Mesa/Boogie V-Twin Tube Preamp Pedal

An excellent warm sounding preamp. Easy to set up for a hugh range of sounds. The only problem I have with my unit is the slight delay before the effect kicks in when I'm using a clean sound on my amplifier then swithing on the v-twin for a blues or lead sound. Also the switch that controls the selection between the clean and blues mode is a flimsy affair that you can only use by hand. It would have been nice if Mesa Boogie could have put in a more robust switch that you could use with your foot.

I'm using a Gibson SG with a Fender Hotrod Deville. The V-twin always sounds great

I've had the V-twin for 4 years now and I'm on my 3rd wall wart. These do not come cheap (especially in the UK). I've tried universal power supplies and I just can't get one to work. So I've always ended up shelling out the #42 for the Mesa Boogie power supply. Other than the wall wart (which at least has a long lead)the unit is very reliable

I've never dealt with customer support.

The v-twin has a great warm sound to it. I've used other preamps that have had more of a range of sounds such as a Marshall JMP-1 but they don't have that rounded sound that works with your guitar. If you're into blues through to heavy metal it's the ideal sound.

This is the best overdrive unit I have found, I've been playing for 15 Years. Six knobs gain,bass,middle,treble,presense,master. Comes with manual or manual available at www.mesaboogie.com .

I use a 62' RI Fender Strat going through a "time machine boost", a very magical device from Robert Keeley, to a SF 135w Twin reverb slaved to a SF Super reverb. The V-Twin comes with dual 12ax7's which provided way too much gain so I replaced them with Philips NOS 12at7's....ahhh that's the trick. Much better tone.

This is the only place where I will critisize this pedal.#1 The power cord becomes easily kicked out and also has a huge "wall wart".#2 Be very carefull when trying different tubes with this pedal! I have broken mine twice by pushing down to hard on the tube into the socket ,thus severing vital connections!!

Never dealt with them , have my own tech.

The only other overdrive that compares to this is a "Matchless Hotbox", but I've A/B'd them and they sound IDENTICAL. Mesa also makes a rack mounted version which would eliminate the forementioned problems. They should have hard wired the unit, given 3-4 inches between the power transformer and plug, otherwise I have no other critisism.

its pretty easy to use....just like an amp. highs, lows, mids, presence, master and gain. only thing is the clean gain control on the bottom is a pain in the a** to tweak, cause ya gotta do it w/ a screwdriver. its pretty touchy too, so its real hard to get a nice balance between clean and distorted volume levels.

i use either a gibson les paul or a gibson flying V into a fulltone clyde deluxe wah, to the v-twin, to a boss dd-5, to a modified boss ce-2 to an aphex guitar xciter to my marshall jcm800 plugged into a marshall 1961B cab and a mesa/boogie rectifier traditional cab. The v-twin is definately OK, but nothing special. the clean channel when tweaked right can sound quite nice, the blues channel can get you a nice little purr, but the lead channel i cant deal with. I'll clarify right here that i love high gain shit, and I play a lot of hard rock and heavy metal (real heavy metal, like soilwork, shadows fall, in flames, between the buried and me. not this linkin park s***). the lows overpower everything unless you turn it down to about 9 o'clock. in order to get good definition in your tone, ya gotta crank up the highs and the presence, and that gets wayyyy too bright. overall, the tone is very compressed too. dont even think about using this with your neck/neck and bridge pickups for rhythm work, it'll turn to mush. its got a nice "overall" sound to it, but there are many areas where it could be improved. im prolly gonna send mine off to trace down at voodoo amps, see if he cant breathe some life into it.

well, its tube, so its not wise to gig w/o a backup. its ruggedly built, ill give it that. if anything in it's gonna fail, it'll be the tubes.

never talked to em

been playin guitar for about 4-4 1/2 years. i play whatever speaks to me, be it metal, blues, alternative rock, grunge, hard rock, jazz, whatever. good tone makes ya wanna play, and this thing just doesnt make me wanna play. just gonna see if the guys down at voodoo amps cant make it better

I play in a Metallica tribute band named Sad But True (http://www.sadbuttrue-band.com/), and this preamp suits my needs just fine. It's got more brutal crunch than any mortal would ever need to wield, and enough balls to make your guitar cut right through any mix. Higher gain settings will produce some hissing, but a noise gate and / or EQ easily fixes that problem. And besides, no one ever needs to crank the gain that high on this unit to get a good sound. If they do, they should probably consider upgrading to better pickups on their guitar. With my EMG 81-equipped guitar and my Dean passive pickup equipped V, this baby wails.

