General Music Chat

I got to go home at lunch for a while, noone was home so I cranked up the Mesa, got my manual out and redialed in some tones, man that thing was sounding good.

I havent played on it since the last gig, so it was good, got another gig next friday night, time to burn off the turkey.


Im curious, how often do some of you take a little break from an amp or guitar, hook that thing up and it just blows you away.

I thought the last gig it sounded great, and Im hoping that the controls got twisted, cause when I first turned it on it sounded flat and too muddy. The problem with gettting older with Mesa amps is you cant see where the pots are set. So I get out the readers and go over my channel settings and get it dialed back in.

Any new Mesa users these Rectifiers have a very funny balance between the tone controls, and the mid really influences the whole sound, so get your manuals out and try their settings to start with and fine tune from there.


One hour of sheer bliss.

Anyway everyone have a great weekend.

I love just messing with the settings while practicing on my own.
Especially with my LP set on the neck pick up.
Smooth mellow almost melancholy blues tone.

My rig is big enough now @JW123 that I leave it at the rehearsal space (8-space rack unit without wheels; I have to get a wheeled unit because the thing is getting heavy to carry). So my breaks are several days - between practices and gigs. I have a 15W Line 6 for practice that I use (with headphones, laptop lined in the MP3 port). So I don't hear my rig every day - more like every 5 days or so, on average.

I'm always blown away when I light my rig up though. I've spent years putting that thing together. There is nothing I want for. If I lost everything tomorrow and you gave me unlimited funds to build a new rig, I'd build the same exact thing. The Triaxis is the bomb, and the 2:90 is the best power amp I've heard.

The only thing I might ever consider switching out would be my effects unit. The G-Major is okay for what it does and the ability to program patches to match the Triaxis patches is a total win, but I'd like some better sounding effects. And with the Rocktron PatchMate I have, I have 7 free slots for other pedals I could put into the chain (it is only used for a BB Preamp now, for leads). Pedals that do a singular job (delay, chorus) seem to have a much better overall sound than anything I get out of the G-Major. But before I got the Patchmate the G-Major won out on programmability and pure ease of use with my system. Now that I have the Patchmate I'm really considering adding more pedals to my rig, because I can program the Patchmate just like anything else and it allows me to swap every pedal in/out of the chain with one foot press (courtesy of the Rocktron MidiMate).

I really ought to post a video someday of my rig...

Every night I turn on my amps and they sound awesome to my ears. I'm running twin amps with JBL 15" woofer, 5" mid, and 4" horn in each cabinet. I am also running a hall stereo reverb at about 25% and that's it. The amps are sitting about 3" above the floor on stands so they are at ear level. I sit right in between them. It sounds like I'm inside my guitar.
When I plug in one of my Strats, turn it all on and hit the first note my ears fall in love. But I only play for about 15 -20 minutes a night. Sometimes it sounds so good I have to just put it down and call other musicians to tell them how damned good stuff sounds.

Great when stuff sounds good, isn't it?

You guys know what Im talking about!

Chris I unload my rig from the trailer every gig so I can hit it when I want, Im kinda short on time for it most of the time, so ussually I just play my Gibby ES-135 acoustically watching the weather channel or something, so most of my practice is like that, but man when I do plug in its just awesome.

Chris I at one point considered setting a rig up like yours with that 2:90 power amp, but went the other way. I bought a Triple Recitifer back in 89 or 90, when they just came out, I hadnt been able to find something I liked. This is the wierd part, my first one came from a consigment store, I had seen Mesa's and played on a few but didnt think much of them. Anyway this guy comes in with the Triple and wants to trade if for a Fender Amp, he said he played pedal steel with a country band and was using the Triple, but it broke up too much. I knew the guy in the store and he said why dont you try this amp out before I trade here, make sure everything is working. Man I fell in love and after this guy traded bought it on the spot. Ive been a Mesa Man every since. That one was one of the originals of that series and these days are coveted for thier tone. I quit for a year or two and sold it, Ive had two Duals, then got one of the 3 channel Triples. Just traded a roadster which is a dual rec with 4 channels and reverb, but Im kind of a one amp sound kinda guy, jjust roll down the volume knob or pick attack to clean it up.

Im in agreement with you, the stand alone stomp boxes just have a different vibe than the packaged effects units, but you know no one can hear that but you. Plus they tend to be noisey if you get an old one with out true bypass, of course in your rig I guess you can bypass it, so thats not a problem.

Glad you are enjoying your rig, Im sure it sounds awesome.

Slacker I at one time had a room set up like you are talking about, two amps, a splitter going thru 2-4x12 cabs, in fact these days Im back to 2-4x12 again, just suits me.

You guys have a great weekend and Keep On Rockin!

Jw, I never get to play through my live rig until I am playing live LOL! I practice, learn new tunes and everything else through a rig similar to your Pod. I use it through headphones so not to disturb my family! The funny thing is my family say's when are you going to play for us LOL!

