Mesa M190/D180

[alund]

So as usual, I’m thumbing through reverb looking for whatever new tone machine is out there for me to hide my inabilities?. Anyway there was a preamp and a poweramp for sale at a reasonable price.. preamp is shown but not listed in my link since I need another preamp like a rectal sore. The poweramp though intrigued me since Mike B had moded the amp to be more guitar friendly I guess. I had no idea what I was looking at and at the time it was listed for 4000 bucks. Ehhh. Apparently the guy needed cash so a week or so later it dropped to 2000 ?. Huh. Firesale. My type of purchase! So I contacted one of our members here as he seemed much more knowledgeable than me on these mods. Per request. I contacted Mike at Mesa and he confirmed he did everything to the amp. Ended up buying it for 1600 bucks plus tax. No shipping fees. So it came in today and it looks good. Doesn’t smell like cigarette smoke thankfully.. sadly I don’t have time to screw with it today since I have a St.Patty’s show tonight. So tomorrow I’ll fire it up. Damn thing got here in 3 days. Listing below.. price was not 2k. And my pictures along with description. The pictures are better in his description so check them out. Idk maybe a bust but it’s one hell of a power source.

https://reverb.com/item/66229857-me...p-similar-to-coliseum-or-rectifier-bendinelli

 

[GJgo]

I have a M180 and it's a beast. It's the power section out of a IIC+ Coliseum. Crank that shit!!!

 

[Exo-metal]

Like he said...well done bro?

 

[Exo-metal]

The M180 has a 3D hifi quality just like the Coliseum. When I went to pick mine up from Mike after he serviced it he was listening to classical through it at his bench?

 

[GJgo]

I've also used my M180 to play music. Mono albeit, but it does a beautiful job. Makes me which I had a twin for it.

My favorite thing about it is when slaving out another amp into it, it is very transparent & just becomes a bigger, ballsier version of the master amp. My favorite is using a Super 60 Mark because they are so pissed off- giving that aggression some Coli balls is a really nice drug to take a hit of.

 

[Exo-metal]

Now I need another M180...for my stereo?

 

[alund]

So after a few hours of putzing around with the D180 I finally figured that I can loop each preamp on my voodoo labs as individual ODs. If the loop is off the pre is silent and the D180 is clean (yet to add effects at this point) but the clean is KLEAN.. nice sounding so I bet adding chorus or whatever will be slick. Adding the ADA MP1 then the Myasnikov are pretty slick. I’m too tired to jack with it tonight as one of my Seymour Duncan power amps hit my knee (fuck) and we had a show Friday night which was kick ass. Anyway tomorrow I can connect my other shit up and see what we have as my tone. The ADA sounded very close to a sykes tone in “still of the night”. I can’t wait to tear people’s ears off.

 

[napalmdeath]

How heavy is that sucker?

 

[Exo-metal]

0 if you never move it...

 

[alund]

How heavy is that sucker?

43 lbs. apparently not as heavy as the Rivera.

 

[thegame]

 

[alund]

Now all connected; minus the midi connections and how certain configurations will jive. I will say I have never heard the ADA mp1 sound so good through the “new” D180. The amp had a lot of nuances that I need to figure out since it was moded. The D180 runs at 8ohms into the 16 ohm evhiii 2x12 cabinet. The axe fx runs stereo into the SD stereo power into a 2x12 stereo cab. Then the Soldano and Caswell as a pair (with lexicon PCM80) for solos only. Possible aDr the Roland Sde3000. All 3 separately controlled by the Lehle ABY pedal. I’ll try to do some recordings soon.

 

[stephen sawall]

I am looking at D-180 with GEQ local to me. How is it for guitar plugged straight into it ???

 

[alund]

Good morning. Was asleep last night when you messaged.
So 3 ways that I plug into it.
1) direct into the preamp that Mike B added in front. It is really made for pedals; boosting etc. however very clean with nothing. Huge headroom. Almost like a solid state I guess

2) multi preamps into the front input which was controlled on a voodoo px8 looper allowing multiple pre’s into the front Ada Myasnikov soldano etc.

