Pulled the trigger one of these little guys and wow! Color me super impressed! Little review after some time with it, maybe a couple of hours.
The amp is extremely versatile and covers a ton of ground across 2 channels and 4 modes total. Surprised there is not a 16 ohm input for a cab but there is a 4 and 8. I am also impressed by the amount of very good example settings mesa provided with this amp. Never been impressed in the past with their suggestions.
The channel 1 clean tone can coax your standard mesa clean and a great punk rock dirt sound. Though I must admit I love the pushed mode on channel 1, fell in love with this mode on my rectoverb combo (the 50w version). Great pushed gain with little overdrive to very good crunch tones. This mode leads into channel 2 vintage, which to me has always been mesa's attempt at marshall, especially pushing EL34s in the power section. Channel deliveres and is every bit as good and useful as it's big brothers. The finally mode channel 2, modern. I love this mode, I don't care what mesa amp it's on
totally brutal if you want. I spend a ton of time using this mode for dirt leads and heavier riffs in the past.
Getting into the 10 vs 25 w selections is really quite interesting. I also noticed you don't have the mesa jump in power from around 9 o'clock to 10 etc. my larger mesas, the sound immediately jumps in volume. I did not experience this with the mini. Which below 8 o'clock sounds really good pushing gain on either wattage selection, the sound opens up as you turn the volume, little fuller, little more of everything really but still very useful to record at very low volume if needed for an idea etc or just to jam and not disturb anyone. To me, 10w sounds just as good as 25w just different , more power and super loud! This amp can hang no worries.
I am playing through a 3/4 back mesa 1x12 with a black shadow and a v30 loaded mesa 4x12. Sounds great on either cab, I didn't try it on orange 1x12 though...
Might be a small package but sounds every bit as huge as the larger amps.
The amp is extremely versatile and covers a ton of ground across 2 channels and 4 modes total. Surprised there is not a 16 ohm input for a cab but there is a 4 and 8. I am also impressed by the amount of very good example settings mesa provided with this amp. Never been impressed in the past with their suggestions.
The channel 1 clean tone can coax your standard mesa clean and a great punk rock dirt sound. Though I must admit I love the pushed mode on channel 1, fell in love with this mode on my rectoverb combo (the 50w version). Great pushed gain with little overdrive to very good crunch tones. This mode leads into channel 2 vintage, which to me has always been mesa's attempt at marshall, especially pushing EL34s in the power section. Channel deliveres and is every bit as good and useful as it's big brothers. The finally mode channel 2, modern. I love this mode, I don't care what mesa amp it's on
totally brutal if you want. I spend a ton of time using this mode for dirt leads and heavier riffs in the past.Getting into the 10 vs 25 w selections is really quite interesting. I also noticed you don't have the mesa jump in power from around 9 o'clock to 10 etc. my larger mesas, the sound immediately jumps in volume. I did not experience this with the mini. Which below 8 o'clock sounds really good pushing gain on either wattage selection, the sound opens up as you turn the volume, little fuller, little more of everything really but still very useful to record at very low volume if needed for an idea etc or just to jam and not disturb anyone. To me, 10w sounds just as good as 25w just different , more power and super loud! This amp can hang no worries.
I am playing through a 3/4 back mesa 1x12 with a black shadow and a v30 loaded mesa 4x12. Sounds great on either cab, I didn't try it on orange 1x12 though...
Might be a small package but sounds every bit as huge as the larger amps.
