love my stiletto...too bad they are misunderstood...

How many times have you read "they are too bright? They are like an icepick in the ears???" I'd like to amend those statements..... "When I dime all the tone controls like Eddie Van Halen says he does and because I don't know any better, its like an icepick in the ears...." My Ace sounds fantastic with the treble and mids barely on...and I feel people get all hung up on what they think settings should be and not what sounds good. This is such a fine piece of gear...

I've owned Marshalls, Laneys, Peaveys, Carvins (x100b, Legacy)....and the Stiletto just provides MORE sonic information - more overtones, more focus, more low mids and bass... and that's just the tite gain and fluid drive.

The cleans of course...best EL34 cleans ever, hands down.

All the POSERS that bash this amp....do any of them have any hope of ever playing as well as Andy Timmons? Of being one iota as discriminating as that guy about tone?

Oh well, now its discontinued... because people use their eyes and their preconceptions of what tone control settings should be and not their ears.

And you'd think Mesa users, of all people, would understand and accept an amp that takes extreme EQ settings to sound its best. I mean, this is the company that gave us Mark series Boogies, the amps where the bass knob is useless past 2. :lol:

I agree that it's a great amp. I have had my Ace almost 5 years and love it. I don't necessarily agree that the treble and presence need to be that low, but I think it depends upon what kind of music you are playing. I've tried some of those settings, and while I agree that they sounded good, they didn't match what I do

I play Zeppelin to Green Day in a cover band, and I used to use darker settings on the amp, and believe it or not, always had to turn my bass down because when it came through the PA, the lows were way too much. My latest sound has everything in the noon area in fluid drive with the tube rectifier, spongy (Gain at noon, Treble at 11:30, mids slightly above 12:00 and Presence at 10:00, bass a little past noon). It cuts through the mix perfectly. I've gotten tons of compliments on my tone. People can hear it because it sits in that part of the mix that the other instruments aren't taking up.

I'm not knocking rectos because I love their sound too, but I remember one of the sound guys that we used to work with regularly loved the Ace because he used to deal with Rectos all the time and would get annoyed because they didn't cut as well. I'm sure it was garbage in, garbage out because I have heard amazing sounds from them in the type of stuff that I play when set right

I'm a bit happy that they are discontinued though. I like having something that they don't make anymore

You can reduce the treble to remove the "harsh" highs of course. Even better would be to bring up the treble and lower the master volume. Then compensate for the volume loss with the output knob. Tone gets fatter and more midrange that way... 8)

I listened to an old vid of me playing a one-off for a friend of mine using my Deuce, my tone was terrible. Fizzy, harsh, etc. At the time, I thought I had a good sound. Was I wrong. Last year I picked up a Marshall AFD100 which I'd been using as my main amp. After blowing a tube, I switched back to my Stiletto. The guys in the my band were telling me to get the AFD back up and running, the sound couldn't compare. This left me a bit upset, because I know that there had to be a great sound in the Stiletto. What I ended up doing was I hooked both the Marshall and the Stiletto up to their own cabs, dialed in the Marshall, and did a side by side. It didn't take me long at all to dial in a really sweet tone on the Stiletto. No fizz, no harsh tones, just a great crunchy sound. The two major things it took to tame the Stiletto were to turn down both the treble and the gain. The treble is now set to 9:00, and the gain 12:00. It's amazing the difference this made with this amp. Some might criticize me for using another amp to figure out how to dial a good tone on this amp, but I really needed a reference to do this properly. Keep in mind, there is a huge difference in the tonal capacity of both amps. The AFD is the AFD, it doesn't have a huge range with the tone knobs, vs. the Stiletto which almost has too much range. But it is possible to dial in a great sound on the Stiletto, as long as you really know what you're doing. Obviously, I did not know what I was doing with this amp.

I have never owned a Stiletto, however I have always had a bit of an affinity for them. Using my past knowledge of Mesa EQing, it did not take me long at all to dial amazing tones very quickly when I have jammed on Stilettos in the past. Luckily I learned how to EQ on Mesas very early (my first real amp being a 3 channel Mesa Triple Rectifier when I was 17) so it comes naturally. Once you get past EQing with your eyes and start using your ears it really makes all the difference in getting Mesas to sound how you want them to.

Jak0lantern01 said:

Some might criticize me for using another amp to figure out how to dial a good tone on this amp, but I really needed a reference to do this properly.

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I do it all the time. It's a really useful technique since you have to listen with your ears.

screamingdaisy said:

... I do it all the time. It's a really useful technique since you have to listen with your ears ...

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I don't own a Stiletto, however, +1 to Daisy!

I A/B all my amps to see how close the tones are so I have a baseline for settings when I decide which one to use for which purpose when mic'd or not mic'd.

