Recently, I met a producer in town and saw that he had a Mesa Dual Caliber DC-5 in the corner, which is an amp I’ve always been curious about, but have never been able to get my hands on one. The Axe has kept my amp GAS at bay for years, but he was kind enough to let me fire it up... it blew my mind.
They were made in the 90’s and were a transitional amp between the Mark IV and the Dual Rec. I figured since it had the 5-band graphic EQ that it was set up like a Mark Series amp, so I used my Mark IV go-to settings and realized that it was an entirely different animal. The tonestack wasn’t pre-power amp. I bypassed the GEQ and dialed in a killer tone, then uses the GEQ to fine tune it. The lead channel sounded absolutely massive! It had low end chunk and midrange grit for days, with a top end that wasn’t as fizzy as I thought it would be. The tone was flat out MEAN! Now the problem is that the amp sounded so good that the guy won’t sell it to me.
We have a great assortment of Mesa tones in the Axe, so it makes sense that any new amps would be flavors currently unavailable in the unit. After playing this amp, I really think it’s something special that hits the sweet spot between a Mesa and a Marshall...and something I haven’t been able to replicate yet.
So here’s to wishing and hoping. They don’t pop up on Reverb too often (at least the heads don’t) but Guitar Center has several used ones in their system. I’d buy one in a heartbeat, but my wife is making me promise not to buy any more gear for a while.
They were made in the 90’s and were a transitional amp between the Mark IV and the Dual Rec. I figured since it had the 5-band graphic EQ that it was set up like a Mark Series amp, so I used my Mark IV go-to settings and realized that it was an entirely different animal. The tonestack wasn’t pre-power amp. I bypassed the GEQ and dialed in a killer tone, then uses the GEQ to fine tune it. The lead channel sounded absolutely massive! It had low end chunk and midrange grit for days, with a top end that wasn’t as fizzy as I thought it would be. The tone was flat out MEAN! Now the problem is that the amp sounded so good that the guy won’t sell it to me.
We have a great assortment of Mesa tones in the Axe, so it makes sense that any new amps would be flavors currently unavailable in the unit. After playing this amp, I really think it’s something special that hits the sweet spot between a Mesa and a Marshall...and something I haven’t been able to replicate yet.
So here’s to wishing and hoping. They don’t pop up on Reverb too often (at least the heads don’t) but Guitar Center has several used ones in their system. I’d buy one in a heartbeat, but my wife is making me promise not to buy any more gear for a while.