Mezzabarba

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the rossness

the rossness

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Who’s played a Mezzabarba amp? Which model? What are they like? I tried a kemper profile and thought it sounded great! I’ve never played the amp in person nor have I ever seen one at any stores. From what I gather, the MZero Overdrive is similar to a SLO. Tell me more. They recently popped up on my radar and I’m curious about them.
 
I used to own an mzero od. First thing to know is that they are deafeningly loud- louder than my 150w wizards- and that’s on like .3 on the volume knob. I’d describe them as slo with a little more Marshall high mid bite. They aren’t metal tight imo, but are good for rock and singing leads. The metal mod supposedly gets it tighter, but not super tight still. The apocalypse is a new thing , but based on the clips and the friend of mine who owns one, they don’t get super tight either. Long story short, not tight enough for me, but tight enough for people who mainly play rock.
 
Hmm...owned the Trinity for a bit. Bigly disappointed that it did not work for me. Just nothing I could do with it. I like tight amps, I could never get the roundess out of it. OD, EQ, front, loop - nada. I mean it's got gain, no problem there but if I still owned it, it'd be shipped to Jeremy for that tightness mod. I owned an SLO back in the day and I just don't get comparison that so many mention. I really didn't have issue getting the SLO tight.

Loved the look of the amp, the build quality was freaking a work of art, just not for me tonally. Was actually the last high dollar amp I gave a go. I'll say this, I had the ENGL Artist afterwards and "for me", the Artist put it in the weeds tonally.
 
technomancer said:
The MZero and Trinity are literally SLO circuits with different transformers and running EL34s... The Trinity adds IIRC a different clean and midi etc
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Yes! Schematic wise basically just a decatone which is just a slo that has all the mods, that has better switching.
 
jasonP said:
Yes! Schematic wise basically just a decatone which is just a slo that has all the mods, that has better switching.
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Schematic wise the DR and 5150 are in the ball park as well with the SLO but they all sound different. I mean it's been 20 years now I guess since I owned the SLO but I just couldn't get anything out the Trinity that remotely that sounded like that. Then again I didn't own the SLO long either as I was full on 5150 back then.

I wanted to like the Trinity but honestly it really just turned me off from spending big coin on amps anymore. Not that some aren't worth it though, not arguing that aspect.
 
I think they sound great, but like others have said, they are basically SLOs - if you really like the sound, you really like the SLO sound.

Just like the SLO, the low end is going to be round and you're going to need a boost to play metal or else it's going to be a little flubby.

Just like the SLO, that round low end is going to make leads sing and sound absolutely glorious

I haven't played the apocalypse, so that might be different than the Mzero and Trinity, but IMO they all sound great

basically if it was me, I would absolutely grab one if it was a good deal and I wanted that tone - for new prices though? I would just buy a BAD SLO and be done with it.

OTOH, if I wanted that sound for shorter cash, I would grab a Jet City 100 head
 
DanTravis62 said:
I think they sound great, but like others have said, they are basically SLOs - if you really like the sound, you really like the SLO sound.

Just like the SLO, the low end is going to be round and you're going to need a boost to play metal or else it's going to be a little flubby.

Just like the SLO, that round low end is going to make leads sing and sound absolutely glorious

I haven't played the apocalypse, so that might be different than the Mzero and Trinity, but IMO they all sound great

basically if it was me, I would absolutely grab one if it was a good deal and I wanted that tone - for new prices though? I would just buy a BAD SLO and be done with it.

OTOH, if I wanted that sound for shorter cash, I would grab a Jet City 100 head
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Before i got my modded Marshall back i thought about trying out the Apocalypse. I have even been in contact with Pierangelo who said he can built me a custom version with channel switching on the head. Like it is you can only switch channels with the footswitch. But the Shop in Germany who has them is a bit goofy and i also don't feel the need no more to check it out. The SLO wasn't for me. Boosted channel is basically an americanized boosted JCM800. Channel 2 boosted is too much. Unboosted it's too sloppy and loose.
 
