Mesa/Boogie V-Twin Rackmount Tube Preamp

Esp EXP STD, emg 81's. Very great for Metallica/Megadeth tones. Clean channel is very sweet. Solo channel provides good gain, but not markIV gain....still very sweet dual rectifier sound....running it through a boogie 50/50 power amp and Crate 4X12.

Very impressive, heard alot of slack about these not having enough gain, these pathetic morons need to get a life and some real pickups. Like say EMG 81's. Of course you won't get alot of gain, using a fender strat, or a peavey predator (pathetic as hell) b/c that's not what those paticular guitars were designed for. Bought this and it's a very cool preamp....

Never had a prob....

never had any probs, no need to contact. rave reviews though...

Overall great mesa preamp. If it were ever stolen, i would personally track down who stole it, and beat their damn ass, and then piss on their corpse.....really though, if it were stolen i would replace it. Just purchased a triAxis though, and the things killer. Thought about getting rid of the vtwin, 5 seconds later i reach a decision: hell no, it's now my backup, and a very good one at that. If you can't afford a triAxis (i busted my ballz and saved for quite awhile) then go with the vtwin rack. Great boogie tone, and for the price you sure as hell can't beat it.....

I haven't gotten bad sounds out of it yet. Cleaner gives more attack, Solo gives ridiculous gain, great features: two 12AX7's, (Preamp, not just regular fuzz box) Drives headphones, is O.K. direct to tape, good out to mixer, haven't tried out to pwr amp.

Stonesy on the "Blues" setting, blistering on the solo with a strat and 61 Blond bassman thru a Boogie 4X12, Clean setting is virtually uncolored. With the Les Paul, I got great Allman lead sounds out of the blues channel, and Slash-type gain on Solo. Like I said before, it loses attack as you raise the gain. Definitely use something to give a boost for a lead, though, because there's not much volume difference between channels. I Recommend a compressor, or something to get you the attack you lose as you raise the gain. Awesome toy, though, lots of features for the price.(I consider $300 more than fair when you consider 3 tones, switchable, recording, direct/headphone out, tube circuitry, remote switchability, and all around Boogie goodness

Let's get this straight. Never go to any gig without backup. Very dependable though. It's Boogie. I'm only going on reputation though. I got it last week. No funny stuff yet.

Never dealt yet.

I've been playing alternative and classic rock for about 6 1/2 years. The V-twin will fit right in with my Silver Face Twin and Bandmaster, Champ112, and the 61 Bassman, Ibanez TS-9, Boss CS-3, Strat copy, Les Paul Studio, and Tele. Great signal to the 424MKII Portastudio. I'm dying to get my hands on a good set of headphones now too, cause i was rather impressed by the sound that came out of my garbage KOSS $20 dollar phones. I do wish it had separate E.Q.ing for the Solo voice, maybe an attack knob, separate voice gains or volume boost, another footswitch to switch between blues and clean(there's a plastic switch to make clean or blues the "alternate" voice, but you have to remember where you are if you wanna try and use it, and I don't think it's meant for foot use), but I think I'm being greedy for $300, but you asked what else I wanted.

Honestly, I've only had this thing a week. But, it's my second mesa preamp, and my 4th piece of mesa gear, so what the heck, I've got a little experience with mesa so I'm reviewing it already.
Using this with a Mesa 50/50. Sounds great for rock. Cleans are very nice. Lead mode (2) is very cool for single note sustain for days. Crunch is good for rock, but will not do metal. Not a heavy enough sound for me, that's why I'm going to sell mine. I prefer the tone and tightness of this preamp over my Mesa Studio Preamp, but the Studio preamp kicks but on this unit for "in your face punch", which this unit, as the previous reviewer, has stated. This unit also does not have enough gain for me. Sounds like a Dual recto, but imagine if you could only turn your gain up to 5. It just starts to get downright nasty with the gain all the way up. Another beef: this thing has a very compressed sound, but it is flatly compressed. I.E. it is compressed but does not vary or compress more or less with volume, picking changes, etc. Does not sound very wet and elastic. Cleans are dynamic and it still does sound very good for rockin and has a great, rude tone. I couldn't keep away from it when I first got it. A welcome change from the scooped, 'processed' sound that my other preamp has (when using the graphic EQ on the Studio Preamp, basically the only way to get a usable distortion sound out of it).
This preamp only has 2 tubes: the clean channel is all tube, but the distortion sounds are generated by solid state diode clipping, much like the Silver Jubilee, JCM800, and JCM900 series marshalls, and (yes!) the JMP-1 preamp. This lends to a softer, less harsh clip than the Mark Series Boogies, which have 'cascaded preamp' tubes for gain, but also leads (I suspect) to the less lively, more compressed sound aformentioned.
I think this thing would suit very well rock and modern rock sounds, modern blues sounds ok. But if you're really playing blues, you should be playing an old fender or marshall. I think this preamp would be great in a studio tracking situation. It certainly has a lot more usable sounds than my Studio Preamp, it just doesn't get as heavy.
One nice thing with the mix mode is to set the mix ratio all the way to lead, and turn the mix level up louder than the normal lead channel. Blammo!--playing live, you've got a footswitchable solo boost, so everybody in the room hears your leads.

