Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace 50 vs. Marshall JCM2000 DSL 50 (MM) - GAIN / OVERDRIVE

[BigAndouille]

lololol @ all the Marshall fanboys here. gimme a break. Boogie's far from perfect, but Marshall hasn't made a good amp in years. I'm not a fan of the Ace, but the Stiletto Deuce II out Marshalls Marshall any day of the week if you ask me.

[daviesadam23]

Sounds like Jason Lee



[mogwix]

awesome video dude. I love your percussive attack, those kinds of hands will make any amp sound great.

I have a DSL in the shop, dying to get it back. I've been also dying to get a stiletto. One of these days.

[TaVeneno]

marsahll forever

[dusted04]

a better comparison would of been the marshall with a dual rec

[ThieleM]

@dusted04

Why is that? The Dual rec isnt intended to be British sounding and all. The Stiletto is Mesa's take on the Marshall/brit tone.

[dusted04]

@ThieleM yeah i know that but the rectifier on chanel 2 vintage mode sounds more like a marshall to my ears anyway !

having owned 4 marshall heads and 3 mesa heads i think i have a good ear for it !

[ThieleM]

@dusted04

I dont know, maybe if you are used to post JCM 900 heads (which I think are all horrible sounding amps) you could think that a Mesa Vintage setting is like a Marshall. I dont hear it out of my Dual Rec, even with EL34's the mid character doesnt have that Marshall sound and the bass and treble is totally different...at least to my ears.

My old 50 watt Mark II Marshall....that's the Marshall sound.

I still prefer ENGL or Germino's..the big makers are lagging behind the smaller once

[ThieleM]

oops

'the smaller ones'

[dusted04]

@ThieleM i guess every ones ears are different !

i had a jcm 800 vintage modern mode four and a jvm

also two dual recs and a triple and now i have a mark v

the dual probably sounds a little more modern but can still get you that marshall crunch !

one amp that does it well is the diezel vh4 on chanel 2 and the mark v on chanel 2 crunch mode

thats a hell of an amp

[ThieleM]

@dusted04

People's ears are totally different. I had a JCM 800 2 channel head for ages, loved it! Some bastard stole it. THe Vintage Modern is an amp that seem to hate me. The JVM's sound like line 6 amps to me...artificial;

The Mark 5 is a great amp.

I have a VH4, great amp. Still dont agree with you on it sounding like a Marshall. It can get 'marshall-y' but doesnt really cop a Marshall.

Try a Germino or Roccaforte

[keaulana1]

@ThieleM true, I had a dual rectifier and changed it for a road king II, hoping I would get a marshall sound using its el34's. It just add a little of mid and treble, nust a little, but it keeps sounding like a recto. YOu have to get a marshall to sound like a marshall. Period.

[dusted04]

@ThieleM different ears lol !

i will look into those amps.

do you have a mark v

i wish mesa would bring out a reissue of the mark 2c+ with a modern effects loop that would be awesome

[Razorfist91]

This is no comparisson my friend, on a fight between "British Steel" VS "American Cheese" it is clear who's going to be the winner! Good demo though and of course i keed! Both great amps i own both a Marshall JCM 200 the 100W head and the Dual R/Fier. They're killers!

[ThieleM]

I used to have a Stiletto, the low end wasnt there for me and the top was evil. It cut through but was grating after a while.

I moved over to ENGL and bought an Invader 100....gives me everything a Stiletto can do and much more WITH a nice clear low end punch.

[slysendice]

@ThieleM Was yours a Stage I or Stage II? I played a Stiletto once too, and it seemed really thin and trebly, and someone told me it was probably a Stage I and that the Stage II had much more low end punch.

[ThieleM]

@slysendice

It was a stage 2.

[neepathius]

is it just me or is the marshall a little bit more bassy? i want both of these amps really but i dunno... if they get close to the same sound then i mean i might as well go for the marshall

[danyeo]

Those Mesa Stiletto's have zero bottom end and this one sounds like no exception.

[bornburied]

omg soooo bright!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GiorgioV]

Hi man, nice video but I have to say, I don't agree with the way you did the comparison. As a Stiletto ACE owner myself I think we both agree that everything on noon is far from being the sweet spot on that amp, because the Stiletto requires a lot of taming of the presence and treble on his drive channels. I keep the presence completely rolled of myself, and still the amp is far from being muddy.

Properly tweaked the Stiletto sounds much much better than a DSL anyway, to me at least.

[mammalhandle]

you need to really crank these amps. you cant get a feel for their tone til you get them loud

[cguga10]

Very nice demo!!! I found both very similar, Mesa is brighter and Marshall a little more pleasant to my ears.

[ARGHOSLENT0991]

though i must add, marshalls 1960 cabs pretty much own everything.

[ARGHOSLENT0991]

marshall is warmer and louder. mesa is cleaner and more crisp. theres really little difference here. personaly myself i play a marshall

[kicknadeadcat]

Mesa has a tighter sound, hence the tight button.

Also cleaner sounding gain.

I prefer the Mesa

[divgtrslingr]

It s all cool, by the way other than Boogie are there any other amps u dig?

[MrDolecks]

@divgtrslingr I am actually looking for another amp, I dig the marshall clean and the jmp and handwired series overdrive sound. I like bogner, mesa, fender, Swart, vox, hiwatt and some of the higher gain stuff. I prefer to start with a pedal friendly amp thats predicated around a nice clean and build up from there. How about you?

