Who is gigging their Express 5:25+ ?

[b00g13mk2B]

Sad to see this forum so quiet. Who gigs with their 5:25+ ? I do often, for small clubs and inside venues. Setup is Clean and Burn, touch of reverb. EQ use depends on guitar and speaker.

Currently has a Tone Tubby 40/40 speaker. Goes well with my Hamer Studio Custom, which is bright. The Clean channel benefits from the speaker high efficiency. I like the Winterland with my Les Paul, but the 40/40 works well, just tweak the EQ a bit.

Any one use a big speaker cab with this amp?

 

[GADonis]

I don't have a 5:25+ but I do gig with my 5:50+ regularly. I'm in a blues band and we play a lot of very small stages so I just use the clean channel and leave the foot switch at home. There is rarely room for the switch and my (pretty small) pedal board.

The speaker is stock but I did put in the tone kit preamp tubes from Doug's. I've recently "started" over on my amp settings and I have to say that my rig is sounded better than ever. I was unhappy with my tone. Flabby and just not good at all with an unpleasant spike in the upper mids. I found I was using WAY TOO much Bass and I was running the Gain too high. This was the result of gradual creep over the years. "Hey this sounds great, so a little more will sound better!" Which is true right up to the point in time when it isn't. I basically went back to the recommended settings in the manual and then did very slight tweaks from there. And VIOLA! Killer tone once again.

For gain I use either a Rockett The Dude or Blue Note with the Blue Note on the board currently. For a solo boost I was using a Mini Spark which I liked except for the soft switch. I just swapped it out for Rockett's Lenny. The Lenny puts back some mids along with a volume boost which helps the solos cut through better at lower volume boost levels.

 

[b00g13mk2B]

I don’t use pedals at all, mostly stay with Clean/Burn configuration. Occasionally use rack time effects. In a few situations I think the 25W/ EL84 confit reaches the limit, especially on Clean. Did not try a 50W Model but expect more clean headroom. I took the send into my MKIIA and the character of the Express+ was largely maintained.

 

[himmelhund]

Ah...another mesa user with Tone tubbies... good man.

 

[user 40687]

I have been gigging my 5:25 Express Plus for about 10 months now. Added a Hughes & Kettner 1-12 extension cab (replaced speaker with a Celestion UK V30). Can't say enough good about it. I run Clean/Burn, and use 4 cable for mod/delay side of my pedal board. It's funny, I run a combo of JHS @ Andy Timmons/Tone City Dry Martini drives on channel 1 and love the sounds...because the AT sounds so close to the Burn channel. I actually tend to use CH1 the most, not really sure why.
I run the EQ only for CH2 so I can punch the mids...really need to use Ch2 more for my lead work. Typically run CH1 at 15/25, Ch2 at 5.

 

[Stinger22]

Haven't gigged regularly for a couple of years but did so with my 5-25+.

Pretty much the same as King and the clean channel takes pedals so well and I like the flavor and the OD's I used. I did do a one hour festival gig last month and just to keep things uncomplicated just plugged straight in using the burn channel with gain set about 9 O'clock for when I need a little girth and it sounded great, that Dumble setting. It's a great gigging amp and now that they don't make anymore may become an appreciating asset, one band I was in the other guitar player bought one because he liked the sound of mine so much.

 

[guitarnorm]

I've been gigging mine for a year. Stock speaker. Mostly use the Crunch channel with gain about 12-1:00 and Blues set for clean-ish with some dirt as I dig in. I also use an Analogman King of Tone to boost either side for additional shades of gain. I use this setup for a cover band that plays out 2-3 times a week. I can get sounds from clean Beatles to blues to classic and heavy rock. Use it with PRS CE-22's

 

[b00g13mk2B]

Played this Saturday, very small room. The Tone Tubby Green is settling in nicely. The power of the 5:25+ is well matched to the speaker, but you still need to drive it a bit to make it sing. I have been using solo more and more to get the leads to pop.