Hey...old Marshall guy with his first Mesa amp. Stiletto Ace

[blaren]

Well you just never know where life is gonna take you do you. Never thought I'd be here as an owner talking Mesa stuff. Never had anything against Mesa...I'm an old guy (almost FIFTY!!) and am and have always been a Marshall guy. Or at least Marshall-ish guy. Being Canadian I'vee had my share of old traynors and Garnets...but also Fenders and Marshalls and Hiwatts..nothing super gainey. My Marshalls are all 4-holers...non mv.
Oh I DO have a board. It's as heavy as any amps I own and is populated with the usual (welfare) suspects like a TU2, MXR Dynacomp '76hw, Dingotone BSD (transparent Ge OD), either a Keeley modded '82 TS-9 or an Allums mod SD-1, an old boss chorus, had a DD-2 but it got kicked out by an Akai Headrush E2 looper/delay, uhhh..oh a WH-5 and then usually something I built or am testing up in the top left. Sometimes a fuzzface, lately it was a Dr. Boogie.

My main band is a 3-piece mostly original that gigs a lot (Joe Public). We don't have any modern heavy snotty dropped D stuff...well except for one tune and I was making it work with the SD-1 and...oops forgot...I also have a Dingotone HZD...WICKED clean boost.
In the Spring I put a second "project" together to play most of the same festivals Joe Public plays at. This band was a 3-piece too but with an added chick singer and I made her (shhhhh) the boss (wink wink). She chose all the material and there was some modern heavy stuff in there like Pink, Evanessence, Cranberries and more newer stuff. That was when I decided...ok I need a high gain amp for this. But...I didn't have any spare few grands to drop on a nice Recto or Bogner etc.

The Dr. Boogie pedal is touted as being a Dual Rectifier's preamp section in a box but rather than 5 12AX7s all cascaded and making puke, the pedal used 5 FETs. Each tranny has its own bias trimpot. You can get pretty close to a recto (they say...maybe? I had nothing to compare to) it was definitely fun to play with at home and made all my other pedals sound nasally and middy and kinda silly.
Tried it at a rehearsal for a minute and..well...at real volumes...it kinda sounded like ..brb..

Sorry...had to re-connect....so at rehearsal...it souded like an earful of mosquitoes in your ear when youre trying to sleep in a tent. NOT real inviting or awesome.
Never did use it at a gig. I got by with the Allums modded SD-1...it has the Dual gain mod and can really get snotty...but not scooped and high gain sounding.

OK so...I have a TON of gear. Too many ...oops..she didn't see that did she? ...a LOT of cabs...a bunch of vintage amps...guitars, pedals.....you know.
Decided it was time to thin the herd a little. Summer's over up here and time to start hunkering down..and start finding Christmas $ and vacay money. We gig up here all Spring and summer followed by Corporate Christmas parties and casinos leading up to New Years Eve and then....OUTTAHERE to the Caribbean for the Winter.

First on the block (of anything major) was a strange 4-12 Marshall cab that was made for YJM in '87. I listed it on kijiji for a crazy amount...maybe like $850??or Trade.
The second offer that came in on the first day was a kid willing to trade his tan Mesa Stiletto Ace Head...straight across.
START THE CARRRRR START THE CARRRRR Off I went.
Kid was looking for a LOUD 4-12 cab and this one, with it's efficient old G12T-75s. If anything other than sexy looking...it was LOUD!!!
OK...freezing again....time for another brb...

 

[blaren]

Oops...reply instead of edit...sorry.
Where was I? Oh right...did the trade and both parties were extremely happy. The BEST type of trade.

Got home and fondled my new amp for an hour or so without plugging it in. Didn't look real Mesa industrial with it's fawn (tan) colored tolex and leather cornercaps...I used to own a '76 Fawn 100W MV Marshall. Reminds me a lot of this Stiletto.

OK..time to fire it up.
Oh a little background...I don't have a job. I gig and I flip gear. I buy and sell guitars and amps and effects, mics...whatever I KNOW...and I buy low sell high. I also sell a LOT of vintage tubes, mustard capacitors, Germanium transistors....

