Examples of the Stiletto sound on the Boogie Web Site

There are some great recorded sounds of the Stiletto Deuce II on the Mesa Website. Settings are given as well.

The 'Electric Gigue' example shows how close the Deuce II will get you to an Eric Johnson type sound on fluid drive. Great playing on the examples too.

Notice the settings? No treble at all!

Yeah, that is something new to the site. Very cool.
No treble at all. I am usually around 8 and 9 o'clock with both treble and presence.
Like others here have stated, there are times at a gig where I could dial the treble up but......
I hate what happens with the presence too high though. I'm talking about the Crunch and Gain modes at least.

It's always baffled me though. What is Mesa's thinking behind this? I mean, it's not like they made a mistake is it?
There must be a logical reason.

Did Mr. Smith consult Nigel Tufnel when designing this amp? Treble and presence go eleven. "It's one brighter isn't it"

I have found that the Lead sound for many soloists like Eric and (i think) andy timmons.. is to have the bass and mids way up and the treble way down. it makes it very thick. of course each amp responds differently but in general thats how you achieve the "EJ" tone

srf399 said:

There are some great recorded sounds of the Stiletto Deuce II on the Mesa Website. Settings are given as well.

The 'Electric Gigue' example shows how close the Deuce II will get you to an Eric Johnson type sound on fluid drive. Great playing on the examples too.

Notice the settings? No treble at all!

Click to expand...

Where at on the Mesa site? I don't see anything.

Actually the best example of the song "Electric Gigue" is on the Lone Star Classic page. There they have the clean sound of the Lone Star and then he switches to the Deuce II for the solo.... Check it out.

Well, it's either my speaker cab, or my fingers (or both) but playing my deuce straight in with my American Deluxe Strat with those settings doesn't sound even close :? . Not to say I haven't gotten some fantastic tones with my Deuce, but those settings aint it. They sound great in the examples though.

Riff Blister said:

No treble at all. I am usually around 8 and 9 o'clock with both treble and presence...

...It's always baffled me though. What is Mesa's thinking behind this? I mean, it's not like they made a mistake is it? There must be a logical reason...

Click to expand...

On my old JMP and JCM 800's, it was the same thing. I ran the Treble/Presence around 2-3, aka 9 o'clock or so.

Riff Blister said:

Yeah, that is something new to the site. Very cool.
No treble at all. I am usually around 8 and 9 o'clock with both treble and presence.
Like others here have stated, there are times at a gig where I could dial the treble up but......
I hate what happens with the presence too high though. I'm talking about the Crunch and Gain modes at least.

It's always baffled me though. What is Mesa's thinking behind this? I mean, it's not like they made a mistake is it?
There must be a logical reason.

Did Mr. Smith consult Nigel Tufnel when designing this amp? Treble and presence go eleven. "It's one brighter isn't it"

Click to expand...

LOL!

dmcguitar said:

I have found that the Lead sound for many soloists like Eric and (i think) andy timmons.. is to have the bass and mids way up and the treble way down. it makes it very thick. of course each amp responds differently but in general thats how you achieve the "EJ" tone

Click to expand...

i have to +1 this

i had trouble getting the tones i wanted from the stiletto deuce for so long. the other night i was messing around on the fluid drive channel and put the mids and bass up to 4:00, with presence and treble around 0, gain at about 10:00 - 11:00, volume just above 9:00. i boost with a ts9, gain down, volume up, eq neutral. i use a JS-1000 (satriani) guitar, (recto 212 cab w v30's) ,and once i dialed in these settings, the amp just came alive. i was nailing satch tones from the denver g3 (the one with vai and malmsteen, youtube it) dvd. also sounded like satch from anaheim 2005 live podcast (google)

i always kept everything around 10:00 with the treble and presence down lower, and adding more bass always made it too muddy. it wasn't until i tried turning the mids up all the way just as an experiment that i realized that all i was missing was bass, and turned that up too. these are the last settings i thought i'd ever use but it sounds great.

i leave it on tube rectifier i think, and go back and forth between bold and spongy. i like spongy better for lead tones. spongy on lead tones with the neck pickup makes it kinda melt together and gets liquidy and smooth. switching onto bold seems to add more attack in the upper mids, a more immediate attack, and sounds great for palm muted rhythm stuff. spongy sounds good on palm muted riffing too, it just has a bit more sag, not as much as recto but its noticeable. palm muted stuff on bold tightens up kind of like a mark iv.

i just wanted to throw this out there because i was about to sell this amp until i stumbled upon these settings. definitely a keeper now.

just tried the settings on my deuce with my strat . . . well, it's nowhere near it to start to get close i have to pull the gain up, put the bass down and the mids a lil bit higher.

dont know if it's because my amp is series I, but the clip is way more distorted and less flubby and way smoother.

someone else tried the settings at home? im very curious now :?

I discovered something very interesting on this. I said earlier that these settings don't sound the same at all for me either. However, when I use a DI box into my computer and record, these settings sound fantastic. As soon as I unplug the DI and attenuator, and go through my cab, it sounds horrible. Strange. I guess it must really be the cab that's making the difference.

well, that's really odd. speaker cabs do really make a difference, but in that case i wasnt expecting that much, since im using a 2x12 stiletto copy with Warehouse Veteran 30s that sounds very similar to the original (i would not say "better" cause it's a matter of personal taste).

prob the mics are making a huge difference as well :?: cause yes, the player is out of the equation :mrgreen: