Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

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Andy92
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by Andy92 »

If you're trying to change up your tone, the amp will have more impact than the guitar especially if you're going to do some pickup swaps imo. If you want to start a new thread though that'd work since you can update it as you start adding pieces to your rig.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by austinjhnsn »

this is all so interesting to me.

i think a thread where people show off or tell about the rigs they play would be cool.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

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I made a thread about amps and gear back when the new boards first opened. It kinda died off though. This might be a good time to bump it.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by austinjhnsn »

Oh cool. forgot about that one. i might try to get mine in there, its nothing fancy but i think it works :)
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by Andy92 »

I don't have anything fancy right now honestly. I know a decent bit about circuitry because I studied electronics. I want to grab a nice amp within the next year though.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by HellRazor1281 »

Same here. I'll start a new thread and see what happens.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by austinjhnsn »

If i had the money, the archon would so be mine. that amp is gorgeous.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by DeadCell »

Andy92 wrote:You could always check out the EVH 5150 III. Those seem to have better cleans than the predecessors, but the distortion tone is a bit different too. It's a bit less raw but also stays really tight without the need of an overdrive. You almost have to run an overdrive in front of a Rectifier imo. If I had to pick one amp regardless of cash, I'd go for a Uberschall or a Diezel VH4.
Really? I always thought that Mesa's had more than enough gain to play metal style music. I suppose an overdrive wouldn't hurt though. Any recommendations for a nice overdrive for metal? I mean, a Tube Screamer is the obvious choice, but I may be missing something.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by DeadCell »

Well, it's time.......

I present to you, my new rig:

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by Andy92 »

Sweet setup man! Looks awesome. That poor little Crate now. :lol

As far as "needing" an overdrive, that's just kind of preference. But a lot of players use them in front of Rectifiers to tighten up the tone. It's not to add more gain though. Set the drive to 0 and adjust the tone and level to your liking. That keeps the gain the same (a Dual Rec has more than enough gain) while allowing you to shape the tone some. I guess the best way to describe what it does is that it gives your palm muted riffs more focus and bite. It's a subtle difference, but it does make a difference.

A tube screamer is pretty much the go to. The Maxon OD series is nice too. If you want something dirt cheap that has pretty much literally the exact same circuit, you can grab a Digitech Bad Monkey lol.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by austinjhnsn »

[youtube]http://youtu.be/xE5xKkFaZdE[/youtube]

Here's a good example of what an overdrive can do to a triple/dual rec.
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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by DeadCell »

Andy92 wrote:Sweet setup man! Looks awesome. That poor little Crate now. :lol

As far as "needing" an overdrive, that's just kind of preference. But a lot of players use them in front of Rectifiers to tighten up the tone. It's not to add more gain though. Set the drive to 0 and adjust the tone and level to your liking. That keeps the gain the same (a Dual Rec has more than enough gain) while allowing you to shape the tone same. I guess the best way to describe what it does is that it gives your palm muted riffs more focus and bite. It's a subtle difference, but it does make a difference.

A tube screamer is pretty much the go to. The Maxon OD series is nice too. If you want something dirt cheap that has pretty much literally the exact same circuit, you can grab a Digitech Bad Monkey lol.
Thanks man :)

Gotcha, I knew Mark uses a Tube Screamer but never knew why. I mean, between the Uberschall and the Triple Rect, why need an overdrive? But I see what you mean. Not sure why I didn't know that already. Oh yeah, now I remember, because I've been playing a Crate for 10 years.

