Mesa Amps:

I'm also hearing Gball on his experiences with good service out of the Mesa's he Owns/Owned.

Smitty and I checked out a nice unit about 1.5-2 years ago at my favorite used guitar shop in Maryland, Atomic Music.
He and Gball will remember the model
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
AMPMAD, were all Mesa amps from the first to now, PCB type?
Click to expand...
The very earliest Boogies, from the Prune Music era, were modified Princeton Reverbs, so utilised the eyelet board
16384909482694875341052145436126.jpg
16384913833151497049254475809739.jpg
The speaker baffle was cut out to facilitate fitting the 12" EV speaker. Here the half moon cutouts from the baffles can be seen attached to Randall Smith's shed door
16384895704826138861016425363004.jpg
The Mark 1 amplifiers though, had printed circuit boards. Cheers
 
Robert Herndon said:
What about the Mesa Fillmores???
Click to expand...
Does the Fillmore have the gain of the Badlander? Hell no! Looking out for you, Robert! Did you watch the video with decent sound? The Badlander 50 has crazy cleans... crazy amount of useable gain... 2 channel-switcher... full compliment of output choices... a very nice Celestion speaker in the G12M-65 Creamback... 60 lbs!
 
syscokid said:
Does the Fillmore have the gain of the Badlander? Hell no! Looking out for you, Robert! Did you watch the video with decent sound? The Badlander 50 has crazy cleans... crazy amount of useable gain... 2 channel-switcher... full compliment of output choices... a very nice Celestion speaker in the G12M-65 Creamback... 60 lbs!
Click to expand...

Good lookin out, my friend!!!

I played through Triple and Dual Rec's and I wasn't blown away. I mean, they are great amps, but I didn't hear something I was listening for.

A few weeks ago. I was working in a session and was invited to play a Fillmore 100watt. I didn't post my reaction here for fear of being burned at the tonal stake, but I was absolutely floored by the tone.

It was just gain per se, but it was a certain character of the gain structure in that there was this full, edgy bite that I was getting without a lot of gain!!!!

The Ivanberg Modded ORI50 (which I love) puts out more gain - absolutely - but the Mesa had more "body" and complexity to the tone, and even though the Fillmore produced less gain than the Origin, the tone was "bigger" and just sounded like a 4x12, but was only coming from a single 12" speaker.

TBTH, I can't explain it any other way, but it's the first time that a lower gain setting really made me take notice and I've come to realize that maybe I've relied on gain production to get me to somewhere I couldn't get to any other way.

I wish I could explain this better...

Also, a huge selling point is the 50 watt Fillmore Combo is only 44 pounds!!!!!
 
smitty_p said:
To me, spec-wise, the Fillmore looks like a decent amp. I like the 25 watt version with the 6V6 tubes. In many ways, it has similar specs to my Rivera 25 watt Clubster, though I don’t know what it sounds like. I realize there are Youtube videos, but I find that they often don’t really capture the real sound very well.
Click to expand...

Screenshot_20211202-210002_Chrome.jpg

Mesa/Boogie Fillmore 50 Combo Amp Features:

All-tube combo amplifier with glorious vintage-inspired tone

12" Celestion Custom 90 speaker

50/25-watt global power switch supplies cranked tones at bedroom volumes

2 fully independent, footswitchable channels

3-mode channel cloning for even more tonal possibilities

Each channel boasts a 3-band EQ and Gain, Presence, Reverb, and Master controls

(5) 12AX7 x (2) 6L6GC tubes

All-tube, long-tank spring reverb can be applied to each channel independently
Fully buffered, series tube effects loop for integrating your pedals and processors
 
Robert Herndon said:
Good lookin out, my friend!!!

I played through Triple and Dual Rec's and I wasn't blown away. I mean, they are great amps, but I didn't hear something I was listening for.

A few weeks ago. I was working in a session and was invited to play a Fillmore 100watt. I didn't post my reaction here for fear of being burned at the tonal stake, but I was absolutely floored by the tone.

It was just gain per se, but it was a certain character of the gain structure in that there was this full, edgy bite that I was getting without a lot of gain!!!!

The Ivanberg Modded ORI50 (which I love) puts out more gain - absolutely - but the Mesa had more "body" and complexity to the tone, and even though the Fillmore produced less gain than the Origin, the tone was "bigger" and just sounded like a 4x12, but was only coming from a single 12" speaker.

TBTH, I can't explain it any other way, but it's the first time that a lower gain setting really made me take notice and I've come to realize that maybe I've relied on gain production to get me to somewhere I couldn't get to any other way.

I wish I could explain this better...

