Help! Need advice on amp purchase!!!

[luke33139]

I recently purchased a blue Luke and I am currently for an amplification system...and need your advice!

I first tried the Luke with a 25 watt Mesa Boogie Express and just loved the sound. It seems to cover all the style I play (from funk to heavy metal)

I also like the fact that you can use it as a 5 watt so my neighbors dont freak out (I live in an apartment) but I switch it back to 25 watts and think I can play in small clubs with a band (which is ultimately my goal). I also plan to use it to record demos at home.

It seems to be easy to carry around, changing tubes seems easy etc.

Finally, a brand new Express fits my budget!!!

I would like to know if you guys had any experience with this unit and your opinion about it.

I read that it could be pretty noisy when the guitar isnt played...Any other bad reviews around?

If you guys have any other suggestions...let me know.

Thanks,

P.

 

[andynpeters]

"I read that it could be pretty noisy when the guitar isnt played"

Can't you just turn it down if you don't need to play....or am I missing something?

As far as I can see it ticks all your boxes so I'd go for it. The guys on here are very knowledgeable & helpful but might give you a bewildering number of other suggestions, but you have to go with what's right for you. Read reviews on Harmony Central® - The #1 Online Community For Musicians to get an idea of reliability etc.

 

[jbert]

I bought a Genz Benz Black Pearl 30 watt 1x12 combo a few months ago and I am very happy with it. It is apparently based on the Matchless DC30. Great build quality, great range of tones from clean to classic rock grind.

Can be had by making a "best offer" of less than $1,000 to some of the Ebay retailers...

Check out the reviews on The Gear Page - all very good.

Cheers!

 

[poj]

You should also check these out.

Orange Tiny Terror
Krank Rev Jr. pro
Vox AC15 Heritage combo or stack
Gries sea horse

 

[luke33139]

"I read that it could be pretty noisy when the guitar isnt played"

Can't you just turn it down if you don't need to play....or am I missing something?

As far as I can see it ticks all your boxes so I'd go for it. The guys on here are very knowledgeable & helpful but might give you a bewildering number of other suggestions, but you have to go with what's right for you. Read reviews on Harmony Central® - The #1 Online Community For Musicians to get an idea of reliability etc.

Thanks for the harmony central link...but thats where I read about some "cons" such as:

"Unfortunately, this amp is very noise when not being played. I returned the amp because of this. I've never heard an amp this noisy when no guitar is plugged in, on the clean channel. I tested it side-by-side against other amps (including Mesa Nomad 100, Fender Champ), and later against a Mesa Lonestar. I measured the noise at 58 decibel, the other amps rated around 48 (which means the Express is TWICE as loud). It kind of sounds like you have low quality effects in the loop!

I tried another express 5:25 in the shop and same problem (to confirm it wasn't just my express). "


or


", but the burn channel is a muddy mess, and the sustain on single notes just is'nt there. it's like you hit the note, it sounds, and it starts to die.it leaves you out there on your own.there is no "sweet singing sustain"
"

I know I can always return the amp etc. but I d rather make the right buy right away...

 

[andynpeters]

Harmony Central is good for an overview..(though there are plenty of idiots who post on there).....but if you couldn't hear the mysterious noise problem then it's not there for you.

The "muddy mess" doesn't agree with your view of "just loved the sound". Mesa have a pretty good reputation all round.

I'd say again to try it again and if it sounds good to you....buy it......there are always hundreds of possible choices (by all means try some others) and no right answer, but you want to start using that lovely new guitar

 

[Sweat]

had a 5:50 2x12 had same problems and hard to dial in a tone, I would stay away from the Mesa Express line.