[divgtrslingr]

Boogie always sound thin n fuzzy, Love the Marshall sound. another thing is the pricing they are way overpriced, just buy a tube amp n put a fuzz box in front of it your friends wuill think u have a Boogie amp.

[MrDolecks]

@divgtrslingr Your ignorance is killing me man haha, either you have a grudge because you can't afford one or you just dont know how to use them; i'm guessing all of the above. Fuzz in front of any old tube amp and your friends will mistake it for a boogie?? Brooooo, learn your shit and stop posting ignorant crap.

[divgtrslingr]

@MrDolecks Do your research dude, n go back to sleep.

[MrDolecks]

What research is that? n go back to sleep? Come on man, at least respond with something of value or intelligence. If you're getting the boogie sound with any old tube amp and a fuzz pedal I would like to know what they are. So please do tell! But don't even bother if you are going to reply with some egotistical bull shit and hold off on the sleep shit haha

[chandler513]

The mesa has way to much treble for me. I dont really like marshall (no offense) but i think it won that by a lot. I'm more of a diezel, and soldano kinda guy.

[Jackthestripper]

I find the Marshall better for rhythms and the mesa for leads

[TheEvilEyewall]

Mesa Booo-gy

[veeragandersucks]

too much gain? lol no such thing

[gottfriedbrux]

Boogie wins again! :-)

[PabloDarioLi]

Is the Marshall DSL50 a reliable amp? or it will break too soon?

[blueheadphoneguy]

a friend told me the tonebone is veeery noisy...is that true? cause i cant hear any noise at all on this vid...

[bjornkom]

@blueheadphoneguy I have no noise issues with mine.

[ThieleM]

@blueheadphoneguy

Mine is dead quiet. It is probably the best ABY on the market

[MrBenCleaver]

@blueheadphoneguy the only reason its noisy is because of the electrical interference from all the DC inputs running off the wall sockets...

[HearingLossProvider]

I love Marshalls, but that Stiletto is too cool!

[polaris20]

They both sound good on crunch and lead tones, but having played both quite a bit, I'd say the Boogie is a bit more versatile. The cleans are definitely better.

[zachsara7]

It's not a "button" on the Mesa, its a metal switch. The Marshall employs plastic switches. Mesa does not.

[Voodutube]

Great video. How hard are you hitting strings? Sounds pretty violent.

[zildojunior1]

Excelent !!!

[HendrixVaughnEric]

Very nice presentation. I own an emerald green stiletto ace 2 X 12 combo and I couldn't be more happy. It's an awesome amp.

Kudos.on the video comparison

[zakkthegreat]

Around drum kit volume, both amps are very well voiced, and sound especially well when used with a dbx eq

[zakkthegreat]

I run 2 of the Stiletto Ace 1x12 combos in stereo with an SG Standard. The other guitarist in my band uses the JCM2000 TSL602 2x12 combo with a Les Paul Studio, and both of us have pedalboard/rackmount setups for effects. I've found that his JCM2000 can almost be too dark and muddy, and even tend to be a bit metally, whereas my Stilettos can be too bright and harsh, and even somewhat brittle sounding at times. Neither one really sounds too great at low volumes, but when cranked to somewhere

[bjornkom]

See the clean demo. It's a LP Class 5.

[123hero321]

I think the boogie has a tighter sound but the Marshall has lots of creamy rich harmonic content.

[bjornkom]

@123hero321

I'd agree to that assessment. In the end, I sold them both. Kept only my black tweed EL84 Peavey Classic head...

[PabloDarioLi]

@bjornkom Why? did you need the money? or you liked the Peavy better? I mean, those two amps(mesa and DSL) are so so great!!!

[bjornkom]

@PabloDarioLi In fact, I liked the Peavey Classic head the best!!!

[takitezy7]

@bjornkom do you believe the sound of the stiletto justifies its price? I was expecting much more from the mesa in comparison the the dsl50

[bjornkom]

@takitezy7 I think a used DSL is the better deal, at probably half the price of a Stiletto Ace, if cost is a priority. Not sure about new prices.

[IanTheGuitarGuy]

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH GAIN ;D

[ESPKannon]

Needs way more volume for this comparison to mean anything. This is all just preamp distortion (which isn't bad, but isn't what these amps are about). I've always hated the Stiletto series (mostly because all the ones I've tried have been very bright/harsh and dry sounding), despite loving Mesa heads. :/ Gotta try one again sometime.

[GuillermoSmyser]

I was hesitant to try the Stiletto. I never really liked marshall amps a whole lot. I felt like you had to have the vintage stuff and have them at deafening volumes to get a good tone. But when I tried the stilletto trident and got plexi on steroids and jcm800 on steroids then that mesa sound with that spongy-ness of marshall overdrive I knew it was awesome.

[Kiittayyy]

im buying a 2008 Marshall dsl 50 off ebay...would u reccoment me to do so?

[bjornkom]

Sure, why not? They're quite nice amps and with some patience, you can get one for a pretty decent price. A good starting point for a journey into tube amp land.

[MyICONIC]

@Kiittayyy

Ive been on the road with a JCM 2000 and all I can say is stay away... The build quality sucks. I got a brand new one and after the third show it break down on me. The rest of the tour I had to borrow another amp. When I got a tech to look at it he just laugh. After that I got me a Mesa Stiletto ACE head and had no more problems...

[byatescmco]

@MyICONIC get a new tech.....i can laugh if ud like