Incoming New Power Amp (x2)

[Shask]

The guy I bought the 2:90 from just sent me a full refund because he found out he could get a 1099 for selling over 600.

And he's in Canada

I tried to tell him this doesn’t apply to him but nooooo

Jesus people are fucking stupid these days lol

Oh well I'm still getting the 2:fifty tomorrow

That sucks. I have always wanted a 2:90 also, because they are suppose to make anything sound huge. However I have never bought one because it just seems silly to have that much of a poweramp to jam at home, lol.

I have a Triple Recto, and this is like having 2 of them....

[Shask]

Right lol. I barely even have a board for shows. Just a noise gate and a wireless. I have a few pedals at home but nothing crazy anyway. I don't need 8 million delay variations or the ability to control that. All I REALLY need is 2 channels that don't feedback and the ability to move around freely lol.

I am the same way. I have always been fascinated with racks. I love the form, having it all connected, etc... but, I am the same way with my sounds. I generally only use a few sounds, so having all that MIDI stuff is just overkill. Even on my rack effects units I tend to keep them on 1 or 2 presets all the time.

[Shask]

Updated picture:






It's great that this all fits in a small easy to carry 4u rack. I am considering buying one of those "head rack" cases like this:



That would change the rig into a relatively small sized head. About the same size as a EVH 50w I think. It's an expensive case though ($240) so idk.

I keep thinking about ordering a case from Case Smith Customs that looks like a headshell. I think they would be nice for sitting at home. I have a SKB case, but it is so huge and bulky. I want something smaller that can sit on a desk easier. I just can't decide between 4 or 6 space.

[Snave]

The guy I bought the 2:90 from just sent me a full refund because he found out he could get a 1099 for selling over 600.

And he's in Canada

I tried to tell him this doesn’t apply to him but nooooo

Jesus people are fucking stupid these days lol

Oh well I'm still getting the 2:fifty tomorrow

That sucks. I have always wanted a 2:90 also, because they are suppose to make anything sound huge. However I have never bought one because it just seems silly to have that much of a poweramp to jam at home, lol.

I have a Triple Recto, and this is like having 2 of them....

Two Triple Rectos would actually be like the Coliseum 300. The 2:90 is more like two Mark IVs.

[GuitarBilly]

I think it's worth hunting down a 2:90. While it's nice that the 2:50 is less than 2/3 the weight, but it doesn't have anywhere near the beef of the 2:90. It shelves a lot of low frequencies with those little transformers.

I've compared the 2:90 head-to-head with Fryette 2/50/2 and 2/90/2 power amps and ended up keeping the Mesa. The 2/50/2 is nice with more British preamps, but it's really lacking with something like a Soldano preamp. The 2/90/2 doesn't have the nice mids of the 2:90, and the presence frequency is a bit strange to me. Fryette's lack of support is quite a turnoff too, especially compared to Mesa. It's worth noting that Fryette amps are louder for their rating than Mesas—Steve Fryette claims the 2/50/2 is equal to the 2:90 in power with both channels driven (65 watts per channel), whereas the Mesa 50/50 is only 35 watts per channel. The 2/90/2 punches above its weight at 98 watts per channel.

The only noteworthy downsides of the 2:90 are the common PT molex connector failure point (pictured below—a simple enough preemptive fix for a tech) and what a pain it is to retube, especially with the supply issues right now. Like any Simul-Class amp it needs the coolest grade 6L6 (red) in the class A sockets and more typical grades in the class AB sockets (green or gray) to be biased properly. Mesa apparently doesn't recommend EL34s in these.

I'm sure you're right about this. The 2:90 is my favorite power amp. But the extra weight and cost to reduce is giving me pause. But yeah I'm sure tone wise it would be worthy.

I think I'll keep with this power amp for now and see if I decide to stick with the Synergy system. If I do, I'll consider upgrading the power amp again later.

[NinjaRaf]

The guy I bought the 2:90 from just sent me a full refund because he found out he could get a 1099 for selling over 600.

And he's in Canada

I tried to tell him this doesn’t apply to him but nooooo

Jesus people are fucking stupid these days lol

Oh well I'm still getting the 2:fifty tomorrow

That sucks. I have always wanted a 2:90 also, because they are suppose to make anything sound huge. However I have never bought one because it just seems silly to have that much of a poweramp to jam at home, lol.

I have a Triple Recto, and this is like having 2 of them....

Two Triple Rectos would actually be like the Coliseum 300. The 2:90 is more like two Mark IVs.