 

[JMB27]

Just a quick list of other amps to consider .... not sure what your budget is, but most of these are lower wattage (but not necessarily low volume dependant on speakers/pedals/etc used)

Orange Tiny Terror
Dr Z Maz Jr
Traynor YCV 20
Fender Princeton (blackface or silverface ... afterall, I think "hot-rodding" one of 'em was what helped put Mesa in motion ... )

cheers always and happy shopping, eh

Joel

 

[roburado]

Personally, I think the F-Series amps, which were replaced by the Express line, are much better. I have an F-30. There's no way in hell I'd trade it for any of the Express models. It's a quiet amp. It's got more of what I'm looking for in an amp tonewise. There's something small-sounding about the Express. The F-30 sounds more open and bigger to my ears. I too find the Express muddy. The F-30 has more clarity.

 

[JMB27]

+1 on the F-30 .... despite not being a big fan of Mesa .... it was close to the top of my shopping list a few years back.

 

[jpoprock]

I bought an F-100 once because everyone was saying it was the greatest thing ever, and both myself and my other guitar player both agreed that it was perhaps the worst sounding amp ever made. If you want a loud, unusable Rat Pedal type of distortion, then look no further! The clean sounds were very warm and nice though. I tried and tried to give that amp a chance too. I am very aware of how Mesa EQ works, etc, and there was no getting around the fact that it was horrid.

I love Mesa stuff though. Don't get me wrong. I think the Dual Recto amps are great, and I also like the Rectoverb a lot.

I have a BFR Luke. It sounds great thru everything really. Now don't laugh, but go to Guitar Center and try the Line 6 Spider Valve out. Not the Spider III, but the Spider VALVE 1x12. The editability of the FX and patches is a bit weird, and you really need a FBV Pedalboard to get the full effect from the amp, but it is a wonderful sounding amp, loud as can be, and has Bogner Power and Pre amp tubes. I've played lots of great amps, and bad amps too, and I'm sticking with this one. I'm in a cover band, so I need a handful of diff sounds. But when you get down to it, all one really needs, if they are worth their salt, is a crunch channel and a gain channel. You can turn the vol down on the guitar while on the crunch channel to get a good clean sound, then you can switch to the gain channel for the heavy stuff. Different styles have different requirements though. Some may really really need a true "clean" sound, etc. But for classic hits type of stuff, I could get buy on a crunch channel all night if I had to. Having options is nice though!

I'm a big fan of the AC30 w/ Top Boost too. The Korean made Vox amps are pretty nice too. They make a modeling amp that is just fab that you might want to check out. And those kinds of amps sound great at low volumes.

J

 

[CarbonTim27]

+1 on the Spider Valve. I own one and it really kicks. I've used it in a couple of jam sessions so far and it's really stood out with it's built in effects and incredible range of sounds. It has a good sound at low volumes and a fantastic sound when it's turned up.

 

[roburado]

Of course, this thread is yet another in a long line of hopeless threads where everyone spouts their opinions, and we never really get anywhere. This stuff is so subjective, and everyone has their own idea of what sounds great and what sounds like garbage.

For example, I thought that the F-100 sounded awesome when I tried a Y2D and my 20th Silo through it at Make 'N Music. Example 2: I can't stand the Spider Valve.

To each his own. No one is right. No one is wrong.

 

[Axilla]

Two recommendations from my side:

- Get yourself an old "Peavey Bravo 112" from the early 90s if you can get your hands on one. Downgrade the first preamp valve from a 12AX7 to a 12AY7 to mellow the clean tone a little. Then exchange the stock speaker to a 8 Ohms Celestion Vintage 30. This Machine will give you almost everything from Country to INSANE gain amount for thrash metal... Best and most versatile sound I've ever heard from a combo amp affordable to about anybody.
So much for the budget version - everybody should have one like this IMHO ;-)

- First choice (at least mine when we're talking combos here) would be a Diezel Einstein 50 watts combo. Make sure to get the MIDI conversion so you can access the 3 fantastic sound modes of the first channel at a single step on the floorboard. I own that amp in the 100 watts head version, but I was floored when I heard the 1x12" combo version !!!
...might however be a little expensive in the States...

Just for the fun of it - lately heard some tech say that "every Mesa seems sort of a prototype when you open it" ;o)))

...just my 2 cents...