It also has a beautiful clean sound, very similar to the clean sound I used to get out of my old MESA/Boogie Mk III. The sound is warm and bright and just right.

The blues channel is also very nice. It will be the less-used channel for me needs, but it's always nice to have for when I jam out on some bluesy stuff. And the softer distortion tone is great for adding a little color to my recordings.

Not sure when it was made, but if was handmade in California just like all other MESA Engineering products. It is a wonderful tube preamp modelled after the preamp on a MESA Dual Rectifier, and it comes through it the sound. It's built like a tank (solid stainless steel chassis with aluminum diamond plate cover, and chromed steel knobs. Other than the input jacks and the tiny "Alternate Channel" toggle button, I can't find a piece of plastic anywhere on this sucker.

It features 2 channels (clean and distortion) and 3 modes (1 for the clean channe, and 2 for dirty - 1 blues, and 1 solo). All channels sound incredible, but Clean and Solo are easily my favorites.

You can connect it to your setups in various ways. Using the "To Guitar Amp" output, you can connect to the main input of a guitar amp and use it as a standard distortion pedal. With the "Power Amp Out" you can connect via either the power stage of your combo amp, through the FX Return, or into a dedicated power amp input or a standalone poweramp / cabinet setup. Using the "Mixer / Headphone" out, you can connect directly to the sound board. It actually excels in this department. This is by far the best-sounding DI device I have ever heard - far better than most other digital modelling systems out there.

The fact that you use the same EQ and gain settings for both channels can be a little limiting for someone using this in a live setting The V-Twin rackmount would probably be a better choice for that application. But for a studio environment, this isn't an issue. In the studio, this thing is the shizz.

The only thing I would change is to make full-time access to all 3 modes. You can only select 2 of the 3 modes via the footswitch without changing the channel select button to access the third mode. Otherwise, this product is near perfect.

I just got this unit, so I can't really comment on durability, but it is built like a small tank, and could probably withstand the blast of an anti-personnel mine and still work flawlessly afterwards.

MESA products are built to last for years of use on the road. They will take all the use and abuse you can dish out to them, and still perform like new. I would never expect any MESA product to not perform to those high standards of durability and reliability.

Never had to use their customer service.

I've been playing for 17 years now, and I've play through many amps , preamps, and effects processors. This is by far the best sounding analog tube preamp I've ever jacked into. Short of getting a MESA / Boogie amp, this is about the best sound I have ever gotten out of my guitars.

My current setup included a custom ESP Explorer with EMG 81/85, Lado Earth 2003 Custom with EMG 81 / 81, and a Warmoth V with Dean passive pickups, running into a Peavey Bandit 112 Transtube. I run the V-Twin directly into the power section of my Bandit, bypassing its preamp section altogether and only using its amplifier and speaker.

It also sounds badass when used as a standard distortion pedal through my amp's clean channel, although the overall tone gets colored by the Peavey' preamp. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was looking for that MESA tone, not for a Peavey colored MESA tone. But that shouldn't stop anyone from using this as a distortion pedal. In that application, it can make even a shitty amp sound good.

Best little stomp box EVER!! If you are drooling over the sound of one of those MESA/Boogie rectos but don't want to sell your first-born into slavery in order to afford it, then this little baby is what you need.

Just like using the knobs on any amp, not really much to it. Definitely better suited for home and studio use than live performance, since the different channels lack separate eq and gain controls, but if you just want it for one overdrive channel it's perfect. Requires a fair amount of tweaking to get the best tones.

