Hi Everyone!
I had a chance to play an Electradyne head at Magdon Music in Scranton,PA this afternoon (BTW, they also have a MKV head and combo too, as well as a Mark IIC combo and a DC-5 combo - OK, commercial over :roll: ).
I played it through a 4x12 Mesa cab and a 2x12 open back Lonestar cab with my 89 Les Paul Custom. To my blown out ears, the cab/speakers will be important variables to consider, but I didn't ask about whether any Electradyne specific cabs were in the pipeline. The closed 4x12 cab gave some nice warmth to the clean voicing, which was quite similar to the Express 5:50 (as I remember it) and very closely approaching the Lonestar Classic clean with EL34s (which I own and use now). However, I still find the Lonestar's clean intangibly "better" (YMMV). On the 2x12 cab, the Electradyne clearly lost some of its clean warmth and bottom. Crunch (Low) voicing was excellent with the 4x12, but was "bottom heavy" (i.e. had to dial it back some). Again with the 2x12 it lost its bottom (i.e. had to dial in more). The crunch was my favorite voicing of the three. The Hi voicing was equally robust with the 4x12, but was "bottom heavy" too. Nothing major to sweat. Also, no one will be complaining about not having enough gain on the Hi voicing. Easily hits classic rock, hard rock, and beyond, but no nu-metal, L.O.G., Metallica, etc. or Recto territory. IMO, adding a pedal to it to try and get higher gain/Recto territory, misses the entire point of this amp. After playing it, I'm thinking that perhaps a 3/4 back cab might be the ideal box for this amp. I base this on my past experience using a 3/4 cab with a Roadster Head and as an extension speaker with a Heartbreaker Combo - I had both "open-ness and bottom". I would be curious about how it might sound with a Thiele and an open back 1x12 compact cab together. I remember that this was a great speaker combination when I owned the Express 5:50 and the MKIV. Overall, I think the Mesa folks have nailed the "easy to use and dial in rock and roll amp"!
OK, now the less than good news..........the relative channel levels between the voicings is poor, which was the deal breaker for me. Get a nice full clean setting, switch to one of the other voicings and you'll need to adjust things and vica versa. Most obvious when switching between Clean and Hi. However, I would swear that I read on this group that Mesa has a mod/fix in the works??? Ah, I found the link http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36924&start=0&hilit=Electra+Dyne+mod
However, for $1599, I would have expected Mesa to have had this issue taken care of before release (especially in light of such prior "ooopps" as the Roadster's footswitch cycling/popping issues, the Lonestar's reverb issue when switching channels, etc). :x Rant over.
Bottom line for me (and of course YMMV): Great sounding rock amp and kudos to Mesa for making it so player friendly and simple to use; but I'll still stick with my LSC running EL34s for now. However, if they get the level issue corrected, they will be selling them by the boatloads and you never know when GAS might strike me!!!!!!! Who knows, the Electradyne might even turn out to be the next IIC+ :wink: :lol:
If you have the chance, check one out. 8)
Matt
I had a chance to play an Electradyne head at Magdon Music in Scranton,PA this afternoon (BTW, they also have a MKV head and combo too, as well as a Mark IIC combo and a DC-5 combo - OK, commercial over :roll: ).
I played it through a 4x12 Mesa cab and a 2x12 open back Lonestar cab with my 89 Les Paul Custom. To my blown out ears, the cab/speakers will be important variables to consider, but I didn't ask about whether any Electradyne specific cabs were in the pipeline. The closed 4x12 cab gave some nice warmth to the clean voicing, which was quite similar to the Express 5:50 (as I remember it) and very closely approaching the Lonestar Classic clean with EL34s (which I own and use now). However, I still find the Lonestar's clean intangibly "better" (YMMV). On the 2x12 cab, the Electradyne clearly lost some of its clean warmth and bottom. Crunch (Low) voicing was excellent with the 4x12, but was "bottom heavy" (i.e. had to dial it back some). Again with the 2x12 it lost its bottom (i.e. had to dial in more). The crunch was my favorite voicing of the three. The Hi voicing was equally robust with the 4x12, but was "bottom heavy" too. Nothing major to sweat. Also, no one will be complaining about not having enough gain on the Hi voicing. Easily hits classic rock, hard rock, and beyond, but no nu-metal, L.O.G., Metallica, etc. or Recto territory. IMO, adding a pedal to it to try and get higher gain/Recto territory, misses the entire point of this amp. After playing it, I'm thinking that perhaps a 3/4 back cab might be the ideal box for this amp. I base this on my past experience using a 3/4 cab with a Roadster Head and as an extension speaker with a Heartbreaker Combo - I had both "open-ness and bottom". I would be curious about how it might sound with a Thiele and an open back 1x12 compact cab together. I remember that this was a great speaker combination when I owned the Express 5:50 and the MKIV. Overall, I think the Mesa folks have nailed the "easy to use and dial in rock and roll amp"!
OK, now the less than good news..........the relative channel levels between the voicings is poor, which was the deal breaker for me. Get a nice full clean setting, switch to one of the other voicings and you'll need to adjust things and vica versa. Most obvious when switching between Clean and Hi. However, I would swear that I read on this group that Mesa has a mod/fix in the works??? Ah, I found the link http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36924&start=0&hilit=Electra+Dyne+mod
However, for $1599, I would have expected Mesa to have had this issue taken care of before release (especially in light of such prior "ooopps" as the Roadster's footswitch cycling/popping issues, the Lonestar's reverb issue when switching channels, etc). :x Rant over.
Bottom line for me (and of course YMMV): Great sounding rock amp and kudos to Mesa for making it so player friendly and simple to use; but I'll still stick with my LSC running EL34s for now. However, if they get the level issue corrected, they will be selling them by the boatloads and you never know when GAS might strike me!!!!!!! Who knows, the Electradyne might even turn out to be the next IIC+ :wink: :lol:
If you have the chance, check one out. 8)
Matt
