I was tired of using my GuitarRig and my Strymon Iridium and wanted something tangible and with some immediacy in tonal response. This one ticked all the boxes, even though it has no direct outs.
The of these amps had a rattling power tube that would cause a shrill sound when I played a certain note (G#). The internet is full of complaints of other Mesa Boogie models with the same issue. It also had a wee gap in the fabric (the radius under the low input jack and on the other side near the standby switch, if you zoom in on the pic, you'll see it)
Returned it and got a replacement within a week. The replacement had a rattling tube also, albeit at a different location that the previous one. The fabric didn't have the very visible cuts in the corners, but I had to "hide" some other black fabric that was lurking out between the front panel and the front faceplate. A pick worked fine for this.
After a I sent a vid of the ringing tube to Thomann (again) I returned the amp to get the tubes fixed / replaced. The internet has various other solutions (tube silencer rings) but since it was a new amp, that just wasn't an option. After about 2 weeks, I was notified, that Mesa couldn't supply new tubes for the forseeable future. But since Mesa Boogie don't make their own tubes, I wasn't too concerned to ask them to just replace them with a brand / model they see fit. The workshop decided to put JJs in. About 2 weeks later, I got it back.
Now it works perfectly. The good reviews do not lie.
When plugging in my Empress Heavy or my Thorpy Dane, a sizzling high frequency sound creeped into my tone. The treble or presence knob latched to lower frequencies that this one, so i could not dial it down. More gain equalled more annoying sizzle. Took it to band practise the other day. No more sizzling. Maybe it likes to stand on carpet, but the sizzling harshness is gone. At home though, it is there. So take that with a grain of salt.
