Mesa boogie nomad, studio, etc

horax

horax

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I’ve been wanting a mesa boogie for a long time.
I’ve seen some nomad 45 and 55 show up lately online, along with the subway and studio 22’s.

Anybody have experience with these?
I am looking for smooth blues tones along with the ability to drive it hard.

Right now I’m playing a delta king 12.
 
horax said:
I’ve been wanting a mesa boogie for a long time.
I’ve seen some nomad 45 and 55 show up lately online, along with the subway and studio 22’s.

Anybody have experience with these?
I am looking for smooth blues tones along with the ability to drive it hard.

Right now I’m playing a delta king 12.
Click to expand...
The Nomad and Studio 22 are both great guitar amps. I also had a Subway Rocket Reverb and it was a kicking little travel amp, more a single channel with a contour boost than a multichannel, though.

My favorite is the Nomad series, the 55 in particular. Here are some things on it:

* 3 discreet, foot-switchable channel, each with its own gain, master, treble, mid, bass, and reverb controls
* Each channel also has a switch controlling the aggressiveness of response
* An overall Master to control output of all channels
* A variable and footswitchable solo boost
* Easy 6L6 to EL34 swap with flip of switch (and tube change, of course)
* Great tone on all channels!

I gigged a 55 head with 2x12 cabs, then downsized to a 1x12 combo… it was plenty! I eventually changed to a Road King II, but I still have my Nomad 55 4x10, and it is a killer amp. Heavy, but carries a punch.

Short of the RK, the Nomad is as versatile as anything, has that Mesa quality, and they are sleepers… no one seems to know about them. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one.
 
RickP said:
The Nomad and Studio 22 are both great guitar amps. I also had a Subway Rocket Reverb and it was a kicking little travel amp, more a single channel with a contour boost than a multichannel, though.

My favorite is the Nomad series, the 55 in particular. Here are some things on it:

* 3 discreet, foot-switchable channel, each with its own gain, master, treble, mid, bass, and reverb controls
* Each channel also has a switch controlling the aggressiveness of response
* An overall Master to control output of all channels
* A variable and footswitchable solo boost
* Easy 6L6 to EL34 swap with flip of switch (and tube change, of course)
* Great tone on all channels!

I gigged a 55 head with 2x12 cabs, then downsized to a 1x12 combo… it was plenty! I eventually changed to a Road King II, but I still have my Nomad 55 4x10, and it is a killer amp. Heavy, but carries a punch.

Short of the RK, the Nomad is as versatile as anything, has that Mesa quality, and they are sleepers… no one seems to know about them. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one.
Click to expand...
i've seen several people complain about these online...mostly from older reviews.
It seems there's two clubs: those that love them, those that hate them...no real middle ground.

I'm highly interested though.
 
horax said:
i've seen several people complain about these online...mostly from older reviews.
It seems there's two clubs: those that love them, those that hate them...no real middle ground.

I'm highly interested though.
Click to expand...
I’m really not up on the net-squawk on it, and honestly wouldn’t be influenced. I’ve owned three 55s, gigged each pretty heavily including a lot of rehearsal hours, and never had a single failure. Thought I’d finally experienced a glitch with the 4x10, but it just turned out to be a bad connection in the cable going to the foot switch. So many hundreds of hours later, they’ve been bulletproof in my personal use.

No disrespect intended towards anyone in particular, but much internet banter consists of people regurgitating rumors of forum chatter written by people with no personal experience with the gear misquoting someone else about a friend’s friend’s cousin who owned a similar model made by a different company. You really have to sift the info to distill anything useful.

The Nomad 55 is a longtime favorite of mine. I’ve intended to sell it several times after I got the Road King II, but every time I fire it up to test before listing, it just sounds too good to sell. I've no reason to keep it, really, with the RK, a 1964 Super Reverb, black faced Deluxe Reverb, Mesa California Tweed, Vox AC30TB, a pair of HX/DAs, and an Axe Fx IIIT all in house, but here it remains!
 
RickP said:
I’m really not up on the net-squawk on it, and honestly wouldn’t be influenced. I’ve owned three 55s, gigged each pretty heavily including a lot of rehearsal hours, and never had a single failure. Thought I’d finally experienced a glitch with the 4x10, but it just turned out to be a bad connection in the cable going to the foot switch. So many hundreds of hours later, they’ve been bulletproof in my personal use.

