Tell me about the Express 5:25

[SwampAshSpecial]

likes? dislikes? tell me about this amp! I am very interested. What genres does it do best?

Thanks a lot :twisted:

 

[Nubbs]

Hi...I have now owned a 5:25 for just under 6 months. I have used it in the 5 watt and 30 settings on stage mic'd. My setup is as follows. Taylor T-5 to A/B/C box......one line to the board with a DI, the second to the 5:25 mic'd with a Sennheiser e609 to the board. On the amp I am set with the crunch gain at 10 oclock with the T-5 switched to the 4th position.

Going direct through the DI to the board I am set in position 1 and I EQ on the T-5. Note I have the amp on an amp stand slightly to my right facing the audience.

This is a great set up with the mix coming through the monitors. I can hear the band 6 piece and hear myself.

All Christian music, Third Day, Matthew West, Dave Crowder etc....etc....

Love the amp because it is great to use at home...no one gets upset...and it is compact...I can carry it without breaking my back....and it sings on stage...makes me sound better than I am....go figure.....

Nubbs

 

[EtherealWidow]

I would say that I just wish this amp were more like a Mark series. Just jack the price up $500 for these features and I won't care. If I could keep the sound and have a 5 band graphic EQ, be able to switch between 6L6's and EL34's, and have the chassis facing more upward I would never want another amp for as long as I lived. Still though, I don't really consider buying the 5:25 settling for less. I can't really comment on the versatility because to date I haven't spent more than 30 minutes with it at a time. Needless to say, I loved every minute. I know that it's not really great for death metal, but as for black metal it's simply awesome. Decide which speakers you get carefully. Didn't like the open back combo, didn't like the closed back cab with V30's, but I loved the Thiele with the C90.

 

[Don]

I have a 5:50 and use it mainly for blues and classic rock. I also play jazz, rockabilly, classic R&B, hard rock, country, early metal, etc... on it.

It covers everything that I play, and everything that my band expects of me, really well.

 

[edward]

Great amps. Great cleans and gorgeous/rich semi-cleans. Full of depth and chime. OD on Crunch channel is wonderful, but I can't bond with the Burn channel ...sounds "over-done" and unnatural to me somehow, scooped with a sledghammer, as if it were someone's idea of what saturated OD should sound like. The Crunch IMHO is more organic and thick, smooth and creamy, even light to heavily saturated. Reverb is nice, if not a bit too much ...I like a touch, and barely cracked it's a lot. That's a nit-pick, though.

Ask yourself which is your flavor: brighter, more mid-voiced "swirly" tone, go EL84 route. Bigger thump with overall girth/authority, go 6L6. I have my glorious DC5, so I went with the 5:25 ...a superb tonal compliment IMHO. I have the 10" combo ...nice, but would easily go 12" in a heartbeat (or buy the head if you like cabs).

I agree that the absence of a GEQ is significant, but I am clearly in the minority as only one model left in the Boogie family still carries that feature (one significant reason why DCs and Marks are second-to-none in tonal verstility, IMHO). The Contour is a somewhat decent 2nd-best option, and at least you get one control per channel. It also offers far better control than previous generation "Contour" in past amps (which sucked badly to my ears), though, and it helps shape each channel's subtle character so I'll give this generation Contour a reserved thumbs-up.

Edward

 

[Don]

The Contour control is more flexible than I expected.

Adding a small amount of Contour (10:00-11:00) to the Clean mode gives it more blackface shimmer. Adding a lot of Contour (3:00) to the Crunch and Burn modes gives them a more modern Mesa/Boogie sound.

 

[J.J]

I really love my 5:25. I play mostly blues and rock. Verstality is key with these amps. I find with some playing around I can get all the clasic Fender and Marshall tones as well as more modern sounds. You do really need to read the manual if you want to get the most out if it.

Like anything some aspects could be better. I really like the contour, but can't help thinking that the old 5 band EQ would give me that bit extra. I'd also like it to have a slant front or tilt legs since these things are small and sit very low on the ground. I'll probably solve that by getting an ajustable stand. A single 10 or 12" speaker also has it's limitations, but I was happy to trade extra speakers for portability. You can always get any number of extension cabs.

I recently got stuck with a Blues junior for a few days and just couldn't wait to get my express back.

 

[guywithboogie]

likes? dislikes?

I own the 5:25 1x12

Likes:
Light weight, easy to carry to gigs.
Size - nice and compact.
Sound - Great sounding amp.
Flexibility - Can get many sounds out of it.

Dislikes:
Hard to choose which modes to use on each channel since all of the modes sound great. Not the amps fault LOL
Wish it had a solo function.
Wish the channels were set up 1.) Clean / Blues 2.) Crunch / Burn.

What genres does it do best?

The amp will cover just about everything but metal.
Personally, I think it does blues to rock best. It has a great clean channel that is full of character. Throw in the contour and you can get lots of different clean tones out of it.

The blues channel is sweet. It's a bit fatter and gainer then the clean channel and does just what the name implies really well.

The crunch channel does rock really well. It is thick and the tone / contour controls allow you to get a lot of different sounds out of it. The gain is great, but not metal saturated.

Burn... this is an odd channel. It is full of gain, but I like the cranked crunch channel better. I do really like the burn channel backed off though. Putting the gain at about halfway yields a sweet backed off lead tone rich with harmonics. Probably one of my favorite sounds on the amp.

BTW - The reverb sounds good too.

 

[EtherealWidow]

The amp will cover just about everything but metal.

I gotta say, I totally disagree. Sure it doesn't have as much gain as some other amps, (Marks, Rectos, Stilettos...) but this thing can absolutely do metal depending on your taste/needs. Most metal players don't like this amp because it's not harsh or ballsy enough, but that's why I like it so much. This amp was meant for metal solos. IMO Rectos and Marks sound like crap compared to this thing for solos. It's really really sweet. Like the difference between vinegar and chocolate milk or something. The crunch channel is how pinch harmonics should sound. Not buzzy or fizzy or sick, but singing.

 

[espresso]

It's a great amp if you like the sound. That seems like a stupid thing to say but you have to listen to it, everything else about is great but the sound has to please you.
My main dislikes are that the sound is a bit too thick and dark and the highs kind of spikey. My favourite setting is with the gain turned down to below 10:00 but then there's a serious lack of volume. I prefer the 5W setting. It's a personal matter... to my ears, the best sounding amp I've ever played through was a Marshall 1974X reissue.