• My .50 Cal sound good in a small tight enclosed stage. My HB or Mark might sound too overpowering or I may be too boxed in to get the others to the levels I need.
• At the same time my Mark would sound great in the medium sized room or even passable in not so tighter stage. (gasp - you may say to me saying that a Mark can be too much or not enough :lol: )
• The HB works very well where I have room to just jump all over without running into my fellow band mates. :mrgreen:
• For those jams where you just never know what may happen I will take my Fender or Acoustic :roll:

Yep +1 to Daisy!! :wink:

Dennis

hey Guys,
I play in a AC/DC type band. My main amp is a Stiletto Deuce I. I replaced my power tubes with GT-EL34-LS #7s (Mesa amps are biased cold) and my pre amp tubes are 5751s Which have only 70% of the gain. Here is a clip. The camera is on my side of the stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzA1EV_SMyQ

I'm playing the lower riff on the open strings. Other guitar player is using old Marshalls.

I think I get a real good tone out of mine. Plus with the EL34-LS tubes give me more bottom end.

BMarchant said:

hey Guys,
I play in a AC/DC type band. My main amp is a Stiletto Deuce I. I replaced my power tubes with GT-EL34-LS #7s (Mesa amps are biased cold) and my pre amp tubes are 5751s Which have only 70% of the gain. Here is a clip. The camera is on my side of the stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzA1EV_SMyQ

I'm playing the lower riff on the open strings. Other guitar player is using old Marshalls.

I think I get a real good tone out of mine. Plus with the EL34-LS tubes give me more bottom end.

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I don't think I could hear you at all. Couldn't tell. Plus it may just be the camera mic being overloaded but some of the notes in the riff sounded off.

I just got one Saturday. I traded my Revision G for a Stage I trident. I'm not too worried about the Recto: great amps, but they're everywhere so I won't have trouble tracking down another Revision G if need be. Fortunately I don't think I will. When I was doing the trade with the guy we demo'd both amps and being a Mesa I dialed it conservatively enough to know that there were some awesome tones in here to be had, but it was going to take some time to draw them out. Once I got it home and hooked up to my Recto 2x12, after a little bit of tweaking the great tones came out in droves. This amp is amazing. I like it more than my Mark V. It's still a tweaker for sure, but man it's so much fun to play through. I like both the fluid drive and tite gain modes for different applications. The crunch mode is super beefy and a blast to play and the cleans are heavenly.

I can see how people would have some issues with the highs but I like them as long as I don't go too overboard with them. And even then, I've heard people say the same thing about Rectos but in a live mix they sure help cut through. Presence and treble controls go a long way on this amp and depending on the mode you may have to adjust accordingly. That being said I like that kind of top end snarl. For me it's cool because I can get in between a GnR/Zakk Wylde Ozzy Era EL34 roar with a bit more authority on the low mids and bottom end. Hitting it with a TS-9 or SD-1 just makes it better by smoothing some top end and cutting some sub lows and it helps that these amps like their Recto brothers seem to like boosts. It's very sensitive to pickups too and that can go a long way. I have two Les Pauls with EMGs that sound excellent through it, but my Standard with a 498-T and Duncan Antiquity sound equally amazing and a bit more raunchy. I haven't tried my Strat through it yet (been having too much fun with my Les Pauls!) but I think it would sound phenomenal on lower to mid gain settings.

The Stage I actually does have a good amount of gain on tap too. It's just not as compressed as some amps so it doesn't always feel as urgent but that's fine. I'm not afraid to hit it with a boost to beef things up when necessary but unboosted it sounds great too. Overall this is the amp I didn't know that I wanted but man am I glad that I have it. I love playing and trying different amps but this one has just been an absolute joy to play no matter what I try on it.

DWAKO said:

Once you get past EQing with your eyes and start using your ears it really makes all the difference in getting Mesas to sound how you want them to.

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+1

bluestometal said:

DWAKO said:

Once you get past EQing with your eyes and start using your ears it really makes all the difference in getting Mesas to sound how you want them to.

Click to expand...

+1

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Don't forget that you can back off on your guitar's volume knob to tame some of that Stiletto bite also :wink:

I just got a Stage II. It won me over in the store even though I haven't been all that impressed by them in the past. I don't know why but whenever I see one I want to plug in and see if I get "something". Well much to my surprise this one was good, real good. Decent low end, higher gain sounds weren't mushy and the low strings even sounded pretty good on tight and fluid drive. Normally I find the Stiletto really fails on down picking here. So, even though I'm very gun-shy about Boogie as I've tried a few models in the past and they never worked for me I decided to get it. Hell, I played it twice in the store with three different guitars and it sounded good every time.

So I get it home and.....something's off. It's a lot mushier sounding. I need to actually turn the treble and presence up! But the gain just has this inherent softness to it that it didn't have in the store. I start taping on tubes and get a fair amount of physical noise on some power and rectifier tubes so I get some replacements. Maybe it just didn't like the ride home. No change with the new tubes. At this point I'm getting pretty despondent because even though I can return the amp I really wanted the amp I heard in the store. I didn't want to buy any more tubes but really wanted to change out some pre's so luckily, as most of us do I had a rag tag bunch of 12AX7's I could put in there.

