Mesa Boogie Titan V12

[Chopthebass]

After a bad experience with a fault on my new DB750, I searched for a quality high-powered head that had the ability to drive 2-ohms. I settled on the Titan because it has some useful features. Two identical channels is extremely useful. These are basically Big Block 750 pre-amps. Plus there's the ability to preset a 'solo' volume and overdrive on each channel. All these cool features are footswitchable.

Within a week, and before I gigged it, it started to distort at lounge volume! Fortunately Westside Distribution in Glasgow said that they have an approved Mesa service company. EMS, not far from me in Southend. I took it straight to them and it turned out to be a power supply fault. 4 weeks later it's fixed and ready for gigging.

Gig night arrived, and with my amp track record, I took along my GK1001 as backup. Anyway, here's my thoughts on the amp:

[u]Construction 10[/u]
Solid thick milled aluminium fascia and knobs. Bomb proof sleeve. They do a rack mount version, but they are no different, and the amp is just slid into the sleeve from the rear, and secured by a timber strap and four long bolts, screwed in from the base. No rack handles, as I considered taking out of the sleeve and mounting in a rack bag. Weighs a ton! With 22 mosfets and 4 valves I guess a lot of the weight is the PSU.

[u]Flexibility 10[/u]
Each channel has gain, overdrive, parametric mid, active bass/treble, passive mid and its own master vol and solo facility. All features are controlled by the included footswitch. 1400w into 2-ohms should give endless headroom.

[u]Sound & Performance 1[/u]
Used for one gig with a CIJ JB75-100US and very disappointed. It was a typical pub gig, and we are an average rock covers band, so you would have thought the amp in this situation would have had headroom and power to spare? Wrong. I used it with my three Aguilar DB112 cabs, giving 2.6 ohms and capable of handling 900w, so there's not a problem there. The amp has an impedance switch on the back that you must use if using 2-ohms. So this was turned on. Basically the amp run out of steam, was running so hot all the facia knobs were hot (not warm) to the touch and worst of all it had a weird compression to the sound. If you imagine a compressor set too high and you loose all attack, but it gets louder as the note decays, well it was like that. I couldn't play quietly because the sound was being boosted. So I had no dynamics. For the second half I switched to my GK head, but had to lose one cab because of the impedance, and instantly loads more power & headroom.

It went back to EMS who tested it and found no fault. Back it went to Westside for them to test. They told me the amp has a built-in compressor/limiter in front of the preamp. So what they did was to make some internal adjustments and they assured me it has made considerable difference. Well that was the last straw. I didn't want an amp that has an un-defeatable compressor in it, and also one that's been modified from standard. I hate compressors with a vengeance. Personally I've always found them to take away your dynamics, but thats only my view. After discussing with Alex at The Gallery, I ended up swapping it for an Epifani UL902c. I'll review that soon, but basically WOW!!

[u]Value for money 0[/u]
This is one of the most expensive heads out there. If the amp is functioning properly, this really is a poor head in my opinion.

Maybe there still was something wrong with the head, but for me, if a new product goes wrong, it puts me right off. So unfortunately my experiences with Mesa haven't been good. I can't fault Westside Distribution in Glasgow. Excellent service and communication.

All the above is my personal opinion, and I'm sure there are lots of satisfied Mesa users out there.

Cheers
Ian Edited May 19, 2008 by Chopthebass

[Platypus]

Sounds like the Epifani is working for you - just as well after your experiences with the other heads. Shocking really, considering the sort of cash involved here (not to mention the weight !)

P

[wateroftyne]

Wow... sounds like a nightmare. Glad you're sorted...

[jaje]

[quote name='Chopthebass' post='200974' date='May 17 2008, 12:05 PM']

After a bad experience with a fault on my new DB750, I searched for a quality high-powered head that had the ability to drive 2-ohms. I settled on the Titan because it has some useful features. Two identical channels is extremely useful. These are basically Big Block 750 pre-amps. Plus there's the ability to preset a 'solo' volume and overdrive on each channel. All these cool features are footswitchable.

