Mesa Stiletto Ace combo

How are you with a sawzall? :unsure:
Tim Allen Power Tool GIF
 
JiveTurkey said:
Did you develop a hernia or are you ok?
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Haha, well I actually went and got it at the guy's friend's house/jam space (which I don't normally do, prefer public areas, but it looked okay on Google), and had to carry it up a big spiral stair case to get it out. He offered to help, but without the side handles it's awkward for two people, so I just hunkered down and heaved it up on my own. I would not make doing that a regular thing, though.
 
TubeStack said:
Ok here goes:

The Good
- it's none more black (others were all green and tan, which I don't love)
- absolute mint condition
- has incredible punch and size to the sound; the closed back cab effect is quite remarkable; by far the biggest-sounding 1x12 combo I've ever heard
- it is a massively loud and big-sounding 50W, almost seems like 100, maybe it's the huge, heavy transformers
- I got a great crunch tone dialed in super quick; just need to not be afraid of extreme settings (for me it was treble at 11 o'clock, mids way down at 8, bass at 3 o'clock, and presence at 9:30
- full power (not Spongy) and tube rectification is awesome for crunch and is similar to feel of the Dyne, sweet and addictive sag
- very nice cleans that were easy to dial in; solid state rectification works well here
- a treat to have separate EQ for crunch/clean after working with Dyne so long
- also nice to have more of that Marshall upper-mid kerrang than the Dyne
- goes well with all my pedals except one (see below)
- effects loop sounds great
- channel switching works easily with my Stomp and Suhr Micro MIDI
- it has wheels :grin

The Bad
- it is insanely heavy and doesn't have handles on sides, just one on top
- it doesn't gel at all with my beloved Keeley Fuzz Head, which is really unfortunate as that's my favourite and most-used boost
- that's about it

The Ugly
- I don't love the cheesy Stiletto knife logo/bad tattoo image, may cover that with a band sticker or something

I might just keep it in the basement as my main at-home amp, and leave the smaller Dyne head + Recto 2x12 by the door. However, my garage is actually just 4-5 steps up the stairs, so it's not too big a deal to get it up and out, if I want to gig with it, however it's not super easy to heave up and into the RAV4, so we'll see. Also won't be bringing it to a venue with a lot of stairs, I don't think. But most places we play right now have none, so it could work for that.

Overall I'm having a good time with it and it was a whole lotta Mesa for not a lot of money, all things considered.
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RE: the Keeley fuzz head - pretty sure the stiletto has a bright cap on those gain pots. You probably know this, but bright caps don’t always play nice with fuzz. I’d do whatever you can do to get that gain control on one of the channels up as high as you can without getting unusably distorted, might help out the fuzz.
 
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EOengineer said:
RE: the Keeley fuzz head - pretty sure the stiletto has a bright cap on those gain pots. You probably know this, but bright caps don’t always play nice with fuzz. I’d do whatever you can do to get that gain control on one of the channels up as high as you can without getting unusably distorted, might help out the fuzz.
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Ah, I didn't know that, thanks. I have the gain around 2:30, still don't love the FH with it. I'll try it higher but I don't like a lot of gain on my main crunch sound.

Thankfully, my JHS Prestige sounds awesome with it, though. Doesn't have the fuzzy personality of the Keeley, but gives a similar full-range boost and is working as a replacement at home.

Only thing is, the JHS is what I use as an always-on boost for my Strat (only been using my LP so far), so I don't have any extra dirt/boost for the Strat for leads, as that's what the FH would normally do (don't usually like my other drive, the MXR CBMOD with the Strat). I may try a Timmy, which is the model that worked well when I was all-FM9 for my effects.

(The MXR CBMOD sounds killer with the LP+Stiletto, so no worries there.)
 
I am really blown away at the effectiveness of the sealed, closed-back cab with this combo. It honestly sounds huge and has tremendous punch.
It also has a noticeable level of detail due to the single speaker, I guess, as opposed to a 2x12 or 4x12 + comb filtering or whatever.
 
