Mesa/Boogie Express 5:50 1x12 Combo

This is a follow up review to the one I submitted last month

What kind of sounds?
Horrible vibrating ones to be honest.

If you look at my previous review you will see I was up to amp no.4 in 5 days. Quite an achievment!!
I have now taken this last amp back and got a refund but not before Mesa UK had a go at fixing it.
I started to get that annoying vibration from this amp and decided to contact Mesa UK direct.
I also explained that one of the 12AX7 valves did not glow at all.
I was very quickly sent new replacements but this still did not solve the problems so I sent it away for repair.
The amp came back very quickly and I was told that the valves had all been replaced and that everything had been "tightened up".
Unfortunately, the power valves were left loose in their sockets. The retaining clips were bent so far back they did not grip the valves at all, leaving them to vibrate like mad.
Also, not only did the original 12AX7 valve STILL not glow but the one next to it didn't either!!!
At this point I gave up.
Yes my score is low but ask yourselves this. What score would you give if you had all the hassle I did?

Mesa UK were very courteous and turned the amp round very quickly but the problems had not been solved.
I would have preferred to wait a bit longer and have it sorted out properly.
The shop were 1st class and I have no complaints there

I gave a generous 8 before this latest failure.
Not quite so generous now.

I've been playing guitar for 27 years, I now play and teach professionally. I don't play metal type stuff. Mostly Americana, rock, yer basic rootsy sounds. I was planning to buy a Lone Star Special until I came upon this amp. At $500 less, it seemed like a great idea, especially when you consider the fact that it's 50 watts max, not 30.

This amp I think goes a little further in terms of extreme gain/drive sounds than the Lone Star. So you can grab some more extreme overdrive sounds, similar to the single recitfier, etc. I like it this amp. It sounds great, the variety of tones you can get are astonishing. And it's relatively affordable, for a boogie.

I like it, but I'm most likely going to return it for a Lone Star Special.

Why??

Reason # 1: No Casters. There are no wheels on this puppy and it's over 50 lbs. Huh?

Reason # 2: The included footswitch is connected not by a standard guitar cable, like most boogie switches, but by a MIDI type cable. Again, huh?

This is not ideal, but would be acceptable if you could replace it with any standard MIDI cable. But you can't! The dang cable is hard wired into the amp. If this cable were to be damaged on a gig, you'd be looking at a heap of trouble. I was really surprised by this design, and I don't understand why they chose to implement the footswitch in this way. Nobody mentions this in the reviews I've seen, so I wanted it up here.

To be fair, you can buy external footswitches, as there are other jacks on the back to use with standard latching footswitches.

Reason # 3: Unlike The Express doesn't allow you to set each channel up at a different wattage configuration. IE, one at 5 watts, the other at 50. I admit, at those extremes, this is probably not very useful. However, I'm interested in possibly using the Lone Star in that fashion. (Clean channel 30 watts. Lead 15 or, even 5 watts.)

This is a great amp. I'm leaning towards the Lone Star Special, and I thought that readers here would appreciate more of a discussion of this amp's features and how they differ from the others in the boogie line

I'm giving it a 6 because of the hard wired midi cable for the footswitch. I really don't understand why they hardwired used this type of cable. But I am especially disappointed that the cable is hard wired to the amp. That seems very un-Boogie to me.

The jury's still out here.

Made in 2007. This amp is the most versatile amp I have ever played through. I play blues, rock, country, jazz, and more. I won't repeat the specs here as they can be found on the mesa site. Plenty loud enough to do any club you will ever play. If you need more, hook up a cabinet or mic it up.

The sound is perfect for me. I love the clean channel. It has a very rich quality to it. Not quite fender or vox, but rather a mix of the two with some originality to it. It stays clean and gets very loud. The speaker handles the bass just fine at higher volumes. The dirty channel is why I bought this amp. For years, I have played clean fender amps and relied on pedals for my dirty sounds, but they are no match for the sound this amp produces. I play strats, teles, and gibson guitars. It is pretty quiet and definitely not as noisy as some of the fender combos.

Haven't had it long enough, but Mesa seems to stand behind their product and I know a lot of people that have been using Mesa brand amps for years with no problems.

Never had a reason to contact them.

I have been playing for over 10 years and I have owned a lot of gear over the years. It took nearly $10,000 worth of buying and selling amps to settle with this one. I just wish it came out sooner. If it was stolen, I would get another immediately. I tried Orange, Dr.Z, Bad Cat, Bogner, Fender, Budda, Peavey, and many more before settling on this amp. Don't waste your hard earned money on anything other than a Mesa. I am now a happy customer for life.

