The low down on .50 cal +

[venaleschatology]

Hey guys,
Just bought me a .50 cal + and was wanting to get worded up on it. I'm looking for the kind of info you wont tend to find in the brochure (although mesa do a **** good manual). Trick, tips, backdoors to awesome tones, settings, mods, thoughts, combinations with other gear. Anything the collective genius of the board may wish to offer me on my new purchase.

If it makes a difference, I play a Epi Les Paul and a Strat. I have assorted pedals and cabs. Play alot of stuff. Probably most interested in hardcore tones, not so much the Throwdown type stuff. A bit less metal and a bit more punch. Also interested in great indie and blues tones. Love any suggestions on interesting electro stuff.

Cheers guys.

 

[#2121313]

Settings:

Volume: 9 (Pulled)
Master: 1.3 (Bedroom) OR 2-4 Loud/Band Level
Lead Master: 10 (Bedroom - when used in conjunction with the Master at 1.3) OR 2-4 Loud/Band Level
Treble: 7
Bass: 1.5
Middle: 4
Reverb: 0
Presence: 1.5

As you increase the Master & Lead Master you may find you'll want to turn the Volume down a bit 7-8.5ish...

EQ
80: Bottom of the square slider at the middle line (which creates a very slight boost)
2200: Top of the square slider at the middle line (which creates a very slight cut)
750: Bottom of the square slider slightly above the bottom line, like a hair above
2200: Top of the square slider 1/16" - 1/8" below the middle line
6600: Top of the square slider at the middle line (which creates a very slight cut)

In my opinion, you end up with a very smooth, tight gain that you can play ANYTHING with. From here on out it's all in your hands, mainly your picking hand will determine what you get, meaning you can get a Metallica tone pretty dead on, or even play some Sabbath or Zep or whatever and the notes are clear, it's as tho the gain/metal crunch will come from the aggressiveness of your picking hand if that makes sense...I can play thru the same settings and get a Metal tone (which you may not want) and you can play thru the same settings and get a tone in the style you like, they key is it's smooth, punchy and the notes are very clear with plenty of sustain....It's a punchy amp right from the start.

TIPS:

Try a Vintage 30, it had a very dramatic affect on my tone, added depth and punchiness to my gain.
I like Mesa STR440's in the power section and Tung Sol Re-Issues 12AX7's and currently have an Electro Harmonix for the one 12AT7 that it takes, all though I did have to replace it once within 2 weeks as it blew, or something, I've been thinking of trying a Mesa 12AT7 in it's place.

I'm currently running my combo as a head thru my 4 X 12 Recto, huge improvement in tone also, HUGE, even at lower levels. I find the 50 Cal+ gets killer tones at low bedroom volumes in comparison to other Mark series I've tried...the tone here is VERY, VERY close to a Mark series in my opinion.

ADVISE:

Try and get a tone you like first by pluggin straight into your amp (Guitar --> Amp NO FX pedals). Then (IF) you desire start to add in any FX that you may desire...I myself plug straight in and am extremely happy with the results I am getting.

Spend at least 6 months, at least and learn the amp before you even attempt any mods. It's got so many tones as is, I've thought about mods and always come back to learn that it sounds good as is. But at least get to know it, you can tweak all day...

NOTE:
I play a Custom Explorer with EMG 81/60 with the 18 volt mod. Metal Rhythm Guitar

Lemme know what you think!

Pound for pound the .50 Cal+ is up there as one of the best!

 

[venaleschatology]

Wow man that is exactly the kinda response I was looking for.
I just got the amp home today. The guy I bought it off played alot of Jazz and replaced the speaker with one that is beautiful for clean, but cannot hack the lead channel. I've got an assortment of cabs and speakers though, so I tried some V-30s in both open and closed back cabs. Sounds great. I'm having some trouble with a sort of fuzzniess though. Kinda floats in and out. Its like almost like a digital distortion, very harsh, and just sort of rattles and fuzzes. I'm thinking a tube needs replacing somewhere.

The settings u gave me are a great starting point for the tone that I'm after. I trimmed the gain and put some more high mids in to suit my more punk influenced tastes, but otherwise I reckon I coulda got a bit lost without your help. Cheers mate.

 

[#2121313]

Cool dude no prob. Yeah, new tubes are definitely the way to go when you get a new amp, you never know how old the tubes that came with it are, and bad tubes can lead to endless problems, so you replace the tubes and you have a sound foundation to build on...Only takes 2 power tubes too so it doesn't work out to be all that expensive... I am VERY happy with the tubes I had mentioned above....

