Tried out Mesa today - MAJOR dissapointment

[ahjteam]

I tried out the Mesa today at our college, I'm not 100% sure it was mark 2 or mark 3, but it looked kinda like this but with pullable mids knob that said rhythm 2 or something, so I guess it was a mark 3 then. Anyways... Atleast I think that either the amp was broken or then it just sounds like shit.

I mean, the clean sound was good, but I just could not get it to distort without a pedal. Even tho I had the rhythm channel preamp at max and the mids knob pulled out to actually get the channel to distort, I couldn't get it to distort without turning up the master volume so loud that it hurt my ears even with earplugs on. I mean my pants were flapping in the wind, and would have to guess that it was closer to 120 dB when it started to sound decent, compared to Peavey 5150 that you can distort even at bedroom volumes. Is it just the way Mesas are, or was there something wrong with the amp in question?

 

[Omega_Void]

...the clean sound was good, but I just could not get it to distort without a pedal... Is it just the way Mesas are, or was there something wrong with the amp in question?

The Boogie mark series are not meant as high-gain amps. They were for the Santanas of this world, jazz fusion etc.

That was why Mesa made Recto -- 'cos they didn't already make a heavy rock/metal amp.

So yeah, Mark series needs a pedal for screaming balls-out overdrive.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

no, must be fucked.
the MK3 have plenty of gain on tap

 

[Omega_Void]

the MK3 have plenty of gain on tap

On the rhythm channel?

I played mine mostly on clean or lead, but I don't recall getting more than "grumbly" sound on rhythm channel. No proper full-on distortion...

That's over a decade ago though, so maybe my memory's blurred.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

nah, I mean the lead channel, well, can't remeber what it was called, but the higher gain channel of that amp.
I figured Anssi was talking about the channel with the most gain.
can'r remember how distorted the crunch channel got on the mk3...on the mk4 it does get high gain though

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Lamb of God and Dream Theater are prime examples that the Mark Series have a lot of gain on tap.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Saw the band Legend live, they used a Mark 3 into an oversize. By far the worst amp out of any band there (sans the local black metal band that opened with the line 6 stack).

Thin is how I would describe it. No idea if his settings were to blame or not.

 

[amarshism]

That's a mark IV though. The mark iic also had plenty of gain so I'm guessing it was a iii which are definitely more a jazz/blues/fusion players amp.

 

[amarshism]

Thin isn't something that comes to mind when I think Mesa.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I played thrash metal with my MKIII..no boost

 

[Omega_Void]

You'll be disgusted to learn that for gigs I used it on the clean channel with a DOD fx-86 "Death Metal" pedal.

 

[KillDivision]

The Mark series is a tricky beast. The eq-potmeters act as a pre-distortion eqpedal, the graphic eq is for the tonal eq.
Mark series have plenty of gain.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

The Mark series is a tricky beast. The eq-potmeters act as a pre-distortion eqpedal, the graphic eq is for the tonal eq.
Mark series have plenty of gain.

yeah, for a metal tone you want to have the treble at at least 8, the mids should also be high.
then very low bass (like a TS-basscut pre-distortion)..

so settings on the rotary pots should look something like:
treb: 9
mid: 6-7
bass: 2

might look weird, but that's how the mark series works.
then you shape with the slider EQ

 

[ahjteam]

yeah, for a metal tone you want to have the treble at at least 8, the mids should also be high.
then very low bass (like a TS-basscut pre-distortion)..

so settings on the rotary pots should look something like:
treb: 9
mid: 6-7
bass: 2

might look weird, but that's how the mark series works.
then you shape with the slider EQ

Thats about what I had; treble 9, bass 4, mids 8 and input gain at max.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

Thats about what I had; treble 9, bass 4, mids 8 and input gain at max.

weird, defective tube perhaps?

 

[Omega_Void]

weird, defective tube perhaps?

Everybody always blames the tubes first.

Major loss of gain in a triode might prevent overdrive, but it'd seriously attenuate the signal, which doesn't seem to have happened here since high SPL was achieved.

Maybe an LED or an LDR died in the switching circuit so the gain structure is stuck on Rhythm 1 mode?

Rhythm 1 hardly got to breaking up for me even with gain maxed. If you needed to crank the SPL to get distortion then it must have been only the poweramp that was overdriving.

 

[jeid]

That amp should definitely have a lot of gain on tap. I had a Mesa .50 Caliber +, which was always compared to the MkIII. I always ran the gain on that around 5 or 6 and it slayed.

Definitely something wrong.

 

[ahjteam]

Maybe an LED or an LDR died in the switching circuit so the gain structure is stuck on Rhythm 1 mode?

Nope, when I pull the mids knob to go from Rhythm 1 to Rhythm 2 there was a noticeable amount of increase in amount of overdrive. But the end tone was like closer to turning on a tubescreamer pedal on a clean channel than getting like a real heavy distortion sound. And the lead channel just sounded terrible for some reason. My playing style is a bit on the Nirvana-style sloppy and as some here have said "scratchy" because my technique sucks, but that was the first time I actually heard all the scratchy "goodness" on the distorted channel, even tho I've used like 12 different higain amps.

But atleast the thing is loud as fuck, I think I ended up having the master volume at like 1.5 or 2 and I still thought it was too loud, so I had to put on my earplugs.

 

[006]

So you played on an old ass Mesa that was never geared for high gain and you are assuming they are all like that?

 

[Omega_Void]

Nope, when I pull the mids knob to go from Rhythm 1 to Rhythm 2 there was a noticeable amount of increase in amount of overdrive. But the end tone was like closer to turning on a tubescreamer pedal on a clean channel than getting like a real heavy distortion sound.

Yeah, that's what Rhythm 2 was like on my Mark III. Breakup, but not full-on metal saturation.

And the lead channel just sounded terrible for some reason.

...my technique sucks, but that was the first time I actually heard all the scratchy "goodness"

A little too revealing for ya, huh?

My predilection for nasty gritty stomp distortion probably helped me on that. Those things shove pick scratchyness right in your face, I had to be real nazi with when and how much I let the plec scrape, and it carries over when I'm noodling around with any kinda sound.

Most other aspects of my playing tend to blow, of course.

But atleast the thing is loud as fuck...

Little beasties ain't they?