Mesa/Boogie V-Twin Tube Preamp Pedal

it's easy to use, but hard to get a good sound. more on that below.

very limited in tone. Buzzy fuzzy distortion. This is because it is not an all tube pedal at all, and the tubes are not used to create the distortion! It uses nine TL072 IC chip sections and uses 5 clipping diodes for the distortion, exactly like any cheap boss or ibanez pedal. This is all shown in the schematic. So, sorry guys, the dist is just solid state pedal dist, not tube distortion at all. The clean channel is just a copy of the basic fender clean channel, nothing special. Same basic 3 knob passive eq like in any fender or marshall amp, nothing special, so the guy below who praises the eq in this pedal as "magic" is just praising the standard eq that's in nearly every guitar amp made since the 50's, nothing new. mesa just copied designs again like they always do (the dual recto is a soldano copy). the older boogies are fender copies with more gain.

looks to be reliable, but it's just a basic circuit board, mass produced, not handmade or anything.

never contacted them.

this pedal is a gimmick that pretends to be all tube but it's not even close. you'd get better results from a cheap pedal and any basic tube amp.

I'm sad of reading people who think that the V-Twin is an all-tube pedal... Let me clarify some points here:

First, a 12AX7 (or variant like 12AU7, etc) is a dual-triode. So there are two gain-stages available in each tube.

People said that they prefer the clean channel. No wonder, the clean channel on the V-Twin uses one tube (so 2 gain-stages), like most Fender preamps.

For the blues channel, well, it's another story. The gain is provided by a TL072 opamp and the distortion is created by 1N4148 clipping diodes (solid state, same topology as some of your Boss or Ibanez distortion pedal). However, they put ONE tube gain-stage afterward (the clean channel has two!!!) to warm-up the sound a little and the other half of the tube is a cathode follower (no gain, used as a buffer for the tone stack, like in a JCM800).

The lead channel is the same as the blues channel, but the opamp's gain is set higher.

That being said, I don't think it is a good or a bad thing. The purpose of this message is inform people that there is a bit of gimmick in there as the distortion is primarily created by clipping diodes, and not only by tubes like in a standard Mesa/Boogie amp.

By the way, the 12VAC from the power adaptor is being stepped at a couple hundred volts internally. So no, the tubes are not running starved at 12VDC (like the Chandler Tube Driver), but more around 200VDC like it is supposed to be.

Hope this help!

This is as simple of a layout as possible. Mine is the V2 version of the V-Twin, which has the clean gain control and the solo-to-blues control on the bottom.

Turning the knobs isn't that hard, and unless you have broken fingers, you can do use this pedal to it's full potential. I'd recommend messing with the clean gain to find your sound.

The manual is clear, even though you don't really need it once you start tinkering around with the dials.

Very easy to use, I'm glad I got this thing.

This thing, by itself, has some of the best cleans I've heard from any of my gear. It's phenomenal. The blues section of this pedal is perfect for blues; it adds punch to your tone, while having that bluesy slight o.d. sound to it. the solo section of this isn't what I thought it might be. I might just need to replace the tubes, but it's not a searing hot distortion. It still is good, and I may just need to put new tubes in, because it's still the original stock (i got this used).

I run my ESP ltd. Viper-400 or my Dean Dime Razorback into my ZOOM GFX-5 pedal, which then goes to the Mesa V-twin, and then finally into my Crate halfstack. This rig currently has my sound that I've been looking for. I had always been messing with the dials on my pedals, trying to get the right sound with that nice punch. With the Mesa/Boogie V-Twin and it's tubes, I've found that punch (and more sounds that I've been wanting!). My bass and treble are around 3 or 4 o'clock, and my mids are at about 12 o'clock. Gain is at the max (5oc), the presence is at about 12, maybe slightly more, and the master volume is at whatever it needs to be.

This pre-amp pedal is also amazing with headphones. Now, you'll want to use the headphones part with actual "around the ear" headphones, like you'd find in a studio. But I can crank up the jams and get a GREAT sound using it, all while my room-mate and neighbors in the dorm sleep.

I give it a 9, only because of the solo channel, I was expecting something more out of it.

This thing is all metal. I think planes, cars, and other vehicles should be Mesa/Boogie diamond plated, because this crap is tough. The tubes are housed in a steel cage, which is tough by itself. I can gig without a back up.

haven't dealt with them, but I'm sure they'd be great.

This is anybody's pre-amp. You'll want to run decent equipment through it, otherwise you won't get it's full sound potential. You'll also want to possibly run a distortion into it so you can get the dist. sound that you want. But if you want just blues, classic rock, or clean sounds, this is the pre-amp you've been waiting for, and the only one you'll need.

I recommend this to anyone, and have to my friend, the other half the guitar line-up in our band. He may not get it, but he'll be missing out. For any blues, clean, classic rock, or related genres, it's perfect by itself. Otherwise, for more dist., just add a dist. pedal, and you'll have even greater punch and emphasis on your sound in no time!

And for the price these run on ebay, these discontinued pedals are the holy grail of pre-amps on the go. Get one and rock on!

easy to use

sounds like most other standard distortion pedals, does NOT at all deliver the sound of a complete Mesa Boogie amplifier.

