Pedals for Mesa Boogie Express +JEM 7vwh

[Big Hary]

Hi Guys ,

Just a day before I bought Mesa Boogie Express 5:50 ,2x12' combo .
It was hard to resist on its clean ,crunch,blues and warm burn tone and power ,plus a very good price I managed to deal....Also, that 5:50 watts thing is amazing tools !

But ,it is still "classic " sound ,even one of the best classic tones I ever heard.

So,anyone have experience or idea what pedal set could be used for making Jem/Mesa Express combination more "modern " in tone ,ie as Vai or JS tone .

My idea is to play full blood classic tones ,and then using a pedal set simply switch on "modern " tone ,and vice verse.
I am playing lots of blues,classic (hard) rock,but lots of Vai and JS as well .

Is such a pedal set possible to be find for Mesa / Evo pick ups combination ? (pedal set price is not an issue )

I don't need chorus,delay ,etc.. I am only speaking about distorsion,overdive,sustainer , eventually pre EQ , very simple and small pedal set ,if you know what I am speaking .

Thanks a lot in advance for your comments and suggestions .
BH

[JayRobIBZ]

This is what I run through the amp.
BBE "The Wah"
Electro-Harmonix Soul Preacher (compressor)
Exotic BB-Preamp
Keeley DS-1
Moen Shakey Jimmy (chorus/vibe)

Amp

the effects loop isnt really important but I might as well go on;

MXR 10-band EQ
Visual Sound H20
Boss DD-5
Dunlop High-Gain Volume

I really like to push the amp's clean channel with the any combination of the drives or compressor. I set the drive on the clean channel to about 3/4 and it really sings when it gets a little push. I usually use the blues setting on the second channel and push it with the DS-1 for a very modern tone but as of the last gig I played I switched it over to burn and set all of the tone knobs to 10. It sounded great with no extra push.

Jay.

[Drew]

FWIW, I've had better luck making the "modern" Mesas sound more classic than the other way around. I was pretty underwhelmed with the Expresses I played - the clean wasn't quite as nice as the F-series they replaced, and the gain channel couldn't hold a candle to the F-series (or the Nomads... or the DC's...). It was great for low-gain blues, especially with singlecoils where it took on an appealing rawness, but not much else.

Meanwhile, a Rectifier on "raw" with the gain a little over half, the mids high, treble low, and bass no more than halfway, and enough juice from the poweramp, and you've got a tone Gilmour could be happy with.