Very impressed

[hendrik84]

Walked into a local store today to buy a guitar stand and ended up trying an Express 5:25 1x12 (with a Celestion v30 if I'm not mistaken) and got blown away!

I was not expecting that sound from this small amplifier. You could say it was love at first sight. I'm now negotiating with the wife, which frankly isn't going to well since I just bought a Martin acoustic :roll: but we'll see.

I was wondering though, since I didn't have too much time in the store to fiddle with all the settings, would I be able to achieve a SRV blues tone out of this amp? I pretty much liked all the tones I was getting out of it(really impressed with that contour dial) but I couldn't find the Texas blues tone I was looking for. I wouldn't be buying the amp for that sound alone but it's a tone that I tend to go back and back to and my amp would have to be able to produce that sound.

So my questions are, can this amp achieve that? On low volumes? What do you guys use it for?

I've been browsing through some youtube videos of it but not one has done it justice so far.

What do you guys say? If any of you have sound clips of it please post. Would love to hear!

Thanks!

 

[Newysurfer]

Walked into a local store today to buy a guitar stand and ended up trying an Express 5:25 1x12 (with a Celestion v30 if I'm not mistaken) and got blown away!

I was not expecting that sound from this small amplifier. You could say it was love at first sight. I'm now negotiating with the wife, which frankly isn't going to well since I just bought a Martin acoustic :roll: but we'll see.

I was wondering though, since I didn't have too much time in the store to fiddle with all the settings, would I be able to achieve a SRV blues tone out of this amp? I pretty much liked all the tones I was getting out of it(really impressed with that contour dial) but I couldn't find the Texas blues tone I was looking for. I wouldn't be buying the amp for that sound alone but it's a tone that I tend to go back and back to and my amp would have to be able to produce that sound.

So my questions are, can this amp achieve that? On low volumes? What do you guys use it for?

I've been browsing through some youtube videos of it but not one has done it justice so far.

What do you guys say? If any of you have sound clips of it please post. Would love to hear!

Thanks!

not really with the 5:25 imo.
SRV used Fenders and the 5:25 is an EL84 tube amp so not really suited to his tubescreamer tones.
The 5:50 certainly can do it being a 6L6 amp and has very Fenderish cleans and OD :mrgreen:

 

[hendrik84]

I was afraid to get that answer

I just really loved all the other sounds I was getting. There's gotta be a way! :twisted:

 

[Don]

I can get those tones out of the Blues mode with my Express 5:50 1x12 combo. Considering that the amp is using mostly preamp distortion to get the sound I think the biggest difference between the 5:50 and the 5:25 is the speaker and cabinet size. A 5:25 1x10 combo sounds pretty small and boxy compared to my Express and I was surprised when the 5:25 1x12 combo did too (not as much, though)!

 

[hendrik84]

I'm just afraid the 5:50 will be too loud for me. I play mostly at home and in a small church setting.

 

[Rockerduck]

I have the 5:50. I practice with it on the 5 watt class A setting and it does good at low levels. Let me add, the class A amp circuit is the best tone with harmonics you can achieve, hence all the prices going up on older tube amps that were class A and everyone wants that tone. Another note is you can plug your acoustic guitar in it too. I gig with my constantly. I have a Marshall half stack that will be for sale soon, as I get the tones I need from the 5:50.

 

[ddmeburger]

I can get those tones out of the Blues mode with my Express 5:50 1x12 combo. Considering that the amp is using mostly preamp distortion to get the sound I think the biggest difference between the 5:50 and the 5:25 is .....

Since the Express series derives their gain structure from the preamps, whereby the power amp tubes set your volume levels and don't really factor in to the big picture until you have them humming, you should be able to tweak the Blues mode of the 5:25, or even the Clean mode with the gain set fairly high (it's still fairly clean) to get some of the tones you are seeking. SRV had lots of tones, so you may be digging a bit to uncover the ones you want.

I'm just afraid the 5:50 will be too loud for me. I play mostly at home and in a small church setting.

