QUOTE (MickeM @ Mar 6 2008, 03:50 PM)
So you could get the Supoersonic for it's Mesa sound and the 5:50 for it's Fender cleans. Two amps!!
Have fun!
It proved to be true! If anything I am yet more confused now
The gains and the cleans are very similar.
I didn't play them for much more than about 15 minutes each, but I'm going to run down some thoughts I had while testing them tonight. I played the mesa 5:50 express 1x12 and the fender supersonic:
SOUNDThe fender had a great fuzz tone with the controls set in a certain way on the bassman setting turned up. You got breakup from the bassman setting at reasonable volume, about 2 on the volume and it started to break up and by four it was full tilt. I didn't find this to be too loud, or even uncomfortable for my ears.
The two amps are very comparable. They both had good cleans and had a lot of gain in them. I've heard reports for both of them that they don't "have enough gain for metal" or that they go to "about sabbath" and not much further. This is simply untrue for both of them. Both have lots and lots of gain for any kind of metal you want to play. Certainly not the gainiest amp in the world, but I think it reaches that threshold where it becomes a bit redundant to add MORE gain, if you know what I mean. Overall I found I liked the fender clean better, mostly because it was more versatile.
I couldn't find much difference that the "contour" knob on the mesa made, I could but it seemed pretty limited.
Both were very loud, but sounded very good at low volumes. Fender usually has a problem where their amps are just far too loud, or rather that it is very hard to dial in a good volume for practice. This seemed to be better. Mesa was even better in this department with the 5 watt switch, which was still ridiculously loud for 5 watts. Don't let the 5 watt switch fool you into thinking you'll get a nice tube saturation at low volumes, the damn things really loud
Neither of them were noisy. I turned the volume all the way up with the gain cranked on both of them and got very little background fuzz (I didn't play at this level, I think the building might have collapsed and the city of raleigh would have experienced an earthquake). This is at least compared to my fender hot rod deluxe, which even on the "drive" (out of clean, drive, and more drive) setting gets a lot of fuzz.
DESIGNI wasn't sure whether the fender was made US or Mexico, the guy told me it was made in the US.
Both seemed very solid and well built. The mesa, especially, had pretty much an I-beam on the back of it protecting the tubes. Both also seemed well ventilated. The fender was about as big as you would expect a 212 to be, but it was a 1x12. The mesa was a little smaller, the speaker fit in very roomily though.
I found that the fender was easier to see and use. When standing or even sitting next to the mesa, I couldn't see the labels for the topmost knobs. Not a huge deal, but still. The fender also had less knobs, and seemed simpler and faster to find a really good tone. The fender had it's power and standby switches in the back, it would have been nice if they had been in the front like the mesa had them, but its not a big deal.
Both of them were of reasonable weight. I'm used to lugging around my hot rod which is pretty heavy, and these are by no means light, but they're easily managable. The mesa weighed less.
I played the blonde and oxblood supersonic which I find not as visually appealing as the black one, but either way the mesa probably looks a little "better". I do like the vintage look of the fender though.
FINAL THOUGHTSMan, I am really happy! I know that whichever of these two amps I get, It's going to be amazing. What I mentioned before I left about them being similar sounding proved to be very true, but in the end I found the fender to be a little more versatile. The mesa's 5w switch was handy, but not as much as I expected it to be. I preferred the fender's design, it was simpler and more effective IMO. As such I'm kind of leaning towards it now (surprise! it was the opposite when I left).
One last thing to say, is that these are both great amps. The sound clips you hear on the net, even the ones posted by fender, are pretty much true. You really can make it sound that good. [edit] One thing here, I'd like to point out that the fender official high gain clips sound pretty bad IMO, they sound much better in person.
All that said,
I still can't decide. Maybe you guys can help me out
Though I prefer the fender slightly, I've also heard that the supersonic is a bit hit or miss and maybe I just played a good one. Then again, there are always people playing these things and reviewing them expecting them to be one thing and not another. And there are almost always isolated cases of things breaking. I've heard mesa has much better customer service than fender. I was very impressed with both of them though, so I think I'll let this one simmer a bit.
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This post has been edited by JVM: Mar 7 2008, 02:18 AM
Gear: Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, Gibson '67 RI Flying V, Mesa Boogie F-30 112 combo, crazy pedals.
that was quick.
