Ace 1x12 on the way, care and feeding?

After a lot of research and waiting until taxes were paid, I just picked up a nearly new Ace 1x12 from eBay, expecting delivery next week and I'm very excited. It's got the original tube set from Mesa; I've read a few posts here about different tubes and speakers to take some of the edge off the sound - I played an Ace at the local music store and did find it to be thin compared to my AC30 (current amp) and Rectoverb (previous amp). I've got an LP, a 50th Anniversary Strat and a Gretsch G6120 Chet Atkins, and all have plenty of treble. Short of grabbing a soldering iron, what are some of the more popular mods that will darken things up for me? Thanks!

Congrats....Hope you enjoy it!!! I'm certainly attached to mine :mrgreen: !!

Power tubes made a difference for me. I settled on TungSol EL34B's (RI); going on 3 years and they still sound great!! I've heard good things about the SED =C= tubes too.
The biggest difference for me was when I added a 2x12 Recto cab! Now, I can "thump" if I feel like it! All the low end I need now!!! I used to run a GEQ in the loop but I don't need it anymore....just guitar straight in and GO! Sometimes a little touch of delay is fun though!! :twisted:

Enjoy finding out what sounds best for you...it's in there someplace!! 8)

Thanks for the tips, rocksalt. I spent a good 2 hours with the amp last night, and discovered that the Presence control has a HUGE impact on the tone, perhaps more than anything else. I started with Presence on 0, set everything else first, then slowly added. Presence seems to rob the thump from the single speaker, so a little goes a long way - I'm at about 11 o'clock on channel 1 and maybe 8 or 9 o'clock on channel 2?

I'll play with a 2x12 extension in the future - I have two raw speakers that need a home since they came out of my AC30CC2.

Glad you're digging it so far, srenkin!!
Putting a GEQ in the loop also makes a huge difference. Whenever I don't have my 2x12 hooked up, I run a GE-7 and the tone is THERE in truckloads!! Very tweakable too! :mrgreen:

Good luck and enjoy!!

I'll definitely look into one of those. Hey, one more question that doesn't seem to be addressed in the manual:

I'm still searching for tone options and throwing lots of switches. The Bold/Spongy option is on the Mains switch. So, logic tells me that I should switch the amp onto standby before switching from one to the other. I have been, but I notice there's still a power spike (thump). I don't want to harm the amp - let me know what you do?

Sam

I nearly always play on the spongy side. I've used the bold setting a couple of times when I've been playing out, but I just seem to gravitate towards the spongy sound more. You are right to go to standby when switching it over...like you said, it just makes sense; and it does thump...mine does it too ( I just went upstairs and tried it!). Truthfully though, I don't think I've ever switched it while I've been playing....I always just decide when I fire it up and go with it. :wink:

I primarily use the "fat clean" and "tite gain" flavors on each channel. I probably spend 80% of my time in the "tite gain" neighborhood...I love it!!! :mrgreen: and both of my Gibson's sound great there!! Hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine!! 8)

i have been trying to figure out how to use the bold spongy option...my other guitarist switches his mark V constantly into variac while in operation and has never had an issue. ive read that mesa has told rectifier owners that the bold spongy switches and all other switches (besides bias switch) are safe to use in operational mode. i'd really like to know if its okay for the stilettos. obviously we can switch diode and tube, because if you have each channel set one way, its like flipping the switch. ive switched bold to spongy once and didnt have a problem, but i always decide before i play now to be safe. we should call mesa and ask! i see this question on the forums all around the internet for all of the mesas that have this feature. it probably would state in the manual very clearly if this was an issue for the amplifier, but who knows.

I've never had any problems switching on the fly. Bold / Spongy, Tubes / Diodes.
I've been doing it for several years.
I do remember going from Spongy to Bold mid song once during a gig though. There was a big enough increase in volume that threw me off a little.
I learned not to do that again. :lol:

i have found with mesa, if its not safe to do it they will mention it in the manual.

yeah, mesa seems like too thorough of a company to leave something out of the manual that would be that important..that was my initial thought.

AceBoogie said:

yeah, mesa seems like too thorough of a company to leave something out of the manual that would be that important..that was my initial thought.

Click to expand...

That's always been my conclusion too.
They are just a phone call away if anyone has any reservations.

Update on the original topic of this post, how to darken the Ace tone: I pulled the V30 from my Ace and tried a G12H Anniversary instead, hoping for a more mellow top end. The cleans sounded nice, but it was much more fizzy with any of the gain settings - not sure if the lower 30w power rating is the culprit, but I'm back to the V30. Now that it's been a few weeks, I'm getting used to the amp and it's tone.

Got a nice speaker for sale ...

So after a month of experimenting, I think I'm all settled in for a while. I've got the tone dialed in where I want with the stock Mesa tubes and V30 (fat clean, tight gain) and what's amazing is that it sounds great with all three of my guitars - that's no small feat considering they run the spectrum from .009 strings in my Strat to .010s on my LP to .011s on my Gretsch. I'm using a Boss SD-1 for light overdrive (VOL and GAIN at 10 o'clock) and it really does the job.

I've learned that this amp is bright, but it's a different kind of bright than my AC30, which can be piercing. I had to do some knob-twiddling on my AC30 between the Strat and LP - not so with the Stiletto. In fact, the cover has been on my Vox for three weeks and isn't likely to come off soon.

Sam

Glad to hear you're enjoying your Ace, Sam... 8)

I'm finally getting mine dialed in w/ the 4x12, and like you, I don't have to adjust anything when changing guitars, which is nice. I do confess however that I've started using my GE-7 again, just bumping the lower frequencies a little and it just sounds killer!! This is truly the sound in my head!! Now I just have to let it out! :lol:

My wife and I live in a 1-bedroom apartment and have a 1 year-old daughter. I have been relegated to playing at barely audible levels.

At church I play drums, bass, or keys - yeah, everything but guitar!

I really hope to be able to crank this thing up and see what it really truly sounds like with the rest of my gear...