Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 Plus Tube Guitar Amplifier Combo, Vanilla Taurus

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS:

Handbuilt in Petaluma, California (as are all Mesa/Boogie products)

** = New or Improved Features for the 5:25+

• Vanilla Taurus Vinyl with a Wicker Cane Grille
• All Tube Amplifiers: 2xEL-84 Power Tubes & 5x12AX7 Preamp Tubes
• Fixed Bias for consistent, maintenance free performance
• ** Patented Multi-Watt™, Channel Assignable Power Amp featuring Duo-Class™ and Dyna-Watt™ technologies providing three power and two operating class options that are channel assignable via independent Multi-Watt Power Switches:
• Choose from:
• 1 power tube operating in pure Class A Single-Ended, producing 5 Watts
• 2 tubes operating in pure Class A Push-Pull, producing 15 Watts
• 2 tubes operating in Mesa’s proprietary Dyna-Watt™ Class A/B power, producing 25 Watts
• ** 2 Fully Independent Channels with 4 Style Modes: Ch 1: Clean or Crunch - Ch 2: Blues or Burn Modes
• Each Channel Features: Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Footswitchable Reverb, Master, Footswitchable or Assignable Preset Contour Control & Multi-Watt Power Switch
• ** Selectable 5-Band Graphic EQ or Preset “V-Curve” Contour Controls – Footswitchable or Channel Assignable
• All-Tube, Long Spring Reverb with Independent Channel Controls
• Fully Buffered FX Loop
• ** Footswitchable Solo Level Control (Patent 6,724,897) – Over all channels when activated
• External Switching Jacks for Channel 1/2, Reverb, EQ & Solo
• All Aluminum Chassis
• ** 4 Button Footswitch (Channel1/2, Reverb, EQ & Solo)
• Slip Cover
• 1x12 Combo (Width 19”)
• 12” Speaker


Description:

INTRODUCING THE NEW Express 5:25+

With uniquely inspiring Tone and a layout that’s intuitive and easy to navigate, it’s no wonder The Express Plus Line has become one of Mesa Boogie's most popular instruments.

All-Tube and Hand-Built in only Mesa Boogie shop in Petaluma, CA, the Express Plus offers genre-defining sounds, near-limitless versatility and unbeatable value that others can only imitate. How does Mesa do it? They’ve been doing this for 44 years with all the same people... it’s the Boogie Experience – and there are no shortcuts to that. The new Express Plus amplifiers feature four exciting new features that bring them even closer to the flagship status of the Mesa Boogie award-winning MARK FIVE.

Both Express Plus models use the same super versatile, tone-packed preamp featuring two fully independent Channels, each of which contain two style enhanced modes to choose from when creating your footswitching preferences. Channel 1 hosts the blooming low-gain sweetness of CLEAN or the snarling mid-gain percussiveness of CRUNCH and covers the rhythm territories. Channel 2 offers a different face to mid-gain with the howling honesty of BLUES or a high-gain adventure through the searing layers of molten harmonics in BURN. Together these two inspiring modes invite years of solo exploration.

These stylistically opposing modes in the two Channels enable your Express Plus to roam many different genres of music with complete legitimacy.

These stylistically opposing modes in the two Channels enable your Express Plus to roam many different genres of music with complete legitimacy. The R&B, Roots or Blues minded player would find themselves at home with Channel 1 set to CLEAN and Channel 2 set to BLUES, while the Rock, Metal or Punk influenced guitarist would likely prefer switching between CRUNCH and BURN. This ability to reconfigure the Channels and morph personalities creates a Jekyll/Hyde platform from where any classic or modern tone you are aiming at can be found in seconds. The ability to adapt is part of what defines a classic instrument.

Now the Express Plus features a dramatic enhancement in the EQ department with the inclusion of the Mesa time-honored 5 Band Graphic Equalizer! The sliders are added in addition to the original Channel Assignable PRESET contour controls and you can now choose whether you want to use the Sliders or the PRESET in each Channel with the EQ Assign mini toggle. The EQ, whether set to call up the Sliders or the PRESET controls, is also footswitchable as well and can be called up at any time via the Express Plus Footswitch.

Rich all-tube REVERB enhances the spatial quality of your Express Plus and each Channel provides an independent Reverb Mix control so you can get the perfect blend of this beautiful effect for each of your footswitchable sounds. The Reverb effect can be triggered on and off via the included Footswitch.

Outboard Processing is handled by the series EFFECTS LOOP, keeping patching to a minimum and protecting tonal integrity a priority. The Express Plus amplifiers are compatible with most good quality processors and using this feature for all of your rack-type effects will produce gratifying results.

Both Express Plus Models now offer Multi-Watt™ Channel Assignable Power Switching.

Both Express Plus models, the bouncy 25 watt 5:25 with its 2xEL84 9-pin power tubes and the bolder 50 watt 5:50 running 2x6L6 octal-base pentodes, now feature the Mesa Boogie patented Multi-Watt™ Channel Assignable power switching. This valuable feature allows you to run the output tubes in your choice of three different wattage ratings per Channel – very cool right? But what’s amazing is this – each power mode has it’s own tone-spawning operating class and wiring configuration! Choose the full power mode of either amp (25W in 5:25 or 50W in 5:50) for Class AB running in a Push-Pull configuration for punch, authority and headroom. Or, kick down to 15 watts (25 watts on the 5:50) for Class A Pentode for a more silky, vintage voice with enhanced clip potential. And for the ultimate in low wattage power Express Plusion knock it down to the 5 watt mode… now you’re running one tube in Class A Triode wired in a Single-Ended configuration. Obviously Boogie was thankful the patent office saw the possibilities and rewarded Boogie's efforts with a patent, but what excites us is the look on players faces when they hear and feel this power section magic for the first time. The Express Plus 5:25 also features the Mesa patented Dyna-Watt™ Power that creates a time-specific burst of headroom at the initial attack of the notes that far exceeds the rated power of the circuit and gives the 5:25 an incredible sound and feel all its own.

Now that you have an overall picture of the features in your new Express Plus, let’s move on to the specific modes, controls and features.

THE MODES

CLEAN

This is the lowest gain of the four modes in your Express Plus and it is voiced to deliver beautiful sparkling and warm clean chording sounds. The CLEAN mode has the greatest dynamic range of all the modes as the signal here is not compressed with any additional gain as are sequentially, the other three. Because of this more traditional gain structure, many players that are looking for a vintage style response from the Express Plus should be at home here. At higher GAIN settings this mode delivers great old school lead sounds and if you are a player that is reliant on overdrive pedals for a certain sound (although they greatly encourage you to explore the other three modes – especially BLUES - for overdriven applications), CLEAN will likely be the best match for retaining more dynamic range.

The taper of the GAIN control is calibrated such that at the lower settings 9:30 - 11:00 the sound will be very bright and skinny, as you approach 12:00 – 2:00 warmth and richness appears and the signal stays clean. From the 2:30 – 4:30 range a soft fur will begin giving way to a vintage style break-up and finally at its maximum setting (5:30) the signal will be fairly pushed and overdriven. Keep in mind that these are approximate descriptions of the sound and that your own personal playing style, guitar, pickups and most of all touch, will determine how this mode reacts at specific settings.

CRUNCH

This mode excels at higher