Mesa Mystery Solved II: It's Not You It's Me Boogaloo

[FuzzyAce]

VII
BL

 

[Achilles]

Been getting along well with Boogie and their quirks since the very early 80s. Never had an issue with the unique way of dialing them in. Most of the models through the years have been great but there's been some I think were just voiced bad for my tastes. And not like what you expect from a Mesa. Anyway it's easy getting started with any Boogie - gain and treble at 2:00, mid at 10:00, bass off, and presence at noon. Then adjust to taste. Everyone I've ever met who didn't like a Mesa seemed more pissed with the illogical tweaking methodology than with the tones. That and the obvious option anxiety for some, which is weird cause most everything other than the basic 6 knobs is set and forget.

 

[Stratzrus]

Nah. Just adds a small bit of noise to the circuit when it's engaged. The JP was noisy AF comparatively speaking. Could be my environment as well? BL is dead quiet.

All of the other issues aside, how would your compare the tones of the VII to the BL; clean, overdrive, crunch, and high gain?

 

[EOengineer]

Anyway it's easy getting started with any Boogie - gain and treble at 2:00, mid at 10:00, bass off, and presence at noon. Then adjust to taste. Everyone I've ever met who didn't like a Mesa seemed more pissed with the illogical tweaking methodology than with the tones.

I agree with you about people’s frustrations with the perceived oddity of dialing in some Mesa amps. IMO it’s primarily the Mark series that has gained this reputation of being an impassable gauntlet of tweaking chaos.

When I see people throwing shade at Mesa as a brand because of that reputation, it tells me a lot about them. It tells me they didn’t bother looking at the obvious lineage of the Mark amps, which are hot rodded blackface amps at their core. Ever crank a Deluxe Reverb up to 8 to get it all crunched up? To make that not sound like absolute mud, you have to drop the bass to 0-3 and push the treble. Sound familiar?

Ok I guess I can cut someone slack for not knowing how to work a crunched up Fender and not knowing the connection between Fender and Mesa, we don’t all have the same experiences in life - gotta start somewhere right? So then they could google for like 5 seconds and see the “low bass higher treble” recipe that is recommend in every thread on every forum in every language on the fucking planet.

But nope - that’s too much effort for them too. People who write off Mesa’s because they are “too hard to tweak” are the same people that you see driving down the wrong side of the interstate. They’re going to be confused regardless of the circumstances.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I agree with you about people’s frustrations with the perceived oddity of dialing in some Mesa amps. IMO it’s primarily the Mark series that has gained this reputation of being an impassable gauntlet of tweaking chaos.

When I see people throwing shade at Mesa as a brand because of that reputation, it tells me a lot about them. It tells me they didn’t bother looking at the obvious lineage of the Mark amps, which are hot rodded blackface amps at their core. Ever crank a Deluxe Reverb up to 8 to get it all crunched up? To make that not sound like absolute mud, you have to drop the bass to 0-3 and push the treble. Sound familiar?

Ok I guess I can cut someone slack for not knowing how to work a crunched up Fender and not knowing the connection between Fender and Mesa, we don’t all have the same experiences in life - gotta start somewhere right? So then they could google for like 5 seconds and see the “low bass higher treble” recipe that is recommend in every thread on every forum in every language on the fucking planet.

But nope - that’s too much effort for them too. People who write off Mesa’s because they are “too hard to tweak” are the same people that you see driving down the wrong side of the interstate. They’re going to be confused regardless of the circumstances.

There's a big difference between "too hard to tweak" and "compulsed to tweak".

@Stratzrus
"All of the other issues aside, how would your compare the tones of the VII to the BL; clean, overdrive, crunch, and high gain?"

Gut answer, no thought:
Clean: BL
Crunch: BL
Heavy: Mark.

Over explained thoughts:
I don't do cleans, but BL is rich, robust and dead simple to get a luscious clean. I'm sure the Mark can dialed in but I have no desire for it.

Crunch is in draw territory but dead simple keeps me in BL camp on this one. Wound up BL Crunch is superb.

Heavy is where the Mark shines. IV and IIC+ are devastating. VII takes some thought but is great as well. Crush mode on the BL is fairly boring and I lean towards boosting the living hell out of Crunch mode and playing with a heavy touch when I want to go evil with it.

 

[Stratzrus]

There's a big difference between "too hard to tweak" and "compulsed to tweak".

@Stratzrus
"All of the other issues aside, how would your compare the tones of the VII to the BL; clean, overdrive, crunch, and high gain?"

Gut answer, no thought:
Clean: BL
Crunch: BL
Heavy: Mark.

Over explained thoughts:
I don't do cleans, but BL is rich, robust and dead simple to get a luscious clean. I'm sure the Mark can dialed in but I have no desire for it.

Crunch is in draw territory but dead simple keeps me in BL camp on this one. Wound up BL Crunch is superb.

Heavy is where the Mark shines. IV and IIC+ are devastating. VII takes some thought but is great as well. Crush mode on the BL is fairly boring and I lean towards boosting the living hell out of Crunch mode and playing with a heavy touch when I want to go evil with it.

Thanks, that's helpful.

I'm still leaning toward getting a Mark VII. If I do I'll get it from a vendor with a return policy so that I can check out all of the issues you've identified to see if they're problems for me as well or if I can live with them in order to have an amp with the features that draw me to it.

The heavy tones are important. I have amps that do cleans well so my rationale for getting a VII is to have an amp that can do both. I really liked the tones I heard on the Badlander clips I listened to but the MIDI capability, three channels, and 18.75" width that fits perfectly on my Thiele 1x12 have significant appeal. I have enough 100 watt high gain heads (Fryette Sig:X, Deliverance 120, Rivera Knucklehead Reverb 100) so high gain tones aren't my only concern.

I want a high wattage 1x12 combo that I can do Jazz gigs with, can use to jam with my former Brooklyn Hardcore band members, and also pairs well with my FM9.

I'm still on the fence but definitely leaning towards getting a Mark VII.

 

[JiveTurkey]

FYI; Badlander rack head will fit on smaller cabinets. It fits perfectly on top of my 2 x 112 stack in the wood headshell I made for it.

 

[primeholy]

You got it! LOL!

That pic made my mouth water

 

[Achilles]

One other note about Boogies, Marks mostly. They really do love EVM12L speakers. I was using everything else for the longest time and then gave the EV a shot just because that's what Randall used in the original 1x12 combos. Coming from a greenback it took some getting use to but now I'm totally sold on the pairing.

 

[TubeStack]

So revisited for a good long while yesterday and today. Again, this is all me.

 

[Stratzrus]

One other note about Boogies, Marks mostly. They really do love EVM12L speakers. I was using everything else for the longest time and then gave the EV a shot just because that's what Randall used in the original 1x12 combos. Coming from a greenback it took some getting use to but now I'm totally sold on the pairing.

I plan to put an EV SRO/12L in my Mesa Thiele 1x12 and sit a Mark VII combo on top of it.

I'd love to put one in the combo as well but it's too heavy as it is so I'm thinking about putting a Celestion G12 Neo V-Type in the combo to lighten it up. I've heard good things about that speaker.