Mesa Studio Preamp reverb

[Ariel Lobos]

Hi Everybody

I purchased a Mesa Studio Preamp time ago and after that i bought Tommy Huff´s cabinets and 15´´ Black widows. Time to put all the stereo system ensemble but we discovered the Pre came without the spring reverb. It has the space to add one. I plan to use it with a lexicon PCM 90 but i want a spring reverb in it also. It seems the Mesa units are discontinued. We were thinking in a fender style type and one of them i really like it is the one that comes in the Steel King,(long decay), or the twin reverb´s one. The original unit was a medium decay. What you think? Any advices or suggestions?
Thanks!

[Bas Kapitein]

A long tank is to big for the space. I had one of those great preamps but the spring reverb was not very good. A long tank is to big for the space. There are a lot of digital reverbs that are much better.

[J Fletcher]

So , all the reverb electronics are in place , tank drive circuit, tank recovery circuit , just missing the tank ?

[Steve Hinson]

If you can get somebody to get you a number off an original Mesa tank, you might be able to cross reference the number and find a suitable replacement...

...or...you could buy a Catalinbread"Topanga",which is a pretty fair copy of a Fender tube reverb tank in a pedal...

OR:

...get a Strymon"Flint"...reverb and tremolo in one pedal...

To my old tired ears, either one of them sounds better than the spring tank they put in the MBSP...I didn't particularly care for it and never used it.

Good luck
SH

[Fred Treece]

I agree with you, Steve Hinson. Mesa Boogie may have gotten everything else right about what a guitar amp should be, but their reverb tank was useless. I took it out of my Mark IIc almost immediately and used Boss digital verbs for the next 15 years with it.

[Ariel Lobos]

Thanks guys. My tech said we can try the Accutronics/Belton short tank but long decay, do you now those ones?

[Ariel Lobos]

J Fletcher, yes, exactly