Mesa/Boogie DC-10 Head

1998 DC-10 head

2 Channels plus a pull crunch on rhythm channel. Footswitchable channels and EQ. Parallel FX loop, silent recording out, slave out, graphic EQ. 100/60 watts (switchable from front panel), 4 6L6 power tubes, 5 12ax7 preamp tubes

Variety of tones from clean to mean. Covers it all with the help of a Barber Direct Drive. Using a Les Paul standard with BB Pros and a vintage 30 loaded Marshall 1960A cabinet. Very quiet amp even with the gain dimed! Does everything I need it to do!

No problems so far

N/A

Great amp and the best I've owned. I would very much like a Mesa Mark IV but this amp is great for what I need.

1998 Model Year- last production year!
2 channel, all tube (4 6L6s & 6 12AX7s) 100w head with graphic eq, tube FX loop/reverb, and footswitch.

My band, Adam's Attic, plays all original material and is classified as a "Pop Rock" band. But honestly, the guitar tones we use sound like Switchfoot/Nickelback/Anberlin/The Used...So we consider ouselves Modern Rock, FWIW.

This amp more than covers these tones and is lacking nothing in terms of features- hence the rating.

Right now, I've got a Les Paul running through the input, but in time, I will have a Carvin CT-6, as well. The DC-10 is sitting on top of a Marshall 1960A cab that was purchased with a now obsolete TSL-100 :o). I really like the tone of the LP through these amps, but the weight of the guitar coupled with it's bulky form, make it uncomfortable to play, IMHO. I much prefer guitars with softer edges and contours.

That said, lets' get something straight for the bedroom rockers here:

This amp is a monster and it will sterilize you if you set it up according to the sample within the user manual; Mesa suggests the master and channel volumes should be set on 3-4 so you may "sample" the tones within the amp, but honestly, if you are just some dude that wanted to have a halfstack in his bedroom, then you will find yourself frantically groping for the master volume when you hit that D powerchord!

Seriously, if you want to enjoy an amp such as this in that setting, then don't plan on raising the volumes above 1.5. At this level, you will not hear what this amp is capable of and will likely be disappointed.

Now, onto the review for those able to play and enjoy these amps at stage volume!

At 2.5 + on the volumes- Here is where it's at. This is the sound- the staple of modern rock- that I have been looking for since I was a kid. The essence of bands such as Linkin Park, Nickelback, The Used, Anberlin, and etc. are all within this amp. While it doesn't cop any one of these tones spot-on, you can easily discern the lineage of this amp in this highly saturated, tight, clear, and fat distortion!

Through a Marshall 1960a, the tone will be less mid-heavy and brighter, with satisfying *chunk* accompanying palm mutes. There is this inherent sound- this breathiness in the low end that accompanies muted chords that hits you right in the gut! And this is the sound that many have come to associate with Mesa/Boogie.

Again, this is with a 1960A with the 75w Celestions. Honestly, I'd like to hear this head on top of a Genz Benz 4x12 with the tuned ports. I bet that thing would move some serious air.

On the clean side, I've yet to hear a high gain head that can out sparkle this amp. Even matched up against a Fender, this amp can hold it's own. I know because I've cloned and played through enough blackfaces and tweeds. I can pull of spanky clean chrds to smoky jazz runs with no problem. Through the Recto cab with it's V30s, this is subject to change.

In short, this amp sounds awesome for my needs.

She's been great so far. I've had the chassis out once to look over the internals and am very inpressed with the quality and ingenuity used when designing and constructing this amp.

I had a new preamp tube fail and they sent me one out stat with no questions asked.

I've been playing since 1988. Wow...

I've been through Marshalls, Peaveys, Fenders, Crates and etc... in my quest for the tone that shakes my soul and stirs up my creative side. This amp inspires me. And that's what any musical instrument should do for you. If you aren't inspired by your tone and you've tweaked until you are sick of it, then move on and continue searching.

