Mesa blues amp recommendation

Can you all please recommend a Mesa amp for primarily blues ? some country and rock, but mostly blues. Looking for touch sensitivity and nice tone. Prefer 1x12 or 2x12, enough power for a small club, not necessarily micced up.

The blue angel would probably be a good choice but I would prefer a new amp rather than used.

ty in advance

I've never played a Blue Angel, but the Lone Star and Maverick do blues pretty well. (really liked the Maverick, myself.)
Hell, I got good blues out of my Rectoverb.... 8) Most of that "blues" tone come from your fingers, anyway. (IMO)

You might want to check out an Express....I had one before I got my Stiletto and it sounded awesome doing the "blues" thing; try the "burn" channel!! 8) .

I do blues type stuff with my Ace and it works pretty well for me....I do a lot of harder edge stuff, but I can get it to really cry with my 355 and a little extra gain!! :twisted:

I too, got a Rectoverb to sound all "Stevie" for me one day at GC....I was very nearly hooked!! Thankfully, I was saved by my big, green ACE!! :mrgreen:

I haven't tried an Express yet, but I have owned the Blue Angel, Rectoverb, Lonestar Classic, Lonestar Special, and the Maverick, as well as a butt load of other Mesa amps.


I honestly think my Maverick is the sweetest low gain amp Mesa ever made!
I had just traded for a Blue Angel, and then I took a Maverick in trade.
The Blue Angel went up for sale within a couple of weeks!

The Maverick, to me, is what I expected the LSS to sound like. No nonsense great tone with no channel switching glitches, no mud on the lead channel and just all around sweet sounding!
Plus, the Maverick is about 1/2 of what a Lonestar costs!


Even my Strat buddy and all of my other 'Old School' friends fall in love with the Maverick when they hear it!
They look at my DC like it's a science fair experiment! :lol:

All right, first off I'm prejudiced...have listened to a buttload of Mesa amps, I own four top shelf turret board hand wired boutique amps, but here's my $0.02 worth.

Maverick, hands down for a Mesa product. Why?

1. The clean channel is to die for, and it can be adjusted for a blues dirty tone if needed, the fat side of the bright/fat switch is exactly what you are looking for. Touch sensitive, and just plain gorgeous.

2. The reverb is to die for, and with a footswitch capability for turning on or off.

3. Separate preamp tube sets in pairs dedicated for the clean and dirty channels allow individual channel voicing. With vintage old stock tubes or new old stock tubes the tones are uniquely all yours. Not all Mesa amps are set up in tube assignments like that...

4. Lots of bang for the buck, affordable when compared to other used Mesa amps, they are not trendy or super popular. A 2/12 in decent shape goes for 750-950 on eBay. Paid 635 plus shipping for my 2/12 a few years ago.

5. The master volume is a great circuit, it sounds great at lower volume/small room gigs, and overall, especially distorted, there is a surprising amount of volume available, the bright side of the bright/fat switch for the clean channel is the one to use for clean headroom for the larger venues.

6. The adjustable slave out allows connection to the sound board without micing.

7. Solid state rectifier or tube rectifier set by user, not rectifier tracking, a better way to go. SS rectifier better for louder venues, but the amp gets pretty **** loud with a tube rectifier.

8. There is more than enough gain in the lead channel for some rather aggressive distorted tones.

9. Master preamp volume knob for each channel in addition to the overall master volume allows appropriate balance between channel volumes regardless of room size/overall volume needs.

7. Solid state rectifier or tube rectifier set by user, not rectifier tracking, a better way to go. SS rectifier better for louder venues, but the amp gets pretty **** loud with a tube rectifier.

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I've been meaning to ask what rectifier tube you are using?
Mine has the stock tube and there is almost no difference in volume between tube and SS.

A little off topic, sorry, but I'm a scatter brain!

Totally agree about the Maverick for all the reasons 212Mavguy said. I had a 1x12" one and it was great for that. I did find the overdrive channel a bit too touchy, but I think I was looking for sounds it just didn't really do best.

Surprisingly the Blue Angel won't do the job for blues unless you can live with a non-MV amp with pretty low gain. It's a wonderful-sounding amp for clean tones, just-pushed tones and if you use pedals, but if you want the main drive to come from the amp itself the Maverick is a lot better. I traded a Maverick 1x12" for a Blue Angel and didn't regret it, but I wasn't looking for a blues or country-rock sound. Or not at the time anyway . The Blue Angel didn't seem to take well to an attenuator either.

The Tremoverb also does both to die for, but it's long discontinued and weighs about 100lbs too if you get the combo version (2x12" only). In general I wouldn't worry about a used Mesa though, as long as you get one that's in good shape. Mesa amps are built better than almost anything else at their price point on the used market and their customer service is great.

Surprisingly the Blue Angel won't do the job for blues unless you can live with a non-MV amp with pretty low gain. It's a wonderful-sounding amp for clean tones, just-pushed tones and if you use pedals, but if you want the main drive to come from the amp itself the Maverick is a lot better.

