Now It Makes Sense... (If all else fails, read the manual!)

Two years ago I bought my first Express 5:50 (non plus combo), brand new. At that time I realized that the amp had a lot of potential right "out of the box". It sounded better than anything I'd had up to that point, but... I wasn't completely satisfied with the tone I was getting on the 50 watt power (Blues/Burn) settings, and I was completely disappointed with the 5 watt option (I wouldn't even touch it!). I went through a short lived quest for a different speaker without having very many hours on the stock MC90. Nothing I tried seemed to work well with this amp, so last fall I put the MC90 back in. Once I let it "break in" it sounded pretty good, but I still wasn't hearing quite what I wanted. I wasn't getting a good, well balanced tone out of the Blues or Burn settings.

In spite of that, an offer came up for a new 5:50 plus head at a significantly reduced price, last August. I jumped on that offer and bought an open back 23" LoneStar cabinet to use with it. Having a few more options made this amp even better than my combo... but, I still wasn't getting the tone I wanted from either amp. They still sounded better than my FENDER DRRI (two different OD pedals, 10 band EQ, etc.).

Recently, I became extremely frustrated and went back to tinkering with the FENDER. Not being completely happy with that decision, I decided to have another look at the manuals for both 5:50s. I had a graphic arts teacher back in high school that used to say: "If all else fails, read the manual!" Well duh... he was right. After going back through both manuals, I tried dialing in their (MESA's) suggested settings. Guess what... they work!!! Their basic suggestions are definitely usable, with a little tweaking depending on the playing environment! The built in graphic EQ and Contour functions are a nice plus. After two years I can say that I'm 100% happy with BOTH amps (bone stock).

When it comes time to re-tube the combo, I might experiment with non-MESA tubes just to see if different tube create a significant improvement.

Oh, by the way, the 5 watt power settings (on both amps) sound great!

Hi Mac

I confess that after reading most of your amp trials on 2 forums for a few years now I've often wondered................
"What the hell is he doing with that amp".

When I buy any gear (amps, pedals, guitars etc) the first thing I do is read the manual & apply the suggested settings - then start experimenting.
And as a rule - I would have been lost without doing that every time. And............
the suggested settings always work :mrgreen:

Glad to see you're making progress.

Newysurfer said:

Hi Mac

I confess that after reading most of your amp trials on 2 forums for a few years now I've often wondered................
"What the hell is he doing with that amp".

When I buy any gear (amps, pedals, guitars etc) the first thing I do is read the manual & apply the suggested settings - then start experimenting.
And as a rule - I would have been lost without doing that every time. And............
the suggested settings always work :mrgreen:

Glad to see you're making progress.

Click to expand...

And unfortunately what that means is you have a lot of people going to fora in order to read up on the amp they're interested in purchasing, and they come across reviews by someone who may sound experienced and knowledgable (or who at least seems thoughtful enough to have taken the time to write up a review, so that must count for something, right?), and yet the individual doing to write up hasn't even taken the time to read the **** manual....

That's a shame, really, and one of the problems of internet reviews lacking any sort of peer reveiw or professional vetting. If you can't at least read the manual after the first few hours of things not sounding right, the last thing you should be doing is posting reviews of that amp on the internet.

Prior to purchasing my 5.50+ I read all the reviews i could find, downloaded the manual, read it and then went to the music store to try it. Walking into the store with a good understanding of how to dial in a basic recommended set up made all of the difference. I love this amp, best thing Ive used in years