I got home from practice last night with having played the same couple elements over and over while the drummer tried to get the changes sorted out. By the time I got home I didn't even want to look at my guitar. The strat anyway...

but I picked up the Tele and was off to the races. It really does help to switch around a bit - sometimes for fun or sometimes just if you're feeling stale.

Glad to see it's not just me.

Talbot

my guitar demands that I pick her up and
caress her neck and fingerboard for at least
a hour or two a day, I don't read any books or
use any pedals, we kinda do it missionary style.
I've been cheating on my guitar with a Privia piano,
like with all new loves I can't get enough of her,
at least a couple of hours everyday.

Jw you need to give lessons on how to use pedals,
I really don't have a clue. Also any info on Mesa Boogie
amps, I've been out of the circle awhile. Back in the day
you had to call Jack Bruce and tell him what you wanted
in a amp and he would build it for you, everything back
then was custom built at Mesa Boogie, that little amp with
the wood cabinet and the matching speaker cabinet.
Past history is why I lean towards Mesa Boogie today,
still I know nothing about the current line-up of
Mesa Boogie Amps, which is the best one to play
rock n' roll, that will let you set-up 3 footswitchable
channels.

Lynard, Mesa makes so many different amps these days.

I havent played one, but they have a Mini Rectifier, its only two channels thou. But what I read its switchable between 50 and 25 watts, but has the same preamp circuits as the bigger Rectifier series.

My triple is 3 channel.

Channel 1, I set up for what the manual calls sparkly clean. Think the intro guitar to Sweet Home Alabama as far as tone, and yeah I know noone wants to play that song, but honestly Lynyrd Skynyrd had some ver good clean electric guitar tones on that song, So I kinda use that tone as my bench mark for clean. This channel is also a great combination with my tube screamer, in fact it works great for a lot of classic 70s rock we play.

Channel 2, I set up for what the manual calls Vintage Recto. For some reason when I think of distorted guitar tone, I think of Bad Companys , Cant Get Enough. Thats kinda been my benchmark sound in my mind. Now honestly this channel has more distortion than that, but I can roll the volume knob off on the guitar and play Bad Company, ZZ Top, Aerosmith 70s sounds, but crank the guitar volume and it works well for say something like Crazy Train.

Channel 3, I set for what the manual calls Modern Recto. My benchmark song is Enter Sandman, Metallica. It works well for stuff like Soundgarden, Outshined, Puddle of Mudd, STP type tones. Also I kick it in for single note lines. Sweet Emotion, the heavy single note riff I will kick this channel in for those bars of the song, then thinking of effects I kick my Whammy Pedal in for the second set on a 5th setting.

My reference tones are just things in my head, sometimes when I hear these on the radio I dont really sound like them, but they give me a point of reference setting my eqs up.

If you are interested in Mesa's you can get as complex an amp, like a Mark IV, or Mark V. These amps have infinite ways to set them up. All the way to stripped down models.

I have a small one called a Subway Rocket, 20 watts EL84 tubes. It just has a clean gain and dirty gain with shared eq controls. This is my go too recording amp. Any of the cover songs on my player here uses that amp for the rythyms. They are doubled, I played one track with a Les Paul and panned it to one side, and then played the same riffs on a Strat and panned the other way. Its a very crispy sounding amp. On the cover songs, if you listen to Tush, the slide stuff is an EPI Sheraton thru this little bitty SS Fender amp Ive had forever. The lead lines on Sat Night Special are the roadster, but all the other guitars on those cover songs use the Mesa Subway Rocket, they dont make these anymore, but they have some newer models that do have 3 channels.

You can tell I love Mesa, they just have always gotten me the tone I was after with little difficulty. But as I have said many times, I could play on just about any rig with my pedal board and after tweaking things, I will sound very close to my Mesa's.


Now live 80% of the time I use Channel 2 on the Triple, its just my go to sound. Vintage Recto, a radio band like Creed or Nickleback uses these, or at least it sounds like it to my ears.

JW my old ladies hollering for me to come on,
were going to town, but looks like some good
stuff , read when I get back

Lynard if you get a chance, check out an Express 5:25, or an Express 5:50 in the Mesa line. These amps from what Ive read have the same circuitry as my little Subway Rocket, but with individual eq controls for each channel. These would be some great smaller combos.

They are two channel, but longterm I dont know if you really need 3 channels, stick a distortion pedal in front and use it for your 3rd channel.

Good Luck

JW You may just want to try a fresh set of tubes in that Mesa. It may be the reason it sounded Funky one day to the next. You use the amp heavy, say 2 or 3 hundred hours over the course of a year or two....

You might be amazed at the difference. Fresh Mesa ( Russian) tubes will probably run around 100 for say a set of EL34s, or the 6L6s you run in your Mesa.

Just visit mesaboogie.com. Good site with many links and demos with some great players.

