Channel switching mod for 5:25 Express Plus?

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

surfinboy

Member
Joined
May 4, 2014
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
I just picked up a 5:25 Express Plus. One shortcoming of this otherwise dynamite amp is the fact that with the footswitch, you can only switch between two channels: either the Clean/Crunch, or the Blues/Burn. So you can't switch between Clean and Crunch, or Blues and Burn. I saw this video on Youtube that looks like some sort of mod for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIc9_FTzRSA

Here's a link to a webpage that describes this mod:
http://sansystem.scapin.me/mod-mesa-express-525-550/

Is there some sort of workaround that a good amp tech can fix? Thoughts?
 
Hey, I need that too for my 5 50+. :D
Why Mesa didn't done that? It seems like an easy job.
 
There are quite a few notes floating around on this subject. The video shows that this is not an extremely difficult mod to do, but it may not be all that useful in practice. Very often when you switch from clean to crunch or blues to burn you also have to adjust gain, treble, etc., as well. If you search you should be able to find some comments from at least one guy who did the mod (as I recall).
 
I'd thought about that mleffler - that's a good point about still needing to adjust settings when you switch between clean/crunch and blues/burn.

So I assume you'd need at least one triple footswitch just to deal with the channel switching: one button to switch between clean/crunch (the "A" channels, for lack of a better term); a second to switch between blues/burn (the "B" channels); and yet another to switch between the A and B. Any thoughts?
 
mleffler said:
There are quite a few notes floating around on this subject. The video shows that this is not an extremely difficult mod to do, but it may not be all that useful in practice. Very often when you switch from clean to crunch or blues to burn you also have to adjust gain, treble, etc., as well. If you search you should be able to find some comments from at least one guy who did the mod (as I recall).


There is a huge volume difference in CH 1 between Clean and Crunch so my guess is that unless you are using a real good compressor in the FX loop this channel will not be a good choice for this MOD, at least in the 5:50+ that i got.

But CH. 2 is a great candidate for this mod, i can set up some good tones and never had to adjust anything else and just flip the toggle switch and get two different but similar gain tones.

The EQ switch to select between the sliders and the Preset is another great option to be foot switchable because you can get two different shaped tones that way and we already have EQ on/off that gives another tonal shape.
 
I hadn't thought about the EQ preset/slider switchability. I suppose most amplifier Jedi masters could figure out how to mod that. But that might be option overload for me. This is my first Mesa amp and already has so many more parameters than any other amp I've had - there's definitely a learning curve to this thing. It's also been a long time since I've used an effects loop.

Even at 5 watts, I can't believe how loud this amp is! Are Mesas just wired such that their actual wattage rating is higher than other amps?
 
surfinboy said:
Even at 5 watts, I can't believe how loud this amp is! Are Mesas just wired such that their actual wattage rating is higher than other amps?

Nope, i had a Fender Pro junior that was as loud as the LoneStar Special at 15 watts.Good amps will always seem louder then the wattage they are set too, at least thats what i have noticed.
 
The build quality is something I expected to be some of the factor of the amp sounding so much louder - better components, better wiring and construction, etc. EQing and getting a good sound at a moderate stage volume is the next stage. I might start with just the clean and blues channels as rhythm and lead, try it with some of the EQ preset, etc. I have a good OD pedal in case all goes to hell and I just need to stick to the clean channel. I gotta read the manual on the tone control section and where to start as the baseline for dialing in a good tone.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top