Good luck!

 

[rotebass]

I love my .50 +, it was the first mesa I've ever bought and to be honest every time I've gone into a shop that sells Mesa I try the amps they have sitting around (Dual Rec, Lone Star, etc) but I have yet to like one enough for it to replace the .50 +, we will have to see if the Mark V changes that. I run mine through a Recto 4x12, sometimes along side a '79 Traynor YSR-1 for a stereo setup, the 6L6's and EL84's mix very nicely in this setup.

A lot of people complain about not being able to get a good balance between the two channels but I disagree, I set my master to 7, or 6.5 if I'm playing really loud, and I get all drive I want on the lead channel. The clean channel is really nice with the master at those settings, it's really sensitive to picking technique, if you pick softer it's a nice chimey clean tone, but if you dig in it starts to get really nasty and overdriven.

I do want to experiment with a compressor on the clean channel, just need to stop spending money on rack gear for long enough to pick one up. I have a rack full of FX to play with, but it's a work in progress. Currently have a Rocktron Patchmate for switching and a CAE 1/2 rack mixer, effects are TC M-One and Lexicon MX200 in mix 1, Rocktron Intellifex and Yamaha SPX90 in mix 2. I probably use a lot more effects than most people on the forum, but the CAE mixer allows me to switch all the effects out when I just want that great boogie tone, which the .50 + has in spades.

Looking at my .50 + right now, the settings are:
Gain: 7
Master: 2
Lead Master: 4
Treble: 8
Bass: 4
Mid: 3
Reverb: 0 (This is usually around 2-2.5 when I'm not using a processor)
Presense: 0

80Hz: Set at top line
240Hz: Half way between middle and bottom line
750Hz: Just above bottom line
2200Hz: Half way between middle and top line
6600Hz: Just a hair above the 2200Hz

I have a picture of the stack and the rack together, but the rack is several revisions old so the SGX and the DOD processor are gone.

And my controller, wah and whammy. The whammy is in the rack now, going to be putting a pedal board together for the controller.

 

[scottcrud]

Great freakin amps!

Gain-10
Master-3
Lead Master-10
Treb-7
Bass-3
Mid-5
Rev-0
Pres-3-4

EQ classic V with middle slider above the bottom line.

 

[venaleschatology]

Thanks rotebass. Nice rack. I used to get into the rack gear in a big way (Recto pre, 50/50...its in the signature anyway), but I found I didn't end up playing much cos I never wanted to power up/setup that much gear, I couldnt be stuffed lugging it to jam's or recording either. So I got me my nice little 50 cal and I couldnt be happier. I cant get over how light the **** thing is. My sound engineer mate has a little Marshall Mg-30 and it weighs about the same. I don't know how that's possible. Not only is it solid state but the thing is just physically smaller.

I had been wondering about the whole channel balancing thing. Its not a big problem cos I dont play anything live at the moment, I just like to tinker, but it would be handy to know how I could use it on stage. I'll have a crack at those settings when next its daylight.

What kind of music do you play?

 

[venaleschatology]

Great freakin amps!

Gain-10
Master-3
Lead Master-10
Treb-7
Bass-3
Mid-5
Rev-0
Pres-3-4

EQ classic V with middle slider above the bottom line.

I'm not looking to be doing any mods just yet but just interested to know how your "frankenstein head" is modded. Can we get Pics and some info please?

 

[scottcrud]

Allright, I figured out a long time ago that the .50+ was gonna be "my" amp, my tone etc. Problem was it was not loud enough when I played in a two guitar player band, the other guitarist has a MKIII, and my amp would not keep up. Sure I could turn it louder but the tone I like with the volume master vol on 3 drastically changed on 5 or 6. So I took it to Kendrick amps when their shop was still located in Pflugerville Texas. I asked the head tech at the time, Paul Sanchez if he could make the .50 cal a 100 watt head or at least close. He said yes if you've got the money. So he changed out both the transformers with 100 watt transformers, and modded it to run on 2 6550's. The tone changed a little, but not in a bad way, and now my amp can keep up with any MKIII. Then a few years later I took my amp to a guy in Austin named Bill Ussery, and he installed a footswitchable solo boost, and he's the only person who works on my amps anymore, since he's a certified Boogie repairman and is personal friends with Mike Bendinelli. So that in a nutshell are the mods I've had done to my .50Cal+.