Mesa Blue Angel owners: help please!

[hobbes1]

i have a BA 4/10 combo and i want to get a multieffect unit to run in a 4 cable method. can anyone offer advice on which one you think will be a good sounding match for this amp? cost is an issue and should be new or used cost <$500 (as far below as possible :)
I'm thinking M series by line 6, tc nova system (not 4 cable method i know), gt series by boss, me series by boss...what works well with the BA and gives good
low to medium gain OD/dist. i don't play high gain stuff so i don't care about that.
thanks

[guitarnet70]

I would go for an M13....IMHO

[Mincer]

Ive used both an M13 and HD500- but direct into the front of the amp. It sounds great that way, and no need to bring/hook up the other cables.

[hobbes1]

so these work well with the BA? good to hear. thanks!

[MJ Slaughter]

Unfortunately I don't have a Blue Angel, I hear they're great amps, but I do have a couple of Mesa DC's. For control and flexibility with a real amp I find the Boss GT-10 is hard to beat. If your BA has a parallel loop you may want to mod it to serial to run your effects of any kind there. I even fined some of the OD/dist models quite usable though I have since added a TC Electronic Nova Drive because it's midi controllable.

What kind of effects and control are you looking for? Have you posted this question over at the Boogie Board?

[hobbes1]

Hi, MJ
i have posted this at the boogie board...no reply thus far.

i am looking at being able to use OD/dist to augment the fine OD i can get from the BA. i usually run the BA at volume 1-2 o'clock and that's a good break up area. sometimes though i want a clean BA sound (which i love) but want to be able to step up one or two notches to light to moderate drive. as the BA is a single channel amp, i'm looking for flexibility to have two to three channels (crunch and lead) while also being able to drop the OD and just have the BA and some great chorus/delay/phaser/flager. etc on tap.
The BA does sport a parallel FX loop...not sure of modding it though...
thanks for your input

[papa taco]

I had a BA years ago. What a great sounding amp. I didn't run a lot of effects with it though as I was the singer, rhythm guitar player and our lead player had tons of effects at his disposal.

I do recall it was pretty picky with overdrives. I sure liked it with a fuzzface type pedal in front of it, especially when run into greenbacks. The good thing about fuzzface type pedals is how they clean up into varying shades of fuzz/overdrive/gritty clean depending on where you set your guitar's volume. Just an idea.

[hobbes1]

thanks, papa. that's a good idea. right now, i have a good chorus and delay pedal i like but it'd be nice to be able to have MFX all in one unit. i really don't want to waste any time if i can help it, trying out various units (and the buying and selling of them). hoping to get feedback from anyone who already has tried and can state this is cool or this sucks re: a given unit.

[Mincer]

The M13's Tube Screamer emulation sounded *identical* to my Tube Screamers, and sounds great into the front end of the BA. The BA's effects loop is parallel, which could allow you to mix in modulation models from the M13, but I never bothered- they sound so good plugged directly into the BA's input.

[hobbes1]

thanks, Mincer. so you never tried any of the FX in the loop? is that right?
if you did, even briefly and recall how things went, please elaborate.
thanks

[Mincer]

Yes I did. I didn't notice any improvement- in fact, it was harder to get the levels situated right.

[hobbes1]

cool. thanks for the tip. i'm down to just the M13 or the NOVA system....decisions decisions...

[scorched]

I've got a 1x12 Blue Angel. When I was playing it alot I used a Boss GT-10 into the front. The 4-wire didn't sound so great in that amp for some reason. I just used the od switch for clean boost and the switchable loop for my OD pedals. A little delay or EQ but thats about it. I use the GT-10 as a controller for an AXE Fx now. Basicly using it the same way. The 4-wire method worked much better on a Mesa Mk IV I had but the BA - not so much. Great little amp though. Its the only tube amp I have left. Pretty much full time into Axe Fx into 2 K12's.

[hobbes1]

thanks, scorched, for your thoughts...