Alright cool. Here's another question. TS-9 or TS-808? I know many guitarists swear by the vintage/reissue. I may just look into a Bad Monkey for now, as long as it doesn't hurt my tone. My wife would shoot me if I bought a $100 overdrive pedal after buying my head and cab :P

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by Andy92 »

You don't need that vintage reissue yada yada imo. An op amp is an op amp at the end of the day regardless of what IC they're throwing in there. I'd give the Bad Monkey a go and see if you like it. If not you could always return it. I've heard good things about them, although some people feel it sucks the tone from the amp a little bit. I don't really think it does, but everyone has a bit of a different ear for things.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by PiggySmallz »

I don't like using an overdrive in front of the amp for rhythms, I think it makes my tone too bright and brittle. I'm not a big fan of Misha's tone either. I don't mind an overdrive for leads as I want more mids in that. Thats why I might sell my recto, its too flubby without an OD. With an OD I find it colors the tone too much.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by Andy92 »

I think it depends what you want to play. I think a Recto without an overdrive is still pretty perfect for your typical Drop D modern hard rock tone. For extreme metal I'd go for a 6505.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by PiggySmallz »

I'm too picky about my tone. I find something I love and I get excited, then I mic up my cab and I'm like wow this is horrendous...back to the drawing board. I've never once said WOW THIS IS AMAZING!!!

Well actually that's a lie, I said that when I dialed in my Archon

Edit: Deadcell, nice room and gear bro!

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

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Andy92 wrote:I think it depends what you want to play. I think a Recto without an overdrive is still pretty perfect for your typical Drop D modern hard rock tone. For extreme metal I'd go for a 6505.
Yeah, my band mate has a 6505+ but he's been running a Line 6 POD HD500X through it and using the preamp in the POD. I don't really understand that decision, but I've told him he needs to give the 6505+ a fair shot. Those POD HD500's are amazing pieces of equipment (I own one too) but they can't beat the real thing.

For ages, I've been trying to replicate the Recto tone using my HD500. But I never could get it dialed in. The tone just doesn't have enough depth, it just feels weak.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

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PiggySmallz wrote:I'm too picky about my tone. I find something I love and I get excited, then I mic up my cab and I'm like wow this is horrendous...back to the drawing board. I've never once said WOW THIS IS AMAZING!!!

Well actually that's a lie, I said that when I dialed in my Archon

Edit: Deadcell, nice room and gear bro!
Thanks man, I appreciate it :)

Btw, your Archon looks pretty slick. I need to check one out sometime and see how it sounds.

Oh, here's the other corner of the room (well, other major corner)

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by Andy92 »

DeadCell wrote:
Andy92 wrote:I think it depends what you want to play. I think a Recto without an overdrive is still pretty perfect for your typical Drop D modern hard rock tone. For extreme metal I'd go for a 6505.
Yeah, my band mate has a 6505+ but he's been running a Line 6 POD HD500X through it and using the preamp in the POD. I don't really understand that decision, but I've told him he needs to give the 6505+ a fair shot. Those POD HD500's are amazing pieces of equipment (I own one too) but they can't beat the real thing.

For ages, I've been trying to replicate the Recto tone using my HD500. But I never could get it dialed in. The tone just doesn't have enough depth, it just feels weak.
Your band mate has a...unique tase lol. Those PODs are really good though. I'm a big fan of them, just not for a live gig when you have a better amp. If it were me I'd probably keep it in the live rig and use it for effects though.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: Thinking about picking up a Mesa Boogie soon, questions

Post by DeadCell »

Andy92 wrote:
DeadCell wrote:
Andy92 wrote:I think it depends what you want to play. I think a Recto without an overdrive is still pretty perfect for your typical Drop D modern hard rock tone. For extreme metal I'd go for a 6505.
Yeah, my band mate has a 6505+ but he's been running a Line 6 POD HD500X through it and using the preamp in the POD. I don't really understand that decision, but I've told him he needs to give the 6505+ a fair shot. Those POD HD500's are amazing pieces of equipment (I own one too) but they can't beat the real thing.

For ages, I've been trying to replicate the Recto tone using my HD500. But I never could get it dialed in. The tone just doesn't have enough depth, it just feels weak.
Your band mate has a...unique tase lol. Those PODs are really good though. I'm a big fan of them, just not for a live gig when you have a better amp. If it were me I'd probably keep it in the live rig and use it for effects though.
That's pretty much the intention for mine. I'm going back and forth on using it for effects only (and leaving out my Boss CH-1 and Ibanez WD-7) or just leaving the thing at the house all together.

Hopefully I can talk some sense into him.

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