The Stiletto kinda shocked me...no not like all my old amps do...I mean it was shockingly great sounding.
I've had the odd 2203 and 2204 and they were too bright and hairy for me. The Stiletto can do that tone too but doesn't have to.
I also have a Fender HRDlxe. It's my handy dandy combo. I take it to most rehearsals and even onto some stages when I'm lazy and if it's in a smaller venue like a casino.
I only use the clean channel and goose it with pedals. It's gain channels suck.
Well...the Stiletto's clean tones are up there with the Fender. Spanky, Percussive, Fast, CLEAN, Twangy if you want or chunky if you prefer. I swear..if it had a tank with some lush verb it would kick the Fender to the curb and that's in the CLEAN dept!! Right there I was happy enough. Bring my pedals along and it's gonna work as well as any of my amps...but...let's see what this other channel and all these switches do.
WOW...MORE useable stuff.
You'll hear that these things are too bright. I am not finding that. Like my old '76 Marshall...I had to run it's presence, middle and treble at no higher than 2. The Stiletto aint too far off from that.
I'm not really finding a perfect old Marshall crunchy overdrive in it but I know there is one in there that's pretty close to the old NMV models.
Dammit she's slowing down again...time to stop this post and edit. Stand-by

I'll try to get to the end of this biblical rant quickly...

Point is that I'm finding this Stiletto to be the most versatile amp I've ever owned in my 40+ years of owning amps. I have it hooked to a 1-12 cab with an old G12-65 in it. NO brittle or painful highs at all.

BUT...I have thousands of tubes and I don't own any amps with their original (or any new production) glass inside. I always wondered wny MEsa owners have never been any of my customers. I assumed they just either didn't care and or, with all that preamp gain and hair...you cant really hear what a good tube would do.
Well it turns out that Randall SMith is to blame with is goofy...well not so goofy...marketing genius idea of not adding any bias testpoints or trimpots. Pretty savvy how he makes it so that if you don't want to become an amp tech, you have to use MESA tubes. Which as we all know are mostly just Sovteks. Even as New Production tubes go...SOVTEK??? Pe-euw.

I realize now that most mesas, with their cascaded gain stages and all that hairy vomit...WANT clean linear powersections. So like...when you have that preampsection sending pure distortion to the power section...well if it too was all overdriven...you'd end up with a plate of cold runny porridge.
But with these MEsas that are copping a more vintage and British inspired EL34 crunch...and especially the Stiletto that has a reputation for being too bright...a set of legit vintage bottles in the powersection would help all around...cont...

EDIT:...sorry...I keep running out of gas and then have to submit and edit.. :-(

So let's see...what powertubes should I drop into this puppy? Let's start with some decent old RFT EL34s. OK first let's research a bit more about this "non biasing" nonsense. All a guy would have to do if there really isn't anything inside...would be to add a 1ohm1watt1% tolerance resistor on a tube socket, change the bias resistor...or add one..and a trimpot. That would FREE me of having to buy those Mesa Sovtek CRAP tubesand would allow me to bias them so this amp is running properly. Without the adj bias mod...testing different powertubes would be like shooting darts blindfolded and hoping to hit the bullseye. Hey...COULD happen. Usually wont though.

In a couple weeks (or sooner I hope) I'll receive a few resistors and a trimpot and THEN I'll be able to make this amp work as it SHOULD. Like a vintage Marshall...and a blackface Fender..and a (almost) recto.
Oh and...when I tried it at home after the rehearsal and played with the Dr. Boogie pedal to see how close it was coming to a REAL Mesa (ok the Stiletto isn't really a REAL mesa but...). Well....into the Stiletto's clean channel...EWWWWW. Now THAT's a bright thin hairy sounding Mesa. WOW! Here I thought it was kinda legit. It is very dependant on what amp it's goosing though. It didn't sound great into a Marshall either. Into the Fender it seemed good...but not compared to the Stiletto's tight and fluid gain channels.
Anyone wanna buy a Dr. Boogie pedal?

 

[blaren]

And another freeze-up. Sorry for the spammy looking thread fellas...
Almost done.

