Voodoo Amps Mesa/Boogie Heartbreaker Combo Mod

This is a 2001 model I bought at guitar center on clearance. Got it for 999. This thing has features galore. Two channels five modes, many tone and voicing controls. 100/60 watt switch, rectifier choice, it has it all, almost too much. Had it modded about two months ago.

I could never really get a real good sound out of the thing before, I could get okay clean tones, but not great. The stock clean is not very open sounding. As for the high gain sounds, all of them were buzzy and dark sounding. I changed to NOS tubes and it helped a little, but not enough. It was so hard to set up, too many adjustments. I read about voodoo amps and decided to give it a shot. I talked to Trace and we decided to make the love channel the clean side and lust channel dirty. We decided to mod it to sound like Mesa advertises, which is fender clean and marshall dirty on one channel and mesa dirty on the other.

Trace suggested I turn the volume all the way up and use the gain control for volume on the clean side. I followed his advice and all I can say is wow. This is one of the most chimey, open sounds I have ever heard. This thing has a ton of headroom and just shimmers on the clean side. I play G&l commanche and legacy and a Heritage 535 on it and they all sound wonderful.

AS good as the clean channel sounds the dirty one is even better. No more fuzz, no more buzz, no more super dark sound. Just tight, fat crunch. The amp has more gain now if you want it or you can lower the gain and get good classic rock sounds. I love this channel. I also own a reverend hellhound and a 71 Fender deluxe reverb and this one beats them both by a large margin. Mesa should set these up like this from the factory.

This is the one area of concern. When I got the amp back and was playing it after warned up the clean channel would start crackling and then drop down to about 1/10 volume. I changed out tubes, took out effects and narrowed it down to this channel. It would only do it when real warmed up. SO I called Trace and he arranged for UPS to come back and pick it up. The did not show on three days they said they would (not Trace's fault). I only sent the chassis to him and he ran it for several days and it would not act up, this is typical for me, nothing acts up for the repairman. Trace replaced a burnt out Plate resistor and said that might be it. He tried hard to get it to act up but it was not cooperative. So I went to the electronics store and bought a coule of ac fans, ones that look like they go in a computer case. I put them in the case to pull air through and after a week of playing I am happy to report that I have not had more problems, and it did it every time I played before so it looks like we got it whipped.

Trace has always been very friendly and cooperative. Once the amp got there the first time they completed it in a couple of days and sent it back. The only problem I have had is that when I sent it back I was told it would be no cost to me, but when they shipped it back they charged me, so this makes three shipping charges I paid which adds up to 250$. I know Trace tried real hard to work out the problems on it so I did not give him a hard time about it.

That being said Trace is one of nicest people I have dealt with, him and Robert Keeley could teach some of these companies some good customer relations!

Even with all the hassle and problems I have had with it, it was still worth it and I would recommend this to anyone who has this amp. I had a soso amp before, now I have an amp that sounds as good as some boutizue amps for less money. Trace could really show Mesa something!

You can look at the Heartbreaker reviews on Harmony Central or the Mesa website for a more detailed description of the features. I will use this section to describe the amp before the mod and explain why I wanted to have it modified.

The Heartbreaker was marketed by Mesa as an amp with two channels, with each capable of clean or distorted tones. Channel 1 (?Love?) is supposed to resemble a Fender, and is also supposed to get the Mesa Boogie Mark I sound. Channel 2 (?Lust?) is supposed to lean more towards Marshall sounds.

The amp in its stock form is capable of getting some decent sounds, but it doesn?t live up to Mesa?s marketing. I always found myself using Channel 1 for clean and Channel 2 to for distortion. My major complaints were that the lead tones in Channel 2 were dark and muddy, and that it really wasn?t capable of generating Marshall-like crunch chords. I found that if the preamp gain was higher than 12 or 1 o?clock, the distortion was raspy and rough instead of crunchy. And as I said, the driven lead tones were muddy. Neck pickups were excessively muddy, particularly in the lower frequencies. Bridge pickups were much better, but there was still a haze. I tended to use a moderate amount of amp gain (less than 12 o?clock) and added a TS-9 for more. Trace (Voodoo Amps) has an apt description of the distortion in most modern amps that seems to fit the stock Heartbreaker: it?s like a blanket that sits on top of the tone.

It took me a while to pull the trigger on sending the amp to Trace at Voodoo Amps for modification. It?s not something you can go into a store to try out. I read all the reviews and threads on Harmony Central, and I had numerous e-mail exchanges and conversations with Trace. You won?t meet a more knowledgeable, nicer, more helpful guy. So I went for it.

