Amp search nearly over. Mesa stiletto, DSL100 or try a blackstar series 1, anyone tried/owned one??

riffpowers

As you all probably know, I've been looking for a new amp the last few months.

I wanted something with a similar sound and quality to my jcm800 2203, with a boost pedal in front, but with a solo boost or lead channel.


I've tried -

Mesa Stiletto
JCM800 2210
Marshall jvm
Mesa rectifier solo 50
Laney irt60
blackstar artisan 30
Peavey XXL:
Friedman runt 50


My 3 favourites were the mesa stiletto, the , mesa rectifier solo 50 and the friedman.

I decided that as good as the friedman  was, there's no solo boost or lead channel. It was also a little dark, but maybe that was the guitar I tested it with.

I loved the mesas, the recto was great but I felt that the best sound was the clean "pushed" channel, which didn't quite have enough gain, and I found that the voicing on the 2nd channel needed extreme eqing to get it sounding as good as the 1st channel.The amp had just the right balance between features and simplicity.

The Mesa Stiletto definately had the sound I was looking for, and the features I needed, but was very feature heavy (i.e complicated!!!) by comparison. So far its my favourite tonally, I'm just a little unsure about all the swicthes and knobs. Too complicated for me?? More to go wrong when gigging and touring??


I've been told to try the blackstar series one by a guitar dealer who knows what I'm after (and had the artisan and recto in stock that I tried) as that could well suit me.

And the DSL100 is cheap and plentiful 2nd hand but never tried or owned one.

Anyone any thoughts on this one??! 

guitarfishbay

I'm not really understanding why 'needed extreme EQing' is a negative on the Rectifier?  If you can get the sound from the EQ then you've got the sound, don't worry about what the dials say.  Rectifier EQ works a bit differently to other amps and the treble dial voices how much bass is in the tone (high settings of treble have reduced bass and vice versa).

I think @Cirrus uses the Stiletto.

I've had a Mesa Roadster (Dual Rec) and a Blackstar Series 1 104EL34.  I've also owned the IRT120H.

The best channel on the Blackstar IMO is crunch/super crunch.  It will probably do the sound you want but will be a bit tighter and darker than the Marshall.  The cleans are pretty nice.

The OD1 and OD2 I found a bit frustrating, as they share EQ but don't quite work on the same settings for my tastes.  So you can either use OD1, which works nicely as a fat lead channel, or OD2, which works best as a more aggressive high gain rhythm channel IMO.  As far as I feel about it, it's a 3 channel amp with two options for the high gain channel but YMMV.  Either way it should do what you need so it'd be worth a try.

The most annoying thing about it is that the weight is all on one side, and it's quite heavy.  Not the end of the world but it would've been nicer to be more balanced.

guitarfishbay

If you don't need a clean channel then try the EVH 50 watter.  The Blue channel might get you ballpark of what you like for a rhythm sound and the red channel is excellent for lead playing.  Compact and relatively light too.  Does not need a boost as it sounds tight as it is

The main downside is the volume mismatch between green and blue (which share controls).  There are ways around this but none are straight forward - you either have to mod the amp or you have to use some kind of pedal to compensate for the volume differences.  

If you're not using a clean channel at all though it might work

Chester

I've owned 5 Mesa rigs, which included the Stiletto and Roadster. Of all them, the Stiletto was probably the easiest to find my sound through. All EQ controls seemed to work in the right zone, and once understood, it was a great amp. Kept it for 8 years

If that is where your sound lives, don't worry about apparent complexity - it is not. An easy amp to use and dial in, which loves pedals. From what I can see of the used market, they are great value as well. Only thing I would do is a total re-valve (assuming the amp is in good condition), and you're set

JayGee

I've got a Blackstar Series 1 (104 EL34) and while I really, really, really like it I concur with everything @guitarfishbay ;
says about it....

One day Blackstar will realise that they're seriously short of overweight middle aged blokes who play mediocre guitar in pub rock covers bands on their artist endorsement roster and offer to build me a signature amp. I'll get them to build me a version of my Series 1 with the OD1/2 channel pair replaced with a duplicate of the warm/bright/crunch/supercrunch channel pair and an extra pair of handles at the ends AC30 style. It will be fab!

nick_s

I love my Series 1 (S1 45 2x12 combo).  The flexibility of tone is phenomenal, bright Fender like cleans, woolly Marshall-esque cleans, warm crunchy tones, down right filth, and that is before you throw the ISF feature into play (anti-clockwise gives tight Mesa-esque tones, clockwise gives more open Marshall type bark).

Definitely give one a go.

professorben

My Mesa pre amp dials are as follows
Teble-9
Mid-3
Bass-1

lead bright switch on. 

those settings give me a very thick mid heavy tone, which I scoop further with a heavy 'smile' eq curve. 

I dont care what the settings look like, it sounds phenomenal. 

Cirrus

professorben said:

My Mesa pre amp dials are as follows
Teble-9
Mid-3
Bass-1

But is that out of 10 or o'clock?

professorben

Out of 10 sorry. 
So if you imagine those settings on a Fender, only dogs would be able to hear you. 

professorben

Mesa amps are a bit odd in that the EQ stack is not always post gain, I don't know about Recto's but on the earlier Mark series it's Pre gain, so you need to really trim the bass, to keep it tight. 