Good features. Two channels with 3 modes each, which change the tone or gain structure noticeably. Independent EQ on each. Stereo outs, footswitchable between 2 channels plus a mix mode with independent mix level (volume) and ratio of mix. Foostwitchable or auto assignable FX loop. Midi interface for access to all 6 modes, but can anyone really use this? Tuned recording outs. Main beef: squeezed into 1 rack space, valuable features like the main output volume knob is in the back, kind of a pain sometimes when you need to turn down both channels just a touch.

Can't comment, haven't used it more than twice live, but mesa stuff in my experience is very reliable.

heard that they are great...

I think that this is a pretty good piece for the money. YOu could do a lot worse. Been playing 7 years, owned some mesa stuff. I like it, but in a few years suspect I will have moved out of my 'high gain' preferences, into kinder, gentler sounding amps (mainly old fenders and maybe even voxes, which I'm getting soft for already). Till then I'm saving for a Dual Recto!

The clean sounds are my favourite, very beautifull crispyness in clean1 (Scooped). You can get a very Fat vintage sound with Solo 3 (Blues) and clean3 (Fat) mixed together with the mix turned mostly towards the clean sound (as another reviewer mentioned, this has to be done very delicatly because it's so sensitive) For the Solo sounds i.g. Solo 1 & 2 you have to use a graphic eq, my opinion is that it misses the directness of other Mesa amps in the solo channel, i've had a studio preamp before this one, and therefor sounds very different (it's sound even differs from the V-Twin pedal version) there's just no "balls" present without the eq. I think Mesa made a mistake in there definiton of "crunch" in the manual (Solo 1)

Virtualy all you need is in there, even for customizing plenty of room and connections are already present, i've build in a MIDI interface to access all six modes and there mixes myself. The MIDI interface was originaly planned as an option but was never developed,however the V-Twin Rackmount is ready for it (the same goes for a reverb option). The thing i realy missed is the 5-band graphic equalizer this unit needs it so badly! Luckely the new Formula preamp has one onboard (probably my next step,just wish Mesa brought it out sooner!) For equalizing i use my Rocktron Replifex. For different functions IC's were used thus revealing it's origin, the V-Twin pedal! Inside you'll also find two LED's to enhance the glowing of the 12AX7 tubes when viewed from the frontpanel, very distastefull and not at all Mesa like, these make the unit look very cheap! Controls are like any normal guitar amp but now you have two completly seperate preamps.

Never experienced the kind of tube problems as one reviewer mentioned before. However when opening the unit i found two of the three studs which hold the powersupply printboard to be broken, very dangerous indeed ,check these if you buy one! (easely solved by exchanging them with the ones already present for the reverb printboard!) In the future i think the mounting of the tubesockets are bound to give problems, these are very fragile placed (on a wobly verticaly placed printboard) and replacing a tube can be very difficult.

I think Mesa has the best support without any doubt. They'll help you in any way, if they can. I got some great help with building in my MIDI interface and with some problems with my .50 Caliber THANKS JOHN! Altough they could not send me proper drawings of the V-Twin rack, these were never made due to internal problems, (i still find this unbelievable)i was promised they will send me them when/if they were made. And you know what? i'm sure they will do so! I'm that confident in there support. I've given a rating of 9 just because they sometimes were not able to help me fully due to internal problems, but otherwise it would definetly have been a 10!

This unit is not suitable for every style but it's very usable. Considering it's price and overall features and ofcourse being a Mesa product i think it's a good buy. However to be hounest i don't think i would buy it again at this point because i'd rather save up for the new Formula preamp which i think is more proffesional, my expectations are very high for this one.

I don't use all of the modes but I love what it does to my Les Paul. Since my effects are digital it is nice to run it thru some tubes to really fatten up that mahogany even more. I love it! It can be somewhat niosy so I keep a noise suppressor at the end of the chain. I'll try a different brand of tubes...

I won't describe it for the record but tell you one of the little things that bug me. When in Mix Mode the adjustment for the Mix, from clean to dirty, is too sensitive. It is hard to find the right balance as it tends to swing too much one way or the other.

It seems to go through tubes rather quickly and I have not figured out why yet. I gig about three time a week and I get a blown tube about every four months. Maybe this is normal? I run Audio Glassics but want to experiment a little with Groove Tubes.

Not needed to this point.

I have played it about a year and a half and I love it. i would buy it again...been thinking about picking up a second for backup. I typically run into a Boss GT-5 with the MB set in the EFX loop as the first device in the Boss chain. I also use the Lexion Reflex (sweet unit). From there I presently run straight into house. I am looking to pickup a Vox AC15 maybe a Roland Blues Cube in the next year. I amy also add the MB Tri-Axis to my rack.

This unit has two channels, clean and dirty each in three flavors. You need a tip to ground switcher to access all of them. The footswitch allows you to toggle between two. Wait, you you can also mix the two together. Discrete controls per channel with mixing controls also.

Exists on the Recto side of the Mesa product line. Sounds are similar to the Dual Rectifier/Tremoverb. Clean sounds are pristine yet fat. Quiet. Dirty sounds have plenty of juice for sustaining notes. One variation has mid dip/bass boost for big rhythm meat. Its definitely not similar to the MarkIII/IV series. Use a gate for super high gain settings. The range on the gain control is vast, with lots of character in the mid way settings. Juicy.

I've used it live 5 times. No problem. The rating comes from my previous experience with other Mesa gear.

Probably the best

Complements my Mark III. Wouldn't think of getting rid of it. Provides my clean and brutal rhythm sounds live. ALSO the direct recording cab simulator sounds pretty great.