Mesa V twin praise.

[J D Miley]

I would like to comment on a pedal I have had for 18 years. My Mesa V Twin pre-amp pedal is the oldest peice of gear I have. It puts out a big fat screaming overdrive very similar to The Mesa/Boogie MKIIC amp. only a bit thicker. Just good meat and potatoes OD that is a cross betweem Billy Gibbons and Carlos Santana. and is more than good enough for most classic rock and blues.
I have never even changed either of the tubes in it till recently. ( NOS Jan Phillips made it sound a bit more lively)
I have stomped the hell out of it, spilled drinks on it, dropped it. Injured my bare feet on it. and this thing just keeps on rockin. Why Boogie quit making these, I don't know. Mabey they were out shinning thier amps.
Hell, put a V twin in front of a good ole Fender and you have somthing much better than the MK series Boogies.
The only thing I have that is as old is a Rocktron Intellifex and my 1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.
I have another V twin that still sits at the house that I bought new 11 years ago to use as spare. Never had to take it out of the house though.
Great OD pedal.

 

[never-enough]

i agree it is a great pedal.
i love all the options it has as well, like the headphone output, the ability to run it into the front end of a guitar amp or use it as a preamp into a power amp, or straight to the board for direct recording.
i am putting together another rig right now and will be using it to push the front end of my amp using the clean and blues channels, it sounds KILLER. and the pedal can stay in the rack as i can use the 1/4 inch switching jacks to bypass the pedal and change channels. so much versatility!
i also found that a tube change helped open up the tone in a very pleasing way.
my first pedal was stolen when i loaned it to a friend, and i had the option of keeping the cash or buying something else to replace it. it is one of the few pedals that i have rebought as it is just too damn useful.
my only complaint is the slight delay when switching the channels on the pedal.
its like the switches engage upon release and not when you first step on them. but i got used to it after a while.
glad you like yours as well!

 

[JeffOlson]

I am glad to see others like the V-Twin, too!

I love mine. I have tried to replace it with a smaller, battery-powered pedal, but without success (Catalinbread SCOD, Fulltone OCD, Keeley Metal Zone, Mad Professor MRD, MI Audio Crunch Box, Subdecay Blackstar, Vox Satchurator, and I forget what else). Everything I have tried, even if it sounds good on its own, pales in comparison to the massive tone of the V-Twin.

I use the red/lead channel almost exclusively. For milder overdriven tones, I use my new Kingsley Jester.

 

[Ed G.]

I had one around '95 or '96, it sounded pretty good, but I thought it was too loose in the bass response.

 

[Member 995]

I regret selling mine. I did have some reliability issues, as one of the circuit boards got cracked. I suspect that one of my roommates stubbed his toe on it and then threw it across the room. They still fetch a pretty good price on eBay.

 

[Rydock]

Hey I've been really interested in getting one of these for a while now. I was wondering if this preamp sounds good just going through just the power section of a tube amp.

Also, does the V twin have speaker/cabinet emulation for running through a tube power amp and very neutral sounding speakers? How much gain does the solo channel have? I play hard rock and metal.

I always find myself boosting the front of my setups with a tube screamer. How well does it take an OD in front?

This thread came at a perfect time

 

[jmp]

I used one for several years. A very versatile pedal. I used it not only as a distortion/overdrive generator in front of an amp, but also as a preamp straight into a recording deck. I foolishly sold it when I bought a Mark 1 reissue because I thought I would have the "Mesa sound" covered with that amp. A year later when I sold the amp I wished for another V-Twin, but by that time they had been discontinued and I didn't feel motivated to pay more for a used one than I originally had for a new one.

This seems to be a pedal that has become more popular since it was discontinued. Perhaps Mesa should consider a reissue?

 

[never-enough]

Hey I've been really interested in getting one of these for a while now. I was wondering if this preamp sounds good just going through just the power section of a tube amp.

