Mesa Stiletto

[BrianC]

I'm in the market for a new amp and want to try out a Mesa after years of playing a Marshall. I'd really like the Stiletto Deuce Head, but if anyone has the Ace (50watt) head, I'd be interested in that as well. If you want to sell the speaker cabinet too, I'd probably take that as well for a reasonable price. Thanks.

[Chippertheripper]

i msg'ed the only guy i know that may have one, or know someone who does... we'll see what happens.

[gixxer72]

Have you tried either of those amps? I have also been looking for a deal on a Mesa but don't really know a whole lot about them. The only one I have actually played through is a triple Rec - it was a total monster!! I have been a fan of the 5150/6505 for a lot of years, the Mesa crushed it.

[Chippertheripper]

and he came back with a triple rec he knows of. that is all. no price given.

[BrianC]

Have you tried either of those amps? I have also been looking for a deal on a Mesa but don't really know a whole lot about them. The only one I have actually played through is a triple Rec - it was a total monster!! I have been a fan of the 5150/6505 for a lot of years, the Mesa crushed it.

Yeah, the Triple Rectifier is a great rhythm guitar rig. My best friend and former band mate had one, and it complimented my Marshall DSL 100 perfectly. While I loved the chugging rhythm tones, I just couldn't get a good lead sound out of it. Maybe if it had el34 tubes in it it might have sounded better?
I want the stiletto because like the Rectifiers, it has a fixed bias, which means replacing the tubes is very simple. Just buy Mesa's tubes and drop em' in there. And it uses el34 tubes and sounds like a Marshall on steroids! With my old Marshall, changing the tubes meant sending it out for a month to have it re-biased, or just putting in new tubes and crossing my fingers it would still sound good. I chose the latter method, and over time the thing just didn't seem to sound as good as it used to.

and he came back with a triple rec he knows of. that is all. no price given.

Thanks Chip. My band is playing a show Jan. 8th @ The Auld Sod in Dedham if you want to come check it out!

[Chippertheripper]

For future reference Greg, at thunderbolt in downtown Plymouth will get it done pretty quickly. He builds custom stuff too. Mostly class a stuff. He's a talker though, so be prepared to listen...

[BrianC]

For future reference Greg, at thunderbolt in downtown Plymouth will get it done pretty quickly. He builds custom stuff too. Mostly class a stuff. He's a talker though, so be prepared to listen...

Greg? Anyhow, that is really good to know, I never met him before. You play guitar?

[Chippertheripper]

Shityeah! I'm always clogging up the board with show posts and stuff. I play in a garage/surf/punkish band in nb. My current setup consists of a cheapass fender thinline tele through a 68 bandmaster. Lotta reverb.

Edit: Greg owns that place. He loves us cuz we play old(er) shit. He's taken extremely good care of me.

[BrianC]

Oh, Greg from thunderbolt... got ya. Good luck with your band that's awesome. That type of music sounds best with shitty equipment! The other night I plugged into the original Peavey Bandit. You know, the one that if you bang on the sides the reverb spring makes a huge crash sound! The thing was friggin' loud as all hell though, with the most trashy sound I've ever heard. Quite fun! I sold my Marshall a few years ago when my band took a long break, but I found the same amp on craigslist w/a speaker cab for 1000 dollars. I might just go w/that for the show. I've been spending obscene amounts on my bike to get it ready for next year and music equipment comes second to that. Those Mesa amps new are like 1800 just for the head. If I could find a used one for 1000 and get it here by jan. 8th I'd buy it.

[Uncle Snake]

If you'd consider a combo, Daddy's has a 50 watt 1x12 in Maine. THey might send it to your nearest store to try out. -Jake

http://www.daddys.com/detail.php?ite...Number=MES4202

[Chippertheripper]

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/msg/2124484531.html

[Quigs]

If I may be so bold..

Here's my rig:





If you play/like high gain, compressed "modern" sounding metal, the Roadster is the way to go, because it'll do that, and the TriRec/Stilletto "rock" tone as well.

It's the best sounding amp I've ever played/owned, and I'm a complete whore for music gear.

[Chippertheripper]

Cha-Ching! What's that doohickey above the tuner do? And other than the tubescreamer, what you use for effects?

[Quigs]

Cha-Ching! What's that doohickey above the tuner do? And other than the tubescreamer, what you use for effects?

I only use the TS in front of the amp for boost. It's a pretty common tube-amp setup - basically just articulates the mid section a bit more and rounds out the low end.

The other unit is an Axe-Fx Ultra. They aren't cheap (~$2000), but they're fucking awesome units. It pulls the preamp section of the roadster into it's effects loop, essentially letting me run it's built in amp models, or my Mesa's raw tone, or both. It has dual active outs on it as well, so I can create effects that send the Roadster's tone to my 4x12, and an amp model to my DAW through a different signal path, at the same time. That makes it perfecto for recording, since I can reamp/remodel the tone stack into my software, while at the same time letting it rip with my amp itself.

The "problem" (if you can call it that) with tube amps is that they really don't shine until you get them to bloom at high volume, though an attenuator in front helps a bit. I love the AFX because I like to record, and I live in a Condo, so I can't stick a 57 in front of the cab and let it rip very often. You can dial in things like sag and stuff with it, and that's plenty good enough for what I do (bedroom shredder). They're ridiculously flexible, awesome processors, and the company is based out of Plaistow.

Back to the Mesa - By itself the Roadster is just a brilliant amp, and about the same price point as a Stiletto. Definitely (OP) try one out before you pull the trigger.

Edit: Here's a shit video that I made a while back. My digital camera blows, so the tone is nothing like it is in person.

YouTube - AxeFX Ultra / Mesa Boogie Roadster

[Chippertheripper]

That's pretty dope. I'm very familiar with the ts, notsomuch at all with the fancy shit. But that's cool, none of the digital effects units I've ever seen used (pretty limited exposure) seem to cut through real well. I'll whore my rig out too, when I get some pix together. It will pale in comparison, but, like yours, is fairly genre specific.
*nerd out!

[BrianC]

Thanks for the ads, I appreciate it. Nice pics of the rig! I don't use rack gear myself. I prefer to keep things simple, so for my rig I run a Dimebag Wah, and a Boss Tuner up front, and a Ibanez delay in the effects loop. I don't use the amp's footswitch at all because when I want a good clean sound I can just roll off the volume on my guitar and it sounds perfectly clean (not that I use a lot of clean guitar in my band anyway!)

As far as trying out different amps... I've tried so many including rectos, Randalls, Marshalls, and the stiletto. I loved the way my DSL100 sounded for a couple of years, but after about 5 yrs the thing started to sound like it was getting weak. For me, it is all about the mids. I recently played thru a Randall which sounded real good for a rhythm player, but go to do a solo and you get lost in the mix! I found that my Marshall was the only amp that could cut thru my band's mix. My old rhythm player used a triple rec. and I played that at stage volume, but didn't really dig the lead sounds. I haven't played a stiletto loud enough or with my band so there is no way to know if it will cut like the Marshall, but that is what it is supposed to do. Mesa designed it to basically take that EL34 Marshall sound and perfect it. They say it is the perfect compliment to a recto, so that sounds about right. My band at one time sounded awesome with the recto and marshall twin guitar attack! We are getting our shit together now for a show on Jan. 8th, but it looks like I'll be playing thru a friend's Randall unless I can get a rig together before then. With Christmas, it isn't looking so good! The Stiletto in the craigslist ad seems promising, thanks Chip.