Master and Output settings for Stiletto

Ok I did a quick search, found a few things on this but nothing really concrete and not much pertaining to the stiletto in particular.

My tech near my house told me when he spoke to mesa about the stiletto, they told him not to run the output over about 9-10:00 and to run each channel master higher.

This is the opposite of what they told me a long time ago regarding my dual rec. For that amp, they told me to put up my output to about 12:00 and run the channel masters on the lower side and adjust them accordingly.

SO, for the stiletto, what do you guys do? I'm on fluid drive in particular (most of the time, sometimes tight gain instead). Right now I am just bypassing the loop.

Master .... 9-2 o'clock

I do not use the output much.

When I had my Stiletto I used to run the masters at about 11:00 and the output pretty low. There is a noticeable tone difference between cranking the masters and cranking the output. I preferred keeping them both about the same. Too much one way and it loses focus - too much the other way and it is too compressed. You'll just have to find a 'happy medium' that gives you the tone you want. There's no right or wrong way really.

thanks for the replies

So I actually spoke with Marcus at Boogie too and he said:
"It's best to keep your main output "closer" to noon and have each
channel master backed off under noon. This will get you the best
results when you have an FX processor hooked up. This goes for pretty
much all of our amps. Hope that clears things up."

Ive been doing this with my dual rec, my buddy has been doing this with his roadster, and now i'm doing it with my trident and I find it makes the amp a little smoother.

I guess its all preference.

thanks again

Yeah, there's something about the design that invokes another gain stage when you have the loop on, so if you turn your channel masters up high, they start to saturate, giving you this real mushy compression. It's hard to find the right balance, but sounds like you got it worked out. Lately I've been doing exactly what Marcus said and it's been working out great. Obviously it's best to switch out the effects loop and skip the problem altogether, but for some of us that use effects, it's not really a great option.

rich said:

thanks for the replies

So I actually spoke with Marcus at Boogie too and he said:
"It's best to keep your main output "closer" to noon and have each
channel master backed off under noon. This will get you the best
results when you have an FX processor hooked up. This goes for pretty
much all of our amps. Hope that clears things up."

Ive been doing this with my dual rec, my buddy has been doing this with his roadster, and now i'm doing it with my trident and I find it makes the amp a little smoother.

I guess its all preference.

thanks again

Click to expand...

This is also what I found out........If I run the master too high (above 9 o'clock on Lead channel, 12-1 o'c on Clean) it will start to clip my POD xt (a "clip" light starts flashing) and it adds unwanted distortion.

So I keep it under control and it sounds great! :lol: :shock: 8)

I got the same advice from Mesa (not sure if it was Marcus though). Put your output around noon and use the channel masters to adjust volume. Works for me.

I have noticed your messages and have a few gear questions for you guys. I am going to buy a Stiletto Ace in the near future and was wondering about the info you've offered about the Barber Tone Press. Could you tell me how much of a difference it has made to your rig? Also, what other mods do you recommend for this amp? I have played the amp a bunch of times and really love it, I just love searching gear/mods and would love to hear what you guys have to say about the amp as you seem quite knowledgeable and experienced.

+1

hitman416: I love the Barber Tone Press. It's very transparent in that it doesn't come across as an obvious compressor that squishes your tone so that you sound like you should be playing nothing but country music. It doesn't mess with Stiletto's tone, but adds some nice sustain and smooths everything out. I think it takes out some of that harshness too. I used to use a Boss compressor - real squishy and it was more like an effect than anything. I just leave my Tone Press on all of the time on the "magic dust" setting (both knobs around 11:00). Very subtle though - don't expect huge changes in your sound, but don't expect that you'll ever want to get rid of it either.

Jab,
Thanks for the heads up regarding the tone press. I am about to buy a Stiletto Ace and have been doing a lot of research on it. I have read quite a bit about it being harsh/too bright on the forum. Even though I loved it at the store, I really wasn't able to crank it to a level that would truly reflect its complete tonal nature. I am thinking of getting a Mr. Springy reverb pedal to go with it since it is lacking this feature. Can you give me any other info on possible mods, add-ons or tube option choices? Even though I don't even own the amp yet, I am a perpetual modder and would love to know the best options available to me if I ever decide to go that route. Another question I have is how to actually change the tubes. I am not a newbie, but the back area on the amp seems really tight in order to change both the power and preamp tubes. Do you have to remove the chassis or do you simply ram your arm into the unit and simply feel around in order to plug tubes in and out? Please chime in anyone else that has experience doing this.

Thanks in advance,
Anthony