I originally bought this pedal back in 95 when I was still in high school and was still a 'tone idiot.' Now that I have almost an extra decade of live and recording experience, I know exactly what I'm looking for but rarely come close to it. I used to think this pedal was too muddy to ever be practical, but dug it out again recently to add some direct rhythm tracks to a home studio recording project. My current main setup is very simple, a les paul studio into a crate vc5212. I decided to give the v-twin another shot as a distortion pedal, b/c although the crate has an AMAZING clean channel the gain channel has too much mud/crackle for me to get the slightly distorted but singing (think the Edge from U2) sound I've been lusting after. After some time tweaking and experimenting, I used the blues channel to get one of the best verge-of-overdrive tones I've ever heard! Natural compression allows it to sing and scream when I really hit the strings, and strumming an open G chord gives you a taste of flawless classic Les Paul tone-very versatile. The solo channel, after some careful tweaking, came out sounding very clear but with that growling mesa aggressiveness at the same time. This is definitely a pedal for a seasoned guitarist, one who understands that real tone has more to do with your hands, backing off the gain (I leave it around 9 o'clock on both the blues and solo channels), and keeping in plenty of mids and treble. I suspect the extreme brightness and responsiveness of my crate's clean channel helps as well, and those who are disappointed with its performance as a stompbox should probably go straight to power amp or use an amp with a brighter and clearer clean channel. To my ears, the pedal's clean channel still doesn't beat hitting bypass, but it comes in handy when I want a little compression for playing clean blues or funk.

I may be the first person to not give it a 10, but only b/c my bypass switch recently stopped working. I suspect it'll be an easy fix, and to the pedal's credit I've had it for 9 years.

Never dealt with customer support.

I highly recommend this for the guitarist with experience and good ears. I'm very glad I hung on to it b/c when I first bought it I definitely didn't have the knowledge or ability to get the sounds I wanted out of it. Guitar and amp combination makes a very big difference. I would love a version that had independent volume, gain, and eq controls for each channel. I've achieved my dream tone with the blues channel- low gain with delay and the bridge pickup of my les paul gives me something halfway between The Edge from U2 and Daniel Kessler from Interpol, a flawless and beautiful retro rock tone. The only pedal I've ever used that has 'soul.'

Let me begin by saying that I am not a millionaire. I live in the UK where most Mesa equipment is highly exepensive. Therefore I havent owned any Mesa stuff before and so Im not familiar with the Mesa sound that so many have referred to. So, hopefully this review will be truely unbiased (no pun intended) and will appeal to those who share this position.

The V Twin is an all-tube driven preamp (Its not really a stomp box - more on this later) which uses 2 x 12AX7 (ECC83).
2 footswitches are mounted on the front panel.
Footswitch 1: BYPASS
Footswitch 2: MODE - There are 3 on-board sounds available (Clean, Blues and Solo). 2 of these are footswitchable between eachother.
Controls are shared for all 3 channels and are: GAIN, BASS, MIDDLE, TREBLE, PRESENSE, MASTER

On the rear of the unit there are a host of 1/4 jack connections for various set-ups (see the mesa/boogie website and download the manual for more info).

Simple and Effective.

There are 4 sounds available on this unit - BYPASS, CLEAN, BLUES, SOLO. The 1st footswitch is dedicated to the BYPASS function. The second footswitch can switch between either CLEAN and SOLO ...or... BLUES and SOLO modes (This is determined by a little black push-push switch between the MIDDLE and TREBLE controls). So although there is 4 sounds available - only 3 of these are footswitchable. Some have pointed out that you can't switch between CLEAN and BLUES. Well, on my unit there is a plate on the bottom of the unit secured with 2 screws. Take this off and you'll find a small pot and a small slide switch. The pot can balance between clean and solo volumes, and the switch REVERSES the BLUES and SOLO modes. If these 2 modes are reversed then you can switch between either CLEAN and BLUES ...or... BLUES or SOLO. So you can have the best of both worlds.

I prefer to use this unit as recommended in the manual. I set my amp (a simple laney 2-channel all tube combo) to a sparkly clean sound and use the VTWIN as my preamp, switching between BLUES and SOLO modes. If I want a clean sound I simply hit BYPASS.

This unit is the best all-tube preamp Ive ever heard.

Through the amp.... this thing is amazing. It can generate nice sparky but warm clean tones (CLEAN), crunchy rhythm tones (BLUES mode) as well as souring lead sounds (SOLO mode). Ive only had the unit a day and have alreay dialled in sounds that genuinely replicate those of Vox, Marshall, Laney... and I assume Mesa/Boogie (even though Ive never heard this tone!!). The presence control is extremely useful and the range is perfect. You can go from a Brian May honk to an Eddie Van Halen brown sound in the twist of a dial.

The TWIN beats my amp's preamp hands-down. I cant explain why but it seems that the VTWIN has more punch and dynamics. Whats really pleasing is that the VTWIN produces a note definition that cuts through. On my amp drive channel, playing around the 10 - 22 fret area sounded a little weak when picking indivudual notes or bending. Using the VTWIN each note has so much more power behind it. The compression is also amazing - its so controlled. When you need to pick notes the sound is driven but clear, when you need to growl the unit responds.