I got the Stiletto in a trade. I was kinda playing Barter Kings. Wanted to see, in a month or so ...what I would end up with ...all from trading that old cab.
I got the Stiletto and saw the last Ace head listed SOLD for a grand. I listed mine but before the day was done I pulled it. Never thought I'd own a Mesa much less want one to be my #1 gigger. PLAN was to flip it.
I put a FOR TRADE ad on kijiji and got some WICKED offers. They're still coming in but I'm saying no to all of them so far. ONe was even a Vox AC30CC2 (warfdales) and an either EB Piezo Strat, some '70s Ibanez-hasn't sent pics yet..don't think there's a setneck Les Paul in the pile- and a Les Paul Tribute with upgraded pups.
I said NO thanks...so far...still might change my mind.
He's at the AC30 and $350. I said probably no but give me a week.

I think now though that once I put the bias mod into it and slap some SWEET tubes into it...it aint goin NOWHERE!!!

I LOVE my Stiletto Ace head! Most versatile amp I've ever played and it has a LOT of useable voices in it. Once it gets some decent bottles in it it will WALK all over...no DANCE all over all the DLSs and JVMs and even 4-hole plexis and RIs and JCM800s...AND fenders!!!

Stiletto Ace heads...they KICK!!!!
For those of you who think they are razor blade bright...TURN DOWN THE TREBLE MIDDLE AND PRESENCE!! Aint rocket surgery. Dump the sterile scooped bright V30s and try a 65 or a G12H-30. Try some different tubes.
Man...look at the specs and panels of the ED and RA...they are essentially a Stiletto Ace.

Proud to finally be a Mesa owner and a member here,
Sorry for the rant. How do you like me so far? lmfao

 

[shimmilou]

Hi blaren,

Interesting stuff, rambling, long-wided, a little misconstrued, but interesting. I take it that when you refer to Mesas goofy bias scheme, that you might not understand about tube ratings. You don't necessarily have to mod the bias circuit, just use tubes rated for the current draw that you want. Typically, the Mesa range for their tubes is roughly equivalent to the GT 4 to 7 rating, and you can get just about ant type of tubes with similar rating, just ask the vendor for tubes rated for Mesa amp ________ (insert amp name). Of course, a bias mod would be cool and allow the use of weak-***, NOS tubes. :lol: JK! But, with a bias mod you could use weaker or stronger tubes than those for which the amp was designed.

Taste being subjective, the Sovtek tubes can be great tubes depending on the type and application. In any event, Mesa uses Sovtek, EH, Chinese and even JJs, so don't be too quick to dismiss them all.

 

[bdubbs]

I think a Mark V would literally make your head explode for many different reasons. Welcome to Mesa dude! I just joined over the summer.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Hey, don't bash the Sovteks. I like them a lot for whatever reason... :lol:

Anywho, another trick to tame the brightness ever so slightly is to lower the master volume down a little, then turn up the output control to compensate for the volume drop. That way, you get a tad more low end and low mids coming through, whilst the brightness is reduced slightly. The Stiletto can do both bright and not so bright tones, but for me, I prefer more the brighter tone. Heck, that's what a lot of vintage Marshalls sounded like, except maybe for the early JTM45 range...

 

[harrisonguitars]

I bounced from Fender and used several Marshall amps in the 70's and 80's for the big gigs. I had no idea what to expect when a buddy told me he had traded JCM and bought a Mesa/Boogie Mark III. I first played it outside on a hot July day before a gig and I was just blown away. I was pretty much done with Marshall that day. Welcome to the board.

 

[Eevil]

Yay

I would like to have the ACE

Had many Dueces along the way and finally with reactive load the amp opened up properly.. just needs some taming

 

[Elliot Twist]

Blaren, I also just recently got my first Mesa(s). I have at least 10 Marshall amps, and I'm most likely also a "Marshall Guy."
I got a Mesa Mark Five head and a Mesa Mark Five 1X12 Combo.
It was tricky for a while at first to get used to the Mesa,
I spent 50 years playing on amps that sounded good with all the knobs at noon., and then you could work from there.
Mesa puts a lot into their amps and I've got mine sounding pretty good.