What a difference 2 months makes!

[primal]

What a difference 2 months makes!

OK, so two months ago I save up enough money and I'm gonna go out and buy a Recto-Verb combo. My first Mesa. I am pumped. So I go to guitar center to try one out, and they only have a Roadster sitting there, no Recto-verb.

So I try it out and it sounds like crap. Neither I nor the Guitar Center employee could dial in anything but flubby crap. I had actually almost decided that maybe Mesa wasn't for me after all.

I knew there was no way these things were the hottest rated amps out there, and that was all you could get. So I come here and create a post asking for some help with the settings. Primarily to try to get a feel for what a Recto-verb would sound like.

You guys were great!

I got some great replies, printed out the settings, went back to Guitar Center and low and behold I got a good sound out of it. A real good sound out of it. Especially when I cranked it. Cranking it really made a difference. So good in fact I decided screw the Recto-Verb, I'm gonna save for another 8 months and get a Roadster.

Anyway, as fate would have it, not a week later I am scanning Craigslist for gear, and I see a guy selling a Road King combo. His asking price is 1200 (Actually, he had it listed at 101200, fortunately it was a typo).

So I meet the guy and check out the amp. The handle on top has duck tape on it and the tolex in the back along the top is pretty torn, to the point you can see the wood in spots. But it was just along the back top and you can only see it if you turn the amp around. Otherwise, it looks great. No damage what so ever to any of the electronics or knobs.

Anyway, I get him to give it to me for 1000.

Over the next couple months I go through a few phases where I think it sounds great, then at other times think is sounds ehhh. All the while I am learning to dial this thing in. Now I have this thing freaking nailed to my sound. And it is freaking amazing.

Anyway, today I walked into guitar center. My next toy will most likely be a Les Paul. I have always wanted one.

So I try out a bunch of guitars, some Les Pauls and others, all the while only playing on that same Roadster 212 combo.

SO I hook up and screw with the dials for about 30 seconds. I had this thing at just above bedroom volume, still way to low for drums, and I got a kick *** sound out of it.

I am screwing around with guitars jamming and one of the guys from guitar center come around the corner trying to look at my settings. The guy is like "How in the hell did you get it to sound like that. We have had this amp here for ever and I have never heard it sound like that. That tone is just killer".

As he walked away he said "Please don't screw with those settings, I'm gonna hook up when your done".

Dude didn't ask me about the guitar, if I wanted to buy anything, nada. Just what I had the dials set on.

The funny thing is this was the same amp that not 2 months ago had almost turned me off Mesa entirely. Not just the same model. The same amp! And this time I had it sounding better then the second time I went and got a great sound. Tight thick muted palm stuff, screaming leads. All without an OD boost or an external EQ. Nothing but amp!

I guess the point of this long drawn out post is that dialing in a Mesa is a skill in and of itself.

You can't just walk up to one and dial in the settings you have used on all your other amps. It is very touchy. 10:00 and 10:30 can be very different settings and will effect how the rest of your settings go.

Also, as another poser recently pointed out in another thread, YOU MUST ADJUST YOUR PLAYING, AND PLAY NEATER WHEN PLAYING ON A RECTIFIER. It is a FACT! A Mesa will not hide your mistakes like a Line 6 will. But it will reward you with the sweatest guitar tone you ever heard when you play right!

One more prop to the Roadster. I have a Road King version 1. I love it. It kicks ***. Distortion wise, it and the Roadster can get matching sounds. Even with the open back cab, you just dial them in differently.

But the clean channel on that Roadster. My God. I rarely play clean, so for it to jump out at me says something. I think my Road King has very good cleans, but the Roadsters cleans are second to none.

That is all! Thanks for reading!

 

[jdurso]

good post man.... i think you hit the nail on the head because i've had people who've sworn off mesa come by my place and polay my roadster and be blown away.... they always ask why mine sounds so much better and its as simple as the settings..... a good for instance was i went to the GC in Temp, AZ on one of my trips and before i plugged into this roadster i looked at the settings.... sure enough pure garbage.... the treble, gain and bass were maxed.... the mid was almost all the way off and the presence and volume were in the middle.... for shits and gigles i plugged in without adjusting the amp (mind you all four channels had these settings :shock: )..... so i turn it on and its just mush.... i start laughing so one of the guys there comes up to me and asked if anything was wrong.... i asked him who dialed in the amp and he said he did.... when i asked why he said because thats the way he has his Marshall JVM setup.... at that point i didnt know whether to laugh or show him what the amp could really do... needless to say once i through my settings on it his jaw hit the floor..... then i had him bring a fulltone ocd over (which i had wqanted to try for a while).... neddless to say once we threw that sucker in front with a little gain and a lot of volume, both our jaws were on the floor.... the point being, mesa is an amp you have to know how to dial in

 

[secretsoundz]

Agreed. When I first brought home my Stiletto Ace, I was less than happy with its overall sound. After playing around with the settings and reading some advice on here I'm now getting killer tone from my Mesa! These aren't plug and play amps.

 

[sbalderrama]

But the clean channel on that Roadster. My God. I rarely play clean, so for it to jump out at me says something. I think my Road King has very good cleans, but the Roadsters cleans are second to none.
That is all! Thanks for reading!

Roadster and RKII have channels 1&2 from the Lonestar incorporated by my understanding. So you can see why the Lonestar gets such high praise! I wish they made the Roadster in a more compact head format though, but probably too hard to squeeze all that stuff in there.

