Out411 - Isle Of Palms, SC

[strangedesign]

Went a a 3 day out411 tour. Went to Isle of Pallms for 2 days then drove the Athens to catch a set at Athfest. We hung out with the band most of teh weekend. Sam let me take a bunch of pictures for the site. when I get hem all resized I will upload them

Hereis one of me next to his rig

[Poster]

Fucking awesome.



That soldano and boogie wails i bet

[strangedesign]

That's michael Howser's head and cab that he got after Mikey died. it's a phucking beast. He was telling me he just can't get the the clean tones out of it. He has a messa boogie amp as a backup that he is thinking about adding to the mix. He just needs a switch to select whch head he wants to play through the mesa cab.

[cactuskeeb]

That was a great amp when Houser played it, unfortunately I haven't really listened to more than a few low fi audience recordings of outformation.

I'm sure he must be more than a little sick of having the heat on all the time but I guess someone else got the other two soldanos Michael had in his stage rig; hence, there's his best option, out the door, in so far as a clean sound to switch is concerned. 

HOWever, if strange would tell him for me that the boogie as a dedicated clean is perhaps not the best option, for two reasons:
1.) A rehab'ed black- or silverface twin reverb (head) is going to provide the clean sound, but at enough watts (it's LOUD) of good clean headroom.  You want the clean amp to be as bold a clean as the the soldano is bold drive/distortion. 
2.) What makes a mesa boogie amp "unique," that is, what separates it from all other amps that came before it, is the fact that in its design, from the earliest of boogies on to the Mark series, etc., the highs and lows are heavily attenuated, not from some wiring mistake, but because mesa boogie design is a process of beginning with an existing great amp, and simply modifying its circuit to block treble and bass, thereby resulting in an automatic mi-range "hump" to occur.  If outformation's guitar player sees Howser's style as forming the core of his own creative out-ward expansion(s) on said core, then he's not going to want an amp that cuts lows and highs to the point of giving a mid-hump to every mesa boogie amp and player thereof.  That's OK for a player who is especially rhythmic-minded with his clean tones (i.e., Trey and his pic, nails, or just flesh attacking the strings in such fashion as there would result his trademark cluck, thwack, or click noise produced along with the notes themselves.   

[Stiles12]

This might be a little off topic but I was reading that the original mesa's were a modded Fender princeton reverbs. is there any truth to this?

[cactuskeeb]

Yes, the original mesas were essentially hot-rodded, classic fenders.