New member.....New Express 5:25

Been a Fender/Peavy guy for decades, aging my self now. DRRI, BDRI and most recent BJIII Limited with CR speaker. Semi-Pro and moving from almost exclusive blues band to some old school rock thrown it. Had gone to the BJ but just wasn't making it and relying to much on stomps because of the one channel. Had some money come in and having never had a MESA did some shopping and listening and reading reviews and the Express 5:25 seemed the ticket. My BDRI is just way too much volume wise and even the DRRI has to be cranked to get to that sweet spot.

Only had a few hours with it at home Sat and then rehearsal Sun., last night. WOW.........did I say WOW. Used the recommended Blues with low gain and Crunch for higher. For a few I did switch to Clean, wish there was a way to foot pedal that. Had taken several of my OD's off the pedalboard and just left my Wampler Hot Wired on because of the OD with the blend and distortion channel to give just an extra hair when using with the Blues channel then my Xotic SL compressor and my Zoom MS-100BL for a couple of the songs where I use some modulation, through the effects loop.

Love the solo feature! Cleans up well with volume roll back, was playing the Strat all night. Still playing with some EQ but the tones and dynamics were just great compared to the BJ.

Will be gigging it this Friday, can't wait!

I got a 5:26 Express Plus recently and really like it. Very nice for small club gigs, plenty loud yet still great tone lower. The Solo switch is a great feature. Would like more switching options as you say, but for the price it is quite a lot of features. Get a Mark V for more flexibility.

I have a Mark IIA which is sometimes a challenge for volume control - it is ON or OFF in some rooms. Was missing a good effects loop, too. Getting the capacitors replace, then will see how the Express and Mark II will work together.

Gigged it last night. New band new amp.......risky HA. Had the Blues dialed with low gain that Crunch for when I needed some OD. Had the Wampler Hot Wired on the board, SL compressor and the MB100M multi for delay some modulation on a couple of songs, tuner and noise reduction. The Express pedal was on the board and took up the space where I had had several other OD's. Only used the Wampler twice the rest was just the two channels on the Express. Blew me away, lots easier to handle using the Solo for the boost. I could run practically at 10 on the guitar all night and just use the Solo for well solo's. Playing the Tele mostly the Strat one set, was using the Preset on the Tele and on the Strat the Blues I switched to a Slider setting. Ran 15W all night in a small-mid size club 50-70 people.

Tone monster.

Stinger22 said:

Gigged it last night. New band new amp.......risky HA. Had the Blues dialed with low gain that Crunch for when I needed some OD. Had the Wampler Hot Wired on the board, SL compressor and the MB100M multi for delay some modulation on a couple of songs, tuner and noise reduction. The Express pedal was on the board and took up the space where I had had several other OD's. Only used the Wampler twice the rest was just the two channels on the Express. Blew me away, lots easier to handle using the Solo for the boost. I could run practically at 10 on the guitar all night and just use the Solo for well solo's. Playing the Tele mostly the Strat one set, was using the Preset on the Tele and on the Strat the Blues I switched to a Slider setting. Ran 15W all night in a small-mid size club 50-70 people.

Tone monster.

Click to expand...

Yep, the solo boost and EQ is why I bought the 5:25+. I gig with it as well, but use the clean channel for cleans, and the blues for a bit of hair on my rhythm. I put a Mesa Flux Drive and a Zendrive in front for solos, and use the blues channel with boost on for solos as well. I now have all the tonal combinations I could possibly ever need. With this combo my guitars are almost always on 10.

Al

Need to experiment with the Clean/Blues combination. How do you have your ZenDrive set. As much as I love Robben Fords tone have never really bonded with mine. Recently saw a rig run down and he has the volume set at about 2 o'clock and gain at 11, man that would be LOUD. Tone was at 2 and voice 10.

Stinger22 said:

Need to experiment with the Clean/Blues combination. How do you have your ZenDrive set. As much as I love Robben Fords tone have never really bonded with mine. Recently saw a rig run down and he has the volume set at about 2 o'clock and gain at 11, man that would be LOUD. Tone was at 2 and voice 10.

Click to expand...

I've got tone at 1 (all are referenced to a clock face), voice at 12, gain at 1, and volume at 9:30 to 10. Yes, the settings you list would be way loud. For my Flux Drive the gain is only at 10.

Al

Will have to pull out the ES-347 and try it with the Zen into the Clean channel! I REALLY like the master volume solo. I used boost pedals on the board but even a clean boost is going to dirty up tone even just a little as it pushes the preamp ,that's how it does it' boost. The master solo past the preamp which boost the volume and not the tone I got going was great.