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played or own a buster ?

1

137h4lone

Apr 8, 2011
226
2
Anaheim California
#1
whats going on everybody ! i need your help ! I'm interested in buying a mesa buster head . I've heard a lot of good things about this head but I've never had a chance to play one. By the way most tbers describe it sounds like a great head.
My current rig consist of an am std jazz 4 played through an ashdown abm evo ii 500 210 combo paired with an abm 410 cab . Sounds great but I'm tired of having to lag around the heavy combo and a 410. I would be playing the buster through the abm 410 (8ohms) so replacing the evo. My question is how would overall volume and tone from the buster rig compare to the ash down rig i have now ?

p.s. i play reggae most of the time.

any info is much appreciated !:)
 
#9
Used to own one. Good tube amp, very quick in its note response. Kinda solid state quick.

I ultimately got rid of it because I play more rock and wanted something that would break up well too. I would imagine that for reggae you will find its your cup of tea.
 
#10
I have a Buster head. It has six 6L6 power tubes which equates to about 160 watts. I regularly play a Thunderfunk 550b because it is louder, has better tone and is more reliable than the Buster. With my limited Ashdown experience I would imagine your head is about as loud as the TF. With that said the Buster does what it does very well - clean, tubey sound. I don't bring it out much because it weighs twice what the TF does.
 
#12
I have a Buster head and a few other Mesa amps. The Buster is barely loud enough for me with a Powerhouse 212 for small bar gigs without bass in the PA. This is with a clean tone, maybe it would be loud enough with the input gain up higher. The 400+, M9, Mpulse 600, etc are way more than loud enough with the same cab. It is a really clean, nice sounding amp, but I hate to take an amp out that has to be run at pretty much full volume. I love the tone, but would need to haul more cabs around to feel good about using it live.
 
#15
I use a Buster 200 and two Diesel 115s as my main gigging amp and it's actually way more than loud enough for any North SF Bay area club. I also do outdoor gigs with it... also play reggae music.

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#17
You will lose a little volume taking the 2x10 out of the equation. Buster! may sound cooler than the ABM.

I find Buster! to be "loud enough" through a big cab. Buster! has a great tone. Clear, direct, slightly shiny. I find the low end to be somewhat controlled on it. It's not voiced with big boom like the M-Pulse. The graphic is super powerful on Buster! though.
 
#19
I gigged with a Buster and Berg HS 410 last year and it sounded good. I play a variety of stuff including reggae and it works especially well for reggae in that it's very clean. Better than a 500 watt 610 rig ? I'm gonna say no. Their were a few times I played w/o p.a. support that I could have used more volume. Personally, I'd go with a couple 15's if you aren't gking to use the 6-10s. Smaller stuff for practice is cool but you want to feel the notes as much as hear them, don't you ?
 

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