NAD: Mesa/Boogie Badlander 100

[braintheory]

I've been thinking about the BL 50 vs 100. Thinking about Mark IIs and IIIs, IMO the 60 watters have better grind & tone than the bigger power sections. But, they don't have the balls.

When I'm playing at home I've got the bass up & mids down. However, in the band I have the mids up & bass down. In terms of tone in the mix, the 50/60 watters I think have the potential to sit in a better spot naturally plus being able to get into the sweet spot on the volume knob at normal band volume. Note that flipping two of the tubes off on a 100W unit does not have the same effect.

On paper I'm always nervous about the 2 tube Mesas & Marshalls being thin, but really in the band they have the potential to sit in a pretty good place. What do you guys think?

You might feel the same then in how the 50 vs 100 BL would compare, but it’s it very different from other Recto’s and I think even playing by yourself you might end up turning down the mids and turning up the bass on the 100. It’s quite midrangey (but not nasal or honky) and I have a feeling it’ll cut through better than my other Boogie amps. I’m gonna help my friend with some reamping soon, so I’ll find out how they all compare in that context

 

[thegame]

I've been thinking about the BL 50 vs 100. Thinking about Mark IIs and IIIs, IMO the 60 watters have better grind & tone than the bigger power sections. But, they don't have the balls.

When I'm playing at home I've got the bass up & mids down. However, in the band I have the mids up & bass down. In terms of tone in the mix, the 50/60 watters I think have the potential to sit in a better spot naturally plus being able to get into the sweet spot on the volume knob at normal band volume. Note that flipping two of the tubes off on a 100W unit does not have the same effect.

On paper I'm always nervous about the 2 tube Mesas & Marshalls being thin, but really in the band they have the potential to sit in a pretty good place. What do you guys think?

Late 70’s early 80’s Scorpions, Schenker, Priest, Maiden. All achieved amazing tones with predominantly 50w Marshalls. They are a little thinner than 100 watters but something about the 50w midrange that sits at a slightly higher frequency vs 100s to my ear.

 

[Racerxrated]

Late 70’s early 80’s Scorpions, Schenker, Priest, Maiden. All achieved amazing tones with predominantly 50w Marshalls. They are a little thinner than 100 watters but something about the 50w midrange that sits at a slightly higher frequency vs 100s to my ear.

The Marshall 4010 1x12 combo has a different mid circuit than either 2203/2204..maybe to fight the 'boxy' sound of the 1x12.

 

[GJgo]

So I picked up a Badlander 100 from a super cool forum member. It arrived yesterday 20 minutes before band practice, first time plugging in was to go through our set! I just started wit everything at noon and made some little tweaks to suit as I played. I recorded a song about half way through with my iPhone, if you can stand the "in the garage" sound I think it does capture how well this amp sits in the mix.



Notes-

I turned the bass down ish. This amp is not the Recto wall of sound.

I turned the gain down to like 9:00 with a boost or 11:00 without. Note with re-eq-ing a boost is not required!!! Here I see it as giving two tonal options where with the normal recto it's a must for metal.

I left the mids at noon. Good upper mids without being overbearing.

The two channels do have a distinctly different voice.

The cleans, for the 20 seconds I noodled on them, were very good.

The mid gain tone is killer!! I never liked raw or vintage on the MW.

The MW that I sold to fund this definitely has more options however this amp sits better and is even less fussy. Super easy to dial in. To be fair all my Rectos in the past had 6L6 so not apples to apples but still.

Comparison to the Triple F? I'm not sure if I would say this is better than the F triple live- a fair comparison would be on orange modern. It is definitely different and more mix friendly. The F is more "I will kill you".

...The Mark is more " I'm going to hide in the corner behind my reputation".

First impressions? WINNER. My goal here was an ideal tone for the band mix and all the guys thought tonight sounded super tight and awesome.