I don't know. I bought one on ebay, tried it, put it back in the box, and sold it on eBay the next day.

blah

fabulous with an amp. but difficult with headphones. i appreciate this is not a stomp box and the manual does say {pro headphones produce the best results} but how much do they expect you to pay for a boogie sound in the bedroom.

i use a marshall jtm60 and get a great boogie tone but i think the marshall lets me down. i think i may trade in the boogie and the marshall for a nomad.

unbelievable quality and i should know i work with fabrication 10 out of 10

no need so i don,t know. the fact i have never needed it suggests excellent.

i am not a very goog player so my set up may do this puiecxe of artwork an injustice but i love it to bits when i get one of those creative moments. f****n fabulous.

So simple, a caveman can fugure it out. Manual was very limited reading, but gave you an idea of where you can go with this.

I have been working with mine for a week now and it really is exactly what I was looking for. I use a Marshall 2x12 50 watt combo that has two 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel and no gain control. Translation...for a 50 watt amp, it is really loud with the 4 Ohm load.
Being that the head in my combo (MK 2) had no gain control, I was facing having to install a master volume either before or after my phase inverter.
It was that or a new amp because I didn't want distortion from a 9 volt battery stomp box, I wanted real tube distortion, so I got this.

And it really brought my amp to a new level. Real fat Stevie Ray sounds, then too Sabbath goo.

So far so good. It is made like a tank.

Have no idea

Awesome, creamy gain with a slick clean setting as well. I play blues, Sabbath, Santana. I like a chunky sound where single coils can still hold up. This v-twin really allows all of it.
It can be quiet and discreet, and then be ear splitting.
Also, if you like to play like slide, the natural compression from the v-twin's valves give you a really great environment to play fluid slide.
It almost adds certain highlights and overtones to the slide that make slide sound good and not messy.

this unit is not exactly easy to figure out your particular sound . but that said music aint for the faint hearted and the time spent now pays major dividends later.there are no editing patches but thats because it,s a pre amp not an effects pedal. if you want patches see the nhs they,re giving them away!!!!

wow the best muddy waters to free , alright now, this baby is bad to the bone.

ha! can you depend on it , this fucker is star wars protected. forget the armour plating the fact the logo says messa engineering is enough. maybe messa should be signed up as military consultants!!

see other reviews most have 10 here i have only found one or two who have ever had to deal with messa, from those they gave a 10 i haven't
had to deal with them yet.

i am a relatively poor player who gets excited at top quality gear i know this may sound sad because i substitute my inability to play well with top quality equipment. what i have found however is each time i do this i improve dramatically. this unit is no exception. it rings quality, and is fun to experiment with. i also like the earphone function{not gigging yet, cos i'm shite}.

Follw up review after now having this for maybe 6 years or so-
Great piece of gear that has been to at least 400 gigs and never, ever failed to date.

wish it hade 3 switches....lol

well i'll say this-
I play a ton of shows with my band, EL84. We play every weekend in SF Bay area with bands from everywhere. My tone kills em all.
Rectifiers, Marshalls, Stilleto's, Carvins etc.
I use it with the following-
Boogie Simul 2:90
BBE 482
Alesis Midiverb IV
4 2x12 cabs in split stereo set up
Korg Tone works DDelay
Ibanez Prestige's, American Strats, etc.

If your after samples check out http://www.myspace.com/el84

If your a blues tone freak check out-
www.el84rocks.com/Why.mp3

everything there is the v-twin
also live video's at-
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.uservids&friendid=7538183

Only issue ever is that the clean gain occasionally changes. Most likely a tube/weather thing

never used it

play rock, blues and some metal great for all

love the blue channel with my 535q wah sounds arena filling.
we have played some large premium venues and it fills the sh*t out of em all

only a 9 because it needs a 3rd footswitch for the blue channel- sometimes I miss the little switch with my toe and it screws up the song.... hard to hit with boots on...lol

This is a follow-up review for the one I posted about 6 years ago. I've been playing with this pedal, off and on (mostly on), for all this time.

This baby is very easy to use. It has an AMAZING EQ. It is so sensative, you move a knob one cm and it changes the whole character of the sound (very nice). Easy to change the tubes, no tools needed. It even lets you deep edit the gain amount and switching modes.

F------IN' BEAUTIFUL! Beefs up thin sounding setups, Makes dark dsound shiny,. TONS OF HARMONICS, very percussive.

Change the tubes and it's a whole new animal.

My set up is as follows: Japanese Fender Telecaster 72 Custom reissue - V-Twin - Fender Pro Junior.

Clean - the clean setting adds warmth to the Pro Junior which is much needed when I'm playing the Pro Junior at lower volumes (most of the time). Despite the fact that the Pro Junior is only a 15 watt amp, it is increadibly loud

Blues - this is my favourite channel. The awesome balance allows you to easily control the amount of overdrive by how hard you hit the strings. Increadibly warm.

Solo - this channel has balls. I don't use this setting so much unless I'm wanting slightly more drive than what the Blues setting will offer.

I won't bother with a description of the features given all the other reviews available here

I bought this second hand off ebay and it is easily the best investment I've made.