Vid of Trey talking about his rig

[Happyorange27]

Why doesn't Trey just spell out all of his secrets already!  Ha.  Nice work.  Hey could you type the values and the corresponding knobs?  I don't know what knobs those are.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Gripped these from the video.

The treble is much higher than I usually have mine - the treble boost on the volume knob is also pulled, but the overall volume is louder than I can play at home (or probably inside anywhere) and the knobs on a Mesa are so interactive its hard to tell if the treble might get a bit more mild at that volume.

From left to right, what I see on the tape is:
8.5P - 5.1P - 1.8 - 5.5 - 1.93 - 3 - 3.5p - 3
Someone else might see/read this differently. I couldn't tell what the blue tape in the back said, but should be the presence setting. I have my presence at 0 currently.

The "p" corresponds to pull - each knob can be pulled for a specific effect.

8.5P - Volume w/ treble boost (bright) pulled for a shimmer on R1 channel (clean)
5.1P - treble w/ treble shift pulled for upper-midrange drive on the lead channel
1.8 - Bass
5.5 - Midrange
1.93 - Master Volume
3 - Lead Drive
3.5P - Lead Master w/ treble / bright pulled - adds brightness to lead channel
3 - Reverb

I found these settings fairly similar to my Deluxe Reverb (I have the treble and bass knobs at 0, and I have a mid-knob, which is maxed) if I turn the tone knob(s) way down on my TS9(s). The DR might still have some more treble and definitely has more bass, its more sensitive and open sounding, but lacks the punch of the Mesa. The Mesa is far-far louder in the above settings than the DR before the DR starts to get noticeably overdriven. On that note, the DR has a slightly larger cab, which actually makes the amp sound bigger in some ways, not to mention the reverb kicks the Mesa's ass. It was cool to compared the amps again because I had my Mesa set a fair amount darker (not to mention my WGS Blackhawk is darker than a V30) - I am not sure if I will keep my Mesa as bright as it is with these settings, but adjusting my playing style a bit, it works pretty well, especially live I think - it will cut a bit more.

[Happyorange27]

Thanks so much.

The Mesa must be very clean in the clean channel if it can go up to 8.5.  I don't push much more than 3 on my BJ but I keep the master at least at 6.

I bet the treble is set up high for Trey in order to cut through the mix.  I find that when I actually play with a band that I need much more treble.  But playing alone, the treble sounds harsh.  Do you do the same folks?

[Heady Jam Fan]

Thanks so much.

The Mesa must be very clean in the clean channel if it can go up to 8.5.  I don't push much more than 3 on my BJ but I keep the master at least at 6.

I bet the treble is set up high for Trey in order to cut through the mix.  I find that when I actually play with a band that I need much more treble.  But playing alone, the treble sounds harsh.  Do you do the same folks?

100% agree - I love the smoothness when the treble is anywhere from 0-4 without the bright pulled on the input volume. However, I found myself turning up the treble (usually just the bright pull) when playing in a band - the other guitarist preferred I had a brighter sound and I agreed it worked well for the classic rock style, giving my overdrive more bite, but when we played out, I sometimes didn't cut through as well without the added treble. When I recorded my Mesa in the past, I set up the mic to pick up a lot of treble, but still had smooth overdrive due to the amp's dark setting, plus keeping the treble low helps avoid boosting noise.

Yes - the clean channel is very hard to overdrive. I keep my volume below 3 on my SFDR usually (obviously no master volume).

One thing I should mention is that I have my Mesa in the Simul-Class setting, which is 2 EL34s and 2 6L6's. Pics of the back of Trey's Mesa show 4 6L6's, but pics of the front show the half power setting. I didn't think about that when I tested his settings, I will have to try again with the EL34's pulled. I like that the EL34's add some squish and warm mids though.

[Happyorange27]

Well I did that octal conversion so I could put in the larger output tubes.  I have 6V6 in now.  But I could certainly try some of the 6L6 or EL34.  Now I'm curious...

[Heady Jam Fan]

Lol, sorry if I sparked your GAS.

I don't have a ton of experience with various output tubes - they are kinda pricey to experiment with, but here are my thoughts on those three types of tubes:

6L6's are sometimes too... hifi.?. for me - they have a pretty flat response to my ear, but if you like the big, clean sound, they are where its at. Probably particularly in the Mesa, where they are run pretty cold - I don't remember having quite the same reaction to them in my BF Bassman, though that also had NOS Amperex 6L6's. The 6V6 sounds like the 6L6's little brother to me; maybe not quite as broad of a frequency response, but still pretty clean and clear without much compression compared to the EL34's (obviously compression depends on a lot of things).

EL34's in the Mesa are run as triodes rather than pentodes and biased hotter. They add a nice midrange warmth and more compression, but I find that on their own, they lack punchiness and articulation - so they balance really well with the 6L6's.

With Trey's settings listed above, I suspect I would be pushing the 6L6's a little harder than the last time I tried them on their own - I wonder if that will give them a bit more character.

I guess the EL34's vs the 6L6's or 6V6's is almost like Alnico vs Ceramic. Ceramic to truer (more hifi, less artifacts like compression, more articulate), but something awesome happens when you use Alnico IMO. Probably why a lot of people like to mix Alnico and Ceramic in a cab (I think a C. Blue clone and a V30 clone would go great together).

[Walker done done]

That's all very interesting.  I may pull my EL34's and replace with 6L6's.  I remember reading in the MKIII manual that you can do this but I believe it said it may burn out the tubes quicker.  I almost always play at the half power setting with my MKIII - I've only played 1 place that I needed the full power setting, and even then it probably wasn't necessary.

Thanks Heady for writing those settings down.

[Happyorange27]

So with the lead channel on these setting, with no screamers on, would you say it's a fatter sound but not really an overdrive sound?  I'm assuming it's a louder boost when you kick on the lead and just a touch of dirt, but not much dirt.

[Walker done done]

Lead channel on the MKIII is definitely more an overdrive sound than a fatter sound.  I think I have mine set on around 4, so a little higher than Trey, and it's definitely dirty with nothing else on.

[Happyorange27]

Cool.  So adding a screamer or both will surely get you some serious sustain.  Nice.

[Walker done done]

Totally.  Having all 3 going (2 TS's + Lead channel) is pretty heavy duty judy. 

[Happyorange27]

Well with just one channel I use an EQ pedal for a boost which gives me a boost and a mid hump.   I like it a lot.  But maybe a third screamer would be an alternate "lead" channel option for me too.  I almost bought a local TS9DX with the Silver mod on Craigslist for $100.  It's still available actually.

[Heady Jam Fan]

No problem for the settings!

with the first volume knob near where trey has it in the above settings, the lead channel was fairly overdrive, my previous settings had a more mild overdrive. if you use the lead channel with the r2 dirty channel rather than r1 clean, it could get pretty saturated. the fatness in the lead channel comes from the geq set to a mid boost. I've been getting good results with my mxr 6 band eq as well.

[Happyorange27]

I max my hump on the 400 and 800 Hz sliders.  What about you?

[Heady Jam Fan]

ps, this fatness and overdrive on the lead channel is why I posted that volume pedal thread. some leads are fairly clean and less fat, so I wondered if toe down was a boost from his rhythm volume.