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You would be surprised at how good a BA can sound in the middle gain arena with just a couple of tiny mods!

Does it affect the clean tone, or increase the noise? One of the problems I found with the amp was that it was very noisy - I found that was coming from V2, so I changed it for a 12AY7 which cured it completely and also improved the tone, but at the expense of reducing the gain even more. If giving it more gain took it back in the other direction (ie more noise and midrange) I wouldn't want to do that.

The BA is what it is. A non Master Volume noise making machine!

It does add a bit of noise. I used the Bright/Fat switch (really weird bright circuit) to keep the Fat where it was and add the gain to that setting, while bypassing the Bright altogether. I installed a standard Fender 120pf bright cap across the Volume with a push/pull pot. Now it has a real Bright circuit!

The Bright setting on the original switch is more of just a normal setting now without the Fat capacitor or the extra gain.
Works out really nicely!

Tried to post this once, but it didn't seem to take.

I think my Mesa Nomad 55 produces a good blues tone on ch 2 -- and even on ch 1 for clean, jazzy blues. Ch 2 can be set so that tones are clean with light attack and "hairy" and sustaining with a heavier attack (not too hairy). I can't imagine playing anything but jazz, country, and standards on a non MV amp. The nomad has a MV for each of the three channels, plus an overall master that controls the volume evenly on all three channels. And it has a solo master that controls the amount of additional volume you get when you press the solo button.

As a final word, you can cut the gain on ch 3 and set it on "vintage" and get some blues tones you may like, depending on your guitar and pups.

Hi Monsta,

In answer to your question about what rectifier tube I was using, it is a vintage old stock Sylvania 5v4ga, also have used GE 5v4ga. Slightly less voltage than a 5ar4 and still plenty of current to run four el84's in that hot biased, not quite class A power section. Even with that tube, not a huge difference soundwise to the solid state rectifier setting. SS rec is slightly tighter/brighter.

The Mav loves "Philips family" vintage shortplate 12ax7's in the dirty channel, Siemens, Amperex, Philips, Miniwatt, Mullard in the shortplate design. My fave is a Siemens e83cc in front of a Mullard ecc83, with a Siemens e83cc having balanced triodes in the phase inverter position.

thank you for the great replies. the maverick sounds like the ticket.

a few questions :

when was the last year they built them ? ( do they still ?)

how would the maverck compare to a fender deluxe reverb ?

I now need to sell my Marshall and get some funds for a Mesa.

Not sure about the production dates. I forgot to take pictures of mine when I was in there, but the pots are noisy and I will have to get back in sooner or later.

Mine is one of the earliest ones with the SUS-4 suspension mounting system. I seem to remember that the board says 1993, but could be wrong.


As for the Deluxe Reverb, that's a loaded question.
The clean channel can go way beyond the Deluxe in terms of both clean chime and mild overdrive if the Fat switch is turned on.
The Mav has more headroom than the Deluxe because it is a 35 watt amp instead of 20.
Like I said though, the Fat setting will definitely move the clean channel into mid to low gain OD.

The fact that the Maverick has an FX Loop, fan (on the 1x12's), overdrive channel, and master volume makes it so much more versatile than the Deluxe. I never could get used to only having 1 channel!

The Deluxe will have slightly different frequency response and would probably sound a bit more mellow. The 4 EL-84's give the Maverick a really sweet, ballsy, almost urgent but not quite there, feel.


If you have an older Guitar Center near you, you might be able to find one. Seems like every older GC I go into has at least 1 used Maverick.


Also, the lead channel can give your Marshall a run for it's money! I don't turn the gain up much past 2:00 or so because it gets pretty trebly, but it definitely has some huevos!

gimme789 said:

Can you all please recommend a Mesa amp for primarily blues ? some country and rock, but mostly blues. Looking for touch sensitivity and nice tone. Prefer 1x12 or 2x12, enough power for a small club, not necessarily micced up.

The blue angel would probably be a good choice but I would prefer a new amp rather than used.

ty in advance

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Blues encompasses a pretty broad range but i was able to get some nice blues tone out of the Electro Dyne when I demoed it.

I'll throw in a vote for the Heartbreaker...there's a nice HB head available in the classifieds!

I like this amp for blues and rock and roll .

Try the lonestar series out. I liked it more than the maverick, but Blues is a big tent of tone so maybe you're in a different section than I Am. In any event try them out if for nothing else you can compare them to their predecesor (the mav).

+1 with Wicked1, the Electro Dyne is available new in the box and has excellent tones for all of your list. Check the Jay Leno show and listen to Kevin Eubanks play his. As a side note, I've not seen a whole lot of these for sale second hand. There must be some satisfied customers out there with this amp.

MikeK said:

+1 with Wicked1, the Electro Dyne is available new in the box and has excellent tones for all of your list. Check the Jay Leno show and listen to Kevin Eubanks play his. As a side note, I've not seen a whole lot of these for sale second hand. There must be some satisfied customers out there with this amp.

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Sure have seen a lot of Mark V's for sale though!