Views on the Mesa Mark I Re-issue?

SquireJapan

So I'm trying to go all minimal on things, and I'm fancying a Mesa Mark I. Any views?

Requirements for me are:

Must Haves
1. Simple
2. Reliable
3. Loud and gig-able
4. Good clean and an ability to get a good crunch and drive (with pedals or otherwise)
5. A little "unforgiving", in the sense that you have to fight it a bit, but if your technique is good, it sounds awesome (if that makes sense).

Like to have:
1. FX Loop
2. Takes pedals

Telejester

I had one years ago with the EV type speaker and that thing weighed a ton. It sounded pretty good, but if you are a player who doesn't like knob twiddling then forget it. The mk1 is well known to sound very different from day to day without touching it and a fart beside one of the controls literally changes the whole sound. It's shockingly loud for its size but the volume taper allows it to be used at home. I sold mine because I couldn't deal with the weight and the endless adjusting of knobs, try one and see how you get along with it.

Telejester

Telejester said:

I had one years ago with the EV type speaker and that thing weighed a ton. It sounded pretty good, but if you are a player who doesn't like knob twiddling then forget it. The mk1 is well known to sound very different from day to day without touching it and a fart beside one of the controls literally changes the whole sound. It's shockingly loud for its size but the volume taper allows it to be used at home. I sold mine because I couldn't deal with the weight and the endless adjusting of knobs, try one and see how you get along with it.

Look into an Ayan smooth and slim pedal, it's designed for the mk1 because that amp can get low end  fartier than a Scouser in a curry house, I mean you wouldn't need to raise the bass above 2 ever, it's because of where the gain stages are placed in the design, very different from other boogies

ICBM

If you use the low-gain channel it becomes less touchy and it's possible to actually use the bass control. When the MkI was designed they hadn't really got the hang of cascading gain stages yet, so when you use the high gain channel it's basically like running one amp into another one -  ridiculously control-sensitive, too much bass, and extremely loud if you crack it open more than a little bit… and if you do set it up so there isn't too much bass, it's then all compressed midrange. That is the classic 'Boogie lead' sound, and it seems daft not to use the amp that created it for exactly that, but I found I preferred a pedal into the low-gain input.

Slightly frustrating really because the low-gain sound on it is one of my favourite amp sounds ever, but I don't like the high-gain at all and that puts me off owning one.

They're better without the EV speaker too, I think - not just because of the weight, but because any other speaker tames the overly-wide frequency and dynamic range a bit.

longshins

'Fartier than a scouser in a curry house.' Amazing.

ChrisCox1994

SquireJapan said:

So I'm trying to go all minimal on things, and I'm fancying a Mesa Mark I. Any views?

Requirements for me are:

Must Haves
1. Simple
2. Reliable
3. Loud and gig-able
4. Good clean and an ability to get a good crunch and drive (with pedals or otherwise)
5. A little "unforgiving", in the sense that you have to fight it a bit, but if your technique is good, it sounds awesome (if that makes sense).

Like to have:
1. FX Loop
2. Takes pedals

Minus the FX loop bit, it sounds like you're describing a '65 deluxe reverb

SquireJapan

Hmm...

I've been offered a Mark I at an absolute steal ... the more I'm researching the more it looks like it could suit. Even if I only use the 2nd channel. 

I was looking at a deluxe reverb - I had a princeton 68, but found it a bit under powered. 

koss59

Let me know if you pass on it as I fancy one to pretend I'm Larry Carlton ;-) not sure I'd fancy gigging it though as they're so loud/heavy.

SquireJapan

Well ... I pulled the trigger. NAD post coming soon ...

Telejester

SquireJapan said:

Well ... I pulled the trigger. NAD post coming soon ...

Get the Ayan smooth and slim pedal, believe me you will need it.

SquireJapan

Telejester said:

SquireJapan said:

Well ... I pulled the trigger. NAD post coming soon ...

Get the Ayan smooth and slim pedal, believe me you will need it.

I've been playing with it a bit already, it was initially very farty ... but just playing more with the bass (and figuring out the interactions) for a while and removing the farty-ness seems fairly straight forward.

It also seems to play very well with my Suhr Riot and the Green Rhino. It hates my Keeley DS1 (but that's to be expected as I only find that works with Marshalls).

Telejester

SquireJapan said:

Telejester said:

SquireJapan said:

Well ... I pulled the trigger. NAD post coming soon ...

Get the Ayan smooth and slim pedal, believe me you will need it.

I've been playing with it a bit already, it was initially very farty ... but just playing more with the bass (and figuring out the interactions) for a while and removing the farty-ness seems fairly straight forward.

It also seems to play very well with my Suhr Riot and the Green Rhino. It hates my Keeley DS1 (but that's to be expected as I only find that works with Marshalls).

From my experience, the mk1 loves the original 1st series barber direct drive pedals, the one where you can pull one of the pots up for extra midrange juiciness, I'd still buy a smooth and slim if you are going to use the amp with humbuckers, single coil not as critical.