tell me about your 50/50...

[CoG]

Got a line on one for a good price... seems fairly straightforward. I'd like to see what I think of the tones compared to the EL84s in the 20/20 I'm using right now.

What do the Presence knobs actually do? (I know what it says they do in the manual, but I mean in reality.)

Is the Low power mode any use?

 

[disassembled]

I am using a 50/50 with a small band and I feel it's too heavy(physically) and bassy to be usable in anything that has to maintain tonal balance between instruments. If you play in a normal rock group then you can probably do fine with the 50/50. The low power mode is still too loud for whisper quiet practicing so it's only good if you are trying to get good breakup over a loud drum set. The 50/50 is also much noisier than the 20/20 physically (the power transformer hums a bit but is only noticable in a quiet setting). I replaced the fan in my old 20/20 with a much quieter one and you couldn't even tell it was turned on until you turned on a high gain preset or started playing.

Today i had to turn the triaxis bass to 0 on almost all presets and cut the bass on my multieffect unit so I wasn't whomping all over the bass player.

If you want to stay in your instruments realm I think you should stick with the 20/20 and use the DI output on the Rec pre to the house system for gigs.

When my 20/20 arrives (who knows when? thanks to the seller shipping it as slowly as possible to me) I plan to dump the 50/50 for the reasons listed above and not look back. At first I thought the 50/50 was right due to the power not being as much as the 2:100 or 2:90 but it is still incredibly loud for my situation. I will probably keep the Mark IV head around so I have something that is powerful enough to go unmic'd but I think that would be a rarity for me unless I join a rock band that needs a bass heavy guitar. I might get rid of the Mark IV and go for like a Lonestar or possibly a 6V6 based amp (yes I know the Mark is capable of using them) for a different flavor.



Greg

 

[CoG]

thanks man, had a chance to buy a 50/50 for less than I could get for my 20/20, so if it was equal-to-or-better I was likely to go for it.

In theory running the DIs of the rec pre to the board should be a great idea; in practice not so much. They sound more like the slave out from a power amp and w/o either a cab or cab sim sound a little thin. Anyhow, anywhere I've ever played where they couldn't mic the cabs, the 20/20 is loud enough on its own.

 

[reo73]

I've owned a 20/20 and now use a 50/50 and think it is great. I don't find it heavy or bassy/boomy or noisy at all. In fact there are a lot of players in this forum that think it is one of the best Power Amps Mesa made. In terms of tone compared to the 84's in the 20/20 you will find more clean headroom due to the greater power rating of the tubes but I also think the hi-end is sweeter and the low end has more wallop to it. The presence knobs work well and give extra brightness when turned up. I find running the presence on 5 is best.

Some people have mentioned that the transformer is noisy in the 50/50. I have not found this to be the case at all with my unit. You can hear the fan a little bit but only if my head is down by the unit.

I really like the 50/50 and think it is a better option over the 20/20 is you are into playing harder music where you want more punch to your tone.

 

[CudBucket]

I have one I got on Ebay coming this week. I plan to use it with a Studio Pre I just got.

 

[CoG]

I told the guy that I'd give him his asking price plus 10 per cent if I can have a 48-hour moneyback on it, 'cause I'll want to record my a/b-ing.

The 20/20 sounds great but I like the idea of having a little more boom, if I can make use of it w/o having to go to bigger/heavier speakers and cabs.

 

[Paul Secondino]

The 50/50 is an excellent power amp. I think it's one of the most balanced sounding power amps ever made. But while sounding balanced, it's still warm and punchy. The 20/20 is cool too but for additional bottom and volume, the 50/50 is an improvement.

 

[disassembled]

The 50/50 is an excellent power amp. I think it's one of the most balanced sounding power amps ever made. But while sounding balanced, it's still warm and punchy. The 20/20 is cool too but for additional bottom and volume, the 50/50 is an improvement.

I did a gig last night and the sound guy was freaking out about my guitar. I ran 1 EV loaded thiele and I had the volume so I was loud enough so I could hear myself on stage. The sound guy exclaimed "You're too loud!" so i turned down the amp until he gave me the thumbs up. At that point my amp was running at bedroom practice levels, I couldn't hear it on stage at all mind you, but there was little I could do but ask for some monitor volume.

For me the 50/50 is just too much even when I try using my cab as a monitor on stage. I think the 50/50 sounds good though and is definitely one of the best bang for you buck Mesa 2 space power amps.


Greg

 

[joey_truelove]

The only negative I can find with the Fifty/ Fifty is it doesn't have a tranny enough to run (true) power pentodes. The heaters draw too much current and I don't wish to mod my unit to increase the heater current. I had the KT77s in mind a while back, their bias point being similar to the 6L6 beam tetrodes. Possibly I could get by just running one channel at a time.

I do agree on the unit being loud. The low level function is welcome though, even if that doesn't qualify as low either exactly. I've come to rely on the compression of the speakers as means of generator of saturation. I'm going to use it with 112 cabs with AlNiCo speakers only (rated 50-60W). Mesas have a tendency of staying clean at very high power output.

They do weigh a tonne and they're more rigid than an Abrams tank. In my review at Harmony-Central I said my Fifty/Fifty would survive WW3; a slight exageration per-se but that's about how solid it is. Mesas are made unbreakable.