 

[Dino 939]

Very hard to say without AB’ing them, but I liked both. Seems from what I can tell like the 100 sounds bigger, a bit thicker and the 50 maybe was a little brighter, upper middy. I think I’d lean more toward the 100

Again if you get one have an open mind and don’t expect it to be a replacement or direct competition to your Recto’s, but as more of it’s own thing

What's odd is it's considered a Recto.
I'm speaking from the sounds, it seems
to have next level TC-100 traits or a heavy metal Electrodyne.
The taproot doesn't sound RECTO.
Seems like a great guitar to play fast strumming chords, octave chords etc.
Remember the "Emo" days?
I bet it's a good machine for that stuff.

 

[braintheory]

So I picked up a Badlander 100 from a super cool forum member. It arrived yesterday 20 minutes before band practice, first time plugging in was to go through our set! I just started wit everything at noon and made some little tweaks to suit as I played. I recorded a song about half way through with my iPhone, if you can stand the "in the garage" sound I think it does capture how well this amp sits in the mix.



Notes-

I turned the bass down ish. This amp is not the Recto wall of sound.

I turned the gain down to like 9:00 with a boost or 11:00 without. Note with re-eq-ing a boost is not required!!! Here I see it as giving two tonal options where with the normal recto it's a must for metal.

I left the mids at noon. Good upper mids without being overbearing.

The two channels do have a distinctly different voice.

The cleans, for the 20 seconds I noodled on them, were very good.

The mid gain tone is killer!! I never liked raw or vintage on the MW.

The MW that I sold to fund this definitely has more options however this amp sits better and is even less fussy. Super easy to dial in. To be fair all my Rectos in the past had 6L6 so not apples to apples but still.

Comparison to the Triple F? I'm not sure if I would say this is better than the F triple live- a fair comparison would be on orange modern. It is definitely different and more mix friendly. The F is more "I will kill you".

...The Mark is more " I'm going to hide in the corner behind my reputation".

First impressions? WINNER. My goal here was an ideal tone for the band mix and all the guys thought tonight sounded super tight and awesome.

Agreed on those points. It’s actually one of the tightest amps I’ve had and the way it sat mix wise in your clip is more or less what I would’ve expected

 

[braintheory]

What's odd is it's considered a Recto.
I'm speaking from the sounds, it seems
to have next level TC-100 traits or a heavy metal Electrodyne.
The taproot doesn't sound RECTO.
Seems like a great guitar to play fast strumming chords, octave chords etc.
Remember the "Emo" days?
I bet it's a good machine for that stuff.

Agreed it’s perfect for that stuff and My Chemical Romance was my favorite band in early high school, so I can definitely relate to that

It has that throaty Recto growl when you play a powerchord, but otherwise I really don’t hear much similarities to any of the other Recto’s. It both sounds and feels very different. It’s kinda like the TC’s in some ways, especially in feel and response, but SO MUCH better than the TC’s imo. Those TC’s should just be discontinued now with the Badlander in their line up. It does sound like a Boogie amp for sure, just not super Recto-ish

It’s pretty modern, so not for the hardcore vintage guys, but I think a lot guys on here would like it. I’m still really liking it. Very different from all my other current amps. Might be my most growly amp and I think the 2nd tightest right now to my ccv

 

[cardinal]

Any of you guys able to compare a Badlander to a PRS Archon?

I'm fussing with an Archon right now and am coming around to liking it for high gain, but I'm not particularly fond of the clean channel and milder overdrive is not its forte it seems.

 

[braintheory]

Any of you guys able to compare a Badlander to a PRS Archon?

I'm fussing with an Archon right now and am coming around to liking it for high gain, but I'm not particularly fond of the clean channel and milder overdrive is not its forte it seems.

I like my Badlander way better than I remember liking the Archon, but haven’t admittedly tried the Archon in a while. Very nice cleans on the Badlander too, better than the Archon there and probably also better for milder overdrive, but not the Badlander’s forte either