Mesa Express 5:50 Overdrive flavor?

[JimEff]

Any thoughts on this? Mesa seems to be a love/hate thing on TGP. Can Marshall type overdrive/distortion be gotten from the Mesa 5:50 without a pedal? I'm not trying to perfectly emulate a Marshall (Plexi, JCM, etc), just trying to get in the ballpark. Classic-rock, blues-rock type tones. I went to GC with the intent of trying one out but I guess GC and Mesa have broken ties.

 

[MSLBend]

I'm not one of those people that tries to "nail" a particular Fender or Marshall/Vox tone so my opinion may not be as valid as a guy that has owned dozens of Marshalls over the years and has a higher standard for what qualifies as a credible "Marshall" tone. But my 5:50 definitely gets me what I consider (feel?) that British crunch sound. A lot of range with the Express amps. They still do the creamy Boogie solo sounds, but their grind and crunch tones are great, IMHO.

 

[dangeroso]

I really liked the gain tones on the 5:50, particularly when used in conjunction with the contour knob. It was like a more throaty Marshally type sound (if that makes any sense).

It can get fairly med to high gain without pedals.