Also, does the V twin have speaker/cabinet emulation for running through a tube power amp and very neutral sounding speakers? How much gain does the solo channel have? I play hard rock and metal.

I always find myself boosting the front of my setups with a tube screamer. How well does it take an OD in front?

This thread came at a perfect time

it sounds great running it into a power amp, it has a power amp out for this purpose specifically.
it also has a recording out but i dont think i have tried plugging it into a power section.
the solo channel has more gain than i can use (being more of mid gainer myself). different preamp tubes can really fine tune the voice of the pedal.
a tubescreamer sounds great boosting the vtwin.
hope that helps!

 

[dosmun]

I use one for practice direct to board. The magic ingredient for me is running a TS type pedal in front of it. It really tightens up the sound a lot. I recnt;y tried a few othee OD's in front but the TS is the only one that seems to work.

 

[hudpucker]

I hated mine for the switching latency. Made it difficult to use live.

Tonally, I had no qualms though. I'm just not a Mesa guy. If you are and find a later version where they addressed the latency then go for it.

 

[Rydock]

Yeah I'm probably gonna pass on the V twin, and save up for a Rec-pre instead. I can get a V twin for really cheap, but don't have the money to justify owning both right now.

 

[franksguitar]

I have one I use on occasion, it's just too heavy bulky for a gig bag. I'm using a Jetter Purple these days.

 

[jcoggins7]

If I didn't have my Boogie, I'd love to own one. Tried one or two before I bought my F-50 and LOVED it. Fantastic stuff.

 

[guitguy28]

Hey I've been really interested in getting one of these for a while now. I was wondering if this preamp sounds good just going through just the power section of a tube amp.

Also, does the V twin have speaker/cabinet emulation for running through a tube power amp and very neutral sounding speakers? How much gain does the solo channel have? I play hard rock and metal.

I always find myself boosting the front of my setups with a tube screamer. How well does it take an OD in front?

This thread came at a perfect time

I use a V-Twin/Tubescreamer rig, but I get a vastly different tone out of it than maybe what you're looking for. I get more of an Eric Johnson/Trey Anastasio sound that way. I use it that way because I wanted to get a sustaining sound without crunch. So I use the gain on the red channel at about half and then have the Tubescreamer as a boost.
The VTwin has that Dual Recto thing going, but it's very warm. I don't think it really crunches up enough for metal in the way you'd want it. The best way you could use it for metal, IMO, is to run it into an amp and NOT just the power section, so you could shape the tone with the VTwin's EQ and the amp's EQ. And, of course, have the gain at full. But still, I think it's coming from a different place than the Recto amps because it's warmer and smoother than any Recto I've heard.

 

[Droptop]

Its one of the best high gain pedals out. I wish I hadn't sold mine, its was built like a tank!

 

[J D Miley]

I use mine in a rack and leave it on and just switch it in and out of the signal chain with my Voodoo Lab Ground Control system. No delay , it is imediate. Here are clips of my Vtwin through a matchless sc 30 nine years ago >> www.myspace.com/davemileyband

i agree it is a great pedal.
i love all the options it has as well, like the headphone output, the ability to run it into the front end of a guitar amp or use it as a preamp into a power amp, or straight to the board for direct recording.
i am putting together another rig right now and will be using it to push the front end of my amp using the clean and blues channels, it sounds KILLER. and the pedal can stay in the rack as i can use the 1/4 inch switching jacks to bypass the pedal and change channels. so much versatility!
i also found that a tube change helped open up the tone in a very pleasing way.
my first pedal was stolen when i loaned it to a friend, and i had the option of keeping the cash or buying something else to replace it. it is one of the few pedals that i have rebought as it is just too damn useful.
my only complaint is the slight delay when switching the channels on the pedal.
its like the switches engage upon release and not when you first step on them. but i got used to it after a while.
glad you like yours as well!

