The eagle has landed

[mbenigni]

I always wondered about the Express stuff but it's one of those in between Mesa amps I can't seem to pry my eyeballs of a Rectifier variant to take a good look at?

As I've said before, it never would have been my first choice. I just stumbled on it one night, convinced myself it was a good deal, and made an uncharacteristic impulse buy. The 10" cabinet has always appealed to me aesthetically, even though the 12" 5:50 (with 6L6's) clearly sounded better. (They were sitting side by side in the store, with a price difference of maybe $200 or $300?)

Once it was discontinued, it was that much harder to bring myself to sell it. I had it in my head that the 10" version was pretty rare, though I do see a few on Reverb now.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Yeah, I'm definitely guilty of starving the power section whilst meekly tone-hunting in the basement, trying not to keep anyone upstairs awake.



The amp has always delivered for clean/ mid-gain stuff, I'm just struggling to get any decent high gain sounds out of it. I'll try your recommendation with some kind of attenuator in the loop.

throw that helix GEQ in the loop with a classic V shape when you run it through that 4x12 and share your results

I definitely regret not trying my + with a closed back cab before selling it, but such is life.

Having dumb thoughts about a .50cal + head a buddy is selling for pretty cheap right now... those are in the same general circuit lineage of the express stuff.

I always wondered about the Express stuff but it's one of those in between Mesa amps I can't seem to pry my eyeballs of a Rectifier variant to take a good look at?

I think the express/F/.50cal/etc. series have been disserviced by being thought of as a poor mans Mark. I think you get much better results as thinking of them as their own thing

That said, with a Mark series you can capture all the same tones and much much more from all those. I think you need not wonder with that VII haha

 

[mbenigni]

definitely regret not trying my + with a closed back cab before selling it, but such is life.

It makes you wonder how/ whether the 10" MkV:25 can sound remotely like a MkV (it's even got an alleged "IIc+" setting) with that tiny open backed cab. This is what keeps me wondering if that Creamback speaker can work some kind of miracle.

I've also thought about trying to fashion a back panel to make the combo a closed-back convertible, but zero cooling would probably not help with reliability.

 

[la szum]

I dial in my Mrak V without using the GEQ.

I think it can become a bit of a crutch, and kind of artificially bloats out
the low-end, and empties out the mids. And it is fucking Hetfield's fault.

Only about 15% kidding here.

That GEQ is such a useful tool, but it seems EVERYONE and their deceased Great Aunt
sets that sucker up in a V as a default. You can do some wild and unconventional stuff
with it. Kind of bums me out that it has become such a one-trick pony.

Should I hide again? Yeah, I probably should.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I'm going to give it runthrough this afternoon with no graphic and see what the channel controls can do. I have faith!

 

[JiveTurkey]

So without an EQ. There is do-able stuff on every channel. I can see 1000% why people say these are tweaker amps. The observation I might make is that this seems easier to get great stuff without the EQ vs the older Marks where my mind says all bets are off from day to day.

Another good trick seems to be doing just tiny sculpting with the loop. Like leaving it flat except for nudging that 80hz down juuuuust a hair to cut some flub. Like barely any. Great results. Again

 

[spawnofthesith]

Ewwww @ disengaging the GEQ on an amp that has it

 

[spawnofthesith]

 

[la szum]

So without an EQ. There is do-able stuff on every channel. I can see 1000% why people say these are tweaker amps. The observation I might make is that this seems easier to get great stuff without the EQ vs the older Marks where my mind says all bets are off from day to day.

Another good trick seems to be doing just tiny sculpting with the loop. Like leaving it flat except for nudging that 80hz down juuuuust a hair to cut some flub. Like barely any. Great results. Again

That's awesome, JT.

They are even more amazingly versatile amps..... with that GEQ is disengaged, even if
it sometimes hard for some to realize that.

I still love the GEQ on Channel 3 of my Mrak V. But it is off 90% of the time on CH. 1 and 2.

Not sorry.

