Stiletto cleans and in comparison to other Boogies

It's great to see such a well organized Boogie community. I'm writing as I am in the market for a Boogie and thought I'd pass a few concerns by y'all.

1. Ideally, I'd like an amp that provides the EL34 sound for rock, but also a clean channel for my jazzbox. Do other Stiletto users attempt this?

2. Mesa Boogie provides lots of options, including the Mark V and the new Electra Dyne which can run on 6L6's and EL34's. As the Stiletto series is designed around the EL 34's, how close do these other amps sound when run on EL34's?

Thanks for your input,

Sam

The Stiletto is in a league of it's own as far as Mesa's amp lineup goes. It is very much more Marshall-like than any other Mesa i've owned/played. It's clean channel is very, very surprising from an EL34 amp. I think it would work great for jazz as it is punchy and dark in comparison to it's distortion channel. No other amp sounds like a Stiletto - even a Recto with EL34s does not sound like a Stiletto. It's the circuitry - it's entirely different. The best thing to do would be play as many as possible......... or do like I've done and just go on what you've read! I've bought 4 out of 6 boogies without ever playing through them. If you do your research and listen to enough clips I think you'll be able to tell what you like and don't like.

My newest favorite ampline from Mesa is the DC series - in particular the DC-3. And that's after owning a Mark IV, Roadster, Rectoverb, Stiletto Ace, and an F-30 all in the past two years. It's a very underrated series. The cleans are killer (even on the DC-3 even if there isn't much headroom!) and the lead channel is very Mark-like with just the right amount of articulation, gain, and a perfect voicing. I've stopped looking at amps and now i'm focused on my guitars and getting stereo effects setup with a Crate Powerblock I just bought.

HTH