 

[J D Miley]

An Xotic RC Booster sounds very good in front of the V Twin. If you are using humbukers , you can drive the hell out of it. It screams. very thick saturated OD. Ilike it best in front of a clean amo just on the verge of break up.

I used one for several years. A very versatile pedal. I used it not only as a distortion/overdrive generator in front of an amp, but also as a preamp straight into a recording deck. I foolishly sold it when I bought a Mark 1 reissue because I thought I would have the "Mesa sound" covered with that amp. A year later when I sold the amp I wished for another V-Twin, but by that time they had been discontinued and I didn't feel motivated to pay more for a used one than I originally had for a new one.

This seems to be a pedal that has become more popular since it was discontinued. Perhaps Mesa should consider a reissue?

 

[Gtr_Eng]

Had to dig this thread up to relay my recent experience with a Vtwin.

I've had a vtwin rackmount preamp since about '97. I recently changed out the preamp tubes. I've been on a search for a while now for a great high gain lead sound. Been thru many pedals but just couldn't seem to find the perfect one. I've been using the vtwin rackmount pre direct into the board. Mostly for clean tones. Had previously tried it into a variety of amps but never found the right combination.

2 days ago I took it out of the recording setup and plugged it into the power amp junction (under the chassis) of my MBMKIIB combo loaded with Yellow Jackets in Triode mode and an EVM12L. I set the vtwin on the right side channel mode 2 with the gain up about 1/3 to 1/2 way. This gives a slight breakup. Nice warm sound. Push the master up and you start getting into power tube distortion. Sweet. Then I stepped on my OCDv4. Holy #$^& ! Here's the tone I've been searching for all my life. I can't stop playing. I haven't been this inspired in a long time. Turning off the OCD and switching on the BoR gave another inspiring tone. All of the sudden all my pedals sound freakin awesome! I hope the second honeymoon I'm on with the Vtwin never ends.

 

[brewtality]

Same as MCK, I bought a used one and found out it was the V1. With the stock tubes, the sound thru the clean channel of my amp was very warm, not muddy like people say. But I had my bass knob almost totally zero and my treble and presence around 3:00 to get that bite I want. Then I switched the tubes with 2 EHX 12AY7s. Holy ****!! The sound opened up a lot. The bass tightened up so I can now do that fast gallop rhythm palm mute stuff with clarity. I can now ease up on the treble and presence knobs. The gain went down by about 20% but it's ok coz the pedal itself already had tons of gain on tap. Believe it or not, with the 12AY7's, the v-twin now sounds like a Marshall. LOL! The blues channel gave me instant AC/DC tones and the solo channel made instant Zakk era Ozzy tones. I'm so happy with this pedal. I'll be gigging with it soon to see how it performs in a live situation. I'll post an update later.

 

[drolling]

Replace the Clean/Blues black plastic plunger switch in the middle with a proper stomp switch!!!

Install a Lead channel gain control. It sits next to the right hand tube so gets covered by the tube protection but you can tame that beast once and for all and adjust the gain differential between Blues & Lead channels to your taste

GREAT IDEAS, MCK! Thanks!!

Injured my bare feet on it

one of my roommates stubbed his toe on it and then threw it across the room.

HAH! Now I don't feel so bad that I ripped my baby toenail right off on mine!! Never go near the thing without my boots on anymore!

This seems to be a pedal that has become more popular since it was discontinued. Perhaps Mesa should consider a reissue?

At the time they stopped making it, the word on the street was that it was just too expensive to manufacture. And it is one overbuilt sonofa-truck-bumper. Maybe if they outsourced production to China, they could come up with something cheaper..

It's that latency issue that really bugs me. I could never get used to that moment of dead silence in a live setting, so it was relegated to the studio.

I put the weakest tubes I could find in there, but the 'lead' side's still way, waayy hot for my tastes.

The clean channel, however, takes pedals just like a good tube amp, so I mainly use it with headphones, in the wee, small hours before sunrise..