Is any instrument or piece of equipment really worth straight 10s across the board?
I don't believe it is because that indicates absolute perfection.
I think this amp is great but it doesn't get full marks because it has only 2 channels yet 4 different modes. I personally prefer the Clean and Crunch settings but they are on the same channel so you have to change the settings manually each time. Not great and certainly not if halfway through a song! Take your blinkers off guys. You must know this when writing your reviews so why give perfect 10s?

This is a great sounding amp but please see my comments below.
This is my first Mesa amp and the distorted sounds can get a bit muddy for my liking particularly with my Les paul but maybe that is how they are supposed to sound.
I do like the Clean channel and you can get a great sound with a Strat or Les Paul. Nice reverb and the contour certainly adds to the overall sound. Not keen on the Blues setting but then I'm not very good at playing that style of music (not Mesa's fault).

I have not come on here to slag Mesa off but to merely share my true experiences with you.
I am now on my 4th amp in 5 days and I have been away on holiday for 3 of those!
This is the absolute truth. I got the first one on the Weds morning but when I got it home, there was a really noticeable vibration from somewhere in the amp that was particularly bad with certain notes / chords.
I rang the shop and they said to bring it back which I did straightaway. To be fair, it wasn't as bad in the shop but it was there. They gave me a brand new model which worked fine in the shop. I took it home (luckily I only live 3 miles away) and plugged it in.
It sounded as if it was on about 1/4 watt. It didn't matter which channel you put it on or how loud you had it, it was so quiet. Then suddenly, WHAM, it went onto full volume!
It frightened the life out of me, the kids and the dog who wouldn't come out from under the table for an hour.
It then went quiet again. I rang the shop and they couldn't believe it. I almost felt as if they thought I was making it up.
They said they would check with Mesa and get back to me.
In the meantime, I had a fiddle with it and pulled the speaker jack out a bit and it suddenly started to work. I pushed it in and it stopped working. I then pulled the jack out again and it wouldn't work at all!
Two hours later, I received an e-mail from the shop who said that apparently Mesa UK had had a couple of faulty amps which they traced to the input jack socket (not the speaker jack or socket).
I was told to wait a few days for a new batch to come in then to bring it back for another replacement.
I went on holiday and got back last night and just thought I would try it. Guess what? It worked!
But not for long. It stopped again after 20 minutes.
I went back to the shop this morning to pick up my 3rd amp. I was told this was brand new, had been checked, was perfect and had been resealed.
I took this home and opened the box. I never even plugged it in. It had no cover, no brochure, no footswitch, no final inspection list and a piece of foam sticking out between the front cover and the control panel as well as some marks on the top of it.
I went back again and didn't receive much of an explanation. I certainly wasn't going to be given someone else's cast off so got my 4th amp!
So far this seems OK but the date on the box means it is one of the older batch so this might also turn out to have a dodgy input jack (or whatever Mesa think is the problem).
Time will tell.

I should be really hacked off but I am a realist.
Things can develop faults especially when they are shipped a long way.
I was fortunate that the shop kept replacing mine although one might have been an old model, I don't know.
If I had lived a long way away, this would have been a nightmare to say the least.
Mesa apparently give a 5 year warranty in the US but only 1 year here.
Why?
We pay virtually double what you do in the US so should at least get the same treatment.
If you're going to send a dodgy batch, at least make sure they go to the Germans or better still the French (only joking!!!).

As an amp, I think it is worth a 9. All the hassle I have had has understandably affected my views but I am still going to give a generous 8.

Mesa Boogie Express 5:50 1x12 Combo, purchased new May 2007 - it arrived from the US, it was unpacked, played briefly and then loaded into the car and taken to rehearsal, so so its fair to say this unit has gone straight in at the deep end!

I'm not normally an early adopter of new products, but this amp made its case very well and judging by what I've read and my own subsequent experience, this could be one of the best and cleverest things the guys in Petaluma have come up with for some years.

Essentially, what you have is an amp with a plethora of features which will actually get used (not loads of fancy ones that won't), but with a much simpler front-end control layout, which means the two channel/four mode format can be easily accessed - sound can be dialed in a matter of moments (presumably the reason for calling it 'Express') and voila, you're ready to play.......I have a gorgeous Mark 3 which sounds absolutely wonderful, but setting it up and dailing in can sometimes be a little time consuming and though I always get there in the end, with the Express, a few quick setting and you're ready. Its got the right balance - not too many controls but enough to satisfy most tweakers.