No disrespect intended towards anyone in particular, but much internet banter consists of people regurgitating rumors of forum chatter written by people with no personal experience with the gear misquoting someone else about a friend’s friend’s cousin who owned a similar model made by a different company. You really have to sift the info to distill anything useful.

The Nomad 55 is a longtime favorite of mine. I’ve intended to sell it several times after I got the Road King II, but every time I fire it up to test before listing, it just sounds too good to sell. I've no reason to keep it, really, with the RK, a 1964 Super Reverb, black faced Deluxe Reverb, Mesa California Tweed, Vox AC30TB, a pair of HX/DAs, and an Axe Fx IIIT all in house, but here it remains!
Click to expand...
what's your experience between the 2x12 and 4x10 55?
Also interested in the 45 as well....I don't need A LOT of power, but a 4x10 is intriguing
 
horax said:
what's your experience between the 2x12 and 4x10 55?
Also interested in the 45 as well....I don't need A LOT of power, but a 4x10 is intriguing
Click to expand...
As a blues amp, there’s no denying how well a 4x10 configuration works! Between the Super Reverb and the 4x10 Bassman amps, there are many examples of famed players using them to great effect. In my personal opinion, I’d seek out a 55 head, so you can try or swap between 1x12, 2x12, 4x12, 4x10 cabs without the expense of the electronics. I personally liked the 1x12 combo best for gigging; it was a good compromise. The 4x10 combo is awesome, but quite large and heavy as a package.

I have played a 1x12 Nomad 45, and the other guitarist in my band used a 45 4x10 for about a year. Both sound good, but was brighter and a bit quicker to break up than the 55, with a slightly more thin feel. Not a “bad” thin, but that more edgy EL84 thing, as opposed to the rounder tone of the 6L6GC-based 55. I found I preferred the 55 as it had plenty of headroom, was eminently controllable due to the per-channel master/gain and overall master, without the excess power of the 100 watt version.

But if you’ve found the sound of EL84s preferable in the past, the 45 might serve you well. It is a good sounding amp. Having the opportunity to compare them side by side, I personally preferred the 55, although the next player might pick the 45. It really is in what you like.
 
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I just picked up a Nomad 45 head...after reading many reviews. (It was priced cheap enough, for sure)
Very Mid heavy, but adjustable. I pulled up the sample settings provided by Mesa, and they ALL show the MIDS knob set very low for their sample sounds. (about 8 pages of Tone/Style suggestions) (One question : why don't they use terms "Power" and "Standby" like normal people...LOLOL)

So far, I love it...I may retube one day, but I'm getting some great tones out of it. (Just spend some time EQ-ing it to taste.)
Had a 22, and regret trading that one...was really nice, too. #$%^#$%^#$%^!!!!!!!!!!!
 
goat-n-gitter said:
I rocked a .50 Caliber+ for over 20 years before upgrading to a MK V 90. Hard to beat a Studio or a Caliber. No experience with a Nomad but I'm sure they are great. For me, I'd always look for a model with the graphic EQ. It's a big part of the Mesa tone.
Click to expand...
Love my .50 Cal+!!!

It’s like a pissed off younger sister MkIII. I was gonna suggest one but… they’re like $1k now!
 
For many years I had one of the earliest Tremoverbs. I felt that it was the smoothest-to-gnarliest blues-centric Mesa ever, but I'm beginning to think that the Fillmore 50 is better at that stuff than my Tremo was, though the Tremo was a more powerful amp and that gave it both headroom and a feeling that the amp was a beast ready to break loose that only had a surface veneer of good manners (yes, this was a GOOD thing!).

Mesa had some excellent demos of the Fillmore 50 on their website that led me to buy one; they're probably still on YouTube somewhere. They had good players, the demos are nicely recorded and give you a very good idea of the amp's potential.

I paired mine with a California Tweed cab finished in black, because I think the amp sounds sweeter with the Alnico Jensen Blackbirds than with the stock C-90s, and the 2x12's dimensions and materials appear to be identical to the Fillmore cab's.

Another excellent Mesa for your purpose that's worth looking into is the Maverick (discontinued around the time they introduced the Lone Star).
It's an amp you don't see often, but it's great sounding (had one, shouldn't have sold it).

I wasn't as crazy about the Nomad series for the type of things you're after, but did have a Subway Rocket. The Rocket was fun to have, but I prefer bigger amps. Still, it was around in my studio for some time.

I remember trying a Studio .22, but I don't remember anything about it!
 
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