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new mesa all tube amp ?????

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#401
LiquidMidnight said:
I don't consider the 400 series cold, but I understand why some may use that as an adjective. It's not a very "wooly" sounding amp at all.

I've always gone back and forth between the 12AU7 mod. Currently, I have an AX7 in the driver position. At the beginning of the year, I retubed my 400+ with JJs, replaced a bunch of screen-grid resistors, and started using some very efficient Berg AE410s. The result is that I have a crazy-loud rig. However, I notice that on the Master, if I'm below 1, it's not loud enough and I don't get much sustain. Then, if I get to about 1.75, it's freakin' blowing my drummer off his throne and almost overpowering the FOH. So I'm thinking about throwing the 12AU7 in again and seeing if I can get a little less steep of a curve on the Master.
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Possibly replacing the master volume pot with linear taper might help? (assuming the stock pot is audio taper)
 
#402
It's all just subjective adjectives. People used to the warm SVT would consider a Mesa cold. I'm cool with that. Compared to most other amps, the Mesa is in no way cold. But if you've been playing a warm fat tube amp, it most certainly is.

Just as if you're used to the articulate and clear sound of the Mesa 400+, an SVT is a bit muffled, blanketed, and even muddy. Kinda slow and chugging along....COMPARED to the Mesa 400+. To most other amps, it isn't.

It's all subjective and, yeah, compared to a warmer tube amp, the Mesa is quite cold. But I'm cool with that, I don't want the warm fat tube sound.
 
#403
Man. You guys really have me interested in trying out new tubes (as my situation has this new Mesa amp slowly floating further away from attainable).

sunbeast, don't suppose there's a thread laying around where you got a lot of the advice on different tubes....or don't suppose you plan on starting one? ;)
 
#404
MSUsousaphone said:
It's all just subjective adjectives. People used to the warm SVT would consider a Mesa cold. I'm cool with that. Compared to most other amps, the Mesa is in no way cold. But if you've been playing a warm fat tube amp, it most certainly is.

Just as if you're used to the articulate and clear sound of the Mesa 400+, an SVT is a bit muffled, blanketed, and even muddy. Kinda slow and chugging along....COMPARED to the Mesa 400+.
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Again, while fully respecting that YMMV, my experience has been rather dissimilar from what you have stated, above.
 
#405
I don't hear the muddiness either, but whatever...I know some folks have an irrational hatred of Fender basses and Ampeg amps, so they like to exaggerate. And I think it's good that Mesas amps don't sound exactly like Ampegs because it's a sound some are looking for. That's cool...I just don't get the irrationality of the whole "it's popular so it must suck" mentality.

However, I will say the sound of the cabs made from 2000-2006 at Ampeg did them no favors ;)
 
#408
Right...all my integrity goes right out the window the second someone dangles artist pricing at me. Never mind the fact that I've been using Ampeg amps since 1978...I've been an endorser for 9 months now and I HAVE to be lying. Yeah, OK.

Hey, if I don't like something they make, I'll tell you. Want me to trash a current Ampeg product to prove it? ;)
 
#410
JimmyM said:
Right...all my integrity goes right out the window the second someone dangles artist pricing at me. Never mind the fact that I've been using Ampeg amps since 1978...I've been an endorser for 9 months now and I HAVE to be lying. Yeah, OK.

Hey, if I don't like something they make, I'll tell you. Want me to trash a current Ampeg product to prove it? ;)
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Just saying. If anyone has the motive to exaggerate, it's not me. And let's face it, "open minded" is not a term that closely follows you. Don't get me wrong, I actually like you. I just don't understand how the Peg lovers can see the lack of coloring in the Mesa as cold but not understand that the Mesa lovers would see the coloring as muffled. But I guess if everyone had the ability see more PoVs than their own, we wouldn't be having this conversation, anyways.

And it just seems like most people agree because the close minded tend to be the loudest....and apparently to ignore posts that disagree with them.
 
#411
A big part of what folks are hearing is due to the huge amount of power supply filtering in the Mesa - IIRC, it has like 5X what an SVT does. Very generally speaking with the acknowledgment that there are a lot of other factors, that translates into being quicker, more HiFi, cold, sterile, tight, whatever... it does help wring as much clean low end out of it as possible given the other design factors.
 
#412
MSUsousaphone said:
Just saying. If anyone has the motive to exaggerate, it's not me. And let's face it, "open minded" is not a term that closely follows you. Don't get me wrong, I actually like you. I just don't understand how the Peg lovers can see the lack of coloring in the Mesa as cold but not understand that the Mesa lovers would see the coloring as muffled. But I guess if everyone had the ability see more PoVs than their own, we wouldn't be having this conversation, anyways.

And it just seems like most people agree because the close minded tend to be the loudest....and apparently to ignore posts that disagree with them.
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The only thing I ever said about Mesa is that they use high amounts of hyperbole in their advertising, and they're not very forthcoming with specs. But I enjoy playing their stuff when I do. Did a week on a cruise ship where they supplied me with an M6 combo. Thought it sounded very good. I'm not crazy about the extreme tightness in most Mesas I've played, but it did sound good.

And besides, like I said, if you give me a working bass and amp and I can't find a sound that I'm looking for out of it, it's not the amp's fault.
 
#416
GregC said:
It sure doesn't follow someone who's claimed more than once that people buy Ampegs to hide their bad technique.
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Ha. I said those after personal attacks insinuating I don't know how to use the EQ of an amp since I don't share the same opinion as that poster. Which....he's...kinda still insinuating. Hyperbole vs hyperbole when not taken out of context. Man. If only us Mesa users knew how to dial in an SVT, we would all be converted.

Please.

They really are too muddy for me. It's like a light blanket is thrown over my playing. Or it just doesn't respond as fast as my playing. Either way. No need to be butt hurt by it. So many different playing styles and opinions....if you don't think someone can have a different rig than you without thinking they just don't know how to dial in an EQ, you've got an issue.

And like JGR said, some might see the Mesa as Tight and HiFi, others see it as cold and sterile. Works both way. Some people will see the SVT as warm and good, other will see it as not quite tight enough.
 
#417
I have never understood the "fast" and "slow" discussion. Amps don't respond at different speeds to our playing. They are electronic devices. Current travels so fast as to be for all practical purposes near instantaneous. Current doesn't travel faster in one amp than another, the laws of physics don't vary between manufacturers.

Every amp on the market will reproduce the note you play immediately. There is no time difference. If there was, playing would be a lot more challenging.
 
#420
Oh, spare me. I'm blessed with a good memory. You made that ignorant claim out of the blue at least once.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/y...red-amp-heads-880598/index2.html#post12607715

And the snide remarks about Jimmy's endorsement deal are just plain silly. Dude's been talking Ampegs here for years. Cut the crap.
MSUsousaphone said:
Ha. I said those after personal attacks insinuating I don't know how to use the EQ of an amp since I don't share the same opinion as that poster. Which....he's...kinda still insinuating. Hyperbole vs hyperbole when not taken out of context. Man. If only us Mesa users knew how to dial in an SVT, we would all be converted.

Please.

They really are too muddy for me. It's like a light blanket is thrown over my playing. Or it just doesn't respond as fast as my playing. Either way. No need to be butt hurt by it. So many different playing styles and opinions....if you don't think someone can have a different rig than you without thinking they just don't know how to dial in an EQ, you've got an issue.

And like JGR said, some might see the Mesa as Tight and HiFi, others see it as cold and sterile. Works both way. Some people will see the SVT as warm and good, other will see it as not quite tight enough.
Click to expand...
 
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