What is really striking is how well everything seems to work and that Boogie have done their homework and obviously put alot of thought into this amp. The player is firmly in mind, in the same way a BMW M3 is designed squarely around the driver.

Build quality is up there with all other Boogies and in particular, the controls have a real solid 'engineered' quality about them - when you set them they stay put - they'll be no slippage of settings on this amp.

I can see this amp appealing to the working pro every bit as much as any other product of Mesa Boogie. It also looks great.

Sound quality is nothing short of astonishing - when you play this in front of others, watch the reaction....as I said previously, my 5:50 went to a band rehearsal, literally, straight out of the box, with justr a quick play test before setting out, so my experience was minimal - my band mates were all blown away by it, they loved the super-Fender clarity and the lead tone, which does everything from sweet clipped overdrive to all-out Rectifier saturation.....but all the time, touch sensitive and musical. Take it from me, folks, it really is that good.

Power it down to Class A/single-ended mode and a whole new range of possibilities opens up. I've only just started with this amp and haven't even begun to really get into it and of course, it needs to run in properly and the cone needs to loosen up a bit, so as you can imagine, I'm looking forward to getting to know it even better and hearing what elese it can do.

I play jazz with a funk and/or blues flavour (Carlton's my hero), so need everything from a crystal-clear tone to a nice singing lead tone and this covers all the bases. It gets used alongside a punchy Mark 3 combo & cab and guitar wise, I use a Gibson Les Paul Standard, PRS Custom 22 Artist and a Fender US Delux Stratocaster - the Express seems to have made friends with all three. This is important, as the Les Paul has been fitted with high output Seymour Duncan pickups, whilst the PRS and Fender retain their original equipment - all three guitars have widely differing sonic characteristics, but all work very well with the amp.

For those outside the UK, we have a well respected magazine called 'Guitarist' which gave the 5:50 version a 'Gold Award' (which is reserved only for the absolute best kit and is not given out often), describing it as 'impossible to fault...' Enough said.

Really does deserve a 10.

Well, its early days, but having never had any breakdowns with my other Boogies, there is no reason to suppose this one will be any different. Again, it went straight out of the box to a gruelling 4 hour rehearsal and for it not to so much as skip a beat has got to be promising, so its a ten.

As though the best sound/build/looks is not enough, this area is another in which Boogie put others to shame. OK, never had reason to seek their help on break-downs, but I contact them reasonably regularly with questions on my amps and new products, etc and they are so happy to help. They are friendly, helpful and seem genuinely pleased that you have chosen their products, nothing is too much trouble, just like PRS, in fact. They are rightly proud of their heritage. HC's 'Incredibly Kind & Helpul' description is spot on.

A great hybrid amp. I think this is one of their better products in recent years, they seem to have brought something of all their amps into this package - the clean sound is unmistakenly like a Lone Star (exact same bits apparently), the lead tone very Mark 1, the crunch tone very Rec-like and so on....

Whilst no Boogie is cheap. I believe they represent excellent value for money. With Boogies, you pay for superlative sound and build quality as standard and the more features you want, the more the amp costs. Thats the only difference - there are no compromises on sound quality, nor corners are cut and no cheap parts are used. In fact, one of my band mates was surprised at how cheap it was!

And no, before anyone suspects, I am not on a commission, nor do I work for Boogie, though would love to - are you reading this, Randall?

Essentially two channels, quickly switched to give four "styles" i.e. CLEAN, CRUNCH, BLUES and BURN?. Again, each with reverb and dip-V eq contour. Plus two kinds of outputs giving either 5 watts or 50 watts.

Basically delivering sets of tone, full fat or skinny latte and all stops in between. Very versatile amp. I liked the F50 but I reckon this is the next step.

I'm using a Les Paul Deluxe and a Strat. Of course each guitar sounds different through the amp and this amp plus those two guitars just increase the tonal versatility. Not noisy at all and way less noisy at crazy gain settings than any other I've tried. Lovely feedback and sustain from the amp. All musically controllable.

I haven't tried any 7 string detuned stuff so I can't comment but I heard Stevie Ray to Sex Pistols tones as well as Thin Lizzy, Ramones and Kiss tones too. Ptobably Mettalica and Megadeath but I didn't try to get the more extreme tones. Lot's of Satch and Vai sweetness too.

Not had it long enough to comment on reliability.

Never dealt with customer support. The language in the manual seems a bit over the top but you can hear the pride of the company in the amps sounds.

