Mick Taylor wonders where it all went right again.
Hard to believe that it’s now 35 years since the world saw the first Boogie. Originally an experiment to give a 12-watt Fender Princeton a huge new pair of tonal balls, the brand has since blossomed under the leadership of founder Randall Smith into the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality amplifiers. The original ‘boutique’ builder, many of the company’s innovations such as cascading gain and channel switching are now taken for granted among today’s players.
In 1991, Mesa Boogie took a dramatic change of tack. Previously most associated with compact, super-powerful, feature-packed amps (Mark I, II, III & IV), Smith and co diversified into massive, super-powerful, feature-packed amps – the Dual and Triple Rectifiers. These monsters refocused Boogie’s hi-gain heritage for a new generation of players, and in so doing helped define a whole new genre of modern rock playing with their immense gain, grind and low thump.
Yet the 6L6-driven Rectifiers with their three-channel operation don’t suit everybody, most obviously Marshall devotees who require fewer bells and whistles, and crucially, the sound and response of an exclusively EL34 power section for its tighter, more focused bass. Ladies and gentlemen, behold the Stiletto...
PRE & POWER AMP
We can almost take Boogie build quality as read these days. There’s no other volume manufacturer of amps who has maintained such consistently excellent standards, and this Stiletto is no exception. Custom components throughout, meticulous design and execution – I’ve watched these things being built, and ‘fastidious’ barely comes close to the care given to every single chassis, every single amp.
As a result of their huge flexibility, Mesa’s later Mark Series amps (III & IV) picked up a ‘too complicated’ stigma in certain circles during the late 1980s and early ’90s. On the DC-3, 5 and 10 amps in 1990, this was addressed with two rows of identical controls, one for each channel, and it’s this logical layout – straight up, one above the other – on which the Stiletto is based. Each channel has three different modes to suit a wide variety of styles (read more about them in ‘Sounds’) that goes from high-headroom clean, to outright filth across the two channels. Which ones you like best will depend very much on your chosen guitar and musical tastes, more of which later.
As with all Mesas, the gain, tone and presence controls are all highly interactive, meaning that slight tweaks – particularly treble and presence – make for significant tonal changes that mean all the difference between a sound you can barely live with, and one you truly love. In that respect it’s worth reading the manual, into which has poured a lot of time and effort. Some of what it says will be counter-intuitive if you’ve not owned a Boogie before, so it’s essential reading to realise the potential of your Stiletto.
For the power section, Mesa has based this whole amp around a quartet of EL34 power tubes, famous of course for their use in most classic Marshall heads. In addition, you have the option in either channel of switching out two tubes for 50 watts output – let’s say you like a high-headroom, 100-watt clean channel, but a soaked, 50-watt dirty channel, for example – and also the option of valve rectification, again, selectable in either or both channels – see the box on page 114. And if that’s not enough, you even get Mesa’s proprietary ‘bold/spongy’ switch on the front panel which acts like a built-in Variac (down by around 20 per cent) to attenuate the power for saggier, more compressed power-amp response.
Add a collection of speaker outs – Mesa encourages you to experiment with the eight- and four-ohm output loads into eight- and 16-ohm cabinets to alter the timbre further – and a level-controllable direct feed for external power amp hook ups, and that’s pretty much everything you need to know about the top, before plugging straight in to Mesa’s venerable Recto 4x12 enclosure....
CABINET AND SPEAKER
A 4x12 is a 4x12 is a 4x12, right? Wrong. This utter beast is a good deal larger than a standard Marshall 1960A, for example, and is home to four Celestion Vintage 30 drivers which makes it a good deal heavier too. Oh joy. To be honest though, once you’ve tried a Recto cab – even given the eye-watering expense – you’ll wonder how you did without one, such is the thunderous slam and almost brutal efficiency with which they deliver your sound. I’ve often A/ B’d a 2x12 Recto with ‘lesser’ 4x12 cabs to the astonishment of unsuspecting now-converts, and like that little brother, this big boy is more often than not plenty louder and fatter. Despite otherwise superb build – expertly joined marine-grade birch ply with flush recessed side handles and heavy-duty castors – our one persistent criticism is the leather corners that can get knocked off.
It’s possible to use the cab straight mono, or 140+140-watt stereo, and link up another should you so desire. Swathed in one of two finishes to match the head – this is a dark grey/ silver/black ‘zinc bronco’, there’s also a black leatherette/croc skin front panel offering – you’d have to admit it looks every bit the awesome rig.
