I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around this non adjustable fixed bias nonsense.
I mean it isn't nonsense, it's an ingenious way to sell tubes and ensure cold bias, powersection cleanliness, and no "strain" on anything causing warranty returns and stuff.
Coming from a vintage amp background (mostly Marshall), the majority of Mesa users are not modders or carers(?) of bias etc.
When Marshall guys feel an amp is too bright, a lot of us will swap or remove the bright cap, try different bottles, different bias...you know...get their hands dirty so to speak. I don't know if or what Mesa uses for a bright cap (on the vol pot or it's "place" on a pcb), I'm new here and haven't read every post yet but I see nothing about the brightcap.
Trying different powertubes...well vintage powertubes isn't a good idea. It would be a crapshoot without being able to see or adjust the bias. Similar to piñata dart playing where you put a blindfold on, spin yourself around 4 or 5 times and start chucking darts hoping to hit the bullseye. Good luck even hitting the BOARD!
Anyway...
I read SO many Stiletto threads where people complain about their harsh icepicky high end while others find them fat, thick and crunchy. You'll even discover instances where people will testdrive many Stilettos before finding one that sounds big and awesome.
OK so...you're Randall Smith. You order a million Sovtek EL34s. I assume you would then test and discard all the ones whos draw falls out of tolerance that will work with the stock and blanket bias resistors in the Stilettos. You'd have to assume that 1/3 would be biased warm, another third would run cold, a fraction would be just plain wrong and a few would be perfect. The Goldilocks of a match.
Since Mesas are high gain monsters with multiple cascaded gain stages that like to see a pretty clean linear (and biased very coldly), as long as they set the amps up to bias cold you'll have a wide range of "acceptably" good sounding amps but a LOT of them...or a third of them...or HALF of them or more MIGHT sound pretty thin and harsh. Of course, running crap Sovtek glass is gonna help the amp sound like **** and then plug that brittle sounding amp into a cab loaded with V30s and.... People seem surprised that the Stilettos can sound icepicky. In fact...taking everything into consideration it's hard to believe that there is even a single example that sounds awesome.
This non adj bias nonsense and keeping the powertubes running cold works great for the majority of Mesa's line because they want the 6L6 powersection to run cold, clean and linear-ly but when you're running EL34s and looking for a bit of Brit crunch (which is what the Stiletto was all about....I think?)..well you want those 34s to be running warm.
I have a feeling that the bad rep the Stilettos seem to have...that they are overly bright and piercing, can always be blamed on poor/cold bias...and of course the actual icepicks in their cabs (V30!!! I suppose it's a good speaker for high gain...tight, clean, scooped)n which probably work well with high gain monsters like a recto.
Just like a lot of vintage Marshalls sound best with the treble, middle and presence rolled back a bit and properly biased tubes...well if you're building/designing an act like a Marshall, you're probably gonna have to run it like a Marshall and that is NOT with the powertubes biased colder than Antarctica in August and plugged into a V30 made of glass.
This rant is purely the point of view of ONE vintage Marshall owner/lover. Thankfully the Stiletto Ace I got a couple weeks ago just happened to have the stars aligned and sounded great or I would not have done the deal. I was new to Mesas and didn't know about this biasbullshit method of amp building. I would have just thought....yeah I KNEW I didn't like Mesas!! I would have said NO THANKS to the awesome trade deal and I would have never known that a Mesa and I would be an item. We ARE!
Now if I could just get this forum to work as well as the Marshall one I'd be all set...and y'all would be saying...GOD...does this guy never shut UP!!?? You're probably saying that now.
Point is...I LOVE my Stiletto Ace SO much. I can't WAIT till the parts arrive to install adjustable fixed bias (oxymoron??) and I can put some actual tubes into her. WOOHOO!!! Oops...that wasn't the point of this rant...point was that...For a Mesa Stiletto to sound awesome you need a good set of EL34s (probably not sovteks though they will work too) that are PROPERLY BIASED!! As soon as Randall realizes this he will be able to stop discontinuing every Brit voiced attempt to replace it with another only to find that the Marshall purists are still finding them bright and thin.
Randall...when you're building a Marshall inspired amp, you can't expect them to sound good unless you push those 34s. They are not 6L6s and Marshalls do not have a tight clean powersection.
