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Mesa Boogie M9 Carbine announced!!!


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I like the M6 a lot and the M9 looks amazing. I'd rather see a solid state front end, but I know that Mesa can't do it for image reasons.

 

Agreed.

 

But by most accounts, this is as close as you're gonna get to a true SS front end, when it comes to Mesa. :)

 

This thing looks monster. I like the additions, and IMO/IME graphic EQ's are a no-brainer. Semi-para EQ's with levels and stuff just screw up the average user, and a little too much for just a good bass amp. Glad to see they went this way with the upgraded Carbine.

Their onboard compressors are actually very nice, too... but I'm glad they left it off the Titan! Hehehehehe... would have been a wasted footswitch! :evil::evil:

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Why is that?

 

 

I have yet to ever find a tube based front end that generate any tones that are useful to me that can't be found in a solid state design. I fear that the use of a tube in the front end is most often based on marketing than on sound design principles. In my experience with this particular amp, the voicing of the amp lends itself very well to a low gain front end and the best low end front ends I've ever used have all been solid state.

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I have yet to ever find a tube based front end that generate any tones that are useful to me that can't be found in a solid state design. I fear that the use of a tube in the front end is most often based on marketing than on sound design principles.

 

It seems most everyone is using a tube based front end these days, and I don't buy, for the most part, that it's just for marketing purposes. What do you use?

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To your comments ^^^^ :

 

Would that apply to pre's with just 1 or 2, or what if you had more? I think my Titan has at least 4, and maybe 6 preamp tubes.

The guy I bought it from threw some Tung-Sols in it before selling it to me because he got word that particular batch from Mesa that came in his amp at the time of production were bad so he swapped and said it was a pretty significant change, in a good way.

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It seems most everyone is using a tube based front end these days, and I don't buy, for the most part, that it's just for marketing purposes. What do you use?

 

Being someone who has no idea about WHY they have a tube based front end, the word tube sure makes me want one. Making me think that it IS in fact for marketing, and hell its working :lol:

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I have yet to ever find a tube based front end that generate any tones that are useful to me that can't be found in a solid state design. I fear that the use of a tube in the front end is most often based on marketing than on sound design principles. In my experience with this particular amp, the voicing of the amp lends itself very well to a low gain front end and the best low end front ends I've ever used have all been solid state.

 

 

I think you hit on something important there. For a clean, low gain tone, I would completely agree that a SS front end is better. However, if you want a good overdrive in your fron't end, I still prefer tubes such as in the Trace V-type or the Blue line SVTs.

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It should be noted that many of the amps that claim a "tube front end" run a 12AX7 with 40V on the plate as an input buffer (i.e. Eden), not even a tube gain stage. I'm not sure about what Mesa does, but you can be sure that if the amp has a graphic EQ there's definitely some solid-state circuitry in the preamp.

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I'm not saying there aren't companies out there that just add a tube as a marketing ploy. I just find it hard to believe companies like Demeter, Mesa Boogie, and Aguilar are adding tubes for marketing purposes.

 

 

I know in pro audio, there is a difference between a tube mic pre, and a "toob" mic pre. In the latter, there's not enough voltage sent to the toob to do more than simply generate noise(as opposed to actually handle 100% of preamplification duties). So, your not getting true tube sound. It's geared towards hobbyists that don't know the difference.

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I'm not saying there aren't companies out there that just add a tube as a marketing ploy. I just find it hard to believe companies like Demeter, Mesa Boogie, and Aguilar are adding tubes for marketing purposes.

 

I'm not saying that those particular companies are doing that but you might be surprised by how much marketing actually does have to do with design decisions. You'd also be surprised at how many manufacturers lack even basic knowledge of electronics, but that's a different ball of wax altogether. :D

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I'm still dying to try the Fathom!

:facepalm:

In all honesty, somehow I missed the issue of a court batle over the Fathom name, and them changing it to the M-6 Carbine.
:o

So, I'd like to try one of each please!

 

From what I understand/stood, the name "Fathom" was registered to another company but wasn't currently in use, which is why it wasn't really brought up when Mesa released the new amp.

And then of course after it blew up, the company got all huffy and Mesa changed it. I don't think it went to litigation, but this is all just hearsay. :)

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To your comments ^^^^ :


Would that apply to pre's with just 1 or 2, or what if you had more? I think my Titan has at least 4, and maybe 6 preamp tubes.

The guy I bought it from threw some Tung-Sols in it before selling it to me because he got word that particular batch from Mesa that came in his amp at the time of production were bad so he swapped and said it was a pretty significant change, in a good way.

 

 

It seems like the more the better, in most cases. The Big Block, the GK Fusion, the Aguilar DB750 all have at least 3 pre-amp tubes.

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