Does your VII have the Presets or Sliders option on the GEQ for each Channel?

 

[JiveTurkey]

That's awesome, JT.

They are even more amazingly versatile amps..... with that GEQ is disengaged, even if
it sometimes hard for some to realize that.

I still love the GEQ on Channel 3 of my Mrak V. But it is off 90% of the time on CH. 1 and 2.

Not sorry.

Does your VII have the Presets or Sliders option on the GEQ for each Channel?

There is a toggle for eq per channel; if that's what you're asking? So you can have it on for some channels but off for others? It's all pretty damn slick

 

[JiveTurkey]

@la szum there are savable presets. It took me a minute to figure that out; but I done did.

I am currently using the FM for post FX, routing, amp channel switching and GR55 preset switching. It's......a lot to drink in at the moment

 

[spawnofthesith]

@la szum there are savable presets. It took me a minute to figure that out; but I done did.

Wait, can you expound on this? it was my understanding that the VII did NOT have the eq preset knobs?

 

[JiveTurkey]

Wait, can you expound on this? it was my understanding that the VII did NOT have the eq preset knobs?

I should say you can store a channel preset with eq, fx loop and (I believe on this one) reverb ON or OFF. You can't store different EQ settings. To my knowledge at least. I am still barely using anything other than the 80hz slider right now.

Edited for per the manual:
"USER PRESETS VIA MIDI PROGRAM CHANGE 128 user presets can be saved and recalled using MIDI Program Change messages #1 through #128. When a MIDI Program Change message is received on the same MIDI Channel as the MIDI CHANNEL SELECT SWITCH setting that’s called up, the saved amplifier channel and other on/off functions (Reverb, Loop, EQ) for the received MIDI Program Change message, will be recalled."

 

[JiveTurkey]

@Desertdweller question for you. I assume you are running the el34s in yours? Have you tried some 6l6s? Just curious

 

[Desertdweller]

@Desertdweller question for you. I assume you are running the el34s in yours? Have you tried some 6l6s? Just curious

Wait, in the VII? 6L6s all the way. If I could run hybrid with 2 EL34s and 2 6L6s like I can in my Mk3, I would, but otherwise I use 6L6s with Mark amps.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Wait, in the VII? 6L6s all the way. If I could run hybrid with 2 EL34s and 2 6L6s like I can in my Mk3, I would, but otherwise I use 6L6s with Mark amps.

So the dumbfuck that had it before me switched the tube switch to EL34s. Despite there being 6L6s installed. JFC. Of course; I didn't check it so there's that. Ugh.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Oh gear testing. So much musical productivity to be found!

 

[Desertdweller]

So the dumb***** that had it before me switched the tube switch to EL34s. Despite there being 6L6s installed. JFC. Of course; I didn't check it so there's that. Ugh.

That would honestly piss me off, but other than a hotter bias and burning through the tube life faster, it shouldn't hurt the amp at all.

 

[JiveTurkey]

That would honestly piss me off, but other than a hotter bias and burning through the tube life faster, it shouldn't hurt the amp at all.

Yeah...just PM'd about it...but I am ok. My rep said to keep him posted. To be fair; I ran it mainly in 50 watt and some good stretchs in 25 watt mode. Not much 90 watt because sweet baby jesus

 

[JiveTurkey]

Also did some testing with the BL. Because no one is home, it's a vacation day so why the F not.

One of my biggest twitches on the BL was not getting a good 2 channel, incremental gain sounding like it's coming from the same amp thing. So I have been using external dirt pedals on top of the crunch mode on one of the channels and using my volume knob on the guitar. After getting some partial credits in AmpDialingUniversity; I went back to the BL. I did a 2 channel setup with Crunch mode on channel 1, Crush on channel 2. Great balance of levels and the gain felt like it was a natural progression from one channel to the next.

I guess it took a 7 mode, 3 channel amp with graphic eq and configuring midi switching from an external device while missing a bias switch setting to figure out how to balance a gain and volume knob on a 2 channel amp.