I've been playing nearly thirty years and have never been a tone snob but this amp makes me play better because lots of different things I'd never usually try sound so much better. I think it's a genuinely inspiring and musical amp that helps with writing riffs, songs and even if only noodling, the noodles are tastier.

Not great financial value since we in the UK essentially pay twice for the US folk pay.

No need to write them all down again

ALL GOOD!!

First off, I have been using the Single Recto for the past 4 years and although its a great Amp and has many great sounds there has always been one problem that the EQ cant get rid of.

ICE PICK LEADS.

Yes. Thats right, the Single rec has a plague that the higher wattage recs dont have. If you play instrumentals with it, you will notice you're bends have a tiny ice pick squeel at the top of them which ruins high gain leads.

I am pleased to say the Express does not have this problem at all. Bend the strings of this baby and it rips you a new arsehole.

This is an Amp for Guitarists that like to play real good quality lead guitar. I am using a Les Paul Classic and it screams sustain and harmonics. Easily the best sound i have ever heard. I can go through Satch, Vai, Gary Moore. It all sounds awesome.

For rhythm, the distortion is not as clean cut as the recto but just as punchy and powerfull. Its more like what you would expect to hear if Marshall and Mesa had sex together. Think of the Justin Hawkins tone but twice as punchy with better harmonics.

As for the clean. I used my PGM 301 and its as good as everyone hear says. Really really good

Have not had it long but the Recto has never gone wrong in 4 years so i give them 10

AWESOME!!!!!

This is a NEW guitar sound.

This Amps distortion will become the cornerstone of a new style. Just like the Recto invented modern metal and nu-metal, this Amp will probably invent nu-rock of something......lol

Welcome to the future

2007

It's new but Mesa Engineering has always been reliable.

Had a microphonic tube in V1. Called customer support and they sent two new tubes immediately.

Been playing almost 40 years and I've been thru alot of gear. I love this little amp. It does it all!

New for 2007, the Mesa Engineering Express line replaces the F series.
Extremely versatile, 2 channels, 2 modes per channel (Clean/Crunch-Blues/Burn), included footswitch for switching channels, turning tube-driven reverb on/off, and turning contour (boost/eq) on/off.
5 12ax7 preamp tubes, 2 6L6 power tubes, effects loop, and the incredibly nifty ability to switch between 50 watts class A/B and 5 watts class A (single ended).
Used in my livingroom, so the 5 watt setting is ample, at 50 watts an obscene amount of power is on tap.

I'm playing with 2 Teles, an Artcore with Seymour Duncans, and a Schecter with EMG's. Short of a Mesa Roadking/Roadster or the Lonestar it's about as versatile a tube amp as I've come across.
The clean and reverb appear to be lifted from the Lonestar series, and they are absolutely top-notch.
Fantastic blues overdrive and classic rock sounds, and plenty of gain for Metallica-style metal (to my ears).
Some have complained that it doesn't have as much "Rectoish" gain on tap as the F50 it replaced, and that may very well be the case.
However, there is gobs of gain available, and the clean and reverb easily trump the F50 and every other competing amp in this price range.
Convincing jazz, blues, pop, rock, country, and metal tones are all available.
Gets noisier under higher gain, but so does every other tube amp, and less so than the F30's and F50's I've played.
I've been impressed with nearly every Mesa amp I've played through, but this was the first I absolutely had to have.

A lot of white noise was present when I first got the amp home, regardless of the level of gain or master volume. Called Mesa customer service and they quickly helped me trace it to a power tube. Local Mesa dealer (where I purchased the amp) gave me a new set of Mesa 6L6 power tubes, no questions asked.

Been playing at a very amateur level for about 2 years, and I sold off 2 amps I really liked (Flextone III and Fender HRDx) when I found the Mesa 5:50.
If it were stolen or lost I'd make an insurance claim and replace it, only other amp with a similar place in my heart is the Lonestar Special, and I'm not sure it's worth the extra $500.
Suppose it'd be nice if it had the headphone jack like the F Series, but I have a Vox DA5 that is an outstanding headphone amp.
Compared it to a number of ther Mesa products, the Fender Supersonic, and the new Vox AC50 head with matching 2x12 cab. The Vox was tempting, but doesn't have near the versatility or quality of the Express, and costs more money (despite being made in China). The Supersonic is a nice amp but the Express series trumps it in every area.
I've owned a lot more amps than I've needed to in the last 2 years, and I can't recommend the Express 5:50 enough.
Expensive but worth every penny.