I'm ba-ack

I sold the Express 5:50 1x12 combo that I bought new because it was too heavy for my old, damaged back and because I was getting a clean sound that I liked more from my Vibrolux Reverb. I still missed having a Boogie amp of some sort, though.

Lately, my back's been too sore to haul my VR, so I ordered a Princeton Reverb style amp kit on sale at Mojotone. While I waited for that I wanted another portable amp so I just picked up a Subway Rocket for a good price. It was missing it's foot switch and I found the correct used one on eBay and bought it for $15 plus shipping!

The amp has a nice clean sound and the dirty sound is passable. Unfortunately, there's no reverb. I might put a reverb pedal in the loop and put it in the bag in the back.

Not a lot of Subway Rocket fans here, I guess.

I ran the amp with my Tech 21 Rotochoir plugged into the fx loop return last night (bypassing the pre-amp altogether). It sounded great. Two of these in stereo would be cool.

I've also messed around with running the amp with modified plugs in the fx loop jacks to allow me to crank the masters (as described for the F-Series). I've got the clean master set at 10 and set the clean gain where I like it (3 or 4) then I set the lead gain where I like it (between 2 and 3) and set the lead master to balance with the clean channel. It even sounds good at a level where I can play it while people are sleeping nearby. I'll get to try it at a band rehearsal tomorrow night. I don't need a lot of clean headroom and think the amp will sound better at higher volumes.

Welcome back Don, once you go Mesa you will always come back! :mrgreen:

JCDenton6 said:

Welcome back Don, once you go Mesa you will always come back! :mrgreen:

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Thanks. I used the amp at a rehearsal last night and was surprised how good it sounded. It's probably the least expensive Mesa amp available but it's really usable. Even though it's small, it's like other Mesa amps, it shines in a band situation, rather than at home alone.

I think I'm going to install a PPIV "Type-1" (as shown in the Trainwreck Pages) in this amp. This will allow me to run the clean master on 10 and put a reverb pedal in the loop. I'll probably put it where the presence control is and either preset the presence control where I like it with a resistor or mount it on the back of the amp.