Didn't mean to cut you off the other day but I had a ton of stuff going on.
I love my Stiletto. Crazy amp because it cuts through any mix and you actually have to be careful. The treble control actually dominates the mids and lows. Those live garage band recordings were done with the master at about less than 1 with the channel at about 1 and the drive at 50% and that is 50 watts. I was still watching how strong I played because it can "CUT" that much.

Have fun at your gig John. Looking good man, playing even better.... GET SOME GLASSES SO YOU CAN READ THE KNOBS!

JW, Got up early this morning checking my
email and stuff, listened to your whole audio
player, Brother you rock, I love the sound
of your guitar, both rhythm and lead, it was all good.
The solo on I've been shown kicks a@#, I just love
screaming guitar, but on all your tracks your rhythm
sound is excellent, anybody can pkay lead, but your
rhythm guitar playing might be hard to duplicate.
I mean it I love the sound of your guitar, your an exceptional
player.

You've sold me on Mesa amps, I love the way you get a good
clean distorted sound, the Line 6 amp I've been using seems
to blur the sound as I add more distortion. While your distortion
sounds excellent, I guess that's your Vintage Recto, e.g. Saturday
Night Special, Good Lovin Gone Bad, and on Cyber Outlaw you
get a great sound.

Your a player, I'm going to check those Mesa amps out
and eventually pedals, and then I might be able to come
close to the sounds you get.

It's Only Rock n' Roll but you do it dam good JW

Lynard the cover songs on my player are all done rythym wise with my little Subway Rocket, just doubled with two guitars.

That song Ive Been Shown is actually my old SUNN MODEL T rig, the rythym is just kinda clean with an old chorus pedal. The solo part is the same amp with a tube screamer in front and of course a wah wah.

Cyber Outlaw is actually a setting I tweaked in my Roland recorder. No amp. I think it was a Matchless Amp setting if I remember correctly.

The Day That Jesus Died, is my original Triple Rec in the vintage recto setting. Thats an old recording.

If you go to the bottom of my playlist, that demo rythym for Rock N Roll Ho, is actually a POD PRO, on a JCM 800 setting that I tweaked. So is the lead parts.

I hadnt listened to these in a while and ran them the other day at work, the thing is most of my guitar sounds to me sound real similiar, but on my player I used a variety of amps and preamps to record with, they may have some slight differences, but the heavy guitar sounds are very similiar in nature. Thats what Ive said for a long time, it really doesnt matter in my case what I use, in the end I wind up with a similiar sound, cause I kinda of have a sound in my head for various things.


Glen I just happened to talk to my bass player last night about my amp sounding like hell, he started laughing and said when we loaded out from the last gig he messed with the eq on my amp, just to see if I would notice, I said oh yeah I noticed right off the bat, I was talking to my wife about it and she said everyone that knows us at our last gig, said it was one of the better sounding gigs we had done.

Thanks for the info on tubes, I actually have a bunch of matched tubes for my amps and I keep fresh ones in there all the time. The bad thing about a Triple Rec is it has 6 power tubes, I just make sure I use the color matching that Mesa uses. Once I Redialed the amp it sounds great by the way.

Lynard as far as Mesa's check out the Express Series of amps, if you like the tone of my cover songs, that amp has the same circuitry as the amp I used for those. I listened to them and they may be a bit harsh for a basic rock n roll sound, but you can just dial back the gain and the treble to mellow it out some. Ive done quite a few basic rock gigs with other folks and when I do that I take that little Subway Rocket, it is great for up to a 100 person gig, unmiced if you crank it. Its a very simple amp, just kinda plug and play so to speak. Like I said check out the Express Series, they are lower priced for Mesa's and would serve you well.

I know it gets said over and over, but I can confirm that for miced up recording the littls amps sound way bigger than my half stack, dont know why but they just do.

Im not trying to really promote my songs here, but if you are interested in tone, you can listen to the opening bars of some of mine and see what different amps and preamps can reproduce, the key is tuning your ear to what you want. Learn to get the tone you want no matter what you play on, thats the key, and plus be able to dial it in quickly when you want it.

Good Luck

Lynard one other thing I thought of, when I do dirty rythyms, I dont use pedals, just straight guitar into an amp. I use a lot of effects to overlay stuff over songs, the craziest on my player is the Funk, we hooked up a bunch of pedals and I just laid a line thru the whole thing, and then we brought it in and out of the mix.

If you listen to Alive, I put a bunch of little effects washes as I like to call them on there for changes and such.

For ideas on this for recording, go listen to Just Got Paid by ZZ Top, he always has a straight rythym then would add the little slide touches over the top and pull them in and out of the mix. Listen to Whole Lotta Love Zep, on the chorus's you hear the little slide sounds and then the noise section is a tour de force of effects, its basically a Old Tape Echo Plex, with long delays, I have a setting in my live rig on my Line 6 Delay Modelor and with the tap tempo function I can kinda do this live.

If you get into effects, the only thing i can tell you is play with them, learn what they will do, if you mess with them enough you can find some really really cool sounds to mix in.