Mesa Boogie Stiletto

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:49 am

Played one of these the other day, a guy I know sourced one from overseas. Basically, this is a Dual Rec... with EL34's insteal of 6L6's.

All I can say is ... WOAH! Better than any Mesa I've every played (though the Mark IV is not far behind) and totally not what I was expecting - a warm Boogie! And gain for Africa....

There's one at the Rock Shop in Auckland, so play it if you have a chance. Might change your impressions on the Mesa's current range as being "nu-metal" only.

Be prepared to remortgage though...

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Wed May 11, 2005 11:11 am

Nice to hear. Theres been a lot of hype over these.

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:22 pm

I understand that the whole Rectifier range has a bias switch so it can be either 6L6's or EL34's. I bought some JJ EL34's the other day so I can see how they go.

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Wed May 11, 2005 2:32 pm

gregtarr wrote:I understand that the whole Rectifier range has a bias switch so it can be either 6L6's or EL34's. I bought some JJ EL34's the other day so I can see how they go.

This is true. The Stilletto range was produced exclusively to run with EL34's and designed to be played in synch with a Dual Rec for two-guitar bands. My friend's one is the Trident version (3 channel, as opposed to the Deuce, the dual mode model) and it's a veritable tone machine.

I got Plexi/MV/2203 tones no worries, even a bit of Tweed tone as well through my SG. Switched up to my mates ESP Eclipse and it was all shredsville, but the interesting thing is that if you drop the gain by a couple of notches, it goes into JCM2000 wide-open-smooth gain. Back up those same two notches, back to Mesa-land. Very cool.

Zakk Wylde · Post by **Zakk Wylde** » Thu May 12, 2005 9:48 am

Very cool.

Sounds really versatile... but yet within a specific range.

Useful for two guitar bands too? I like it.

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Thu May 12, 2005 12:21 pm

Zakk Wylde wrote:Very cool.

Sounds really versatile... but yet within a specific range.

Useful for two guitar bands too? I like it.

Yeah, the other guitarist in his band runs a Dual Rec and apparently they sound amazing in unison on Minor 3rd rhythms.

Funnily enough, he had a 5150 before this and reckoned it couldn't keep up. Sold it dirty cheap apparently before I had a chance to offer him anything for it.

Zakk Wylde · Post by **Zakk Wylde** » Thu May 12, 2005 1:43 pm

mmmm gainy goodness.

*Drool*