What about The Subway Rockets

[ChasFred]

It appears nobody is using these amps. Am I missing something? I have a Subway Rocket w/reverb and it is one of the best amps I have owned in the 40+ years I have been playing.
I admit that the reverb is a bit weak but other than that this is a great amp.
Just seems odd to me not to see anything about these fine little amps.

 

[user 21540]

They have been erased from Mesa history. There is no subsection here for them either. They are amazing amps and the preamp design alone is great. The tone stack interacts like classic Boogies and it's easy to get a good tone out of all three modes with the same tone settings. Loud and super-portable too which what everyone is looking for now. You're right about the reverb. The tank is only about 10-15cm long so the effect is almost inaudible.

You'll also find that almost no-one responds on Rocket posts either!

 

[bandit2013]

You did, wild..... so at lease one person responded. Unfortunately I have never come across a Rocket. In addition to that, I have not seen the V-tiwn either along with many other products that made it to obsolescence. Cool that you have one and it is making you happy.

 

[user 21540]

You did, wild..... so at lease one person responded. Unfortunately I have never come across a Rocket. In addition to that, I have not seen the V-tiwn either along with many other products that made it to obsolescence. Cool that you have one and it is making you happy.

Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFuNqFUVCWA

 

[IronSean]

I owned one as a small amp to drag to jams. It was a great little box, 44w with a 12" speaker. Plenty loud, not to heavy, good tones.

My biggest issue (and a big reason why I eventually moved to a Mark V) is that it wasn't quite as flexible live as I'd like:
The Countour Channel was inevitably louder than the Lead, because it boosted the Highs and Lows with probably some mid cut (the GEQ V in a switch). But that also made it impractical, as it made a great heavy rhythm sound but the lead channel became too quiet to be usable in that case.

Instead I carried an MXR 10-band EQ in the back of the amp I'd use to add my own V-esque shaping to the Lead channel, but bring the overall volume down. That way I could disable the EQ for a slight volume boost for a solo.

I do miss it at times though, it was unique sounding, a bit in between a Mark and other Mesa series.

 

[bandit2013]

Wow, awesome playing there. The Rocket 44 sounds great too.

 

[Don]

I had a Subway Rocket and liked it, especially the contour mode, but I built a clone of a Princeton Reverb and the clean sound was a lot better than the Subway Rocket. I ended up selling it. I've since bought an Express 5:25 1x10" and it's clean sound is different than the Princeton Reverb, but very good. The 5:25 is a lot mere versatile then the Rocket.
I still miss the contour mode of the Subway Rocket, though!

 

[user 21540]

I owned one as a small amp to drag to jams. It was a great little box, 44w with a 12" speaker. Plenty loud, not to heavy, good tones.

My biggest issue (and a big reason why I eventually moved to a Mark V) is that it wasn't quite as flexible live as I'd like:
The Countour Channel was inevitably louder than the Lead, because it boosted the Highs and Lows with probably some mid cut (the GEQ V in a switch). But that also made it impractical, as it made a great heavy rhythm sound but the lead channel became too quiet to be usable in that case.

Instead I carried an MXR 10-band EQ in the back of the amp I'd use to add my own V-esque shaping to the Lead channel, but bring the overall volume down. That way I could disable the EQ for a slight volume boost for a solo.

I do miss it at times though, it was unique sounding, a bit in between a Mark and other Mesa series.

Yes the Contour mode does jump things up a bit. I quite often used it as lead channel for that reason. But using a pedal as booster or an EQ, as you did, is a way to add more options. I used a DS-1 (with all the gain rolled off and volume maxed) as a booster and it worked nicely with the Rocket. Using the Contour as the heavy rhythm tone and then hitting it with a Tubescreamer for lead works well. You can set channels up in a lot of different ways too. The clean channel can be clipped for a light crunch by turning up treble and rolling bass off and then you can roll off your guitar volume to clean it up and then use the other drive sounds for Santana type lead tones. I think if the Contour preset EQ had been a GEQ the amp would have had more tonal control (like doing subtractive EQ tricks as you did with your MXR) but they were built to a price point at the time and still deliver pretty amazing versatility. The speaker emulated output sounds amazing when recorded.