SOUNDS
A quick flick around the available modes and you soon discover how wildly varying the resultant tones are in terms of gain and EQ. Depending on your pickups, you may find it necessary, for example, to roll the bass control all the way off in channel one’s ‘fat clean’ mode to lose all the flabbiness. The Stiletto manual even suggests you do this, and rather than bemoan the use of ‘extreme’ settings – which your brain intuitively doesn’t like – it’s more use to point out that these lower extremes are necessary to explore the Stiletto’s full versatility.
And by god is it versatile. For all its rock bravado, the ‘tight clean’ mode in channel one, and ‘fat clean’ for that matter, treat a Strat to some funky, high-headroom tones that even with the Recto 412 sound breathy. Increase the gain and we’re into vintage-style break up that you can tame with the powerful presence control, before hitting channel one’s ‘crunch’ mode to send things really Hendrixy. Things get very biting, so again, judicious use of treble and presence is advised.
Staying with the channel one ‘crunch’ mode, there’s enough gain, driven by a bridge ’bucker, to get way past cooking Marshall Plexi or even JCM800 territory. Like the ‘pushed’ mode in the 50-watt Single Rectifier head, this is ballsy, fat stuff, perfect for classic AC/DC-type rhythm, through Page and Cream-era Clapton leads, and on to more modern Brit voices as you crank the gain and maybe tame the mids. Speaking personally, I could live with this channel alone.
There is a whole other side to the Stiletto however, and the more I take it out to gigs, the more I like it. Initial, very low volume impressions seem somewhat fizzy and lacking in grunt, but get up to operating temperature and this channel is a real gem. The temptation can be to go for the ‘fluid drive’ mode with its massive gain and thundering bottom end. This is lovely for endless sustain, single-note lead stuff, though can get a bit overpowering for rhythm work. Flicking down a gain stage to ‘tite gain’ brings in the bottom end for a grinding, quick-response tone that’ll cut through any mix with authority, while down again to ‘crunch’ (replicated from channel one) takes the process further back towards classic rock.
 DETAILS - For our money at least, this is the best Mesa
—- along with the Lone Star —- in over a decade
And just in case you were wondering... if you’ve only heard simulations of a modern detuned hard rock/metal sound, do yourself a favour and go listen to this at volume. Immense volume, balls, grind and punch are just four reasons why you won’t believe your ears.
There are subtleties too. Perhaps the crucial make-or-break attribute of any amplifier is how it responds at your usual playing volume and pick attack. Doubtless many of you will be able to relate to that experience where you’re at a gig and somehow your tone seems either too clanky and forthright with little natural sustain; or conversely, too squashy and getting lost among the band’s general hubris. With the Stiletto, careful combination of the switchable tube rectification, 100/50- watt power setting and ‘bold/spongy’ switch all but eliminates those issues for live and recording work. Using tube rectifiers, 50 watts and spongy, for example, rounds everything out of the initial pick attack of a power chord, and browns it off for a soakedstyle distortion that gains life, colour and masses of sustain as the note decays. With the solid-state rectifier switched in, at 100 watts, using the ‘bold’ setting and playing exactly the same thing, you now hear the edge of the pick hit the strings, whereupon you’re greeted with an immediate kick in the chest as the full brutal assault finds nothing to get in its way. To experience the full potential of these features, you have to be playing at significant volume, and preferably with a band to appreciate what a difference this makes to your tone and playing.
My guess is that you’ll settle on a combination that suits your own playing style, though if you find yourself at a gig and the tone needs a tweak, experiment with these before you leap for the volume or EQ controls: you’ll be surprised.
GB CONCLUSION
THE MESA THAT A CERTAIN BRITISH COMPANY MAY WISH NEVER EXISTED...
There is a breed of rock guitar player for whom three channels – and their associated myriad controls – is at least one too many. Said rockers are also highly likely to favour a certain script-typeface brand, also beginning with ‘M’ as their number one amplifier of choice.
If that sounds like you (and you have the budget – we’re talking three times the price of a Marshall DSL100) we’d urge you to try a Mesa Stiletto right away. It takes the classic British sound as its base, then builds on it with extra balls, gain and astounding flexibility for literally any style of rock. Not only that, if you’ve tried a Mesa Dual Rectifier and found it, well, not for you, then all the more reason to seek this out. It’s easier to use and instantly more gratifying in terms of straight-up classic rock tones, and for my money at least, is the best new Mesa in over a decade. Expect to see them everywhere. GB
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Guitar Buyer Magazine - UK |
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