Which MesaBoogie is for me?

[AspiringShredder]

Hey guys.

I've been playing guitar for a year and a bit, and I'm already beginning to be able to shred. Currently, I'm able to play Holy Wars by Megadeth perfectly, but I want to get into harder stuff, like Jeff Loomis solo, John Petrucci solo, Paul Gilbert, and Steve Vai.

Anyways, I'm stuck playing with my Epiphone Studio 10S amp, and Epiphone Les Paul Special II for another 2 years. My parents reguse to spend money on luxuries, so I'm going to have to buy gear myself.

I'll most likely be getting a job early-mid 2010. I've calculated, that with a minimum wage paying job, I should make approximately $4700CAD after 2 and a half months. I'll be uprgading my amp first, because although my guitar sucks (Pickups are sterile and unresponsive, and the strings are an inch or so off of the neck, and cannot be lowered anymore), my amp sounds even worse. I play tons of Metal (Prog Metal, early and Melodic Death Metal, Thrash Metal, early Metal), so I'm looking for an amp that'll give me a great versitile metal tone. By the time I get the amp, I'll also be playing lots of mid-gain shred type stuff, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen, etc. I occaisionally play Blues/Jazz, but I'll get a Fender Blues Junior for that.

tl;dr, which amp will give me the best High-Gain Metal, and Mid-Gain shred tone with at least half decent cleans?

 

[Stratocaster]

With no disrespect meant, before someone comes along and answers your direct question (which is the correct Mesa for my musical taste), you need to consider if you actually need an amp intended for live performances.

If you never intend to go beyond ‘bedroom’ levels, there are many other amps that would serve your needs better.

If you’re purchasing a Mesa purely for the name, I understand that this advice will promptly be placed in the round-file.


Strat

 

[lerxst88]

i have a nomad 100 and i love it. amazing john petrucci type cleans and super heavy metal distortion. its a great amp

on the note stratocaster brought up 100 watts (and even 60 watts) is waaaaaayyyyyy too loud for practicing
i also have a line 6 spider 2 15 watter which is a great little amp and super cheap too! now ill get flamed for not mentioning the express series

 

[skhan007]

I would suggest the Stiletto Ace for a couple of reasons. If you like the clean tone on occasion, this amp delivers it in spades. Great, vibrant cleans in fact. For shred, I find this amp very compatible for Vai's tone. In fact, I regularly play along with Alien Love Secrets and I find it suits that style wonderfully. Lastly, a used one will be at a good price point for you. Get a combo so you don't have to buy a separate head & cab. Go play one in-person and see if you like it. That's what I did. But be warned- you must keep the treb/mids/presence low because the amp is bright.

 

[6L6Master]

I would recommend the F-50. You can get one used for around $600-800. They sound fantastic, and they can easily be used at bedroom levels. Plus, they are awesome live! Overall, an amazing amp for the price.

 

[stephen sawall]

I know whats right for me. My IV,Tremoverb and Trident.

 

[JW123]

Id recomend a Peavey Vyper or maybe one of the lower end Line 6 amps. Amps like this can get a huge variety of tones. With my Mesa's they each have their own tone and not a lot else. The players you mention have a huge variety in sounds and while they may each use Mesa's it may be a lot of different models and tube variations to get their tones.

If you dont have a job right now, its going to take a long time to get enough money together to buy a Mesa. When I get my first job, lots of other expenses came up and saving money for topend amps just didnt work for me. I started with peaveys and crap guitars. I would recomend a nice guitar before a nice amp.

Another route, would be to get something like a POD PRO rack unit and use headphones, or run it into the amp you have and then when you get a big gig just plug it into a pa system.

Mesa's are expensive amps, and without a current job or parents that will help, there are a lot cheaper means of amplification.

Im sorry if I didnt answer your question but its so broad in scope that there is really no one amp that will do what you are asking on the budget you propose.

 

[Koreth]

Unless you're going to have a large enough space where you can turn the amp enough to let it breathe, in an area where you aren't going to piss off the neighbors with your practicing, I'd recommend against a Mesa/Boogie. Even a 25 or 30 watt 1x12 combo can very quickly get **** loud. My experience with Mesa/Boogie amps tells me they're best at performance volumes. In a bedroom, that level of volume will damage your hearing despite earplugs, rattle the walls and ceilings and get the neighbors calling the cops on you.

I was in a similar position about a year ago. I had a cheap guitar and a cheap amp and was not liking the sound they produced. Well, replace the cheap amp with a great one, and while the tone might improve a bit, a cheap guitar is still going to sound cheap. Replace the cheap guitar with a nice one, and while the sound coming out of the cheap amp might still not sound all that great, a good guitar is going to do more for your ability to play than an amp will. I went from a $100 Chinese-built stratocaster clone bought at Wal-Mart, to a $400 Indonesian-built Ibanez RG. The difference in playability was like night and day. It was still a cheap guitar, but it was built well enough that it could hold a tune and was nice to play (especially after being professionally set up) and was worth putting a set of nice pickups into. So after you have your pennies saved up, put that money into a nice guitar -- one that can hold a tune, that has a neck and action that feels comfortable and easy to play, that has nice resonant woods which will contribute to the quality of your tone, and quality electronics. Spend the remainder of money on a smaller amp that will do well at practice volumes. The Rolland cube series of amps are decent for the price.

