Mesa Boogie Amp Settings (clean and distorted sound)

For those of us fortunate enough to own a Mesa Boogie amplifier, I'm putting together some basic amp settings for Mesa amps, regardless of model. To do this, I'm using the Triple Rectifier amp model in Amplitube 5 and just taking screen shots, but keep in mind, that's just going to be more example.

These settings can work with any Mesa amp, regardless of the particular model you're working with.

Here's a screen grab of the Amplitube 5 setup.

You can see the Rectifier gives you three channels to work with:

Clean and Heavy Gain

Note that I'll do three settings, one for clean, crunch, and then heavy gain.

• Clean Mesa amp settings
• Crunch Mesa amp settings
• Heavy gain Mesa amp settings

Also note that in the Mesa Triple Rectifier, channel 1 is listed as the "Clean" channel, which can be played clean or "pushed."

We're assuming it's being left clean.

We'll use the "Modern" setting for the other two distorted channels.

Clean

For the clean channel we start with boosting mids, up to about 7-8 on a 1 to 10 scale. Treble gets bumped a bit higher too, while bass stays right at 50 percent. Note that the amp switch for channel one is set to clean.

Here are the exact dials I used:

• Presence: 5
• Master: 5
• Gain: 2-3
• Bass: 5
• Mid: 7-8
• Treble: 6

And now for the "vintage" mode in channel two.

Vintage (low gain)

We pull treble back to smooth the tubes out and give bass a slight boost. Note that the switch should be on "Modern." I just forgot to do that in the amp model. 

Everything is pretty close to center here. Mids are bass handle most of the tweaking while we let the tubes do their work.

• Presence: 5
• Master: 5
• Gain: 5
• Bass: 6
• Mid: 6-7
• Treble: 4

And then the high gain settings, where Mesa amps really tend to excel, which we dialed into the third channel:

High Gain Mesa Settings

I like having bass higher here since it produces a warmer sound. Treble gets cut to about 50 percent and mids are just a little past the halfway point. 

And our last set of dials:

• Presence: 5
• Master: 5
• Gain: 9-10
• Bass: 7
• Mid 6
• Treble 5

This gives you a heavier, more percussive tone which is where the Mesa Boogie amplifiers tend to really thrive. Depending on which version of Mesa amp you have, you can use these amp settings as a template to start with, then tweak as you go.

Note that you don't need to have a Triple Rectifier specifically for these two work.

Other Rig Spec Suggestions

• Pick? Yes, heavy
• Strings: Heavier gauge (.054 - .056)
• Guitar Volume: 10
• Guitar Tone: 8
• Guitar Pickup Arrangement: HH (dual humbucker)
• Guitar Pickup Selector: Middle (three-way assumed)
• Guitar Pickup Type: Active
• Guitar Magnet Type: Ceramic
• Distortion pedal? No
• DI box? No
• EQ Pedal? No
• Reverb: Off
• High or low pass filters? No
• Compression: Moderate

Conclusion

Again, treat these Mesa amp settings as a starting point. If you aren't sure how to use them or you have other questions that aren't addressed by these settings specifically, feel free to reach out via the comments section below and we'll chat.

We put out a lot of amp settings articles so we're always looking to answer questions and field suggestions from readers.

We'll see you there.

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