Though the mixer/headphones... the VTWIN has the ability to be use through headphones or to be plugged directly into the mixing desk. Im not as impressed with the unit in this respect. I dont think anything can beat a amp being miked up. The headphone function is a useful for practising, but I find it a bit fuzzy here. My headphones arent the best but they certainly aint the worst. However, its a useful addition if you live in a flat and need to be aware of neighbours, partners or room-mates.

A bit about noise... some reveiwers have complained about noise when using the VTWIN. When I first unpacked my unit and plugged in, I was also concerned about noise. The BLUES/SOLO channels produced quite a lot of hum. HOWEVER, I had set the unit on my table so that I could fiddle with it easily. The noise was due to MY GUITAR BEING TO CLOSE TO THE UNIT. As soon as I put the unit on the floor, the noise went away TOTALLY. I can confirm that this unit produces no additional hum to the already produced by my amp.

Ive tried the unit with other 12AX7's tubes and find the original Mesa/Boogie to be the best.

Its a solid quality build - Im very impressed. I cant imagine that it could every get damaged from dropping it. However, only had it for days so cant really comment.

I live in the UK so customer service with Mesa US might be a problem. I need to contact them as the guy who owned this before me removed the rubber feet and screws so he could attach it to his board using velcro. Im going to ask Mesa to send me some - will update on this at a later date.

Havent given a rating as had no experience of customer services as yet.

There have been a few bad reviews about the VTWIN that Ive read on HC. I can only conclude that people are either expecting too much from this unit or that they're not using it porperly. Its not a stomp box - its a preamp. Ideally its to be used with a good tube power amp, but in most cases a good clean tube combo (set to a clean sound) will set this thing off nicely. Anything less than that and you'll probably get mush. Use a #100 budget guitar and you'll get mush. I think the other assumption that too many players are making is the good gear will automatically make you a good player. In part I agree, but if you cant play something WITHOUT the VTWIN, dont expect to be able to play it WITH the VTWIN. A good cascading distortion sound certainly gives you the confidence to play as it can cover some errors, but it doesnt make it any easier to play riffs that you might be having trouble with. Only practice can see to that.

The VTWIN is no one-trick pony. Its a quality tube preamp that is built for quality tone - it delivers without fail.

In terms of price, I think I may have paid a little too much for this at #370 GBP or $680 US. But Im sooo impressed with the VTWIN - its worth the money.

Lo uso en muchsa configuraciones diferente...principalmente lo compre porque estaba cansado de sonar de diferentes maneras por culpa de usar diferentes amplis...con esto lo solucionas...lo mas importante es que llevas el sonido y el caracter de las valvulas en una cajita de reducidas dimensiones y poco peso..

Solo tiene un fallo...el volumen del canal saturado es un poquitin mas fuerte que el del limpio...aunque lo he solucionado cambiando la valvula del canal limpio por una 12at7...un poco de menos ca?a pero la he aumentado en el leveler interno que trae sigue limpio sin saturar.

Los sonidos son dulces y calidos...nada que ver con esas chorradas de simuladores faltos de aire...hazme scaso...te digan lo que te digan...esos simuladores no respiran...los he probado conectandolos a una mesa...el POD desaparece...es esa sensacion de meterle ca?a al POD y se locome el previo...sin aire..
Aprovecho para sacar a relucir la calidad del sonido de conexion a una mesa o PA directamente....te aseguro que si tienes un buen ingeniero de monitores...no necesitas ampli...

Tres canales en dos...osea...uno limpio y otro saturado..el limpio tiene un selector a un stado intermedio de saturacion...algo mas Bluesy..

Pienso que es lo suficientemente versatil para muchas cosas sin salirse por los extremos...tiene varias salidas...con lo que podras usarlo como pedal de distorsion...o como previo..para un power amp o para conectarlo a la mesa directamente..

Viene con dos valvulas en su interior...INTERCAMBIABLES!!...eso es algo positivo pues puedes cambiar el caracter del pre en un segundo...viene equipado con dos valvulas 12ax7..

La verdad es que dependo de el y despues de haberlo encontrado paso de simuladores virtuales de amplis..