That said, there are many Mesa/Boogie's that will get you nice metal tones. I don't know what amps the other guitarists you listed use, but Petrucci's sound comes mostly from Mark IIC+s and Mark IVs. A Recto can also get you a high-gain metal sound, but more of a huge, deep, aggressive, in-your-face sound, rather than the tight and liquid smooth sounds of a Mark IV. The Stiletto series of amps can also get nice metal sounds, albiet of a much more Marshally flavor. Heck, my Nomad has enough gain on tap for metal sounds. But based on your desire to play Petrucci stuff, I'd recommend a Mark IV. A Mark IV might not do the trick for those other sounds you're looking for, however.

 

[Koreth]

Mark IV or Mark V. My ex-Mark IV would go down to around 15 watts IIRC, using triode/classA/low voltage settings. That amp sounded pretty **** good in my house with the master/output at or below 2 out of 10. Another good bet is a Rivera S120 (mine goes down to 8 watts mono). Mark V is expected to go down to 10 watts.

Since the only Mark IV's I've heard were Petrucci's live ones, I'm in no position to dispute that a Mark IV can sound good at volumes practical around the house. But that 2 of 10 master volume tells me that even at it's lowest power settings, a Mark IV can still get plenty loud when it needs to, can it not?

The point I was trying to make was that even medium and low wattage amps can get very loud for bedroom use. I'd hate to see a guy make the same mistake I did and purchase a 100W half-stack only to find that's a wee bit much for a bedroom.

 

[jab]

getting new parents might accelerate your Mesa purchase :lol:

Sounds like you're getting good results already only one year in with a guitar with high action and a crappy amp. Just imagine what you'll sound like down the road when you get your hands on a Mesa and a PRS!

 

[jakehop]

From what you say, I would upgrade the guitar. No matter what, a good guitar is much more enjoyable to play and sound better over a crappy amp, than a crappy guitar sounds over a good amp (IMHO).

The Ibanez RG3120(TW) might fit your needs. They usually go for about $1,000US, have great pickups, and have served me well for playing Gilbertish and Vai-ish stuff, when I was really into that back then.

I fell in love with the versatility of the Trem'o'verb - those can be found for about another thousand. With some effectpedals (delay for Vai's stuff) that would be an awesome combination in my book!

Keep playing!

Kind regards, Jake

 

[nicoroy123]

I am not sure if I agree with previous comments about Mesa and bedroom levels.
I have a Single Rectifier head and even if I know I have better tone at gig level, I am in love with my tone at bedroom levels. Ok I suppose bedroom level is subjective but let say low, reasonable level.

Maybe because I use it with EL34 and with a 1 x 12 recto cab, which are maybe more suitable for low levels but anyway, my dirty sound is unmatchable, compared to any other amp I ever heard, even at low level.

My 2 cents.

 

[JW123]

You guys need to reread the origianal post. This young man has no job at the moment and his parents wont help. So how to heck do you think hes going to buy a Mark IV or a Rectifier Half Stack? Huh, do they just fall out of a truck or something. If you want to give a young man advice, give him an option to get where he wants to go. You guys are talking about amps that cost 1200 dollars and up.

Im older than a lot of you and obviously play a lot more gigs. If you really play out for money you find out real quick that the big stuff is not the most effecient for live gigs not to mention bedroom levels.

I personally went from running a full stack Triple Rectifier down to a Roadster Combo then down to a Subway Rocket. This past weekend after monthes of talking about it, my bassist and I left the amps at home and used preamps. Hes using a sansamp and I am using a POD PRO. Its real different, but our live sound has never been better. We were able to fully utilize our pa system and let it push air instead of blowing our pants legs. We have a great audience and even a bunch of them commented that we have never sounded so good.

You dont need some big *** amp for tone. I have a house full of great tube amps, but Ive retired them for the moment and gone to a simple preamp and couldnt be happier and so is my back. I need to dial in some more tones on the thing but that is a work in progress.

And to the guy above who says he gets great tone at bedroom levels on his rectifier, I dont think you have any clue to what one of these amps is meant to sound like. The Dual I had and The Roadster both need to be pushed above noon on the master to get that creamy sound that we all like tube amps for. As far as playing a half stack in your bedroom, its like owning a Ferrari and trying to drive in LA traffic. All your doing is frustrating yourself.

Once some of you clowns get a couple of hundred gigs under your belts you'll understand what Im talking about.

Tone is simply a good sound that inspires you. It really doesnt matter what kind of box it comes out of. And it has nothing to do with volume.

 

[Elpelotero]

look into an AXE-FX

 

[Tommy_G]

Find a cheap used solid state amp with a great speaker, and use a pedal board to get your tones. A peavey Hotfoot HFD2 ($20-40 on ebay) has a great mesa-ish lead tone.

Focus your money on a great guitar with great pickups.

 

[Setzer]

I have to chip in here and say that a DC5 is a great amp and in my opinion covers most of the bases that the poster of this topic was wanting.

The DC's are often overlooked but HIGHLY underrated by a lot of people.

Mine is superb at bedroom levels,in fact I have retired my practise amp many moons ago in favour of what the DC can deliver at reasonable volumes and when you want to go live it delivers absolutely.

Rectifiers are good at what they are meant for and that is brutal rhythm but they are hopeless for decent lead sounds and again the DC delivers fantastic lead tones,Satch,Vai etc are all in there and it is a great amp for cleans,I use mine for some country playing with my B Bender Tele and it is great for country twanging.

Lastly and probably most important of all a DC can be had for very modest money.

Dave.........

 

[stephen sawall]

I recommend you go look at a Egnator 20. They sound good at bedroom and have the power to keep up with most drummers with the right cab.They have a pretty wide tone pallet, that is they do a number of good sounds / styles. They are getting cheaper used and sound great for the money. Very good bang for your buck. Just a other option. There are a lot of good amps. Mine is not for sale.

http://www.egnateramps.com/Rebel20.html