I'm not sure when this amp was made I'm guessing the 90's judging by the appearance and other reviews. This a dual channel amplifier with added gain by pulling the switch out on the rhythm channel. This feature gives this amp amazing versatility. Along with controls that offer a wide range when you turn the knobs from 0 to 10. Each channel has its own gain, treble, mid, bass, presence, reverb, and volume. On the back it has a record out with a mute switch, nice feature, and the standard effects send and return with a level control. A five band EQ that is assignable by a switch on the back to either the lead channel, rhythm channel, or both. Channels are footswitchable as well as the reverb. The only down side to this amp is that the EQ is only assignable, if I had my choice I would have it footswitchable like the studio preamps. But this is minor, and I'm looking into a modification to make it footswitchable. Other than that this thing offers more tube power than one could imagine, and a switch to run 60 watt or 100 watt with 2-4ohm , 2-8ohms, 1-16ohm outputs, and a slave with volume control very convenient. I have yet to turn any one the volumeknobs over 3. Although I mostly playing in more confined spaces at the moment, basements, and very small jam rooms. I try to play all styles of music from punk ska, reggae, blues, metal, hardcore, grunge, etc. I have yet to find a sound I could not acheive with this amp and a couple of pedals.

I am currently using a epiphone les pual standard ebony, working on the gibson les paul custom. What can you say about the sound of this amp, it has the most distinctive distortion, all mesa boogie. If you stand to close it will cut you in half. You can go from srv to coc in the drop of a hat. The clean channel offers that high gain knob, when at its highest levels, offers the sound of the lowest levels on the lead channel, leaving no distortion in between missed. But this is not all about the distortion. Some would say that mesa boogie is all about distortion. I also like the clean channel nice warm tones, and when overlapped with that incredible reverb, good sounds.

The negative part of this review, I have blown fuses also as someone else submitted they had blown fuses. I have blown 2 fuses in a months span. But I want to say that I use it quite a bit, 4 times a week two hours minimum. So as long as you have extra fuses your cool. I also want to add that at no time did this amp blow a fuse while playing only when the standby or on and off switch was used.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 4 years, but have been a music lover for ever. I play through a epiphone les paul as stated, electro harmonix chorus, rv-3 boss reverb and delay(now mostly used just for the delay), vintage jen wah, out to a vintage 280 watt carvin 4-12 w/ 70watt celestions. I have to say this is a realy nice amp. I knew I wanted mesa boogie when I got this and had been looking and doing my homework for months I originaly was leaning towards the studio preamps because of mesas high prices. But came across this one at a local shop and got a kick a$$ deal. The sound is what sells. I will never give this amp up unless someone wants to trade for a road king straight up. haha

Mesa/Boogie Dc-10 short head. This one was made the last year they made them. 1996-97? It had to be ordered from the factory. It has a lot of features that have already been described. It is an all-tube head. This was my final choice for a 100 watt head at the time, as I went through buying and returning many amps until I finally settled on the DC-10. I love the 60/100 watt switch, and the EQ, which gives an amazing metal sound. The variable jacks for speaker cabs are great, as I have choices of different ohm cabs to use. This is a very powerful amp and was my main amp for about the last 5 years in the bands that I have played in. If it had a solo boost switch for leads it would be great, but I can use a Fulltone Fat Boost for that.

I used this amp with a Strat Plus with Lace Sensor pickups, and a PRS Custom 22 with Dragon II pickups. It seems that this amp likes certain guitars more than others. I don't know why, but this amp loves Telecasters. I use a stock American Standard Tele, and a home made Tele with a Seymour Duncan L'il 59 in the bridge. Maybe because this amp has a "darker" characteristic sound than a Marshall, the treble cuts through better with these guitars. I play in a Classic Rock cover band, and the clean works great. The distortion can get over the top, and it took me a while to work with the settings to get a decent sound. The distortion channel with the EQ is downright brutal as in Heavy Metal brutal. The amp is very quiet as far as noise goes. This amp has a more mid heavy sound than I am used to. I used to use it with Marshall cabinets, but when I bought a Traditional Recto 4x12 cab, the amp sounded much better. I was in a band with a guy who had a Marshall DSL 100, and the DC-10 just domminated it in terms of volume and tone.