The MVs are really good, but I like to 'set it and forget it' regardless of my situation. So I set them to 'rehearsal level' and balance them across both channels, and then use an EB VP Jr in the loop to act as an overall master volume. I think you can balance levels better at medium volumes; using the VP I can drop the overall sound to practice, teaching, or late-night levels, and since the sounds are preamp-derived, I get pretty much the same things hitting my ears at all but the ultra-quiet levels. So you can use 50W and preserve your sound at as low of a level as you'll need.

I have the 5:50. I practice with it on the 5 watt class A setting and it does good at low levels.....
..... as I get the tones I need from the 5:50.

The Express series are really two different amps in one. What sounds and feels great one way in one wattage/mode combination may still sound really good in the other wattage with the controls set identically. For example, my overdrive pedal sounds great in 50W/Blues, and pretty good in 5W/Blues, and my fuzz sounds cool in 50W/Blues, but absolutely glorious in 5W/Blues. 50W Cleans + Reverb are very BF Fender-y clean in tone and feel, and 5W/Cleans are in the same Tweed camp as my Valvetrain 205 Tallboy 5W Princeton circuit.

.....I was wondering though, since I didn't have too much time in the store to fiddle with all the settings, would I be able to achieve a SRV blues tone out of this amp? On low volumes? .....

Yes and yes, though they won't sound as robust coming from a 5:25 as they would from the 5:50. YMMV.

 

[hendrik84]

Thanks again for the replies!

That's pretty interesting Dave, I never realized a VP could act as a master volume and let you push the tubes on low levels. Silly me.

I went again today with my brother and I'm really falling for this amp! The cleans sound absolutely amazing!! Pretty dark sounding but still with a lot of shimmering highs! But then again my brother didn't like the amp too much, he thought it sounded a little cold or dull. Maybe he's just too used to his Vox and his bandmates Fender? Don't know.

I also searched another guitar forum for posts on the Express and it seems alot of people really don't like that amp. I don't get it! To me this amp just sings!

The only thing that's still holding me back a little is I couldn't dial in the SRV sounds I'm after (think Little Wing cover and Pride And Joy). (I never pushed the master though, didn't want to freak everybody in the store out)

But those sounds are really Fendery so maybe I'm pushing it a little, to be demanding that.

Also another shortcoming for me is that I think I like the clean channel and the crunch channel the most. And you can't switch bewteen those two on the pedal.

 

[Rockerduck]

Mesa owner hear something that others don't. I had never owned a Mesa amp in my life. I played on Fenders and Marshall's. I still have a Deluxe Reverb Ri and a vintage 70's Fender Champ. I use a Marshall vintage modern 100 watt stack. I played the Mesa 5:50 and liked it instantly, so much that I'm selling my Marshall.

 

[Don]

These amps can sound good at very low volume levels, even in their full power mode. The 5:50 can be probably be played at lower volumes than you require as well as the 5:25 can. 25-30 watts is still a very loud amp- typically too loud of an amp if 50 watts would be too loud for your situation!

 

[Newysurfer]

I'm just afraid the 5:50 will be too loud for me. I play mostly at home and in a small church setting.

well at home you'll be using the 5w setting .....
They both run at 5w so there's no volume difference between either amp at 5w.
The 5:50 does fantastic blues / SRV type tones for sure.
Not as close to SRV with the 5:25 but also very good blues tones.
If you want the 5:25 you could always use a tubescreamer pedal for SRV tones :mrgreen:

 

[Newysurfer]

I also searched another guitar forum for posts on the Express and it seems alot of people really don't like that amp. I don't get it! To me this amp just sings!

There's quite a few forums around that are full of Mesa haters - including http://www.thegearpage.com
Seems to be trendy to dump on Mesa these days - not sure why.
Then many Rectifier users didn't like the Express cause they don't have sufficiently high gain for them.
There's also plenty of love around for the Express amps.
The 5:25 is still the best in the low watt amp range imo.
I have an Egnater Rebel 30 too but I prefer the 5:25 slightly.