 

[MusicManJP6]

RK combo for $1000? That's insane! Nice post and congrats!

 

[lyman]

Also, as another poser recently pointed out in another thread, YOU MUST ADJUST YOUR PLAYING, AND PLAY NEATER WHEN PLAYING ON A RECTIFIER. !

ha! best typo i've seen in a while.

 

[Jay22]

no kidding! Im still toying with mine. What settings did you use? Maybe it will give me a bit of an idea on how to tweak mine a bit more. Mine sounds just killer but I know it can do more.

 

[rvschulz]

you certainly have hit the nail on the head ... these amps are not for the impatient. i detect very distinct differences in slight adjustments. yesterday i spent 2 HOURS fiddling around with various changes ...

i did start with the sample settings (all 8 of them) to determine what i liked and didn;t like. then i started tweaking from there. i'm not finshed. perhaps i never will be. the fact is, too many good tones exist.

 

[Lou]

As I conducted my search for which Mesa to add, I was always dumbfounded to see what the settings were on any given stiletto or LSS, LSC at two different GC's. (Not that I know where to go with it....but I knew not how it was set!!)

 

[jdurso]

As I conducted my search for which Mesa to add, I was always dumbfounded to see what the settings were on any given stiletto or LSS, LSC at two different GC's. (Not that I know where to go with it....but I knew not how it was set!!)

yeah GC should put up a quick refernce card for optimal settings on a given mesa amp so people dont ruin either a good experience or the amp in general

also, this maybe a very naive assumption but I've found that Mesa users (especially the ones on the BB) are a hell of a lot more knowledgible in terms of knowing how to setup and amp and just general knowledge about amps.... this is not to say if people dont use mesa they're dumb, just that the people here just seem to know their way around an amp and are more accepting of others.... i go back to other forums sometimes and the people there are just so nasty to each other... at least here if your offbase you get a response that gives you the proper information

 

[mrd]

Good posts guys. At my local guitar shop (Long & McQuade) most of the Mesa amps have little reference cards on them that give you sample settings & tones to try for each channel. Some of the older amps that have been laying around for a while don't have any. But I definitely have noticed some extremely **** knob settings when I go in there, especially on the Recto models.

Like someone else said.. bass & treble maxed, mids off, presence at something stupid like 11o'clock, gain at 4o'clock...EUGH! Makes any guitar sound like garbage. I was trying out a rectoverb the other day, I've never even seen the amp before, but I know from using my RoadKing how rectos are voiced and how to set them. Before I even turned on the amp, I just ran my hand across the board and fixed all the knobs and the amp sounded fantastic. Actually I dug that amp a lot, it has a great sound.

You would think that the employees at GC would know how to set up an amp? That's how you sell ****... you set the amp up great and the customer goes "holy **** I need to buy this". When I went to buy my RoadKing, the guy there was totally down with every aspect of it; progressive linkage, multiple rectifier settings, channels, modes, everything. He set me up a great tone on every channel then I said "sorry I need to save up for 6 months, I'll be back" :lol: So I did.

 

[jdurso]

Good posts guys. At my local guitar shop (Long & McQuade) most of the Mesa amps have little reference cards on them that give you sample settings & tones to try for each channel. Some of the older amps that have been laying around for a while don't have any. But I definitely have noticed some extremely sh!t knob settings when I go in there, especially on the Recto models.

Like someone else said.. bass & treble maxed, mids off, presence at something stupid like 11o'clock, gain at 4o'clock...EUGH! Makes any guitar sound like garbage. I was trying out a rectoverb the other day, I've never even seen the amp before, but I know from using my RoadKing how rectos are voiced and how to set them. Before I even turned on the amp, I just ran my hand across the board and fixed all the knobs and the amp sounded fantastic. Actually I dug that amp a lot, it has a great sound.

You would think that the employees at GC would know how to set up an amp? That's how you sell sh!t... you set the amp up great and the customer goes "holy sh!t I need to buy this". When I went to buy my RoadKing, the guy there was totally down with every aspect of it; progressive linkage, multiple rectifier settings, channels, modes, everything. He set me up a great tone on every channel then I said "sorry I need to save up for 6 months, I'll be back" :lol: So I did.

yeah this must be a plague or something because i just got back from the GC in springfield, nj and wanted to try this prs i've been eyeing for a while and they had a roadster there.... i was ready to throw it on and the GC sale person came over and said why dont you try that guitar on a better amp.... he proceeded to tell me how the amp was crap, it had no gain and it was flabby.... i laughed in his face which seemed to piss him off and then i looked at the settings.... just like mrd said, treble, bass, and gain on 10, mids at 0, presence at 12 and volume at 12.... on all channels :evil: ...... the best part was he also said the amp popped... so i sat him down, played with the settings, showed him the tap dance trick when its on standby and i watched his jaw drop..... the guy was stunned.... so he let me demo the prs and as i was playing another guy came over and was asking me about the amp (all this while the sales guy was standing next to us)..... long story short, that guy jumped on the amp after me and ended up buying both the roadster and the prs i was eyeing out (which was fine because i dont have the $$$ to buy it right now)..... so after all was said and done i basically sold that amp for the guy..... good thing is he hooked me up with a hotplate (which was why i was there) for 50% off...... but man the mesa reps need to school these guys on these amps they stock at GC, especially since ive been seeing a lot of roadsters out and about