I guess I made a lame *** response myself but what to hell are these forums for anyway.
Im not sure what amp we are talking about here
NUMBER ONE open up the manual or download it. I have all my amps manuals
Channel one on most Mesa's is your clean channel, on my big amps I run the master volume about 3 oclock, the gain a little under noon, on the Roadster I run it on the 100 watt, silicon diode, seems to give more headroom. Mesa have a weird mid control, I ten d to stay under 9 oclock on the mids, bass around noon and treble around noon.
Channel Two on my Roadster I set up in Brit mode ala the manual, this will get you that classic Marshall sound like AC/DC Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, just follow the manual, I tend to run the gain higher on this channel than the others, silicon rectifier 100 watt
Channel 3 Roadster or Channel 2 Triple I set in the vintage mode, tube rectifier, 50 watts on the Roadster, Spongy on the Triple, I run my gain around noon and the master at around 4 oclock, my goal is to make the power tubes go into breakup, not the preamp tubes, bass and treble stay in the noon area, mids real low on this channel, with my Les Paul this channel is a great chunky sound ala Cant Get Enough, Bad Company This is my main channel, I can roll the volume on the guitar off to get a clean sound or turn it up to take it a little over the top. I kick in a TS-9 Tube Screamer with some kind of mod a friend did for me, it adds sparkle for solos.
Channel 4 Roadster, Channel 3 Triple I set in a modern mode Roadster silicon diodes 50 watts, I ussually leave my Triple on the tube rec setting. I use this channel mainly for leads, I have the mids up in the 10 oclcock to noon range, bass and treble in the noonish range, gain around 9-11 oclock, master around noon on this channel, I think most people put too much gain on their lead channel, less gain gives it more bite and presence
I use the master and solo function on my big amps and also a Weber Mass Attenuator. For any guys looking to get real tones out of these 100 watt and up amps and attenuator is a must have. If you play out much you will be told constantly to turn these amps down, without an attenuator your tone will suck, read that again your tone will suck and you will be oof your game mentally, playing music is about confidence and when the sound guy turns your amp around backwards, or side ways and turns it down and your normal sound isnt happening your playing will suffer. BIG AMPS NEED ATTENUATORS, I fought this for years but I am a big believer in these things cause I can push my amps into power tube saturation, not your gain knob, you want to open up the master between noon and 3 oclcock, this is where these amps wil open up and shine. If you have your master below 10 oclcock you have no idea what your amp really sounds like. The Mesas are set up with the Master and solo function, turn on the loop and use this as your attenuator, and open the master up on the individual channels, try to get your primary channel sounding golden, in my case its the vintage channel, thats my workhorse for everything, and if I need to I can do a whole gig with this one channel just using my guitar volume knob.
Another thing keep some spare preamp tubes, if your amp starts sounding stale pop a fresh tube in the V-1 slot, dont know what that is, read the manual.
Good Luck and never settle on a tone, my settings are base starting points for me, but I can dial in what I want in a matter of minutes, I change my setting almost everytime I play some.
And Remember Have Fun