Within a week, and before I gigged it, it started to distort at lounge volume! Fortunately Westside Distribution in Glasgow said that they have an approved Mesa service company. EMS, not far from me in Southend. I took it straight to them and it turned out to be a power supply fault. 4 weeks later it's fixed and ready for gigging.

Gig night arrived, and with my amp track record, I took along my GK1001 as backup. Anyway, here's my thoughts on the amp:

[u]Construction 10[/u]
Solid thick milled aluminium fascia and knobs. Bomb proof sleeve. They do a rack mount version, but they are no different, and the amp is just slid into the sleeve from the rear, and secured by a timber strap and four long bolts, screwed in from the base. No rack handles, as I considered taking out of the sleeve and mounting in a rack bag. Weighs a ton! With 22 mosfets and 4 valves I guess a lot of the weight is the PSU.

[u]Flexibility 10[/u]
Each channel has gain, overdrive, parametric mid, active bass/treble, passive mid and its own master vol and solo facility. All features are controlled by the included footswitch. 1400w into 2-ohms should give endless headroom.

[u]Sound & Performance 1[/u]
Used for one gig with a CIJ JB75-100US and very disappointed. It was a typical pub gig, and we are an average rock covers band, so you would have thought the amp in this situation would have had headroom and power to spare? Wrong. I used it with my three Aguilar DB112 cabs, giving 2.6 ohms and capable of handling 900w, so there's not a problem there. The amp has an impedance switch on the back that you must use if using 2-ohms. So this was turned on. Basically the amp run out of steam, was running so hot all the facia knobs were hot (not warm) to the touch and worst of all it had a weird compression to the sound. If you imagine a compressor set too high and you loose all attack, but it gets louder as the note decays, well it was like that. I couldn't play quietly because the sound was being boosted. So I had no dynamics. For the second half I switched to my GK head, but had to lose one cab because of the impedance, and instantly loads more power & headroom.

It went back to EMS who tested it and found no fault. Back it went to Westside for them to test. They told me the amp has a built-in compressor/limiter in front of the preamp. So what they did was to make some internal adjustments and they assured me it has made considerable difference. Well that was the last straw. I didn't want an amp that has an un-defeatable compressor in it, and also one that's been modified from standard. I hate compressors with a vengeance. Personally I've always found them to take away your dynamics, but thats only my view. After discussing with Alex at The Gallery, I ended up swapping it for an Epifani UL902c. I'll review that soon, but basically WOW!!

[u]Value for money 0[/u]
This is one of the most expensive heads out there. If the amp is functioning properly, this really is a poor head in my opinion.

Maybe there still was something wrong with the head, but for me, if a new product goes wrong, it puts me right off. So unfortunately my experiences with Mesa haven't been good. I can't fault Westside Distribution in Glasgow. Excellent service and communication.

All the above is my personal opinion, and I'm sure there are lots of satisfied Mesa users out there.

Cheers
Ian[/quote]



Hi there..I'm new here but i also have similar problem with my TITAN V12 bass head. Could you tell me what did the techs do with your amp to sort the limiter issue.? I'm sending e-mails to mesa techs and trying this way also.Thanks

[Chopthebass]

[quote name='jaje' post='938859' date='Aug 28 2010, 03:01 PM']Hi there..I'm new here but i also have similar problem with my TITAN V12 bass head. Could you tell me what did the techs do with your amp to sort the limiter issue.? I'm sending e-mails to mesa techs and trying this way also.Thanks[/quote]


Sorry - I've only just seen your reply to the thread. I didn't even bother trying the head again after they 'modified' it. Apparantly the tweaked the circuitry to reduce the limiting effect. I don't believe they should even have attempted this on a new head. It would have better to have a defeat switch on the front. On a side, I recently tried a Carbine M9 head and it seemed so potent with a great tone. It could be I was just unlucky with the head and there was something else wrong to make it get so hot, and run out of power. The whole episode turned me right off Mesa gear though. Good luck with yours.