The eagle has landed

[JiveTurkey]

BTW - every once in awhile when I was feeling saucy, I'd throw my old triple rectifier into EL34 bias with the 6L6s still in there. I only did this a few times at rehearsals with my old band and never at a gig, but it provided an extra OOMPF for sure. It was a bit uncontrolled, unhinged, and absolutely glorious.

Though I'm not recommending it to anyone

I've already unintentionally pressed my luck

I'm going to take it out and gig it for the first time Friday. Looking forward to it!

 

[Piing]

Meeeh! when I read that title I was expecting a review of one of the most powerful live concerts of the early 80's


Congratulations for the amp!

 

[-BOOGIEMAN-]

I would love to see a similar cheat-sheet for the Mesa Express amps. Not that anyone plays them. I can't dial out the "raspiness" to save my life. There's no Presence on these amps, just the "Contour" knob. It's no help that there's no GEQ on this one, and it's a 10" cabinet, but I still feel like the preamp itself is spitting a lot of highs. I'm thinking of swapping out the stock speaker for a Creamback 10" and seeing whether that doesn't darken/ smooth things out a bit.

Some day I'll buy a real amp so I can keep up in these big boy threads.

I feel ya…keeping up with Joneses is tough…thankfully it’s a bit easier now that my gigging days are behind me…I think…


I do love seeing the joy we all get from acquiring new gear, it’s something I’ve always liked from the beginning and continues through this day…

 

[la szum]

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.

WTF?? And Pitbull Audio let it go again like that??

I'd ask them to send me another quartet of tubes for that oversight.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Congrats on the amp! Have you set it up with the BL and the FM9 yet as a stereo rig?

 

[mbenigni]

WTF?? And Pitbull Audio let it go again like that??

I'd ask them to send me another quartet of tubes for that oversight.

I won’t “tell any stories out of school”, but IMO Pitbull did right by JT, even in light of this oversight. :)

 

[JiveTurkey]

WTF?? And Pitbull Audio let it go again like that??

I'd ask them to send me another quartet of tubes for that oversight.

Yeah I let my newfound rep know. We'll see how it goes. The gig Friday where I am throwing all caution to the wind and taking nothing else for amplification backup will be the dice roll that settles it all

Congrats on the amp! Have you set it up with the BL and the FM9 yet as a stereo rig?

I...have not. I spent all my time on Friday doing A/B tests. The BL gain levels are especially volume dependent. I spent most of my time A/Bing a dual/triple channel VII setup vs actually getting the BL dual channel straight and I think I have that covered now. The rest of my "testing shenanigans" were spent going between FM9 and HX Stomp.

I won’t “tell any stories out of school”, but IMO Pitbull did right by JT, even in light of this oversight. :)

Yeah; I am as pleased as I am going to get for an amp that's still super expensive. New gear pricing right now is pretty much insane across the board

 

[mbenigni]

The rest of my "testing shenanigans" were spent going between FM9 and HX Stomp.

Do tell. :)

 

[JiveTurkey]

Do tell. :)

Basically; the VII sounded awesome. Even with the wrong tube bias selection But it was super noisy. And effects weren't coming through as clearly. No idea if that was mental or placebo wtf contributed to that. FM9 was initially "winning" in this comparison (FX fidelity) by a LARGE margin.

I was originally going to use the FM9 in 4cm. I set it up to switch amp channels, switch GR55 presets and engage pre and post effects as needed. I have some humbuster cables but it is still a bit noisier than the Stomp. Not sure why. When switching back and forth and noticed the tube bias switch being wrong; I took a break to reset my ears. Then I went back at it and went between the VII and BL. I set the BL up as a 2 channel amp and the VII the same. Mainly trying to avoid bringing external drives or any need for pre effects and pedal power and floor real estate that comes with all that.

The BL worked great using (generally volume matched) Crunch/Crush settings on channel 1/2. You do all sorts of sh!t with the VII and it's various modes to give you a huge array of variably gained up tones.

I put the Stomp on top of the GR-55 top screen section (just above the preset name text) and put the expression pedal that controls the loop of the Stomp (Trumpet engage) on the right side of the GR55. This small board and whatever amp channel switch to the side will do what I need. For now. As always. Duh

 

[mbenigni]

Basically; the VII sounded awesome. Even with the wrong tube bias selection But it was super noisy. And effects weren't coming through as clearly. No idea if that was mental or placebo wtf contributed to that. FM9 was initially "winning" in this comparison (FX fidelity) by a LARGE margin.