Just sayin.
I mean it isn't nonsense, it's an ingenious way to sell tubes and ensure cold bias, powersection cleanliness, and no "strain" on anything causing warranty returns and stuff.
Coming from a vintage amp background (mostly Marshall), the majority of Mesa users are not modders or carers(?) of bias etc.
When Marshall guys feel an amp is too bright, a lot of us will swap or remove the bright cap, try different bottles, different bias...you know...get their hands dirty so to speak. I don't know if or what Mesa uses for a bright cap (on the vol pot or it's "place" on a pcb), I'm new here and haven't read every post yet but I see nothing about the brightcap.
Trying different powertubes...well vintage powertubes isn't a good idea. It would be a crapshoot without being able to see or adjust the bias. Similar to piñata dart playing where you put a blindfold on, spin yourself around 4 or 5 times and start chucking darts hoping to hit the bullseye. Good luck even hitting the BOARD!
Anyway...
I read SO many Stiletto threads where people complain about their harsh icepicky high end while others find them fat, thick and crunchy. You'll even discover instances where people will testdrive many Stilettos before finding one that sounds big and awesome.
OK so...you're Randall Smith. You order a million Sovtek EL34s. I assume you would then test and discard all the ones whos draw falls out of tolerance that will work with the stock and blanket bias resistors in the Stilettos. You'd have to assume that 1/3 would be biased warm, another third would run cold, a fraction would be just plain wrong and a few would be perfect. The Goldilocks of a match.
Since Mesas are high gain monsters with multiple cascaded gain stages that like to see a pretty clean linear (and biased very coldly), as long as they set the amps up to bias cold you'll have a wide range of "acceptably" good sounding amps but a LOT of them...or a third of them...or HALF of them or more MIGHT sound pretty thin and harsh. Of course, running crap Sovtek glass is gonna help the amp sound like **** and then plug that brittle sounding amp into a cab loaded with V30s and.... People seem surprised that the Stilettos can sound icepicky. In fact...taking everything into consideration it's hard to believe that there is even a single example that sounds awesome.
This non adj bias nonsense and keeping the powertubes running cold works great for the majority of Mesa's line because they want the 6L6 powersection to run cold, clean and linear-ly but when you're running EL34s and looking for a bit of Brit crunch (which is what the Stiletto was all about....I think?)..well you want those 34s to be running warm.
I have a feeling that the bad rep the Stilettos seem to have...that they are overly bright and piercing, can always be blamed on poor/cold bias...and of course the actual icepicks in their cabs (V30!!! I suppose it's a good speaker for high gain...tight, clean, scooped)n which probably work well with high gain monsters like a recto.
Just like a lot of vintage Marshalls sound best with the treble, middle and presence rolled back a bit and properly biased tubes...well if you're building/designing an act like a Marshall, you're probably gonna have to run it like a Marshall and that is NOT with the powertubes biased colder than Antarctica in August and plugged into a V30 made of glass.
This rant is purely the point of view of ONE vintage Marshall owner/lover. Thankfully the Stiletto Ace I got a couple weeks ago just happened to have the stars aligned and sounded great or I would not have done the deal. I was new to Mesas and didn't know about this biasbullshit method of amp building. I would have just thought....yeah I KNEW I didn't like Mesas!! I would have said NO THANKS to the awesome trade deal and I would have never known that a Mesa and I would be an item. We ARE!
Now if I could just get this forum to work as well as the Marshall one I'd be all set...and y'all would be saying...GOD...does this guy never shut UP!!?? You're probably saying that now.
Point is...I LOVE my Stiletto Ace SO much. I can't WAIT till the parts arrive to install adjustable fixed bias (oxymoron??) and I can put some actual tubes into her. WOOHOO!!! Oops...that wasn't the point of this rant...point was that...For a Mesa Stiletto to sound awesome you need a good set of EL34s (probably not sovteks though they will work too) that are PROPERLY BIASED!! As soon as Randall realizes this he will be able to stop discontinuing every Brit voiced attempt to replace it with another only to find that the Marshall purists are still finding them bright and thin.
Randall...when you're building a Marshall inspired amp, you can't expect them to sound good unless you push those 34s. They are not 6L6s and Marshalls do not have a tight clean powersection.
Just sayin.