Mesa Boogie Titan V12

Finally got my Titan back with the power unit update. Only 4 hours before rehearsal.
Tested it within my punk rock / dirt rock band. And we're loud.
Cabs are two 2x12" SAD with respectively 1000W and 600W. Load is 2 Ohm.
Before the update it only took 10-20s for the amp to go into protection mode.
Now, full power ahead for 90 minutes.
NO FLAWS!

Soundwise this amp is something special. There is a big boomy bottom which really fills the room
and pillows the band. Midrange is somewhat scooped, so you have to work on the mids eq-wise, and
highs are open, clear, without any bite. What really flabbergasted me were dynamics. This amp projects
everything I play without upper bounds, without any power unit compression. Any accent stands out
clearly. But without that clinical harshness that some solid state amps deliver. The Titan's basic voicing
leaves much space for the guitarist's sound, so we immediately found our band sounding better than
ever. EQing was only needed for optimization.

Altough I rated the overdrive as too sweet and soft while checking out at home, it really worked well
with the band. You can dial in a good scoop of dirt without sacrificing your attack. Sorrily it too
boosts the bass frequencies too much, so I ended up setting one channel for a clean sound and the
other channel for a more raunchy, aggressive sound. The concept of switching clean/overdrive within
one channel did not work well.

What comes into play handy is the solo switch. I use it for that occasional slight +3db-push when we
go to 11. Or when I go for slapping as this technique tends to get lost when everybody goes berserk.

Compared to my Thunderfunk TFB750, which is a swiss army knife due to its elaborated eq, and which has
plenty of clean power, I can say: the Mesa Titan V12 has a lot more character, it has a character of
its own, and it delivers superfast 16th notes at silly volumes without any compromise. When the Thunderfunk
starts mumbling and you hardly can't tell whether there are distinct notes or just one long sound,
the Titan nails one note after the other.
Apparently more is better. I like big power amp units. F*** for weight.

Compared to my Mesa Bass Strategy 8:88, the tube 8:88 monster has much more mid range character, it is more
of a giant guitar amp, while the Titan delivers more deep bass and embraces the band.
Both take no prisoners.

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It a took a while, but finally I used the Titan on a gig.
Well, well, well. This is the best sounding amp I ever used. And I went through the whole palette.
What stands out:
- clear separation of guitar and bass. Never experienced before such a clear distinction. We received much
positive feedback, especially from long time die hard fans, on how good the band sounded.
- Punch, punch, punch. No mud. By dialing in or out bass and low mids I have precise control on how punchy
it gets.
I got rid of all my overdrive pedals, went only by a clean, slightly compressing A-channel, and a raunchy,
gnarly, a bit overdriven B-channel, where I could control degree of drive by attacking harder or softer.