.50 Cal Mesa Head vs. Dual-Cal Combo Must Decide -Need help fast!!

[Jedi]

Hey guys, I own a Mesa .50 Caliber+ head and it's a great amp. But now in my old age I want to get rid of a lot of my big stuff. I'm into combos a lot more these days and the local vintage guitar store has Dual Caliber Mesa Combo for about $700. I didn't get a chance to really blast it yet, but I wanted to know what you guys thought when comparing these two amps. I love my .50, but I might have to trade it to get the Combo. Help a brother out. What should I do?

 

Namaste

 

Jedi

[Chip McDonald]

Not as "pure" sounding as the .50 Caliber, but cool for $700....

[DC]

Jedi,

 

It's hard to go wrong with anything that says Mesa on it. I've got a studio caliber and a Mk IV and they're both great. I'm into a Carlos meets Brian May meets Elliot Easton tone for lead and Boogies deliver.

 

One thought. If you've got a head now and need a more compact package, how 'bout just picking up a 1 X 12" cab? A head and small speaker cab is almost more portable than a combo and it would save you some cash.

[Jedi]

Thanks guys,

 

Chip- When I got home and played my .50 Mesa I have to agree with you. The .50 seemed to have more balls and a more authentic Boogie tone. $700 for the combo makes my mouth water, but there are so many other things to get. I have enough amps for now, well, maybe you can never have enough. Right now, I use my Peavey Delta Blues with a Rat pedal to get most of my tone and I love it. Maybe I'm just getting greedy.

 

"Greed is good."

 

G.G. Wall Street

 

Dave-I was at another music store asking about the Mesa Nomads. The salesman suggested the same thing you did. He was being honest and told me my amp head kicked the Nomads in the ass. I'm thinking about going that route. What's a specific speaker that might work well with a 1 x 12 cabinet. A celestion what? A black shadow? Actually, is their a single speaker cabinet loaded with a great speaker that would already work well for my .50 Mesa head? Thanks guys.

 

Namaste

 

Jedi

[DC]

Originally posted by dblackjedi@hotmail.com:

Thanks guys,

 

What's a specific speaker that might work well with a 1 x 12 cabinet. A celestion what? A black shadow? Actually, is their a single speaker cabinet loaded with a great speaker that would already work well for my .50 Mesa head? Thanks guys.

 

Namaste

 

Jedi

I'd say it depends on what you are going for. If you need great big loud clean sound (more jazz or country) then you need EV or Black Shadow EV. If you want toward that sound but faster transients and better overdrive sound, get a JBL. Lighter, quicker cone. Also check McCauley speakers. Tom McCauley designed the E series for JBL. If you want great overdrive sound and don't mind your clean sound to be slightly crunchy no matter what, then Celestion or an alnico mag speaker. Beware, alnicos are fragile and I've blown them or had em damaged on airplanes before.

 

A really great deal used to be Eminence die cast drivers. They sound almost exactly like EVs but cost way less. Extremely durable speaker too. Check www.partsexpress.com or www.mgmelectronics.com to see what they've got. Eminence used to be the best deal around but they've come out with all these new lines that are way expensive.

 

Good luck on your tone quest!

[Jedi]

Thanks Dave,

 

I'll check out the link. I know what you mean about alnico speakers. I've blown my share of Mojo tone alnico(great sounding!, btw) speakers. Great tone, too damn fragile. Thanks again, bro.

 

Jedi