It's pretty reliable. It broke down once, because of my own fault. I hooked up the speakers wrong at rehersal and blew a fuse and fried a switch. The tech said I was lucky I didn't kill the output transformer. It has only needed power tubes a couple of times. I have gigged with it alot and it still looks brand new. The reverb return wire needed to be replaced, I did this myself, pretty simple. It pretty much always works.

These guys are great. Always helpful. I live in the bay area so the one time it needed repair, I took it up to Petaluma to the factory where they fixed it under warranty. I got a free tour. They are very helpful and knowledgeable.

Been playing 25 years, all kinds of gear. If I lost it, I would try to get something like it. It has that Mesa sound, so it's not a Marshall, it is kind of mid heavy, but versatile enough to get some great sounds out of it from clean to distorted. I went through buying a Tremoverb, a Marshall 4100, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe before choosing the DC-10. It was a good choice.

100 watts, switchable to 60 for more clipability on lower volumes, 2 totally independent channels w/reverb, effect loop w/mix amount knob, slave input for an external power amp, goes out on 4, 8 and 16 ohms, record out switch w/speaker mute button, 5 band graphic equalizer that can be assigned to both channels or lead only, which gives you plenty of room to transform your sound. I'd give it a 10 if it had 3 channels

I use a fender strat american standard w/a JB junior-bridge Duckbucker-mid little 59'-neck duncan configuration to a crybaby straigh to the head which goes out thru a Marshall 1936 2x12 cab, a G major thru the effect loop controlled by an FCB1010 behringer midi footswitch controller, hate the way this foot switch controls my G Major and I'm also selling the G major to return to the floor, but that's beside the point, the DC-10 sounds sparkly clean, I prefer to use the EQ on both channel, due to it gives body and fullness to clean as well as saturated sounds, been all tube, is very warm and responsive, it does have good sustain by itself, not enough for my taste, but that can be arrange w/a good stompbox. very versatile, from greasy blues w/the gain button pull off option on the clean channel, to sagave metal, after all, this head is been used by this guy from Slipknot, whoever he is. But dont be mistaken, this head will give you 80's as well as 90's sound, it's that flexible, the combination of a JB junior w/this head will almost instantly give uou the "Shred" sound, that it seek for. I also love the marshall sound but dont have the money to buy another head yet, Im thinking on buying something like the menatone KOB to add to the musical palette as well as a ts-9 to round up the whole thing. Almost forgot, It's sing yamaha tubes which I know are not good, but will maybe replace them w/tesla or groove tubes

I play in small clubs and pubs and the I normally tend to pretty much pamper my gear, but this thing is well built, and with the proper handeling it will last you long, it's pretty heavy, so I would think if you let it fall, of course more so having tubes, you can be in serious trouble,now there is one bothersome problem, and it's that the reverb is not working on it right now, of course it was second hand but so far, other than that it looks brand new, i'll give it a 5 for this problem

never have had to deal w/them

Boogies tend to be compared to that Santana sound, unless we're talking rectifiers which I all by themselves. this thing pretty much vovers everything in between these to favored settings, althought, to be honest, it goes more to the heavy side. I had the option of buying a jcm 100 watts head to head w/it and definetely went for the DC-10, main reason, versatility with out sacrificing the tone, if it gets stolen, trashed by an accident or lost by an airline, i'd buy it again baby!

This is 1990s a mesa-boogie dual caliber 100 watt tube amplifier, and is on of the most versatile amps on the planet. It has two channels, each with seperate gain-low-mid-treble-presence-reverb-master knobs, and a shared output knob, and a 5-bandgraphic eq that can be assigned to either channel. The clean channel has a pull pot on the gain to activate a boost aswell. It has a footswitch for both the channels and the eq, but not for the boost(thus the raing of a 9 and not a 10). As well as a silent output recording switch so you dont have to wake the neighbors. It also has an efects loop and is almost twice the power of my 100 watt marshall.