Also, a huge selling point is the 50 watt Fillmore Combo is only 44 pounds!!!!!
Click to expand...

Does this make sense to anybody????
 
I would love a Fillmore, everything I've heard frombthem sounds great. They're unfortunately too expensive for me. I'd like a used DC-5 but they are too impractical for me without power reduction.

So I'm looking at the Express 5:50 that I also find to be great sounding amps, but I'd have to flip a few guitars that I like but rarely use. Something I'll have to give careful consideration.
 
Robert Herndon said:
What about the Mesa Fillmores???
Click to expand...
When I was at Sweetwater
The first new one we unboxed didn't work. I put some new tubes in but that didn't wake it up.
We farted around plugging / unplugging stuff in out of the jacks...
then it started working.
We figured it was a bad solder connection or a bad jack contact.
That's all I know right now.

See, at Sweetwater it's all about evaluating. Not so much repairing as testing.
Try to duplicate the customer problem.
Is the customer not familiar with how to operate a unit? Is this operator error?
Or
Is the unit really malfunctioning?
This would be the first phase of evaluation.

You would be supersized at how many people just don't understand how to operate a multi channel amplifier.
That alone can be the problem.
Need to make sure before they go on to diagnosing what causes a problem.
Then, the factory might become involved in a procedure / update.
 
Robert Herndon said:
What about the Mesa Fillmores???
Click to expand...
When I was at Sweetwater
The first new one we unboxed didn't work. I put some new tubes in but that didn't wake it up.
We farted around plugging / unplugging stuff in out of the jacks...
then it started working.
We figured it was a bad solder connection or a bad jack contact.
That's all I know right now.

See, at Sweetwater it's all about evaluating. Not so much repairing as testing.
Try to duplicate the customer problem.
Is the customer not familiar with how to operate a unit? Is this operator error?
Or
Is the unit really malfunctioning?
This would be the first phase of evaluation.

You would be supersized at how many people just don't understand how to operate a multi channel amplifier.
That alone can be the problem.
Need to make sure before they go on to diagnosing what causes a problem.
Then, the factory might become involved in a procedure / update.
Robert Herndon said:
Good lookin out, my friend!!!

I played through Triple and Dual Rec's and I wasn't blown away. I mean, they are great amps, but I didn't hear something I was listening for.

A few weeks ago. I was working in a session and was invited to play a Fillmore 100watt. I didn't post my reaction here for fear of being burned at the tonal stake, but I was absolutely floored by the tone.

It was just gain per se, but it was a certain character of the gain structure in that there was this full, edgy bite that I was getting without a lot of gain!!!!

The Ivanberg Modded ORI50 (which I love) puts out more gain - absolutely - but the Mesa had more "body" and complexity to the tone, and even though the Fillmore produced less gain than the Origin, the tone was "bigger" and just sounded like a 4x12, but was only coming from a single 12" speaker.

TBTH, I can't explain it any other way, but it's the first time that a lower gain setting really made me take notice and I've come to realize that maybe I've relied on gain production to get me to somewhere I couldn't get to any other way.

I wish I could explain this better...

Also, a huge selling point is the 50 watt Fillmore Combo is only 44 pounds!!!!!
Click to expand...

In the end, it's 3 easy payments.
 
syscokid said:
Does the Fillmore have the gain of the Badlander? Hell no! Looking out for you, Robert! Did you watch the video with decent sound? The Badlander 50 has crazy cleans... crazy amount of useable gain... 2 channel-switcher... full compliment of output choices... a very nice Celestion speaker in the G12M-65 Creamback... 60 lbs!
Click to expand...

Tell you something...

When I got this Les Paul, I wasn't sure the Burstbucker 1&3 were gonna work for me, since they are relatively low output humbuckers.

Truth is, they changed my tone significantly. It's hard to explain, bit the 50's Standard Gold Top just really sounded and behaved very differently than my other guitars and I've revamped amp settings to compensate.

I'm using greatly reduced gain levels, yet sound like I'm actually using higher gain levels!@!
 
syscokid said:
Another cream-of-the-crop pick here, 67plexi... (y)


Yes. But if you're going to consider Mesa amps, you need to make a visit to the Mesa Boogie Hollywood store. 2009 was the last time I was there, but I remember the employees being super cool and very accommodating.
Click to expand...

I wish I had a break to go and do that, but work has been picking up big time, and I'm grateful for that...but it has me stretched pretty thin
 
Dang-nabbit!!!!!! I just found out that the Mesa Hollywood store is not the same anymore. They might have relocated, and with very different business hours and other different protocols due to the response of the pandemic... and possibly the influence of the Gibson ownership! This is sad... :confused2:
 
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