New 5:25+ User with questions

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RobQ

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Oct 1, 2017
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Hi all! New to this forum.

I just recently purchased a (used) 5:25+. I am a gigging musician in the Toronto area and my main amp for the past decade or so has been a Bogner Shiva EL34 1-12 combo. Love that amp but my back doesn't like its 85lb weight. The Mesa weighs about half as much, and on the surface ticks all the boxes for me: decent clean headroom, two channels, good reverb and f/x loop, versatile and complex overdrive.

(I had a brief fling with a ZT Lunchbox "stack" but despite the impressive numbers there is only so much air those little speakers can move cleanly)

I live in a condo in the city and so can't really experiment with the amp at gigging volumes except at gigs, and usually in the rooms I play there's a crowd there as I set up so real I can't experiment on the fly. This is my first Mesa amp; before the Bogner I played a Marshall Jubilee and before that various Fenders and other similar things.

First of all I am thrilled with the clean channel, in terms of tone, texture and also ability to really cut through a mix. Brings out the brilliance and complexity of my guitars' clean tone way, way better than the Bogner ever has.

Where I am having problems is on channel 2. I saw something on this forum about how to set up the Burn channel with gain at 9 o'clock, with an odd looking but very effective setting for the g-eq, with the lows boosted, lower mids cut and the upper mids and highs boosted. The problem I am having is twofold: All that chewy warmth completely disappears in the mix, and the tonal characteristics of the amp change pretty dramatically when switching from 15w to 25w mode.

So my question, leaving aside all the subjectivity of tone: how do you guys set up that amp for a reasonably smooth and chewy but mix-friendly channel-2 sound in 25W mode?

I play mostly single-coils (Anderson Classic S HSS, G&L S500, Tele, Gretsch 6120). I usually go through a Line6 M9 for effects like delay, wah, chorus and compression, but I use it pretty sparsely and am really an amp-distortion-guy rather than a pedals-guy.

Thoughts??
 
Hi RobQ, welcome to the Express 5:25+, I'm sure that you will love it. It's difficult to suggest a set-up, too many things are involved. On thing thought that I might suggest since you are new to Mesa is to read the manual. Mesa's tone stack is different than other amps, in particular, they are what we might call interactive. This what makes it difficult for a newcomer to Mesa to get the tone he wants if he is not aware of this. The manual explain it very well. When you get the know-how of it, you're on the road for infinite experimentations and I'm sure that you will find what you are after... and much more because the versatility of this amp is wonderful. I know that I didn't answer your question directly but I hope this will help.
 
Agree with reading the manual and starting with some suggested settings. I play a Les Pau with Humbuckers. For Channel 2, you have to try Blues as well as Burn, especially if you are not turning the gain up on Burn. You can also crank up the gain on Blues, try a pedal in addition to.

For Burn, I use little bass. Mid and Treble, start around 12 p' clock. I generally reduce from there. Also check the GEQ. I have a Tone Tubby Winterland installed and boost slightly the 2200 HZ slider and back down the 240 Hz slider.... not exactly a V curve. With the stock V30, it will be different, I would find myself cutting treble and highs. Your actual loudness also plays into things
 
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