 

[MusicManJP6]

+1 on the F-30! It is an awesome grab n go amp with that killer boogie tone. You won't be sorry! Stick a JJ retube kit in there from Eurotubes and you'll flip!

 

[candid_x]

Can't You Just Turn It Down If You Don't Need To Play....or Am I Missing Something?

Lol!

 

[jpoprock]

Of course, this thread is yet another in a long line of hopeless threads where everyone spouts their opinions, and we never really get anywhere. This stuff is so subjective, and everyone has their own idea of what sounds great and what sounds like garbage.

For example, I thought that the F-100 sounded awesome when I tried a Y2D and my 20th Silo through it at Make 'N Music. Example 2: I can't stand the Spider Valve.

To each his own. No one is right. No one is wrong.

Hells yeah to that Rob! That is very much true. I would never dare to "do battle" with my SV vs many other great amps, but for what I need it for, it's great. And it sounds way better than my JCM900, Mesa F-100, Marshall DSL2000, Marshall 6100LM (however, that one was NICE and quite good), etc. It shouldn't, but it does. That's all I can go by.

That F-100 truly did sound ROTTEN and I was very bummed. I love love love the Boogie tone. I could play on that all night, but this F-100 I had wasn't anywhere near it. I'm telling you... Rat pedal into a power amp into a cab is a dead on description of how rotten it sounded. The clean was great, albeit dark. But very "warm and creamy" sounding. I wanted to take a bath in it!

J

 

[ShaneV]

Two recommendations from my side:

- Get yourself an old "Peavey Bravo 112" from the early 90s if you can get your hands on one. Downgrade the first preamp valve from a 12AX7 to a 12AY7 to mellow the clean tone a little. Then exchange the stock speaker to a 8 Ohms Celestion Vintage 30. This Machine will give you almost everything from Country to INSANE gain amount for thrash metal... Best and most versatile sound I've ever heard from a combo amp affordable to about anybody.
So much for the budget version - everybody should have one like this IMHO ;-)

- First choice (at least mine when we're talking combos here) would be a Diezel Einstein 50 watts combo. Make sure to get the MIDI conversion so you can access the 3 fantastic sound modes of the first channel at a single step on the floorboard. I own that amp in the 100 watts head version, but I was floored when I heard the 1x12" combo version !!!
...might however be a little expensive in the States...

Just for the fun of it - lately heard some tech say that "every Mesa seems sort of a prototype when you open it" ;o)))

...just my 2 cents...

Peavey gets a bum rap for two reasons

#1, they're inexpensive. This makes it so guitar snobs cannot like them. It's in the tone police bible.

#2, they use some of the worst speakers ever to grace the planet. Play any Peavey through some Celestians and be prepared to be shocked.

 

[andynpeters]

Peavey gets a bum rap for two reasons

#1, they're inexpensive. This makes it so guitar snobs cannot like them. It's in the tone police bible.

#2, they use some of the worst speakers ever to grace the planet. Play any Peavey through some Celestians and be prepared to be shocked.

Just as everyone says, these threads are useless....I own a Peavey Classic 30 & a Delta Blues....they give me exactly the sounds I want and they cost about 30% of a Boogie

 

[Axilla]

Just as everyone says, these threads are useless....I own a Peavey Classic 30 & a Delta Blues....they give me exactly the sounds I want and they cost about 30% of a Boogie

I never got my hands on a Delta Blues, but the Classic30 for sure is a classic for itself ! NICE amp - tried one (30 watts head) out with my Hiwatt cab and really loved the sounds it produced !

I am the happy owner of a pimped & tweaked out Peavey Bravo 112 combo, a Peavey Rage 128 bedroom practice amp, as well as a Diezel Einstein 100 head + Marshall & Hiwatt cabs. And guess what - I love them all, because they all serve their specific purposes well and to my liking. Again - my very subjective 2 Cents.

But - what is a "bum rap" ?!?