I was looking at this on Reverb. Too bad it's over $3k lol. But goddamn!! That would be awesome to experience haha. Slave the Mark VII into this behemoth...

[Rampage]

Man, sorry about that 2:90. That was solid. I really need to grab one of those or a Fryette 2/90/2.

Bought a Fish with Cantrell mod three years ago and still haven’t bought a dedicated power amp. Fuck me.

[Snave]

I'm sure you're right about this. The 2:90 is my favorite power amp. But the extra weight and cost to reduce is giving me pause. But yeah I'm sure tone wise it would be worthy.

I think I'll keep with this power amp for now and see if I decide to stick with the Synergy system. If I do, I'll consider upgrading the power amp again later.

That makes sense. It's still a good sounding unit, and the lightest 2U tube PA I'm aware of. Have you tried the Synergy SYN5050? Curious how that stacks up.

Man, sorry about that 2:90. That was solid. I really need to grab one of those or a Fryette 2/90/2.

Bought a Fish with Cantrell mod three years ago and still haven’t bought a dedicated power amp. Fuck me.

The Seymour Duncan KTG2100 is worth a look too. It's similar to the 2/90/2 but lesser known.

[spawnofthesith]

Mesa


Bummer a
Bout the 2:90 tho

[GuitarBilly]

That makes sense. It's still a good sounding unit, and the lightest 2U tube PA I'm aware of. Have you tried the Synergy SYN5050? Curious how that stacks up.

The Syn5050 was the first one I bought and it's by far the worst power amp I've ever tried. It's really muddy with no punch at all.

I heard the Fryette LX-II sounds better but my experience with the Syn5050 was so negative I'm hesitant to try it out.

[RaceU4her]

The Syn5050 was the first one I bought and it's by far the worst power amp I've ever tried. It's really muddy with no punch at all.

the local high end shop by me had a few modules and a synergy power amp i watched the owner play through, he seemed pumped on it but it sounded kind of dull and lacking something to me, guess that was probably the culprit

[Snave]

That makes sense. It's still a good sounding unit, and the lightest 2U tube PA I'm aware of. Have you tried the Synergy SYN5050? Curious how that stacks up.

The Syn5050 was the first one I bought and it's by far the worst power amp I've ever tried. It's really muddy with no punch at all.

I heard the Fryette LX-II sounds better but my experience with the Syn5050 was so negative I'm hesitant to try it out.

That's disappointing, but it kind of figures there's a lower size limit to big bottle power amps sounding decent.

[GuitarBilly]

That makes sense. It's still a good sounding unit, and the lightest 2U tube PA I'm aware of. Have you tried the Synergy SYN5050? Curious how that stacks up.

The Syn5050 was the first one I bought and it's by far the worst power amp I've ever tried. It's really muddy with no punch at all.

I heard the Fryette LX-II sounds better but my experience with the Syn5050 was so negative I'm hesitant to try it out.

That's disappointing, but it kind of figures there's a lower size limit to big bottle power amps sounding decent.

Yeah it seems that way. Although I've been hearing good things about the LXII, which is also 1u. But idk, I'm pretty happy with the 250 for now and I think if I switch power amps in the future it would be the for 290, which I already know and really like.

[GuitarBilly]

I ended up going back to the Palmer power amp. The Mesa sounds slightly better but not enough to justify the extra weight and maintenance. I can't recommend this power amp enough. This is the thrid time I prefer iot over a tube power amp (I also compared it to the Synergy 5050 and Carvin T100).

[MacaroniSalad]

I ended up going back to the Palmer power amp. The Mesa sounds slightly better but not enough to justify the extra weight and maintenance. I can't recommend this power amp enough. This is the thrid time I prefer iot over a tube power amp (I also compared it to the Synergy 5050 and Carvin T100).

That's awesome! Its always great when something that is inexpensive works great. I had a similar experience with racks, the Rocktron Velocity 300 beat out a 2:90, Marshall Dual Monoblock and Peavey Classic 60. I ran that Velo 300, an ADA and and Intellifex and was happy as a clam for a while.

[GuitarBilly]

I ended up going back to the Palmer power amp. The Mesa sounds slightly better but not enough to justify the extra weight and maintenance. I can't recommend this power amp enough. This is the thrid time I prefer iot over a tube power amp (I also compared it to the Synergy 5050 and Carvin T100).

That's awesome! Its always great when something that is inexpensive works great. I had a similar experience with racks, the Rocktron Velocity 300 beat out a 2:90, Marshall Dual Monoblock and Peavey Classic 60. I ran that Velo 300, an ADA and and Intellifex and was happy as a clam for a while.

