TheHypnotoad
Well-known member
Hi guys,
I apologise in advance for the lenght of the post, first of all: I've not a band yet, I play mostly for my personal enjoment atm, I play Metal (speed, power, thrash, gothic) with very rare clean\blues sessions.
Actually all the guitars (6 and 7 strings) are tuned half tone down and equipped with Seymour Duncan Jazz and TB-4 pickups, I have a drop D one that I play rarely that have the EMG 85-81 set.
In the past I've owned the one and only Mesa of my life: a Dual Rectifier huge amp and huge power, love the feeling I've had with the amp, the only one that give me the ideal sound that lied in my head at the time. Sadly was too powerful, and with too many channels, I am for the simple way of life clean-overdrive, the mesa mods in the channels help for the variation but I've never feel that i need a pure 3 channel amp.
After almost a decade, I find out Mesa made some low wattage amps, first of all I've look at the mini recto, then the Express 5:25+ in the end the Mark V 25, I did not have the chance to try each one of them I've look trough a lot of youtube reviews; the only amp that I've the chance to try in the only store at a resonable distance for me was the Express 5:50+, 6L6 tubes, so I did not have the chance to made a comparison with the EL84, the cab was a 2x12 Mesa Compact. The thing that impressed me the most in the 5:50+ was the volume, so the 25w seems spot on for my needs and the graphic eq from the Mark model, this last one blow me away! Awesome the interaction with the overdrive channel, and the possibility of using presets instead of sliders.
So I decided to go for the 5:25+ BUT at exact same time Mesa come down with the Mark 25 and atm I am little undecided. The idea to have the Iconic Mark in small size (the dream of my early guitarist life) excites me but i don't wanna have and amp that leave me unsatisfied for the future, I am searching for something can be a still point for long time.
The things that bugs me atm between the two models are:
the eq: in the Mark you've no preset and you can assign the eq only at one channel per time, in the 5:25+ you can easly use the preset for the ''V'' in the overdrive and use the sliders in the clean, but I never see anyone use the sliders for the clean, and I have got no chance to try it so if you have some experience will be helpful;
the wattage: 5-15-25 on 5:25+, only 10-25 on Mark V dunno if is an handicap guess not, but here again no experience with the EL84 behavior, only the manual description, and some reviews on youtube;
some minor things like the footswitchable reverb and loop, that i can oversee, I don't use them so often and it's the same with the ''solo'' feature, even the cabclone is something I don't feel I need so badly.
In the end I guess is a battle trought versatility at one side (the Express+) and the Mark Sound at the other. You guys play surely more than me with the Boogies so I hope you can help me going trought the choice.
For the cab: I am deep in the DIY and I've projected a cab of my own: ¾ inch baltic birch glued and nailed, 1x12, with the same volume of the recto cab, dimensions 20 x 18½ x 13, with a WGS Veteran 30 speaker.
Thank you so much for the help
A.
I apologise in advance for the lenght of the post, first of all: I've not a band yet, I play mostly for my personal enjoment atm, I play Metal (speed, power, thrash, gothic) with very rare clean\blues sessions.
Actually all the guitars (6 and 7 strings) are tuned half tone down and equipped with Seymour Duncan Jazz and TB-4 pickups, I have a drop D one that I play rarely that have the EMG 85-81 set.
In the past I've owned the one and only Mesa of my life: a Dual Rectifier huge amp and huge power, love the feeling I've had with the amp, the only one that give me the ideal sound that lied in my head at the time. Sadly was too powerful, and with too many channels, I am for the simple way of life clean-overdrive, the mesa mods in the channels help for the variation but I've never feel that i need a pure 3 channel amp.
After almost a decade, I find out Mesa made some low wattage amps, first of all I've look at the mini recto, then the Express 5:25+ in the end the Mark V 25, I did not have the chance to try each one of them I've look trough a lot of youtube reviews; the only amp that I've the chance to try in the only store at a resonable distance for me was the Express 5:50+, 6L6 tubes, so I did not have the chance to made a comparison with the EL84, the cab was a 2x12 Mesa Compact. The thing that impressed me the most in the 5:50+ was the volume, so the 25w seems spot on for my needs and the graphic eq from the Mark model, this last one blow me away! Awesome the interaction with the overdrive channel, and the possibility of using presets instead of sliders.
So I decided to go for the 5:25+ BUT at exact same time Mesa come down with the Mark 25 and atm I am little undecided. The idea to have the Iconic Mark in small size (the dream of my early guitarist life) excites me but i don't wanna have and amp that leave me unsatisfied for the future, I am searching for something can be a still point for long time.
The things that bugs me atm between the two models are:
the eq: in the Mark you've no preset and you can assign the eq only at one channel per time, in the 5:25+ you can easly use the preset for the ''V'' in the overdrive and use the sliders in the clean, but I never see anyone use the sliders for the clean, and I have got no chance to try it so if you have some experience will be helpful;
the wattage: 5-15-25 on 5:25+, only 10-25 on Mark V dunno if is an handicap guess not, but here again no experience with the EL84 behavior, only the manual description, and some reviews on youtube;
some minor things like the footswitchable reverb and loop, that i can oversee, I don't use them so often and it's the same with the ''solo'' feature, even the cabclone is something I don't feel I need so badly.
In the end I guess is a battle trought versatility at one side (the Express+) and the Mark Sound at the other. You guys play surely more than me with the Boogies so I hope you can help me going trought the choice.
For the cab: I am deep in the DIY and I've projected a cab of my own: ¾ inch baltic birch glued and nailed, 1x12, with the same volume of the recto cab, dimensions 20 x 18½ x 13, with a WGS Veteran 30 speaker.
Thank you so much for the help
A.