Simon Dorn said:
Before i got my modded Marshall back i thought about trying out the Apocalypse. I have even been in contact with Pierangelo who said he can built me a custom version with channel switching on the head. Like it is you can only switch channels with the footswitch. But the Shop in Germany who has them is a bit goofy and i also don't feel the need no more to check it out. The SLO wasn't for me. Boosted channel is basically an americanized boosted JCM800. Channel 2 boosted is too much. Unboosted it's too sloppy and loose.
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It's definitely not for everyone - especially the low end

It's not so loose that it's impossible to make work for metal, though.

Larry Tarnowski (ex lead player for iced earth) used to use an SLO with an 808. I saw them live with that lineup a million times. He used the rhythm channel boosted for rhythms, and the lead channel unboosted with a 2290 for leads, and it sounded glorious.

The rhythm channel with an 808 obviously wasn't as tight as Jon's dino, but it wasn't a sloppy mess either and sounded excellent with them combined.
 
jabps said:
Schematic wise the DR and 5150 are in the ball park as well with the SLO but they all sound different. I mean it's been 20 years now I guess since I owned the SLO but I just couldn't get anything out the Trinity that remotely that sounded like that. Then again I didn't own the SLO long either as I was full on 5150 back then.

I wanted to like the Trinity but honestly it really just turned me off from spending big coin on amps anymore. Not that some aren't worth it though, not arguing that aspect.
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Kind of a bummer that overpriced copycats have turned you off from investing in quality gear that is actually unique and one of a kind.

If money was no object I’d own a lot more custom stuff than I do but I get it. We are all trying to carve out our own sound. Sometimes there’s better and cheaper alternatives, other times there isn’t.
 
glpg80 said:
Kind of a bummer that overpriced copycats have turned you off from investing in quality gear that is actually unique and one of a kind.

If money was no object I’d own a lot more custom stuff than I do but I get it. We are all trying to carve out our own sound. Sometimes there’s better and cheaper alternatives, other times there isn’t.
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1000% true

Honestly the majority of high end stuff i've owned has been spectacular though, so I haven't gone through the disappointment like Japs has

I've never spent big money on something unless i was 100% sure it was what I was looking for, though
 
I have a Trinity.

Pretty versatile and good sounding.

It can be Vox like on channel 1.

Amp has the feeling of pushing the power amp.

Sounds SLOish but not exactly American sounding if that makes sense?

Should we call it Italian sounding? Not quite German and not quite British.
 
dead-pan said:
I have a Trinity.

Pretty versatile and good sounding.

It can be Vox like on channel 1.

Amp has the feeling of pushing the power amp.

Sounds SLOish but not exactly American sounding if that makes sense?

Should we call it Italian sounding? Not quite German and not quite British.
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I feel like I’d describe RedSeven as something between German and British and Mezzabarba between American and British
 
DanTravis62 said:
It's definitely not for everyone - especially the low end

It's not so loose that it's impossible to make work for metal, though.

Larry Tarnowski (ex lead player for iced earth) used to use an SLO with an 808. I saw them live with that lineup a million times. He used the rhythm channel boosted for rhythms, and the lead channel unboosted with a 2290 for leads, and it sounded glorious.

The rhythm channel with an 808 obviously wasn't as tight as Jon's dino, but it wasn't a sloppy mess either and sounded excellent with them combined.
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Yeah. Boosted Rhythm Channel works great. i just didn't feel to need to spend 4k for the Rhythm-Channel alone, cause i already had my '83 2203 back then and i don't play leads.
 
Simon Dorn said:
Yeah. Boosted Rhythm Channel works great. i just didn't feel to need to spend 4k for the Rhythm-Channel alone, cause i already had my '83 2203 back then and i don't play leads.
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Yeah if you don't play leads I don't know why you would be looking at a MZero or SLO in the first place, that's their A+++ best use case, thing they are known for
 
Simon Dorn said:
Are they? I usually use the Lead Channel for rhythm playing. That's why. ;)
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I'm not talking about the channels, i'm saying whether you use the rhythm or lead channel, those amps are famously at their best for players who focus on playing leads
 
Yehuda said:
I feel like I’d describe RedSeven as something between German and British and Mezzabarba between American and British
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I get this German vibe from the mids. Not pure but in the fringe.
 
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