3) strict power amp alone. Which is definitely a beefcake

There is a “High z” feature on this (I guess) it’s an attenuator of sorts. To me this was/is the best gizmo for me. The tone is quite good but remember I mix things in a wet dry setting. So let’s say Larry effects loop out into return loop of the D180 that Mike added. (Slaving). Then the Larry speaker out to PS100 reamping. (Effects on the effects loop of the PS100. W/D.
If it’s cheap (relative term) might be worth getting as power alone with the added eq which is very cool. If expensive.ehhh. Idk. I toy thinking about selling mine BUT idk. I might regret it because it’s a unique power source I guess in the family of coli’s? I will connect my new mk3 no stripe to it and see if it adds anything..
I don’t know that I’ve helped. Maybe this will be a better sign. What powers do you have now and what is your favorite? VHT 2150/PS100/Soldano are mine. Doesn’t mean the other is bad. It’s just different and maybe a tad more complicated for my wants.
Clip below - this opened our new years show
The Mesa is the power source on the bottom of my rack there. Used like I said above. Am pretty happy with that sound but I don’t like bringing the Larry out for the obvious reason
Can always reach out and I can make isolated clips if you want. I might have one I’ll look

 

[JackBootedThug]

damn that clip sounded good....but I hate that song...lol...

 

[alund]

damn that clip sounded good....but I hate that song...lol...

Yeah. Chicks dig it; prob should have put later in the set but it’s started the drink fest.

 

[JackBootedThug]

Dude-I'm a redneck. First thing I noticed was how killer you sound....then I notice the woodworking on that floor. Pretty sweet.

 

[alund]

Dude-I'm a redneck. First thing I noticed was how killer you sound....then I notice the woodworking on that floor. Pretty sweet.

There are 10000000 guitarists in the world. I’ll put myself in the middle of the road. I’m not MJ or Kobe on the guitar. Was not blessed that way. I don’t think practice makes an ok player fantastic. I think my DNA has limited itself. I’m working on theory and how things connect now with professor Nik. It all makes sense moreso than when I was 20 and looking for quick licks, quick cars and quick women.

 

[JackBootedThug]

I can't bitch. Practice makes perfect and I never play. I started playing in 86 and I know two things on guitar-jack and shit. And that's my fault. However coming from no musical background-whenever I watch a vid or anything I just instantly get lost. If I can't picture it in my head then I'm done.

 

[stephen sawall]

Good morning. Was asleep last night when you messaged.
So 3 ways that I plug into it.
1) direct into the preamp that Mike B added in front. It is really made for pedals; boosting etc. however very clean with nothing. Huge headroom. Almost like a solid state I guess

2) multi preamps into the front input which was controlled on a voodoo px8 looper allowing multiple pre’s into the front Ada Myasnikov soldano etc.

3) strict power amp alone. Which is definitely a beefcake

There is a “High z” feature on this (I guess) it’s an attenuator of sorts. To me this was/is the best gizmo for me. The tone is quite good but remember I mix things in a wet dry setting. So let’s say Larry effects loop out into return loop of the D180 that Mike added. (Slaving). Then the Larry speaker out to PS100 reamping. (Effects on the effects loop of the PS100. W/D.
If it’s cheap (relative term) might be worth getting as power alone with the added eq which is very cool. If expensive.ehhh. Idk. I toy thinking about selling mine BUT idk. I might regret it because it’s a unique power source I guess in the family of coli’s? I will connect my new mk3 no stripe to it and see if it adds anything..
I don’t know that I’ve helped. Maybe this will be a better sign. What powers do you have now and what is your favorite? VHT 2150/PS100/Soldano are mine. Doesn’t mean the other is bad. It’s just different and maybe a tad more complicated for my wants.
Clip below - this opened our new years show
The Mesa is the power source on the bottom of my rack there. Used like I said above. Am pretty happy with that sound but I don’t like bringing the Larry out for the obvious reason
Can always reach out and I can make isolated clips if you want. I might have one I’ll look

I'm only interested in using it as a bass amp or guitar amp. Not using it with a other amp or preamp. Yours is modified. But not sure how much different than stock. I'm not interested in having anything modified.
Stock the first input is for guitar and cascading gain stages. I'm curious if has as much gain as a Mark I or II ?

I would mostly using it as a bass amp. But curious how it is for guitar. Since it was designed for both.