Many happys everyone! Have just received a mint Mesa Express 5:50 1x12 combo as a Christmas present that I got off eBay for just over £500 - absolute bargain, no doubt. Incredibly flexible amp, only just scratching the surface of what it can do.
Anyway, got some money set aside for a matching cab so I can do some speaker mixing with it. I like the stock Black Shadow Celestion jobbie a lot, just a little plain sounding and clean on its own.
Conventional/Mesa's own wisdom would suggest a Vintage 30, maybe in a closed back cab.
Best that I've tried (using another combo cabinet) is a WGS ET65, gave it much chunkier mids and a more aggressive distortion without dominating or sacrificing the clean tone. Didn't care for the Creamback 65 I tried with it.
Any other recommendations to go with an open-backed mc90 Black Shadow? Is the V30 the obvious one to try? Are Mesa cabinets worth it? Would be looking at a widebody or lonestar cab I would guess.
Comments
Picked up a Mesa 112 open back cab and tried the following speakers in all combinations with the Express. Brief thoughts on each individual speaker plus any combos that worked well.
Mesa/Celestion Black Shadow MC90 T3989B -
Relatively dark, loads of low end and lower mids, nice treble, very thick sounding, wasn't the best for articulation with a light crunch tone. Smooth lead sounds with lots of heft.
(Also have the non-B version of this speaker which came with the cab, that was a bit brighter - might just be a rebadged g12-80?)
Mesa/Celestion Vintage 30 (UK made)
Sledgehammer of midrange. Comparing directly with other speakers, it had no articulation to speak of. Unless the gain was on it sounded horrible but with some gain there was a great lead sound that was difficult to change. Good in combination, less so on its own.
(Compared directly to a Chinese V30. Was better/less clangy/tighter and bigger lows, though it's quite subtle)
Celestion A Type
WGS ET65
Eminence Cannabis Rex
Mesa MC90/V30 combo
MC90/ET65
V30/et65
Still not decided what I'm going to put where yet. The ET65 might end up being the combo speaker, and the two Celestion/Mesas together in a 2x12. Don't think the EMI CRex nor the A-Type really suited this amp, to be fair. The A-Type does a great job in my MJW bassman-y thing on its own. The CRex might go back in its box for a bit...
Edit: Dishonourable mention for the G12m-65 Creamback (UK made). Hated it. Lots of undefined midrange, no clarity or definition but a zingy top end. Not much volume either. I like greenbacks, and this is no greenback replacement.
As with everything guitar, it's all subjective I've found that speakers generally fall into two categories for me. Full range and dynamic, or midrangey and 'flavoured'. The Black Shadow, ET65, and the Tayden Jensen copy I have fall into the former category, the Creamback and Vintage 30 the latter. I couldn't imagine ONLY using one of those midrangey speakers, but plenty of people do.
Exceptions exist. The basic Chinese Celestion Greenback is a fantastic speaker that's full sounding and very flavoured!
Re the Mesa, it's a fantastic and robust amp. I like both crunch and clean voices, lots of overlap, and the EQ is really sensitive. Some reviews seem to suggest it doesn't sound good but I think it's the really wide range of the controls that catch some out. This isn't like a vintage marshall where you're just tailoring its basic sound. Loads of options!
The lead channel is less flexible, not big on the 'blues' mode but found some nice tones where I've managed to get the master volume up (in 5w mode). The burn mode gets some stick but again I think that's expectations - it's neither a smooth Mark series lead sound nor an ultra aggressive dual rec tone, though there are shades of both. I basically set it up so it sounds like a really good Rat, which it totally cops.
The contour thing is a bit gimmicky, I stick it on at 10 o'clock and leave it there, unless I'm going for something more extreme. The reverb is awesome.
Bit noisy without quiet valves in V1 and V2 but a really high quality amp. I'll not be getting rid of it!
Likewise, was it broken in? That sounds like a good description of one that isn't.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The Creamback has also been gigged (though not by me) and being a UK one is likely as old as a Creamback can be. It might not have been fully broken in but you can generally tell if you'll like a speaker or not before it's broken in - this speaker just got gritty really quick and didn't have the dynamic range I'd have expected. I guess it's just not for me!
Nice work op, wish there was more of this sort of thing on the forum.
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