C90 in Stiletto ACE combo

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alie123

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Hello everyone,

As many others, I have trouble with my Stiletto ACE. My ACE is very Bright. Treble and Prescense and Mid's should stay in the very lower regions,.. Turned up higher (9ocklock) it's a very bright sound. I've read some people hooked up the combo to a 4x12 cab with c90 speakers. The treble isue is over they say.. Anyone who has experienced this also ?

So, I have no place and no money for a 4x12 Mesa cab, but has any tried replacing the Vintage30 combo speaker for a Mesa C90 speaker ? This speaker should have less highs in the sound.. I'd like to try that.

I've done tube changes / beam blocker etc. Everything helps me a bit, but a speaker change may work wonders ? Before the tube changes my combo was very harsh. Now It's not harsh anymoore, but still overly bright.

What do you guys think? May that work, or .. ?

Thanks in advance!
 
Have you tried a 10 band EQ in the loop? I have one with my Ace 1x12 and it works wonders. Just pick one up on ebay like I did. I didn't pay more than $100 for it.
 
thanks for the quick reply. yes, I have tried, but not at band volumes yet. At lower volumes I wasn't very enthousiast. It can tames the brights but it's very hard tweaking when messing with the tone controls on the EQ and the amp. I really want to keep it simple when having a gig for example.. I wasn't very impressed of the EQ in the loop. Don't know how to describe what it did to my sound..
 
You did not say if you had tried replacing tubes.....

I found a jj ecc83 (their standard 12ax7) in v2 helped a bit. One of these in v1 can help as well, but I thought it was a bit too much, depending on mode. Also the GrooveTube el34M's added low end, helping offset the brightness. The stock Mesa tubes seem to add a 'bright harshness' to the amp especially when in v1, v2 or output tubes. There are better choices IMHO. 8)

Still, I have to keep presence control to 9 o'clock or less.....treble at 1 o'clock or less.

And this with C90 speakers as well. The Stilettos don't have "Recto low end" by any means...

I have found that at gig volume levels that the brightness is not as obvious as it will be at home/practice levels.

One of the members here, MusicmanJP6, I believe, has swapped a C90 into the combo version.
Maybe he'll pipe in and can give you more insight.
Good luck! :D
 
Old BF, has a good memory! I swapped my old Ace combo's V30 out for a C90 briefly and it does smooth out the amp quite a bit... but it is not as aggressive as the V30 - it doesn't have that 'bite'. I'm not a real big fan of the C90 because it's been in almost every Mesa amp/cab i've owned - I guess i'm just tired of it. Haha. It will certainly help with the brightness, and may be the speaker for you if you are after a smoother, more balanced tone. It added more headroom too, but it decreased the amount of 'perceivable' gain also if that makes sense - most likely because it smooths out the top end. It also decreased the bass output too - the higher power rating may be the culprit here. Bottom line is... try it!

A Tungsol in V1 also helps out...

HTH
 
Hey there...

So I bought an Ace a while ago....and liked it so much, I bought a 2nd. "Head" version. At the time I was playing custom strats, american deluxe maple necks, am deluxe bodies...but each guitar I had put Tom Anderson H3's in there...a darker thicker pickup. So it offset the bright amp pretty well.

I now play a couple Musicman Axis guitars. I will never let go of these guitars...and now they're my main axe's. Now I seem to have the "too bright" issue. It's too edgy and harsh, as well as the mids are just too nasley. Like the previous poster stated, presense, mids, highs...should be in the lower register. When I use an OD pedal to give myself a 3rd channel of like the in between clean/gain tone....the mids are just too strong...unless I use a distortion/OD pedal that has a mid control.

I switched from using my V30 mesa cab to my 1960B GT1275 Marshall Cab and that definitely helped. I've always loved the edgy tone of V30's...but the one thing Mesa got wrong with the Ace is how they use a V30 with the combo making the absolute worst match for a amp/Speaker pairing.

Even after smoothing out the tone with the Marshall cab, I still have to back off the mids all the way, and pull most of the highs down....use an MXR 10 band EQ, and smooth out some of the in between tones with that and a BB preamp, Fulltone FD2...and sometimes a tonebone Hot British. My tone sounds nice...but my next step is to go with the Eurotubes complete retube kit of JJ's with maybe the Gold pin upgrade.

I have a love hate with Mesa. I finally gave up years ago on the razor harsh sounding Rectifiers...as well as the Road King I gave up. It's either too chainsaw sounding or too dark with the tone of a blanket over your cab. I like a nice open tone with enough gain saturation, bite, definition and not too many nasley mids. I'm close...but need the tube upgrade. I wish Mesa wasn't so arrogant claiming their relabeled tubes were top notch....if they, at their prices, had high end smooth sounding tubes in their amps from the get go...we wouldn't be having this forum chat.

Get away from the V30 with an Ace!
 
+1 on the V30's not being the right match. I have a Deuce stage 1 and have been using a 2X12 (Open) with V30's. After reading this post this weekend, I put it through my 1X12 (3/4 closed) with the C90. All of the descriptions on the way this speaker reacts to the C90are spot on... although I don't think I lost any bottom end with it. I also used my 2X12 with G12T75's (closed back) and got what I thought were great results. My 10 band EQ was packed up so I didn't use it in the test but realized I didn't need to. This is a great combination as there is still plenty of breakup and the upper mid and high bite seems to be rounded out a bit better than the C90. I also tried various combinations of the three cabs and still found that the closed back 2X12 with G12T75's sounded better to me. Note: I was doing all of this with a Strat with a Pearly gates in the bridge. Still need to tame the honk sometimes.

One thing though - this was all without a band. I've used the V30's and Deuce in a band situation and thought they sat in the mix very well - loved it actually. Next gig I will use the 75's to see what the result is - but I think thwe character of the Stiletto's changes depending on the room and the frequency spectrum of a band.

bvaladez74 - I too went from a Dual to a Stiletto. The DR didn't fit the classic rock tone I was looking for. Over time I'm liking the V30 less and less.
 
The V30 works well with some amps, but not with others. For dark natured amps the V30s are great. I really like my DC-3 through my two V30 loaded Recto 1x12s. For brighter amps they are not the best match as we have found out with the Stiletto, although a 4x12 w/ V30s made the Deuce at my local music store sound awesome. Go figure...
 
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