aamefford
The (should be) Committed
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2021
- Messages
- 1,016
Triple Crown 100!
Who'da thunk it. Certainly not me back when I started. I "needed" a Mesa, just based on teenage wants and Santana. For the record, "teenage" is a loooong time ago for me, but I started trying to play a couple years ago. So, I got a little MkV25 combo, because 25 and 10 watts, outa be decent for bedroom playing, right? Well, with the addition of a Fryette PS-2 it was. Not on its own. The master volume was just too touchy. The perfect setting was between "not quite loud enough" and L.A.F - except no stops in between those two settings. Add to that the arguable difficulty of dialing in a MkV25 (or any MKV or maybe just Mark?).
Enter the Triple Crown 100. @Bogner and a few others were pretty convincing that a proper 50 or 100 watt amp might just be better for my needs. @Bogner advocated the TC-100 with some decent logic. I always run a "Mesa" search in CL, and a couple popped up in the sort of local area. A mint one, with an attractive "buy it today or I'm gonna take a trade offer, but I'll take $xxxx for it" came about yesterday.
My take so far after maybe 10 minutes:
1) So THAT'S how a Master Volume (labeled "Output" on the TC-100) is supposed to work! Hell, it works as well or better than the PS-2 with the MkV25 combo.
2) The 100, 50, 20, 7, 3 attenuator works really well. Right now, clean on 20, lo and hi on 3 gets a decent balance with the MV setting at very quiet levels.
3) Good clean, easy to dial in. Decent crunch and whatever we want to call the sound coming out of the hi channel - damned good for 10 minutes of futzing.
4) OK, it's heavier than the little MkV25 1x10 combo. Or a couple of cement blocks. Specs say 46 lb.
5) Damn, it looks good.
6) 4 EL34 tubes. Gonna suck when it's time to replace them. God knows how many preamp, reverb, loop and rectifier tubes. Probably all of them.
7) 6L6 at the flip of a switch, and 6V6 without flipping the switch. The 6V6 gives a half power result.
8) Looks bitchin' sitting on my little 1x12 wide body closed cab (I think they call it the wide body recto or something now).
Anyway, for what can be a beast of an amp, it is a MUCH, MUCH better bedroom amp than the MkV25 is. I don't need the PS-2 with it. I'm honestly amazed by this. While the little Mark is a perfect grab and go size, it will probably move on. I think there may be better grab and go amps in a similar size. It's honestly a great amp, but just doesn't play nice at low volume. I can't get over how well the TC-100 does at low volume. It is oddly comforting to know that if I ever need to hook it up to a couple of 4x12's and go completely deef in a single Pete Townsend Birdman strum, I could.
Pics or it didn't happen. I'll try and set up a better glam shot later.
Who'da thunk it. Certainly not me back when I started. I "needed" a Mesa, just based on teenage wants and Santana. For the record, "teenage" is a loooong time ago for me, but I started trying to play a couple years ago. So, I got a little MkV25 combo, because 25 and 10 watts, outa be decent for bedroom playing, right? Well, with the addition of a Fryette PS-2 it was. Not on its own. The master volume was just too touchy. The perfect setting was between "not quite loud enough" and L.A.F - except no stops in between those two settings. Add to that the arguable difficulty of dialing in a MkV25 (or any MKV or maybe just Mark?).
Enter the Triple Crown 100. @Bogner and a few others were pretty convincing that a proper 50 or 100 watt amp might just be better for my needs. @Bogner advocated the TC-100 with some decent logic. I always run a "Mesa" search in CL, and a couple popped up in the sort of local area. A mint one, with an attractive "buy it today or I'm gonna take a trade offer, but I'll take $xxxx for it" came about yesterday.
My take so far after maybe 10 minutes:
1) So THAT'S how a Master Volume (labeled "Output" on the TC-100) is supposed to work! Hell, it works as well or better than the PS-2 with the MkV25 combo.
2) The 100, 50, 20, 7, 3 attenuator works really well. Right now, clean on 20, lo and hi on 3 gets a decent balance with the MV setting at very quiet levels.
3) Good clean, easy to dial in. Decent crunch and whatever we want to call the sound coming out of the hi channel - damned good for 10 minutes of futzing.
4) OK, it's heavier than the little MkV25 1x10 combo. Or a couple of cement blocks. Specs say 46 lb.
5) Damn, it looks good.
6) 4 EL34 tubes. Gonna suck when it's time to replace them. God knows how many preamp, reverb, loop and rectifier tubes. Probably all of them.
7) 6L6 at the flip of a switch, and 6V6 without flipping the switch. The 6V6 gives a half power result.
8) Looks bitchin' sitting on my little 1x12 wide body closed cab (I think they call it the wide body recto or something now).
Anyway, for what can be a beast of an amp, it is a MUCH, MUCH better bedroom amp than the MkV25 is. I don't need the PS-2 with it. I'm honestly amazed by this. While the little Mark is a perfect grab and go size, it will probably move on. I think there may be better grab and go amps in a similar size. It's honestly a great amp, but just doesn't play nice at low volume. I can't get over how well the TC-100 does at low volume. It is oddly comforting to know that if I ever need to hook it up to a couple of 4x12's and go completely deef in a single Pete Townsend Birdman strum, I could.
Pics or it didn't happen. I'll try and set up a better glam shot later.
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