It seems like a lot of rack players did that back in the day. Nuno was using the ADA SS power amp, Bratta was using Carvin FET amps, Cantrell used Mosvalve etc. Even EVH was loading his plexi down and running it into all his effects then into HH power amps, so maybe there is something about this type of rig.

[trey85stang2]

You have me looking at the Palmer. I like light weight and if the 2:50 is only marginally better. I absolutely love the 2:50 with modelers though.

[VTM]

I ended up going back to the Palmer power amp. The Mesa sounds slightly better but not enough to justify the extra weight and maintenance. I can't recommend this power amp enough. This is the thrid time I prefer iot over a tube power amp (I also compared it to the Synergy 5050 and Carvin T100).

That's awesome! Its always great when something that is inexpensive works great. I had a similar experience with racks, the Rocktron Velocity 300 beat out a 2:90, Marshall Dual Monoblock and Peavey Classic 60. I ran that Velo 300, an ADA and and Intellifex and was happy as a clam for a while.

It seems like a lot of rack players did that back in the day. Nuno was using the ADA SS power amp, Bratta was using Carvin FET amps, Cantrell used Mosvalve etc. Even EVH was loading his plexi down and running it into all his effects then into HH power amps, so maybe there is something about this type of rig.

Looking back on my rack days, my favorite setup was a Lee Jackson SP 1000-Rockmaster pre-BBE Sonic Maximizer.

[GuitarBilly]

You have me looking at the Palmer. I like light weight and if the 2:50 is only marginally better. I absolutely love the 2:50 with modelers though.

Palmer is one of my favorite companies, I've had luck with pretty much everything I bought from them. I already listed the 2:50 on Reverb


Here's a demo of the Palmer with a modeler (Helix):

Looking back on my rack days, my favorite setup was a Lee Jackson SP 1000-Rockmaster pre-BBE Sonic Maximizer.

Yeah that was another popular SS power amp in the 80s. It sounds amazing.

[MacaroniSalad]

This makes me want to build a rack again hahaha

[andvari7]

So, with the power amp resolved, what’s the verdict on the Synergy? Play it forever, or future endeavor?

[NinjaRaf]

So, with the power amp resolved, what’s the verdict on the Synergy? Play it forever, or future endeavor?

Don't ask questions you already know the answer to.

[GuitarBilly]

So, with the power amp resolved, what’s the verdict on the Synergy? Play it forever, or future endeavor?

It depends on the application. I have the Syn 1 on my studio desk with the Two Notes Cab M+ to load power amp emulation and IRs and that's definitely going to be my recording/home playing set up moving forward. It's small, easy to use and very versatile. So that's definitely is staying.

As for the Syn2 as a live rig, I don't know yet. I am still working on getting it dialed in. I recently left my lockout and now we're practicing once a week at the drummers house and that's not a good situation for this type of rig, because with racks you do need to spend quite a bit of time dialing everything in at loud levels. When I had the lockout I could spend hours doing that kind of stuff, now my "loud play" time is very limited. And I don't really like to keep tweaking things doing practice. So that is an issue. In my current situation bringing the head and pedalboard is much easier. So for now, I've been taking both rigs to practice and I play the first half with the Marshall and on the second half I switch to the rack and try to get it dialed in. It's getting closer but I am not there yet. So I am not sure if I am going to keep the rack side of it. One thing I am considering is staying with the system but moving to one of the heads, likely the 50w model.

So in short, I am sold on the Synergy concept for the studio. In that environment it's pretty much like having a 500 series chassis with preamps, but for guitar. Actually I am pretty sure that is where they got this idea from.

For live, I am not sure. I need more time with it and that's difficult right now. We're in the process of buying a new place and we will have a basement where I can build a practice studio that will allow me to play loud. That will make things a lot easier, but we're still a few months away from getting this done...

So, with the power amp resolved, what’s the verdict on the Synergy? Play it forever, or future endeavor?

Don't ask questions you already know the answer to.

[eyeball987]

I went on an amp terror over the past 5 years after selling a RM100 and a bunch of modded modules. Picked up a SYN-1 and am happy enough with that, and a PS2, that I sold all but two other amps.

At the moment, I could live with just the SLO module and be happy. No other amp gas other than a couple more modules either. I am sure that will change in a few months. Always does!

[GuitarBilly]

Definitely want to try a Power Station with this rig but they're sold everywhere at the moment. But yeah I think it's work really well.