Leaderboard

After resolving some noise issues (one power tube not seated properly)…we got down to business. I’ve had it a couple of days now, and I am looking forward to exploring it more. Bought from SoundPure, and they were very good, except the footswitch cable was missing. They are sending one. SoundPure is one of my preferred dealers as they do free shipping (over a certain amount) and no sales tax for California buyers. Makes a meaningful net difference to save that 7.75% on a bigger purchase. Very old school amp. Even has the older “Boogie” badge. Touch sensitive, feels a little more like a tweed deluxe than a blackface amp. Somewhere in between. You can really hear your picking technique (or lack thereof in my case). The kind of pick, angle and attack come through quite audibly. Great low gain sounds. Build quality is solid. It is pretty light for a 50W tube head, so at first lift it feels a little funny, being used to much heavier heads at this wattage, but definitely solid. At 26 lbs this amp may be the best tone per pound tube amps head I’ve ever played. My back is not so good these days, so to know i can gig with something portable, reliable and that can give me a tone that I dig is a big deal. I’ve been looking for something light, with “that sound” but haven’t been able to find it. This one is very very close. The cabinet is nice too. Typical good Mesa Boogie quality. I got the 1x12 23” wide cabinet. Wider cab makes it sit perfectly under the head; i dont know if it makes any tonal difference. Maybe, but hard to know without A/B against the smaller cabinet. Open back. MB Black Shadow speaker is a good match for this amp. Sounds nice and full even before break in. I didn’t get the cab to match the head with tinsel grill cloth, which looks cool, kind of like a mini-stack, so I’ve got a little mismatch ‘cause i liked the all black cabinet better. I might change out the grill cloth on the head so that they match someday. Might also swap for a Neo speaker for weight. Eminence Deltalite 2512 might be a good match. I like that speaker a lot. Clean, clear. More like a monitor speaker. And very light. EQ is simple (Treble, Mid, Bass) and there is a pretty wide sweep for each. All seem sensitive to how much gain you are putting in. More gain requires backing off of bass or it gets indistinct, but at the right levels the bass is tight enough and lets a lot of “wood” through. At certain settings it almost sounds like you are playing an upright bass on the low strings. Lots of thump if you want it. Sound is excellent. Treble and presence used in the right combination produces really sweet top end. I love it. Mid control is effective to either scoop or bring up the mids. Very useable. Reverb sounds just like it should. I keep it around 9:00 and it gives plenty of depth to the sound. The on line chatter about it not being very loud for a 50 watt amp is correct, at least with the gain at 1:00 or lower. With the gain at noon or 1:00 It never gets super loud, even with the Master dimed. Loud enough for my small to medium gigs though. I suppose for a bigger/louder show you could just mic it. I have not pushed it to see how loud it can get and stay clean. Will try later when no one else is home. I play clean 95% of the time, so that’s what I’ve been dialing in. Clean tones are definitely familiar with this amp, but a little different. Not glassy like a blackface, more like a tweed. You can hear a little more guitar wood, a little more midrange, etc. Reminds me a lot of the early Kenny Burrell G175 into a Fender Deluxe recordings or some older Grant Green. Very organic sounding. Lots of good presence. Seems like it will cut through a gig mix very well. At the moment my only quibble is that so far it is a little hard to get the low end sounding exactly like I want it, but it is very good nonetheless. I’m sure I’ll figure that out. More to come…the real test will be when i gig with it in a couple of weeks.

Very thorough amp review, especially since you've just begun your sonic journey with this new rig. Interesting that you feel the amp leans more into the vintage bassy 'tweed' tone rather than 'glassy Fender' (scooped?) tones. Maybe an EQ pedal will help dial in your desired sound if knob twisting doesn't get you where you want to be. But it does appear from your comments that you really dig the tones you're getting. Tweaking a new amp at home and again at a live venue is part of the fun and part of the adventure. Enjoy!!