 

[user 21540]

I had a Subway Rocket and liked it, especially the contour mode, but I built a clone of a Princeton Reverb and the clean sound was a lot better than the Subway Rocket. I ended up selling it. I've since bought an Express 5:25 1x10" and it's clean sound is different than the Princeton Reverb, but very good. The 5:25 is a lot mere versatile then the Rocket.
I still miss the contour mode of the Subway Rocket, though!

Yes the clean is not Fender clean. It has more mids and a more immediate response whereas Fenders feel a little spongier to play and you often get the dreamy reverbs too. You can get close to the sound (not the feel) on the Rocket by rolling off most of the mids, turning up highs and adding a nice reverb pedal to the the loop. I have a Twin though so prefer that for cleans but it weighs a lot.

 

[Don]

Yes the clean is not Fender clean. It has more mids and a more immediate response whereas Fenders feel a little spongier to play and you often get the dreamy reverbs too. You can get close to the sound (not the feel) on the Rocket by rolling off most of the mids, turning up highs and adding a nice reverb pedal to the the loop. I have a Twin though so prefer that for cleans but it weighs a lot.

I should not have said that the Princeton Reverb's clean sound was better. I should have stated that it was my preference. To be honest, when recording and playing quietly, I prefer the Fender's clean sound, but when I'm jamming or gigging and need to be heard, the Mesa amps cut through better.

I put an Eminence Copperhead in my Express 5:25 and that gave it a little bit of the Fender sound that I prefer without losing efficiency. I think that would've worked well with a Subway Rocket as well. I'd like to try that in one!

 

[RCR]

Owned 3 Subway Rockets over the years. Have had the current non reverb for almost 20 years now. Great little grab and go amp that sounds killer bot with the internal speaker in a small room and miced.
The little Rocket has been a workhorse and gig it regularly. The only change from stock is the WGS ET 10 speaker, which REALLY woke this amp up!
Here is an unmiced clip playing with some friends a couple of weeks ago. Running the crunch side with my Carvin SH 60 and only a Boss DD 7 delay and a Strymon Blue Sky verb in the loop here. No PA just my amp, the internal speaker in the Casio keyboard and a couple acoustic players.

 

[Teflon Dave]

Can anyone please tell me what the Rocket 44 1x12 combo weighs? I can't find it anywhere on the internaught.

 

[RCR]

Have been running a Subway Rocket for many years as a small gig grab and go rig. Have mine set up for low volume crunch tones in particular with a 16 ohm WGS ET 10 that lets me push the amp a little harder at very low stage levels on stage. Do a lot of gospel stuff and run almost no effects. Normally will have a light OD for slight breakup and a compressor up front and a delay and reverb in the loop only. Most of the time I'm running amp gain only with an SM 57 on the amp.
Here are a few live clips from over the years with different folks running my little Rocket.

 

[nialoryer]

I started getting back into music in the late 90's. My Mark IIb 60/100 was long gone, and the Legend Rock N' Roll 50 needed serious repair. So onto Craigslist I went, where I found a Subway Rocket Reverb listed for a surprisingly low price. The seller and his wife lived in a modest apartment. Both welcomed me. The husband honestly thought the power tubes were shot or that the amp suffered some other ailment, which is why he was letting it go for so little. His wife's presence the entire time suggested the sale may have been induced by necessity or superfluity. After playing through it for a bit and noting the flubby audio issues, I paid his asking price.

Cleaning tube pins and socket contacts fixed all problems. The amp had an Eminence Legend 1058 when I bought it, which was an inspired upgrade and which I didn't change. Twenty-odd some years later I still have that amp, alongside a zoo of Mesa, PRS, 3 Monkeys and Suhr animals. It's still reliable, and it still inspires me.

The amp came with its footswitch having the Rhythm, Contour and Reverb stomps. Others have reported the amp PCB components for the Contour filtering being entombed in black goop, but that's not the case for my amp. I click in that voice from time to time as a nostalgia hit, but don't use it in practice.

Over a decade ago I asked one of the prominent "valve" vendors if a particular set of tubes is a good set for Subway Rocket Reverb - and mind you, the tubes in this amp are still fine - and was taken aback by the response: paraphrasing, "Those will be fine. It's just a Subway Rocket." I swear the will to prejudice is baked into human struggles, yet I still hope it's not baked into the human soul.

Should I move this amp on, either to get the value out of it or to help out some worthy other person struggling to make their artistic mark? Yeah. In time. It marks my decision to stop denying a core of my life. And for that I cling to it, an inanimate object that directly enabled projection of my soul.