Tone Monster
Well-known member
Damn that’s mean !
Damn that’s mean !
Speeddemon
Well-known member
That sounds great! But...you added the Dbx and BBE, right?
So far I haven't even tried jamming an extra graphic EQ in the loop yet and interestingly enough, without any boost pedals, I find that with the gain (main volume) over 7, it starts to add that clanky, slightly spongey quality that a TS9 usually imparts.
Also, I was afraid that the Presence knob was broken, because I couldn't hear a difference, so I opened it up...it was made in April '89. See attachment.
Tried some stuff, soldered a new pot + cap, talked to Mesa support, checked some other forums...found out there was nothing wrong with the Presence potmeter, it was just that the Master volume was set too low (for at home playing). Crank that to 3 or 4 and suddenly Presence was making an impact again.
And I will say, with the Gain really low (like <2), the clean sound remains super Fender-y spanky clean of course, but the Lead channel sounds really nice for classic rock and bluesy stuff.
I need to try @LPMojoGL 's settings and record some clips...
Attachments
anomaly
Well-known member
I had one years ago and it was a great little amp and sounded very Mark like. Had troubles keeping up to band volumes though. I don't think Mesa's 50 watt offerings are really 50 watts?? One of the best, if not the best clean tone i've ever had was with that .50 cal +.
JustinCorrigible
Active member
He did.
Speeddemon
Well-known member
Sooo...I was tweaking and found a great setting that covers clean and high gain with some caveats.
The caveats being:
-you need coil splits on humbucker-equipped guitars for truly clean sounds
-the lead channel needs a boost pedal to get tight again.
See attached picture for the settings.
This gives me:
1) Clean clean! With the graphic EQ disengaged. To reach this, the Bass knob (potmeter) is pretty high... (@3,5~4
for a Mark-circuit, that's HIGH! 
), but this gives a great clean tone, chimey and very direct. Of course, pickups need to be coilsplitted for this.
2) Super heavy, tight, focussed high gain rhythm/lead tone.... which auto-engages the graphic EQ. That's still tight, but because of a boost. In my test case it was done with an Ibanez TS Mini (drive minimal, level 3/4th, Tone 1/3rd).
Without the boost, this lead tone is kinda flubby, because of the knob settings that helps getting a good clean tone without the gEQ.
But *with* the boost (and this could probably work with an SD1, Timmy, etc. just as well, as long as there's some healthy level of volume boost, low-cut and slight amount of dirt added), man, that punches hard.
I'm liking this thing more and more.
One thing I did notice, and of course I've should've known this before, but I was once more reminded about how different the grit is for fluid leads on your neck pickup compared to using a (modded) Marshall-esque platform.
It's not something I prefer to be honest, and in the 'quiet' part of MOP's 1st solo, you can hear this thick fuzziness in the low-mids clearly from 4m19s to 4m27s.
This Caliber 50+ does pretty much the same thing, whether it's with low/medium output PAF neck pickups or slightly hotter neck pickups (e.g. Breed neck, Air Norton, Chopper).
And I tend to gravitate more towards the more open, bell-like tones (whether it's John Norum or Warren DeMartini type of sound) that the more British oriented high gain can provide.
So in terms of pure clean capabilities, it has my Engl Savage 60 beat, no question. The Engl's cleans are nice, useable, but in no shape or form 'gorgeous'. In terms of heavy rhythm, it's more or less a tie, since both excel here and can bring teh brutalzz... for lead playing, the Savage is a bit more raw and dry maybe, less of that 'liquid' stuff...but when it comes to neck-pickup playing, the Cal 50+'s neck pickup stuff does what I also didn't care for when playing certain Diezels...
I would assume this is more than just an EL34 vs. 6L6 thing, since my 6L6 equipped EVH 5150 III 50W doesn't do that wooly/fuzzy oversaturating this way either.
The Savage 60 is definitely more versatile though, and having a Presence control + depth boost per channel helps here, as well as additional Gain boost switches per channel.
Just some food for thought...
The caveats being:
-you need coil splits on humbucker-equipped guitars for truly clean sounds
-the lead channel needs a boost pedal to get tight again.
See attached picture for the settings.
This gives me:
1) Clean clean! With the graphic EQ disengaged. To reach this, the Bass knob (potmeter) is pretty high... (@3,5~4
for a Mark-circuit, that's HIGH! ), but this gives a great clean tone, chimey and very direct. Of course, pickups need to be coilsplitted for this.2) Super heavy, tight, focussed high gain rhythm/lead tone.... which auto-engages the graphic EQ. That's still tight, but because of a boost. In my test case it was done with an Ibanez TS Mini (drive minimal, level 3/4th, Tone 1/3rd).
Without the boost, this lead tone is kinda flubby, because of the knob settings that helps getting a good clean tone without the gEQ.
But *with* the boost (and this could probably work with an SD1, Timmy, etc. just as well, as long as there's some healthy level of volume boost, low-cut and slight amount of dirt added), man, that punches hard.
I'm liking this thing more and more.
One thing I did notice, and of course I've should've known this before, but I was once more reminded about how different the grit is for fluid leads on your neck pickup compared to using a (modded) Marshall-esque platform.
It's not something I prefer to be honest, and in the 'quiet' part of MOP's 1st solo, you can hear this thick fuzziness in the low-mids clearly from 4m19s to 4m27s.
This Caliber 50+ does pretty much the same thing, whether it's with low/medium output PAF neck pickups or slightly hotter neck pickups (e.g. Breed neck, Air Norton, Chopper).
And I tend to gravitate more towards the more open, bell-like tones (whether it's John Norum or Warren DeMartini type of sound) that the more British oriented high gain can provide.
So in terms of pure clean capabilities, it has my Engl Savage 60 beat, no question. The Engl's cleans are nice, useable, but in no shape or form 'gorgeous'. In terms of heavy rhythm, it's more or less a tie, since both excel here and can bring teh brutalzz... for lead playing, the Savage is a bit more raw and dry maybe, less of that 'liquid' stuff...but when it comes to neck-pickup playing, the Cal 50+'s neck pickup stuff does what I also didn't care for when playing certain Diezels...
I would assume this is more than just an EL34 vs. 6L6 thing, since my 6L6 equipped EVH 5150 III 50W doesn't do that wooly/fuzzy oversaturating this way either.
The Savage 60 is definitely more versatile though, and having a Presence control + depth boost per channel helps here, as well as additional Gain boost switches per channel.
Just some food for thought...
Attachments
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P
platyman
Member
ooof thats mean
Neptical
Active member
@Speeddemon just noticed your 3210 sitting there. Fantastic amps! I have a batch of those and a 3315. Boost in the front and EQ in the loop and I have no problem plugging in to them over my tube amps. Glorious tones!
Speeddemon
Well-known member
Thanks man. I modded mine a bit (this is my 2nd one) with good help from a Marshall forum forumite called wakjob.
Also owned the Artist 3203 (SS preamp, tube poweramp) for a while, but that thing didn't have the Pull Gain/EQ option, so I found it a bit lacklustre. Traded that one (+ cash obviously) for a Fryette Sig:X...which also got sold later on.
Attachments
S
ST.KTULU
Member
Sweet!