It might still be... you just need to get familiar with how different tube amps are from solid state and modelers! I was at least close
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The reason I asked the question is because modelers, and to a large extent modern solid state amps like the MG series, work in a very different sort of way that's more like what you seemed to be expecting and maybe even wanting from your Mesa - they create an idealized snapshot of a sound, and the controls usually work in predictable ways and don't interact much... basically you get one sound and the volume and EQ controls do the same thing whatever the volume, they just make it louder/quieter, more or less bass/treble/mid etc, but without actually changing the underlying sound itself. They're also inherently much more uniform in dynamics, more like a recording of a guitar tone than the tone itself - which is why they tend not to work very well in a loud band, because they don't have the same dynamics as a tube amp. These things are why they're actually *good* for some purposes - eg ultra-low-volume practice, or home recording where you might not have the range of outboard tools that a pro studio does, and in fact it can often be hard to get a tube amp to work well for these things. (So they're not always just junk, either.)
A higher-gain tube amp is a fairly raw, interactive and sometimes plain awkward thing to get to sound right, because altering one thing (eg gain or volume) even slightly usually makes the rest of it behave in a different way, and you can spend ages chasing you tail - as it sounds like you might be - if you haven't got familiar with exactly how each thing affects the others. Mesa amps are actually notorious for this, which is one reason why a lot of players hate them, although I think it applies much more to the Mark series than the Rectifiers - and I'll happily admit I could never quite dial in a Mark how I wanted. Even the Rectifier has so many options that you may find that you end up in a place where you can't get where you're going - which is why I suggested trying all the different modes, even if you think at first they may not be taking you in the right direction... don't just flip the switch and decide you don't like it without experimenting with the full range of what the knobs then do, as it will be slightly different. The controls actually change the sound itself, not just alter it afterwards.
And it *is* all worth it, because if you get it to the point it all just clicks, a good tube amp will sound so much more expressive and toneful than a solid-state amp ever can. Once you get it, you'll probably never want to go back.
It's also definitely worth trying the overdrive pedal - as someone else said in another thread, it's not really to add a lot more gain (although it can do too), it's more to tighten up the sound. It's *not* wrong to use a cheap pedal with an expensive tube amp, no matter what a lot of snobs will tell you - you can often get better sounds that way, and you'd maybe be surprised by the number of great players and classic recordings that rely on the pedal as much as the amp.
Hang in there! Start with really working the amp controls, then the pedal, then maybe different tubes, possibly even different speakers, a different pedal, or an attenuator, or even a different amp. (But try not to spend major money without having a good idea of what you need to be different, and why.) Most of us spent years or even decades learning exactly what it is that works best for us, and it can be a constant search... but not pointless. There is a reason the vast majority of experienced players still prefer tube amps after all this time and with all the difficulties they can cause. But equally, if you really do find you get the sound you want from a good solid-state amp, that's not wrong either.
