I love my Stiletto

There are so many threads on problems with the Stiletto, why not just worship the Stiletto? Tell me what you love about this badass underrated amp!

Personally, I love my heavy metal tone! With a 10-band in the loop of my Ace, it really rips.

You?

My Ace rocks....plain and simple!! :mrgreen: I have tried an equalizer in the loop and found that I like the Stiletto tone better w/o anything. So far the only pedal I'm using on a consistent basis is the H2O pedal. The delay is just so versatile on this amp, it's just crazy. I'll probably change to a different chorus soon though. I'm just not 100% on the H2O's sound....there's just something that's off to me. But, that's the pedal, not the amp!!

I don't really play heavy metal as such, but I play really hard and kinda raunchy blues and I couldn't be more pleased w/ the sounds I'm getting. My only complaint, if you could call it that, is that I wish there was a third channel on this baby. I use the "crunch" on Ch1 and the "tite gain" on Ch2 the most (YEAAHH!!). The last couple of weeks though I've been spending a lot of time w/ the "fat clean" flavor. I'm just getting the most awesome singing tones out of this monster on clean!!! This amp is just so addictive!!!

I could make this post a lot longer, but I think this will do for now....I love my Ace :mrgreen:

What problems are we talking about here? I've been totally satisfied with my Deuce, I haven't touched my Recto in the months since I bought it.

Back before the site upgrade, I remember a bunch of problems people were having with their Stiletto's. I don't have any examples. I just wanted to create a Stiletto love thread!

Share the love.....

I think perhaps one person here had issues with their Stiletto and returned it. Personally, I'd have tried another......

I have an Ace and now, finally, I "think" I like it fine!
However, for the first 15 months after buying it, I went through all kinds of grief!! :evil:

About every 6-8 weeks, the power would cut and sound distorted. I kept replacing tubes trying to resolve it and everytime I would try something to affect the problem, it would start working OK again....until another 6-8 weeks!!

It was so intermittent that even the repair station recommended waiting until it got more consistent of a problem so they would be able to find it!!

Finally I put it in the shop and it took over 8 weeks to finally find and fix the problem!
It was a bad power supply filter capacitor that would not always hold a charge. Since I got it back, no trouble....so far, anyway.

What "gets" me is, while I tried calling Mesa about this issue, they never even offered to send me a new tube to try. No offer to cover the cost of tubes I bought to try to solve what was their problem. All expense and grief was my own problem.

So basically, for 15 months, they had my money and I had "little" or no usable amp. :?

Having "vented" all this, I realize these things happen and intermittent problems can be a pain for everyone. I know this all too well as I have been an Electronic Tech for 30+ years.

Still, it is a real bummer when this happens to (formerly?) loyal Mesa fans like you or me, and now I think I would have been just as well or better off to buy used amps that at least may have had a fairly reliable history.
After all, if I am going to go through the grief of troubleshooting/fixing an old amp, why should I have to pay for a new one.?? :?:

That's my theory now, anyway.
As far as sound quality, the Stilettos are about as good as it gets IMHO.
As long as they keep working...... :roll:

Buy one at your own risk! :shock:

sounds like you got a real lemon dude! i've owned many Mesas and never had a lick of trouble out of any of them! Well, I had a tube failure, but that's to be expected with old worn out tubes!

Mesa has always resolved my problems with no trouble.going way back when Mark 4 came out,i had a bad resistor or something cant remember back that far.i shipped it back they fixed it for free,threw in a tshirt.then with my Stiletto Deuce, which came out of a sealed box ,i had a broken in half preamp tube,probally from shipping.i called them ,they sent my 2 right away.AWESOME CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

Oh and by the way i love my Deuce.

Yes, I must agree that in general, Mesa service is very, very good.

Believe me when I tell you that I do not want any more problems with this amp (duh). Not just because of the obvious lack of grief & headaches, but also because I have been a big Mesa fan for years and would prefer to sing praises about their products, than to complain.

I tend to believe that my experience with the Ace is indeed an exception to the rule.

My other Mesa amps have been great (tubes, excepted, of course).

I still love my ace

I have a great deal of affection for my Stiletto as well. Great tone and versatile. No problems with mine, or any of the other Mesa products I have owned. I'm sure there are plenty of folks out there who have had problems, and even some that received crummy service either from the official repair places or from Mesa themselves. However, I think that is the exception to the rule. That doesn't mean one individual's experience couldn't be terrible, just means that as a rule of thumb those guys get it right.

even some that received crummy service either from the official repair places or from Mesa themselves

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I think this is exactly "it".... all depends on who you deal with and maybe how loud you scream.

I hear stories of Mesa sending parts and tubes to folks for amps that are clearly out of warranty and then situations like mine where the warranty won't really make up for all the trouble & expense i went through.

Having said all this, I intend to keep the Ace unless problems return, which, frankly is highly unlikely now that they found the "root" cause.
And I'm keeping all my other Mesa's, too!

I'll gladly share the love. My Deuce rocks my world, and I can hardly wait to get home every day and turn it on. It sounds amazing with my band as well. Best amp I've ever owned, and I've had a few :wink:

insideout said:

I'll gladly share the love. My Deuce rocks my world, and I can hardly wait to get home every day and turn it on. It sounds amazing with my band as well. Best amp I've ever owned, and I've had a few :wink:

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++++1. Couldn't have said it better. The thing with this amp is that the brightness at first was a turnoff. That is, until I started using it at the gigs. This amp cuts through the mix like no other I have used. So when noodling and tweaking with it in the basement, I keep in mind that the results are totally different with the band and can live with the brightness in the basement.

Paulie said:

++++1. Couldn't have said it better. The thing with this amp is that the brightness at first was a turnoff. That is, until I started using it at the gigs. This amp cuts through the mix like no other I have used. So when noodling and tweaking with it in the basement, I keep in mind that the results are totally different with the band and can live with the brightness in the basement.

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Yeah buddy. This month is a year that I've had mine now, and still giddy about it.

Totally agree about the brightness. I kept tweaking it down at home, and then got with the band and it was dead and dull. I brought the highs back up and it just shines through. Clearly, playing at home and playing along side of a loud drummer requires different EQ settings. The size of the room you're in makes a huge difference on that as well.

Rabies, I haven't used anything other than cheap 'come with the purchase free' cables and Monster. Have you used Monster and have you noticed any difference between monster and George L's?