TubeStack said:
I am really blown away at the effectiveness of the sealed, closed-back cab with this combo. It honestly sounds huge and has tremendous punch.
It also has a noticeable level of detail due to the single speaker, I guess, as opposed to a 2x12 or 4x12 + comb filtering or whatever.
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I really like the concept of a closed back cab. The fact that 99% of combos are open back is the main reason I don't really fuck with them anymore

I'm sure you probably already said in this thread, but what speaker is in there?
 
A single V30 also means the speaker is being pushed pretty hard, I guess? To me, speakers sound better when their wattage more closely matches the amp's wattage? As opposed to a 20W amp going into 100W 4x12, etc.
 
I know the Ace.
We go back a long way.
What makes the Ace special are the modes.
The clean sounds/modes RULE.
The 2 channels with Crunch mode RULES.
“Humble Pie”, “I Don’t Need No Doctor”
Fluid Drive ?? -FUCK OFF, that shit KILLS!!!

The top frequencies can be sinister,
So different eq’ing,the treble/presence,
changing tubes/speakers might be in the cards.

What was SUPER DOPE was the Wizard Leopard
Boost pedal with it.
Rick’s a bad ass dude man,
he designed that boost pedal so you can keep
toggle settings in modes &
switch channel with the boost programmed on or off with the side switch on the Leopsrd pedal.
RAD!!!!

However..in the left corner over there in the darkened heat..is the meanest Revision F Blackface Dual Rec I ever fought in all those
wars with.
Look at it back there…it’ll eat the whole room.

(that’s also wallpaper from 1967.
Zoom in.. the circle of life)



 

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Life Eats Life said:
What was SUPER DOPE was the Wizard Leopard
Boost pedal with it.
Rick’s a bad ass dude man,
he designed that boost pedal so you can keep
toggle settings in modes &
switch channel with the boost programmed on or off with the side switch on the Leopsrd pedal.
RAD!!!!
Click to expand...

This sounds interesting, thanks! I will look into it.

Life Eats Life said:
However..in the left corner over there in the darkened heat..is the meanest Revision F Blackface Dual Rec I ever fought in all those
wars with.
Look at it back there…it’ll eat the whole room.

(that’s also wallpaper from 1967.
Zoom in.. the circle of life)
Click to expand...

Great pic. I am thinking of picking up an Ace head now, too.

Also, those angled Metro 2x12s look great, must be nice for hearing yourself.
 
TubeStack said:
Only thing is, the JHS is what I use as an always-on boost for my Strat (only been using my LP so far), so I don't have any extra dirt/boost for the Strat for leads, as that's what the FH would normally do (don't usually like my other drive, the MXR CBMOD with the Strat). I may try a Timmy, which is the model that worked well when I was all-FM9 for my effects.
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So I tried the Keeley Fuzz Head with my Strat the other day and it actually sounds great for added dirt. Just doesn't jive (turkey) with the LP + Stiletto at all. So I can live with that, and just use the Prestige instead with the LP.
Tomorrow night I'm going to bring the Stiletto to practice (if we can make it happen). :banana

Will probably try:

- Ace combo on its own
- Ace combo into 4x12, disabling combo speaker
- Ace combo into 4x12 without disabling combo speaker (so 4x12 + 1x12) :rawk
 
JiveTurkey said:
HARD pass based on weight alone. 2 items over 1 item at 78lbs all day long. Always wanted to try one though?
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Truly understandable on the weight. I do prefer open back combos these days for most of what I do.

The last combo I converted to head was my Matchless C30 2 X 12.

If I ever run across the Stiletto combo I can try in person, I just might have to snag it if the "price is right".
 
TubeStack said:
I picked it up a couple days ago. It worked out that I had a family event near it, so the drive wasn't an issue anymore. Also got the guy to drop the price and it was a pretty good deal overall ($1000 Canadian, so about $750 US). So far I'm actually very happy with it, will post more at lunch today. Also I'll need to start some of this training if I'm going to be moving it around... :rofl

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Great price!
 
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