Se me estropeo una vez pero fue por culpa de un Backliner incompetente..es duro y resistente...encastrado en todo ese metal

La verdad que en lo que se refiere al servicio tecnico cuando me lo arreglaron no lo hicieron bien del todo y creo que son caros...no niego que sean pe?a competente...pero con un poco de morro..no se puede cobrar por un transformador taiwandes que no es el suyo mas de 60 euros

Creo que si estais en situaciones en las que necesiteis versatilidad en poco espacio y de manera rapida..es vuestro aparatito.
Desde que lo compre lo han ido viendo diferentes amigos...y por ahora nadie ha podido resistirse a la tentacion..ahora casi toda la pe?a a la que conozco tiene uno..jejeje..

Es llevar un tiesto Mesa/Boogie por el morro en poco espacio con un caracter increible...se acabo pasar fatiga intentando encontrar un buen sonido en un ampli de transistores....o si no hay ampli!!!

En serio es un buen tiesto...te soluciona la papeleta de sonar bien

Bout the easiest best sounding preamp ever
Plug in turn it on and shred

I have owned everything imaginable and this cant be beat-
Sound samples @ http://www.tykaufman.com
Everything on that site was recorded using the Vtwin
I also use it live with a 50/50 and 60/60 tube power amps and 4 half stacks

Well its been like 100+ gigs and still rockin
no problems except tubes so far

have never had to call them

http://www.tykaufman.com that should say it all.
this thing is inspiring-

Piece of cake but sometimes hard to get it to work nicely with guitar amps.

That's a very difficult question. To this day I've never liked the solo sound by itself... there's just something missing.

What I really do like is the blues sound and the clean sound. I thought I was going to sell this thing when I bought a 5150 combo but now I can't bear to play without using the Vtwin on the CLEAN channel before the amp. It just gives it a massively fat shape with much more body than straight into the amp. It also adds a very nice amount of natural compression. I couldn't sell it and consider it awesome - but I'm not really using the way it is intended so I'm giving it a lower score.

Bomb proof. No problems.

I never could get a solo sound that I really liked, although I did do some recording with it where the sound fit the mix really well. It's not something that I could plug into, hit solo and revel in the result.

What it is AWESOME for is as a suppliment to my 5150 combo. The clean channel of this pedal creates a beautiful warm and full bodied sound and that makes it a valuable inclusion in my foot pedal setup. Having used it like this for a while, playing without makes my sound very thin in comparison. It's also pretty useful as a feed for a tuner as it has so many outputs. That keeps the tuner out of the signal path.

If I was to give it a rating for the distortion sound I'd give it a 4. As an over all tool I can't do with out it... 8

Apart from the pots turning the opposite way to what you would expect it is great. You don't exactly need a manual to get this to work!

I've had this for a month, used it primarily straight into a desk, but then used it live for the first time last saturday. Into the desk I wasn't too impressed, my line6 pod could emulate pretty much the same sound, but then again the line6 is made for that sort of thing. This pedal is made for live usage:

With the band I run a PRS Santana SE -> Morley wah -> boss CS-3 -> line6 MM4 -> V-TWIN -> Boss DD-3 -> EH Holy Grail -> Laney VC30-210.

Prior to getting the V-Twin I was using the drive channel on the amp. My amp has a great clean channel but the drive is weak, hence buying this pedal. Using the blues channel with the gain set at 1/4, bass at 3/4, whilst mid and hi's up full, gave a nice growl of a rhythm sound. Then you tread on the boost and my God.... even our drummer took notice! Alright the volume boost may be a bit too much however talk about cutting through the mix! The first time I played a solo I felt like Brian May on top of Buckingham palace... with subsequent solos I controlled the sound a bit better with the guitars volume.

Alright it's a bit noisy, sometimes a tad uncontrollable and possibly not first choice for recording, but as a overdrive pedal infront of an amp I don't think it has an equal!

I wouldn't want anyone to throw it at me - the medical bill would cost far more than fixing this unit!

I bought it second hand on ebay and then downloaded the manual from Mesa's site - not that I really needed it!

I would like to be a blues guitarist but always end up having a slightly heavier rock influence on anything I play. As such this unit seems to be ideal although it does seem to have far more ability in the "heavier" end of the rock spectrum. I have been playing for 15 years and do so for fun. This pedal makes playing fun.

I am sure a marshall/boogie etc. stack would sound better than my current rig however I don't have the car-space or the strength to lug all that about. This unit gives me a good sound for its price/weight and hence I don't think I can knock it.