it, effectively making a great British-voiced amp
with a huge, clean power section.
On the Back
The rear panel houses three controls for the
reverb circuit: a knob to adjust the amount of
the effect, a switch that removes it from the circuit entirely with a hard bypass and—for even
more versatility—a Mode Defeat switch allowing you to remove the reverb from Vintage Hi
or Low mode while retaining it on the Clean, so
you can have one gain mode wet and the other
dry. My favorite setting was to remove the
reverb from the high-gain mode and drench
the Low with a liberal amount of the effect.
While the Jazzmaster inherently has a lot of
high end, I found it difficult even after much
adjustment to dial out the superhigh frequencies without losing the body of the sound. With
an American Fender Strat, it was easier to control. The Electra-Dyne revealed itself to be very
sensitive to the type of guitar plugged into it,
more than most amps I’ve come across.
The final two controls available are Clean Level
Trim and Gain Trim, which address the issue of
volume balancing. All too often, guitarists have
had to deal with the difficulty of finding that
perfect balance when switching between clean
and overdriven tones that still sits in the mix
and doesn’t overpower everything else. Using
the Clean Level Trim, I was able to reduce the
clean volume to match the gain modes. The
Gain Trim either lowers the gain of the Clean
(for players who use higher gain modes) or
lowers the gain for the Low and Hi modes. I
was able to get some fantastic tones using the
Les Paul with the Gain Trim on the Hi mode,
allowing me to crank the amp much louder to
get that non-master-volume-esque cut without
oversaturating the tone.
The Final Mojo
The Electra-Dyne is an appealing addition to
the Mesa/Boogie catalog. For players longing
for another Mesa amp with simple controls to
make its debut, this is most certainly worth a
look. It’s an excellent hybrid of a new, powerful amplifier design and a nod to the tones
that made so much rock ‘n’ roll possible. Some
guitarists, namely those who’ve played Mesa
products for years and are used to their sound,
might not like the direction this amp is going.
It’s not a high-gain metal monster, and the
high-end response from some guitars might
send certain players in the other direction, but
for those on the lookout for an utterly flooring
clean tone and excellent boost options—that
also comes in rackmount, 1x12 and 2x12
combo formats—the Electra-Dyne might be
just the ticket. It’s a new sound for Mesa, and
it’s an interesting one.
you want some of Mesa/
Boogie’s best clean tones, and
simple and straightforward is
the order of the day.
Buy If...
Skip If...
you’re looking for more of the
traditional Mesa tone or a modern
metal amp.
Rating...
4. 5
ONTHEWeb
Click here to hear sound samples
of the amp in action at
premierguitar.com
Mesa/Boogie
Street $1599
mesaboogie.com