ICBM

nick_s said:

...the ISF feature ... (anti-clockwise gives tight Mesa-esque tones, clockwise gives more open Marshall type bark).

Curiously, on every one I've played, anti-clockwise gives tighter, brighter upper-mid Marshall-like sounds and clockwise gives looser, darker lower-mid Mesa-like sounds.

fretmeister

If you like the stilletto then buy it.

Ignore the extra knobs and switches. "Feature heavy" means nothing if you leave the features alone and never change them.

I had a Recto Reborn with loads of wattage and drive type switches too. I had a good old play around on the first day, and then left them where they were forever.

And only OCD people care where the tone knobs are pointing if it sounds good. You'll be trying to line up your tuning pegs next.

timmysoft

I found the blackstars unreliable and flimsy, plus I think they sound a bit shit.

stiletto is the one, DSL is decent and cheap, I never suffered reliability problems that some report and I've had a lot of those amps.

id also be trying a 5150 and a jcm900 slx if you can find one

riffpowers

professorben said:

My Mesa pre amp dials are as follows
Teble-9
Mid-3
Bass-1

lead bright switch on. 

those settings give me a very thick mid heavy tone, which I scoop further with a heavy 'smile' eq curve. 

I dont care what the settings look like, it sounds phenomenal. 

Thats pretty much how i had it eq'd yesterday. Bass really low, presence/treble  really high.

professorben

timmysoft said:

I found the blackstars unreliable and flimsy, plus I think they sound a bit shit.

stiletto is the one, DSL is decent and cheap, I never suffered reliability problems that some report and I've had a lot of those amps.

id also be trying a 5150 and a jcm900 slx if you can find one

There's one in Boston Roadhouse music, pretty clean can't recall the ££ tho. 

timmysoft

professorben said:

timmysoft said:

I found the blackstars unreliable and flimsy, plus I think they sound a bit shit.

stiletto is the one, DSL is decent and cheap, I never suffered reliability problems that some report and I've had a lot of those amps.

id also be trying a 5150 and a jcm900 slx if you can find one

There's one in Boston Roadhouse music, pretty clean can't recall the ££ tho. 

Don't tell me that, i have to drive past Boston tomorrow on my way to North Ferriby. 

professorben

timmysoft said:

professorben said:

timmysoft said:

I found the blackstars unreliable and flimsy, plus I think they sound a bit shit.

stiletto is the one, DSL is decent and cheap, I never suffered reliability problems that some report and I've had a lot of those amps.

id also be trying a 5150 and a jcm900 slx if you can find one

There's one in Boston Roadhouse music, pretty clean can't recall the ££ tho. 

Don't tell me that, i have to drive past Boston tomorrow on my way to North Ferriby. 

He's got an ex demo 5150 50w and cab too.

timmysoft

professorben said:

timmysoft said:

professorben said:

timmysoft said:

I found the blackstars unreliable and flimsy, plus I think they sound a bit shit.

stiletto is the one, DSL is decent and cheap, I never suffered reliability problems that some report and I've had a lot of those amps.

id also be trying a 5150 and a jcm900 slx if you can find one

There's one in Boston Roadhouse music, pretty clean can't recall the ££ tho. 

Don't tell me that, i have to drive past Boston tomorrow on my way to North Ferriby. 

He's got an ex demo 5150 50w and cab too.

I'm not really into the new 5150 line, they're good amps but they don't sound as raw or powerful as the original block letter 5150's.

ecc83

JayGee said:

I've got a Blackstar Series 1 (104 EL34) and while I really, really, really like it I concur with everything @guitarfishbay ;
says about it....

One day Blackstar will realise that they're seriously short of overweight middle aged blokes who play mediocre guitar in pub rock covers bands on their artist endorsement roster and offer to build me a signature amp. I'll get them to build me a version of my Series 1 with the OD1/2 channel pair replaced with a duplicate of the warm/bright/crunch/supercrunch channel pair and an extra pair of handles at the ends AC30 style. It will be fab!

Have you told them? They are pretty open to client feedback. I do agree about the out of balance top strap! I can only conclude that it was put in the middle for "cosmetic" reasons and if so daft!

Dave.

ThePrettyDamned

The blackstar super crunch on the s1 amps is really damn good. Good enough that a single channel version with just that would be a pretty decent rock amp. 

The isf is a bit weird though, I thought it was the wrong way around. 

I liked the cleans on it a lot too, but the od1 and od2 were a bit meh. I later bought a blackstar ht metal pedal which had a much more pleasing lead tone into a clean amp, and had a brilliant heavy rhythm crunch tone. 

I'm not saying ditch your plans and get a clean amp for a ht metal pedal but it sounds like the mesa stiletto would do the lot for you. Ignore the knob settings. And if you fancy a different flavour of rhythm or lead sound, try the blackstar ht metal into it - you might find it works out really well. 

I've never heard anyone say the stiletto distortion is not good though, so I'd think that's unlikely 

timmysoft

I'll do some videos of what the Stiletto is capable of tomorrow.