lineage), including the clean channel - it's all really the same channel, like all the 2-Ch. Rectifiers. This means it's really a bit distorted (harmonically) even when it's clean (not clipping) - important distinction. It has pretty low headroom before it goes into actual clipping, as you've noticed - and the clipping is from the preamp, so it's crisp and crunchy.

The BA is a Fender BF-style clean in that it's truly clean, much less harmonically distorted, and when it does clip it's (by design, this is why it has two separate rectifiers, a tube for the power stage and solid state for the preamp) purely from the power stage. Because it's also cathode-biased it then compresses heavily and you get a very soft, almost flubby (especially on the 6V6 setting) overdrive. Although it remains clean up to the point it clips, it still doesn't have that much headroom and is not *that* loud for a 15/33/38W amp. If you thought the Mark series has too much bass and flub, you may not like this! The BA is also quite dark and midrangy (but not nasally like a Mark), but replacing the tubes with the 12AY7/12AT7 set I mentioned above helps with this, as well as deepening the reverb even further and reducing noise.

The Maverick is somewhere between the two - it reminds me of a Blonde Fender rather than either a Tweed or a BF. By the way, neither the BA or the Mav are "Pure Class A", despite what it says on the front panel, so don't let that confuse you . They're certainly both cathode-biased (unlike the Tremoverb), but that's not the same thing.

 

[hazmat33]

I love mine. I have the head version.

Depending on the situation I run it either into a '75 Marshall 4x12 or a Mesa widebody 1x12 cab with a Cannabis Rex speaker.

I run it pretty clean but push it into overdrive with an Analogman King of Tone pedal and/or a Keeley Fuzzhead.

 

[Analog Kid]

To start it's hard for me to compare it to a Deluxe or other Fender OR Vox, as has been mentioned. It does have a nice clean. I like mine for breakup sounds though, which I find aggressive and dynamic. I've got the 2x10 which I've loaded with Celestion Vintage 10's. You have to hit your strings hard if your playing a single coil but when you open up the amp with progressive linkage and pad the gain with the mid knob, although it's still class A, it gets really snarly.
It's probably my favorite overdrive sound over my other boogies; MKIV Dual Rec Solo Heartbreaker Electradyne Subway Blues.
I usually just go straight in with only the cable. The Blue Angel was a wonderful bit of Mesa history but may be too dynamic for most players making it sound a little thin.

 

[GD_NC]

Thanks for all the input!

Sorry to say I never got a chance to try the BA. It only stayed on CL about 24 hours. It was a 2x10 for $650. Someone got a pretty good deal.

From the descriptions I think the Maverick is more my style.