This amp is heavenly in the fact that it can sound like most anything(except a class a amp, or my marshall 2555 jubilee). I use a les paul, a carvin ae185, and a tele plus, and they all sound amazing through this amp. My style varies with my bands; one is an emo/punk style music and the other is different/influenced by tool, radiohead, refused, and the pixies, sounding like all of them at different times, but i also play in a jazzband and this amp accomidates all of them, but i kepp a vox and a marshall 2555 around for the unique sound they produce but only on recordings and rarely at shows. this amp can literally go from country(clean) to punk(distorted) to metalica(midsweep the graphic eq on distortion) without changing the settings. The clean channel can be distorted(i leave it just below that point on the gain knob and use the boost if i want it to distort. The gain channel is where this amp takes the cake, it sounds like both the old mesas(markI,II,III,IV) and the new ones(rectifiers).

this amp is a few years old and still looks like it did coming off the factory line. i doubt anything but tubes will ever have to be replaced.

never dealt with them

this amp will continue to be my main amp until its either stolen or i replace it with a newer version of the same amp, im trying to buy another so i can run in stereo. it is generally the best head for the price. i've had two marshalls, a 6100lm and my 2555(which has been modded like slashes to get that incredible lead tone-from appetite)i kept the 2555 just for lead and subtle distortion, although with the boost and a tube screamer i almost get the same sound. gotrod of the other on it was a peace. i keep a vox mainly for jazz but for some other stuff as well(it has just got beautiful tonality). best mesa boogie ive ever heard, unless sounding like every new metal band in the world is your thing, in that case get a rectifier. the effects loop is good but i run most of mine through the front.

Dual channel, 100-watt Beast of an Amplifier, w/ 5-band EQ. Footswitch and coverslip included. Nothing special, but then again you don't need that much. I do like the silent recording option, however.

I bought a MESA because I didn't want a Boogie. Thankfully, I got what I wanted: To me, a MESA is an all-out, balls-to-the-wall metal machine, while a Boogie is meant for stuff for actual musical substance. I bought this amp looking for a lower priced, better option than that awful Dual Rectifier. The clean is only okay, but then again, I bought it for metal, remember? This amp shines in that department, delivering the most brutal sounds you can think of. Sounded pretty decent with brand new, NOS American tubes (expensive though). I know that Jim (#4) from Slipknot says he uses this model, and I think that's the only thing this amp is suited for -- full on metal. If you're looking to play some serious music, rather than kicking screaming angry metal, look elsewhere (Matchless amps are nice, I play them all the time). 6 for a lack of flexibility.

After owning it a week and playing no more than 2 hours a day, the fuse blew. Fixed it, and now the fuse blows about once a month or so, which, last time I checked, isn't normal. Cheap and easy enough to fix (about 35 cents and a quick unscrew later and you're done), so no problem. But still, it shouldn't have to be like that. I am friends with numerous independent repairmen, who all say that it's just some weird "quirk" with the amp and that they can't find the problem. Oh well -- just don't turn off the standby when gigging, cuz the fuse will blow when you turn it on.

Have not dealt with MESA because I bought it used.

Like I said, I bought this because I wanted a metal amp that wasn't a dual rectifier. I essentially got that sound, but for less money -- great value in that sense. I have only been playing 6 years, but I have been privileged enough to play some very high-end equipment (Matchless amps, Tom Murphy '59 reissue LP's, '88 PRS Artist II). I also own a PRS Custom 22 and a '93 Les Paul w/ SD pickups, both of which responded well to this particular amp. To me, this amp is only good for metal, metal, and more metal (not that there's anything wrong with that!). If it were stolen, I'd borrow an amp for a year or two before I could make enough cash for perhaps a Bogner Ecstacy. [Or, I'd just steal it back]

**Bottom Line: if metal's your thing, buy this. If not, stay away -- let us "angry" teenagers take care of it!**