 

[talltxguy]

Here's an interesting interview with Stevie's tech:
http://www.tonequest.com/ray.htm

"I preferred good old GE 12 AX7’s, and sometimes we’d use various JAN tubes, but I preferred the Sylvania 6L6’s and GE preamp tubes over anything else."

"We never used tube rectifiers. We always replaced them, and I don’t recall a single amp that he used that we left with a tube rectifier."

"We also changed the output transformers on the Super Reverbs to those from a Twin Reverb, and on Vibroverbs we used output transformers from a Bassman."

"We never used any cascading channels or anything like that...We tended to overbias rather than underbias."

 

[Sukodil]

I have been seeing some pretty positive comments recently on TGP on the Express 5:25, particularly the 1x10 combo. Several TGPers seem to appreciate the amp's versatility and lightweight.i

 

[ddmeburger]

That's pretty interesting Dave, I never realized a VP could act as a master volume and let you push the tubes on low levels

Sorry if I confused! You're not really pushing the power tubes by leaving the MVs set at say halfway or higher. You're intercepting the signal going to the 6L6s/EL84s coming from the preamp with the volume pedal as it goes through the series effects loop. Since the power tubes don't really determine the tonal and gain nature here nearly as much as the preamp circuits, you get pretty much the same sounds at both quiet and low levels, and only around mid volume and higher do you notice the the big bottles imparting enough on the sound to notice.

Also another shortcoming for me is that I think I like the clean channel and the crunch channel the most. And you can't switch bewteen those two on the pedal.

Agree wholeheartedly! Maybe we need two? Some guys here and on TGP use the Crunch channel to get their Marshally MV sound, and use the Blues mode with the gain low for a still really clean sound. Depends on my mood. I do it this way if I want two straight sounds with no dirt pedals. If I go the dirt route, I use Clean for cleans, and Blues with the gain set about 2 o'clock with my dirt. I think they react better in Blues than in the other three modes, regardless if I'm playing at 5W or 50W.

 

[Mullenski]

The use blues channel for clean and crunch for OD/distortion trick works really well on that amp. Don't know why you can't get to SRV using the amp alone, or with OD or EQ pedal. And, depends on which SRV tones...

Haven't found anything mine can't do and sounds great mic'd (takes speaker/cabinet size largely out of the equation).

 

[J.J]

I could never get the perfect texas blues sound with my 5:25. I love texas blues and SRV, I tried for over a year to get that texas flood sound, but was never totally happy. I have 3 strats, a 57RI a 62RI and a 2009 USA standard. The 62RI was chosen for SRV tone and permanently lives tuned to E flat.

Changing the speaker and tubes does help, but the problem is that the 5:25 does not have a presence control. I am sure if it did the texas tones would be much easier to find. I did play the 5:50 a few times in the shop and compared it to the 5:25. I found The 5:50 is better, but still not great for SRV.

I now have other amps for Texas Blues and am much happier.

EDIT: Just remembered the best SRV tone I found was with the 5 watt, clean mode, gain 11:00, master 2:00 and tone to taste. A bit to loud to use at home though :lol:

 

[Rockerduck]

6L6 tubes are what gets SRV sounds, along with the TS808. I can get all the sounds I need from the 5:50. Best studio amp I've had. I've had over 20 amps this year alone.

 

[hendrik84]

I wish I had a chance to try the 550 but I don't :/

I've also been thinking about the Mark V. I haven't had the chance to play that one either but I'm hearing some really good demos of it. It seems to be able to produce great blues tones as well as tons of others as well.

 

[J.J]

The obvious choice for Texas tone is the Lonestar classic. Mesa advertise it as having "tone as big as Texas". When I was making my last amp choice, the Lonestar classic, Mark V and Electra dyne were all very high on the list. Those amps can do what you want.

Both the Mark V (Ch1) and the Lonestar can do every kind of clean and pushed clean you can think of and have the right kind of reverb.

The EDs clean is a little less versatile in that it has less settings like "fat" and "bold" etc, but its tone is second to none. The ED is very much Blackface clean and Marshall Plexi for the higher gain side. I went with the ED as I wanted a more of a Marshall vintage tone for my lead tone.