V25 great.. except for ‘edge of break up’ so what Mesa?

I have really enjoyed my V25 for its portability and flexibility and I have used it in a Prog rock band as well as a Jazz band BUTTTTT I cannot get that ‘edge of break up’ thing going no matter how hard I try, I conclude this amp just is not designed for that and now thinking I’d rather go back to a single channel platform that has great cleans plus able to reach edge of break up and light crunch as you dig into the note, then use pedals for classic rock crunch and lead where required.

So I’m looking for the V25 size, wattage, weight, DI, reverb etc but now without all the channels, just one great clean, I guess rather like the old Lonestar had it been recreated in a 25w version.

Does anyone know whether Mesa do such a spec?

Thanks in anticipation

There is nothing in the way of edge of breakup with FAT mode, high gain and treble/mids up around noon, maybe higher, and rolling back volume knob on the guitar? Or maybe just not the tone you're looking for. Of course, low gain CRUNCH along with the mid and treble knob below noon (these both add gain) can also get "edge of breakup" in combination with the guitar volume knob. But again, it may not be the edge you are looking for!

I can get edge of breakup with mine, but it's at the expense of being able to footswitch to a good clean sound. Turn up the clean mid pot into the boost region while in the Fat mode.

I've found that it's better to use an OD in the Clean or Fat mode for edge of breakup sounds and use the high gain channel modes for fantastic over the dirty top sounds. Or I can use two amps with my tweed Deluxe clone or Dr. Z Cure for edge of breakup sounds (but I don't like a complex setup).

My fantasy is that they make an "old man's" version of the Mark Five:25 or 35 with the first two channels of the big Mark Five!

I have owned most of the mesa amps and the one I liked the best for a warm clean with huge tube reverb and edge of breakup was the Express 5:50 plus. It does everything but metal without an OD pedal.

I've been using my VFE Blues King or my old Marshall orig. black-box Bluesbreaker (that the Blues King is a variant of) for edge of breakup that cleans up with a slight roll back of the guitar vol. with great results on either the clean of fat mode (depending on single coils or HB) on ch1. of my MV:35. YMMV

I've been experimenting with my V25 due to a discussion on another forum. Cranking up the channel master and controlling the overall volume of the amp with a volume pedal (or a box with a pot and jacks) in the loop allows a good edge of breakup sound from the Clean and Fat modes, even with the gain set relatively low. I'm not sure what's going on- I think only the GEQ is between the channel masters and the loop. Maybe the GEQ is being overdriven.

Have you tried using the Mid/Boost? Turning Mid past ~12:00 turns into a gain boost. Try using less 'Gain' and more Mid/Boost (like 2-3:00). Also, when you go above 12:00 on the Mid/Boost the treble and bass knobs become less sensitive, so you'll need to boost them to compensate.

Another thought: Try setting your system up for the max amount of breakup you want, with guitar at max volume and EQ off. Then roll back guitar volume until you find the edge (or use a volume pedal.) Then set your EQ as a boost to compensate for the volume loss.

A different approach is using CH2. Here's a link to a video I reference a lot. He uses the CH 2 MkIIC+ for his edge of breakup, check out around 4:30 in the video. You can see/hear the breakup respond well to his picking attack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p5tWTADh6c&t=399s

Try the IIC+ voicing with the gain around 8-9 o'clock, and tweak your guitar volume until you find it.