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BGRA: Mesa Boogie D-180
| Manufacturer |
Mesa Boogie |
Model |
D-180 |
| Reviewer |
Tony Bremer |
Email |
n |
| Experience |
9 Years |
Item owned |
1-6 months |
| Review Date |
2002-10-04 |
Price paid |
$525.00 Used |
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Dimensions | Aprx. 8 inches |
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Weight | Aprx. 45 lbs. |
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Power | 200 Watts (tube) |
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Other | All Tube: 6 Power tubes 4 Preamp tubes, 3 speed fan, |
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Simple, Solid, Rugged- I have been a diehard Ampeg fan for the last six
years and swore I could never find anything better. I have however,
always wanted an all tube amp and was knocked out by this rare bad boy in
a music store one day. I traded in my SVT shortly after. I play in a
band that requires alot of Roland 808 type low end sounds so before buying
the amp, I put it through alot of scrutiny, especially on the low end. I
have heard that tube amps lack a little in the lows, so I wanted to be
sure the amp would preform. This amp does have a thick low end, so much
so that I wouldn't reccomend turning the bass all the way up, otherwise
the lows get a little on the "honky" side. The amp also features
push/pull controls on the bass and trebble knobs, and one on the volume
for channel #2. The amp itself has alot of treble, and I usually turn it
down, or leave it flat, but this is partially due to personal prefrence.
One thing I really, really love about this amp is the presence it has. It
really cuts through the mix at low volumes, even with the controls flat,
so this is a real bonus. The amp also has a feature called cascaded
inputs (apparntly Mesa has a patent for this) that allows distortion to
be created. Let me explain, channel one runs through channel two, If you
crank the volume while playing through channel one, you will get a nice,
adjustable distortion (did I mention the amp was tube?!) This is a great
feature, but you have to either play through the distortion channel all
the time, and try to compensate with gain, or you need to unplug. I
consider this a studio feature, and can stil get some overdrive from one
channel playing live. The back panel on this amp also has nice simple
features like adjustable line out (1/4 or xlr) and 2,4, or 8 ohm outputs,
and an effects send/return. I run the head through an SVT 410hlf (still
an Ampeg speaker fan), and I think it is the next best thing to a perfect
match. I have plenty of headroom, I would estimate I keep the head at
about 1/3 volume most of the time. In fact, the few times I have cranked
the head, I felt like the speakers were going to get damaged, even thoght
the cab is rated at 500W! The amp does not have an eg, In fact there are
only 6 knobs total, and three of these are volume! But with the
combination of the two channels running together, push/ pull options, I
have been satisfied. One thing I forgot to mention, mesa also reccomends
running the master volume at 10 because there is a preset, optimized eq at
this volume (another patent the amp boasts), I have found many ways to
incorporate this function into my use of the amp
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| construction |
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| clarity |
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| versatility |
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| volume |
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| value |
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| overall |
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