Mesa Express

Hi all

I've been thinking about buying new amp,and at first I thought it'll be one of Mesa F's,but then they released Express series,and now I'm not sure if I should buy one of these...Anyone played them? How's 5:25 compared to F30?

I heard some samples on one of forums,but I'm more interested in your opinions right now.

Personally... I hold Mesa amps in the same regard as Gibson guitars. They're GREAT for what they do and they're icons in their own right. BUT, there are plenty of other brands out there that do the same thing for less.... considerably less.

A lot of people see names like Mesa Boogie and automatically lust after it... not because they're ever played the amp or heard it... just because the name it bears. Being a gear head, I don't give a rats ass whether the amp I'm playing is a Mesa, a Marshall, or some Wal-Mart brand... as long as it gives me the tone that I'm looking for.

Same holds with guitars for me... But I still haven't found a finer guitar than an American Fender Stratocaster...

As for the Mesa amps, I would suggest playing them before making any decisions. Never invest that much money in something you're not 100% positive about. And also check out some amps like like the Peavy 5150 and XXX. They're studio quality amps that get great high gain and don't compromise the clean tone... A lot of Mesa owners that I know have to bite the bullett on the clean tone which is a sacrafice I would NEVER make given the style of music that I play... But if you just play high gain stuff you'd be right in the pocket.

I'd say try them out for yourself though. A lot of people let themselves get ifluenced far too much by reviews and others opinions about the sound of amps. The biggest thing to realize when reading reviews or taking in personal opinions is to focus on what they're saying about the functionality of the amp... What options it has, what options it lacks... how the knobs work, how the functions work... does it have EQ, is it tube or solid... all that type stuff and ignore things that talk about personal opinion on the sound and tone of the amp unless it's something that has to do with volume... Form your own personal opinion of whether or not the amp sounds good. You're the only one that really knows what tone you're looking for... atleast if you're looking for a Mesa you SHOULD know what you're looking for as far as tone goes.

Good Luck man, and remember the only opinion that matters is your own.

I don't know about the new range.... the F30 is a nice amp, but for the price it is it needs to be better than that in my opinion. I've had boogie amps in the past - and I bought them just because they were boogie amps... I was very disappointed - even with the dual rectifier I had.

I've ended up using Laney amps - I can get the same sort of sound without the saturation I used to get from the boogie. Like Asch said, you need to play them and see what you think...

Huge thanks for quick and informative replies!

Maybe you're right,I really pay too much attention to loud names on products. My thought was that if so many artists use this brand's product,it couldn't be bad... And since I don't often change equipment I use,I wanted to get as much info BEFORE I took a listen to the amp I'm choosing. I heard F30 and liked it much(both distorted and clean and the stuff in between),but I haven't yet tried 5:25 'cuz they aren't available around yet. But I'd be happy to get the same quality tone for cheaper price...I'll check that Peavey you were talking about.

As for Laney amps,I played one in a local store and it sounded good,but not much better than the Roland cube 30 that I'm using now,so if you'd be kind enough to point exact models I should take a look at... I play mostly Hard&Heavy,but I often need good clean tone for jazz and latin stuff,so I wouldn't want to be limited..