Well, it's back! I haven't had a chance to isolate if it was just one pre because I changed them all, but it's a night and day difference. My relief is immense! I'm a Marshall guy and wanted a higher gain amp than the '69 repro Superlead I have. No new Marshall's inspire me at all. The JVM feels like the same channel but just with more gain each time. Plus the gain has the same feel just more saturation. I felt the Stiletto really captured the feel of an older Marshall a lot better but with more gain available and with the switching you can actually alter the feel and response. This Stiletto is really stoking me out right now. I think the key will be though to not think of it as a Marshall but its own thing. That way I won't obsess over it not being exactly like a classic Marshall in the midrange and treble voicing. This is one finicky amp when it comes to pre tubes.

I guess position 3 is the cathode follower spot as i saw they put a Chinese tube in there. I made sure I put another Chinese tube in there.

I've had a love/hate thing with the Stiletto's. I owned a stage 1 Duece which was ok, it sounded good when it was CRANKED and boosted with a Maxon 808. I owned an Ace combo that I struggled with to get what I wanted from it. I played a used Ace recently that was pretty cool. Treble and presence kept low and I thought I was getting good tones from it. For comparison's sake, I played a Marshall JVM that I really did not like at all, tons of gain but not much tone I thought.

The Ace takes some tweaking as do Mark series amps which is why you see people hating them. The Electra Dyne is simple to plug in and play without tweaking which is why lot's of non-Mesa guys seem to like them.

I don't own a Stiletto, but I do own a JCM 800 2204.

My treble it set to 8:45 (just under 2 for you 1-10 guys).

Actually, my 2204 settings are pretty extreme all around.
Settings on a scale of 0-10
Presence 3
Bass 7
Mid 10 <---- this is where the crunch lives
treble 1.75


Being that the Stiletto series was inspired by the brits, this makes sense.

Been out of the Mesa family for a little while.

Went from Roadking to Mark IV to Electra Dyne and then went to the 2204.

Want to add another amp.

fighting with myself over a Splawn Quickrod or a Stiletto (Like the look of the Ace more then the Duece, like the old Marshall head look).

I'm not one who needs tons of low end. The JCM 800 has enough low end for me. But everything I read says the stiletto has almost no low end at all.

Considering picking up another Electra Dyne but would prefer to not have shared controls between my clean and dirt.

I have been reading a lot about mods people are doing to them but having a hard time finding out if they are adding low end or what.

I put a danelectro fish n chips EQ in the loop and add in some low end, a little bit more low mid and some high and it sounds freaking great. The way I EQ it sounds like a Recto with more upper mid's.

primal said:

I don't own a Stiletto, but I do own a JCM 800 2204.

My treble it set to 8:45 (just under 2 for you 1-10 guys).

Actually, my 2204 settings are pretty extreme all around.
Settings on a scale of 0-10
Presence 3
Bass 7
Mid 10 <---- this is where the crunch lives
treble 1.75


Being that the Stiletto series was inspired by the brits, this makes sense.

Been out of the Mesa family for a little while.

Went from Roadking to Mark IV to Electra Dyne and then went to the 2204.

Want to add another amp.

fighting with myself over a Splawn Quickrod or a Stiletto (Like the look of the Ace more then the Duece, like the old Marshall head look).

I'm not one who needs tons of low end. The JCM 800 has enough low end for me. But everything I read says the stiletto has almost no low end at all.

Considering picking up another Electra Dyne but would prefer to not have shared controls between my clean and dirt.

I have been reading a lot about mods people are doing to them but having a hard time finding out if they are adding low end or what.

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primal said:

The JCM 800 has enough low end for me. But everything I read says the stiletto has almost no low end at all.

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My Ace has plenty of low end. It's not the extended low end of a Recto... but if you're looking for more of a Brit vibe you should find it plenty.

I'm not convinced the V30s used in a Recto cab are the best match for it but it still sounds good.

The low end on my Deuce seems perfect. I'm sure it will change with cabinets and the positioning in the room. Like others have said an EQ in the loop doesn't need much of a bump to get some serious metal thump happening. I've owned my Deuce for about six months I think and I've only fired up my Metro 69 once. It blew a HT fuse and I haven't even bothered to troubleshoot yet as the Deuce covers the plexi thing for me really well.

The GC I work at got a used Stiletto Trident Stage II in, I tried it out next to a Mark V and I was incredibly impressed. I had to turn the treble and presence down, but man... Once I found the sweet spot it was fantastic. After owning the RA for a brief period, I definitely prefer the stiletto. The V was a little tighter and focused, but the high end overtones of the Stiletto blew my mind, I need to check whether it was in silicon diode or not, if not and it gets tighter, I will be sold on the Trident II, I love the headroom!