I was originally going to use the FM9 in 4cm. I set it up to switch amp channels, switch GR55 presets and engage pre and post effects as needed. I have some humbuster cables but it is still a bit noisier than the Stomp. Not sure why. When switching back and forth and noticed the tube bias switch being wrong; I took a break to reset my ears. Then I went back at it and went between the VII and BL. I set the BL up as a 2 channel amp and the VII the same. Mainly trying to avoid bringing external drives or any need for pre effects and pedal power and floor real estate that comes with all that.

The BL worked great using (generally volume matched) Crunch/Crush settings on channel 1/2. You do all sorts of sh!t with the VII and it's various modes to give you a huge array of variably gained up tones.

I put the Stomp on top of the GR-55 top screen section (just above the preset name text) and put the expression pedal that controls the loop of the Stomp (Trumpet engage) on the right side of the GR55. This small board and whatever amp channel switch to the side will do what I need. For now. As always. Duh

Sounds like a blast, man!

 

[Desertdweller]

@JiveTurkey is there a need to volume match the channels though? I generally keep one channel on the BL for clean and the other for heavy sounds, then use a pedal for a lead boost. Or you can set one channel to rhythm and one to a lead boost with a slightly higher volume.

 

[JiveTurkey]

@JiveTurkey is there a need to volume match the channels though? I generally keep one channel on the BL for clean and the other for heavy sounds, then use a pedal for a lead boost. Or you can set one channel to rhythm and one to a lead boost with a slightly higher volume.

Not 100%. Just close to the same relative ballpark. I don't do clean; just rhythm gain and lead gain levels. The solo boost happens for me in the modeler/fx realm in one of the blocks there. That way I can vary gain but remain consistent level-wise.

 

[Gearzilla]

The solo boost happens for me in the modeler/fx realm in one of the blocks there.

 

[EOengineer]

I'm over here salivating at the thought of a Bandlander/MarkVII stereo rig. There was a period in the early 2000s where I realized my Rev G Dual Rectifier and Triaxis/290 rigs were both in the rehearsal space so why not run them both? The only thing better than 1 Mesa is 2 Mesas.

 

[Whizzinby]

I don't do clean;

 

[JiveTurkey]

Meeeh! when I read that title I was expecting a review of one of the most powerful live concerts of the early 80's


Congratulations for the amp!

I prefer my "if it's traditional hard rock/metal and not Priest or Maiden, it better be of German descent" options in the form of Scorpions and Accept

On the subject of things to pair with the Boogies; I need to get some different speakers. I have the GK100s. Which are fine. But I would like to have some different options I can crank at a variety of levels at home and enjoy.

 

[James Freeman]

I've tried many speakers, I'm always back to a Vintage 30.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I've tried many speakers, I'm always back to a Vintage 30.

Yeah I have an empty Boogie 4x12 that has sat in my jam room pretty much silently demanding I hunt down some old V30s but I haven't gone down that road for whatever reason. I had some new V30s and they were great one day then grat(ing) the next

I need to find an old cheap cab that came with stock V30s back in the day and do a transplant.

 

[James Freeman]

They don't make them like they used to applies here, even the new Mesa V30 is somewhat shrill in comparison to the early 00's ones everyone's hunting let alone a Chinese V30, there are many comparisons of that on youtube.
To make a modern Chinese V30 sound good in the room you have to blend it with a Greenback, Frieman knows.

 

[la szum]

Basically; the VII sounded awesome. Even with the wrong tube bias selection But it was super noisy. And effects weren't coming through as clearly. No idea if that was mental or placebo wtf contributed to that. FM9 was initially "winning" in this comparison (FX fidelity) by a LARGE margin.

I was originally going to use the FM9 in 4cm. I set it up to switch amp channels, switch GR55 presets and engage pre and post effects as needed. I have some humbuster cables but it is still a bit noisier than the Stomp. Not sure why. When switching back and forth and noticed the tube bias switch being wrong; I took a break to reset my ears. Then I went back at it and went between the VII and BL. I set the BL up as a 2 channel amp and the VII the same. Mainly trying to avoid bringing external drives or any need for pre effects and pedal power and floor real estate that comes with all that.

The BL worked great using (generally volume matched) Crunch/Crush settings on channel 1/2. You do all sorts of sh!t with the VII and it's various modes to give you a huge array of variably gained up tones.

I put the Stomp on top of the GR-55 top screen section (just above the preset name text) and put the expression pedal that controls the loop of the Stomp (Trumpet engage) on the right side of the GR55. This small board and whatever amp channel switch to the side will do what I need. For now. As always. Duh