NAD - Blue Angel

webrthomson

This arrived last week:



It's a 4x10 Mesa Boogie Blue Angel - I picked it up from the Music Inn, in Nottingham who were great, fast and friendly - in pretty amazing condition given the fact there were released for a fairly short period of time in the mid 1990's (I *think*). It sounds great - the most amazing cleans

ICBM

These have the best clean sound and the best reverb of any amp I've ever heard. I've never played the 4x10", but I owned the 1x12" for a while - I stupidly sold it, but sensibly to a good friend so I know where it is!

If you want to make it even better, replace V2 (which is actually the main preamp gain stage, not V1) with a 12AY7, and V3 (reverb drive) and V5 (phase inverter) with 12AT7s - this will lower the background noise, improve the reverb even more, and open out/deepen the overall tone.

I see you have an FZ-2 as well . It does take pedals quite well, although the natural breakup in the 6V6 mode was a thing of wonder. I also found it fussy with attenuators - I see you have what looks like a DIY resistive one, which was actually the best type I tried.

If you don't mind me asking, how much was it? I probably should keep an eye on prices in case I see another one...

frown

That looks awesome!

As a quartet owning Mesa fan, I believe these, like the Heartbreakers and Mavericks, are pretty uncommon - even more so in the UK.

Looks like it’s in great condition too so nice score!

ICBM

frown said:

As a quartet owning Mesa fan, I believe these, like the Heartbreakers and Mavericks, are pretty uncommon - even more so in the UK.

I also had a Maverick... the even rarer than usual 1x12" version. I shouldn't have sold that either! And unfortunately not to a friend.

webrthomson

ICBM said:

If you don't mind me asking, how much was it? I probably should keep an eye on prices in case I see another one...

Not at all - it was £799 which given the condition I thought was pretty okay

I shall try swapping the tubes too - thats a great shout! I'm going to try the attenuator, mostly as to get this to drive I'd guess you’d have to wind it up a bit and I can't imagine my neighbours being too happy about that!

frown said:

That looks awesome!

As a quartet owning Mesa fan, I believe these, like the Heartbreakers and Mavericks, are pretty uncommon - even more so in the UK.

Looks like it’s in great condition too so nice score!

Yup - it's very clean - one scuff on the front but other than that very nice!

I've only seen a handful of these in the UK and I have to admit I was slightly put off by the 4x10, but boy does it sound good!

It's not actually as heavy as I feared either

Lodious

I've played that very amp! I thought it was amazing. They had a Maverick and the Blue Angel in at the same time. I bought the Maverick, but only because my back struggles with a 1x12 combo let alone a 4x10 combo. Really amazing amp though. 

ICBM

webrthomson said:

it was £799 which given the condition I thought was pretty okay

Very! I paid £750 for my 1x12” ten years ago. The 4x10” is much rarer and I think should be worth more even though it’s bigger and heavier.

webrthomson said:

I'm going to try the attenuator, mostly as to get this to drive I'd guess you’d have to wind it up a bit and I can't imagine my neighbours being too happy about that!

No - although it’s not that loud for 15W, it’s still way too loud to get any breakup at home volume. Even with a band, I only ever used the 6V6 mode for overdrive, it was too loud for anything other than clean in either of the other modes.

If you’re interested, the reason it’s labelled as a Dual Rectifier, despite having nothing in common sound-wise with the Dual Rectifier model, is because it does have two rectifiers - valve for the power amp, and solid state for the preamp. This means that the power amp has the typical valve-rectifier sag and compression, but the preamp doesn’t - which guarantees that the preamp does not distort before the power amp, so the characteristic overdrive is purely from the power valves.

webrthomson

ICBM said:

If you’re interested, the reason it’s labelled as a Dual Rectifier, despite having nothing in common sound-wise with the Dual Rectifier model, is because it does have two rectifiers - valve for the power amp, and solid state for the preamp. This means that the power amp has the typical valve-rectifier sag and compression, but the preamp doesn’t - which guarantees that the preamp does not distort before the power amp, so the characteristic overdrive is purely from the power valves.

Now thats very interesting as I was wondering about that - no switch like the Dual recto 100 watt heads!

Lodious said:

I've played that very amp! I thought it was amazing. They had a Maverick and the Blue Angel in at the same time. I bought the Maverick, but only because my back struggles with a 1x12 combo let alone a 4x10 combo. Really amazing amp though. 

At the Music Inn? Great stuff, I've not had the pleasure of trying the Maverick but it is on the list!

I was actually suprised at how light it is for a 4x10, I've got some Diezel heads that weigh more, still do not want to carry it for any distance though!!!

Lodious

Yeah, it was at Music Inn. 

DrSpock

I offered them £700 for it as it was a bit tatty and it had no cover, footswitch or any service history.  Didn't really have the room for a 4 x 10 anyway so wasn't bothered when he said no!

ICBM

DrSpock said:

I offered them £700 for it as it was a bit tatty and it had no cover, footswitch or any service history.  Didn't really have the room for a 4 x 10 anyway so wasn't bothered when he said no!

The @Emp_Fab approach to amp buying...