When I sent the amp (actually just the chassis) to Trace, my instructions were to get rid of the mud and buzz. I wanted clarity and girth in my overdriven lead tones, and crunch chords that sounded more like a Marshall. The songs I used as examples were:

Gary Moore: Oh Pretty Woman, Still Got the Blues
Warren Haynes: I?ll Be the One
Allman Brothers: One Way Out
Robben Ford: Talk to Your Daughter
AC DC or old Deep Purple as examples of crunch chords

Although I liked the clean sound of the stock Heartbreaker, Trace said he could also improve that.

I use three guitars: PRS McCarty, Carvin DC-127 and a stratocaster.

Channel ? 1

Trace installed his new Clean Circuit Modification in my amp. Apparently, mine was the first to get this new mod design. As much as I liked the clean sound before, this mod is a significant improvement. The cleans before were nice, but kind of sounded like they were coming from a little box. That?s the best description I can come up with. Now the cleans fill the room. Very open. Chimey, yet warm and round. I A/B?d the amp against a blackface Twin, and really preferred mine. I could nail the Twin sound with my Mesa if the presence and treble were dimed, but that setting is really too bright for my taste. Which is why I prefer the Mesa! With the highs set more moderately, the amp is really full, fat, warm, yet pleasingly chimey.

I haven?t played this channel with distortion yet. Trace called me to ask me if I used it for distortion. Because it is very bass heavy, which might be ok for some people, it would need more tweaking if I were to use it for distortion. I told him to leave it where it was, because I really will only use channel 2 for distortion. Also, I figure it will be a different sound than channel 2 when I do get around to trying out the distortion on it.

I have a hard time giving anything a 10, because like all guitar players, I always wonder if there?s something better. I?ve owned a JC-120 and it has an excellent clean sound; and I A/B?d this amp against a blackface Twin (the Holy Grail of clean sounds?). This amp just sounds better to my ears. So I will give this a 10 without reservation.

Channel 2

This is the whole reason I had it modified to begin with! Trace really got it right.

First of all, the distorted chords really crunch. It doesn?t have that sort of ?swirl? that I used to hear in the old Marshalls that I?ve owned (long ago!) or played, but it is a very convincing crunch with a lot of oomph. No longer is it an ugly grind. I?ll give this sound a 9.

Bridge position overdriven lead tones with my PRS or Carvin: Beautifully singing tones. No more haze over the tone, but incredible clarity. The notes have as much or more girth than before too. I don?t really understand how this voicing works, but I think the stock amp probably had too much bass frequencies introduced into the early gain stages. If that?s not what the problem was, then whatever it was gave the notes some nice girth, but also created this haze over the notes that I just couldn?t stand. That problem is all gone. And there?s more gain, which is all useable, than I will typically use. With the gain up really high, the notes retain their clarity, definition and just sustain forever! This is also a 9.

Neck position or middle (neck/bridge) overdriven lead tones in PRS or Carvin guitars: Huge improvement. In it?s stock state, the amp did well in really high frequencies. It was round and creamy. But as soon as you went lower it was all muddy and ugly. After the mod, the high end creaminess is retained, but it is so much clearer and more useable in the lower frequencies. Another 9.

Overdriven stratocaster tones: Well, the pickups in my strat suck. It sounds good clean in the amp, but the mod didn?t help its overdriven sounds. But I was able to play my friends strat with Lindy Fralin pickups, and WOW! Every pickup position sounded wicked awesome, even those in-between positions (2 and 4). Clear bell tones. Really dynamic. Very full, even with the bridge pickup. I?ll give this a 9 also. If my strat were representative, I would have given it a 6.

The other thing I?ve found is that a much fuller lead tone rings through the mix. I?m not just getting a piercing high cutting through.

Not applicable

As I said earlier, you can't beat Trace.

I started playing 30 years ago, but I did stop for about 10 years in the middle. I know that there are some better players on Harmony Central, and a lot who have more experience with gear, but I have owned and played a ton of amps over the years. I've owned close to 10 amps, some of them classics, and I've played just about every classic amp from Fender, Marshall and Mesa in studios or at gigs where amps were provided. It's funny, but I've never been satisfied. At this stage of my life, I don't want to own 5 amps, and I'm not going to run an Eric Johnson-like multi-amp setup. I just want one nice tube amp that will do a good job of covering the range of tones I'm interested in.

The modded amp in my opinion does a very good job, and Mesa makes a nice quality amp. As stated above, I think the clean stacks up to the best. The distortion is now very good, but I imagine there are better sounds out there. At least like most guitarists, I have this tendency to always think there's something better (maybe it's the custom Voodoo Hex amp!!!). But I think I'm finally done looking. I've never felt this "done" in the past anyway. This amp meets my requirements: one high quality tube amp that delivers a very useable range of excellent tones.

I emphatically recommend Trace's work.