mesa boogie V-twin pedal

[bluesbrother]

I just scored this one on the net. I have not tried it but i fancy the clips on you tube.
They are no longer made and so i could not try it and it is too far away....so the pedal
will be sent to me. I like the thick , compressed ,fat bluestone it can give.I hope it
maybe also can give a kind of carlos santana tone.???????I know a mesa boogie amp
probably be better but that way i keep buying amps and mesa boogies are extremely expensive in europe
A big plus is that it is in fact a preamp that can be used in many ways: direct recording,headphones etc
I promise you guys a review , i recall that there was a lady at this forum with this pedal but she never responded
about this pedal in a previous topic

[bluesbrother]

Today i received the mesa boogie v twin preamp pedal.
Connected to my vintage modern set in low range.O my god ......
This device turned my marshall straight into a mesa boogie amp!
The soundquality is the same as the amp in high range with no pedals,
The v twin is capable off a tad more gain than the vm in high range.
The v twin reacts just as good on the volume control of the guitar as the VM.
I can use the solochannel and get all the sounds with volume control on the
guitar.This means i can switch between low/high range ... ...full range mesa boogie/full range marshall
This way i could really hear the differences . The mesa boogie sound is more aggressive and darker and little
more compressed ( without getting muddy).
The carlos santana sound is right there!!! A nice fat blues tone too!!! It delivers all i wanted :dance
The VM is too clear and open sounding to get this sound perfect.
You can not call this a pedal because it is a tube amp preamp ( not 100% ) but this preamp is just as good
as the one in the VM.I can understand why mesa boogie stop making these because if you have one it is just as
good as a real mesa boogie amp.
I am thrilled to have a amp that can switch now between the mesa and marshall sound.
this is really the best of the best.
:blues

[Spotted Dog]

Sounds like a winner bluesbrother! I've heard good reports on that pedal, I sure love my lone star head :party

[DeanM]

well you cant really say its as good as the VM preamp if the signal was still goin thru the VM preamp aswell after the Vtwin! cos the VM preamp even set clean on low range may still add some colouration to the tone.

try this....plug into the V-Twin and then from the V-twin into the effects return. that way it will be vtwin preamp VM power amp. see how that compares!

but anyway that is just me being too technical!! :high either way it sounds like a cool pedal!! i was thinkin of gettin it one time!! but cudn find them locally! so i tried to find a schematic for them to see if i could build one!! but i couldnt find the schematic either!!

if it gets a carlos santana tone then it cant be bad!!

on a side note....i got carlos santana cologne once!! that was also pretty smooth!! get it? smooth!!

[bluesbrother]

well you cant really say its as good as the VM preamp if the signal was still goin thru the VM preamp aswell after the Vtwin! cos the VM preamp even set clean on low range may still add some colouration to the tone.

try this....plug into the V-Twin and then from the V-twin into the effects return. that way it will be vtwin preamp VM power amp. see how that compares!

but anyway that is just me being too technical!! :high either way it sounds like a cool pedal!! i was thinkin of gettin it one time!! but cudn find them locally! so i tried to find a schematic for them to see if i could build one!! but i couldnt find the schematic either!!

if it gets a carlos santana tone then it cant be bad!!

on a side note....i got carlos santana cologne once!! that was also pretty smooth!! get it? smooth!!

On e-bay they ask rediculous prices for it. I was lucky and got it for a reasonable price ( 260 euro)
and the pedal is in very good state.
From what i red a pedal called matchless hotbox give a very similar sound.
Even in the return you will have a coloration of the poweramp and speakers.However i tried it through
headphones (headphones output + switch on the side through headphones.) but this pedal is so powerful
that the speakers in my headphones can not really handle it. I think it sounds best in front of the amp and
set the amp as clean as possible.So technically you are right but i just compare the sound with high range (without pedals)
and then it is extremely good.....

[DeanM]

On e-bay they ask rediculous prices for it. I was lucky and got it for a reasonable price ( 260 euro)
and the pedal is in very good state.
From what i red a pedal called matchless hotbox give a very similar sound.
Even in the return you will have a coloration of the poweramp and speakers.However i tried it through
headphones (headphones output + switch on the side through headphones.) but this pedal is so powerful
that the speakers in my headphones can not really handle it. I think it sounds best in front of the amp and
set the amp as clean as possible.So technically you are right but i just compare the sound with high range (without pedals)
and then it is extremely good.....

yeah in the return of the loop you will still be goin thru the phase inverter. but it would bypass the gain stages and tone stack.

yeah i read back over it and i realised you wer comparing it to high range more so than the preamp, which does make more sense!!

yeah those type of tube preamps are very expensive! did you get a good deal on yours? iv seen some for around 300euro! but the blackstar HT line looks good too and is more reasonably priced! but i thought for the prices tube preamps come at i could build a tube amp myself for the same costs! i actually came across the hotbox before! but instead of building a tube preamp i decided to just build a low wattage tube amp! the parts have been shipped and are on their way!! cant wait to start building it!

[bluesbrother]

As you can read in the post i paid 260 euro for it.
The backstar pedals i tried but they come no where near the V-twin IMHO.
I wish i could built amps....would have saved me alot of money.
The V-twin in front of a lowwattage amp could change it into a fourchannel amp: clean(in byepass)/cleanboost/
blues(crunch)/solo(higain).
I am still in search for a small portable amp ( one speaker) that has alot off clean headroom and then i stick the
V-twin in front of it. Lowwattage amps i tried many times but they do not have enough clean headroom for me.
Maybe a high end ( like a roland JC-120 or lab series L5) solid state amp would fit this purpose???

[bluesbrother]

Fortunately i got a big and strong selfmade pedalboard ....this thing is made like a tank

DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO MAKE IT SMALLER

[lowenzz]

That pedal looks more like a floor model style preamp. I'm guessing they cost a couple dollars when they were new.

[bluesbrother]

That pedal looks more like a floor model style preamp. I'm guessing they cost a couple dollars when they were new.

Last year i saw this pedal brandnew in a store which was the last one. They asked 750 euro for it.......
I really wanted it then also but for that money you can get a complete tube amp

connected to low range
the clean boost mode : gives you a very rounded and warm fender twin kinda tone
the bluesmode : nice crunch with the right amount of drive perfect for blues.
the solomode: this is the best one because it gives you high gain and grit that goes much
further than the high range on the VM

For blues this is a very good pedal but for me it excels for the carlos santana tone. It is
spot on with this pedal. When i play along with a CD ...the tone is the same
For the tone on Europe i use the solo mode with the volume on the guitar on 3
For the tone on samba pa ti i use the blues mode with the volume on the guitar on 7.
The only downside for alot of people is that the left switch is on/byepass the right to switch
between two channels clean/ solo or blues/ solo with the little knob in the middle you can switch
between clean/blues.This pedal turns any amp straight into the sound of a mesa boogie.
For the price i paid this will be a keeper especially they are no longer being made so already a collectorsitem
that will rise in value. They are still be found on ebay ( now and then ) and are a good investment if you want to
sell it in the future

[DeanM]

Last year i saw this pedal brandnew in a store which was the last one. They asked 750 euro for it.......
I really wanted it then also but for that money you can get a complete tube amp

€750!!!!