GAIN:
In the Badlander, as with most MESA amplifiers, the GAIN is the most critical of all preamp controls.
It’s setting determines much about the character and texture, dynamic content and sustain factor of the sound
and voices the sound in all three of the identical Modes appearing in both Channels.
Each mode reacts a little dierently, but generally speaking, the middle range of the GAIN control provides
enough of everything and not too much of anything. Most of the middle range is supremely useful, and for
almost any style. Best of all, here, the instrument will sound like the instrument, as its character won’t be over-
shadowed by saturation.
For classic sounds, we recommend GAIN be set in the lower to middle region, somewhere between 10:30 and
2:00. This is where you will find the best blend of dynamic preservation and attack mixed with fullness and
sustain, again, without completely saturating the sound and covering up instrument’s character.
One good thing to remember is that the lower the GAIN control is set, the more transparency and top end you
will retain. As the control is increased the top end will start to recede and a fuller, fatter sound will emerge until
eventually, it will be very fat and compressed and possibly even a little slower feeling along with the added
drive and sustain.
Another approach is this; As GAIN goes up, BASS should come down. That is a very general, broad-sweeping
approach, but it is a fairly good way to avoid flubby, indistinct attack characteristics and keep your dynamic
content as prominent and intact as possible. Still, even reducing the BASS control can’t nullify the compressing
and darkening eects created by very high GAIN settings. It helps with the frequencies in regards to preserving
the attack, but it can’t counterbalance what happens to the dynamic characteristics.
The higher region of the GAIN Control is appropriate for Classic, 70s style Rock or overdriven Blues sounds
in the CLEAN Mode, and Heavy sounds in CRUNCH and CRUSH. From 2:00 on up to 5:30/maxed, the sound
becomes very overdriven and filled with harmonic complexity. There are amazing sounds up here, you just
need to learn the ways to preserve attack and clarity through working with the BASS and other Tone controls,
as well as the overall MASTER setting, to retain as much attack and definition as possible.
Start by observing the rule of thumb outlined above: reducing BASS while increasing GAIN, and you should be
headed in the right direction. From there, some fine-tuning elsewhere in the Tone Controls where appropriate,
but once you’ve familiarized yourself with the frequencies and the interaction between the controls, it shouldn’t
take long to achieve a great blend.
Also, many players into Heavy styles and fast tempos looking for the best blend of the highest gain and the
tightest tracking low end possible, tend to avoid cranking the MASTER up past the point where you can start
to feel the power section working, and stop before it is being pushed into clip.
When the power section is pushed into clip with high volumes, the tracking and dynamic character changes as
the recovery time of the power supply starts to increase. There may be times to include power clip as part of
the authentic ingredient to a sound, like Blues sounds or Classic Rock sounds in the Clean Channel cranked,
however you will find the best overall tracking and dynamic response for most styles in the middle range of
the MASTER controls/overall power output.
By all means, when possible, turn the amp up enough to get the power tubes working and doing their magic-
adding fullness and color, but more than that isn’t always better. Going past them adding color to the onset
of clip and farther into saturation will present trade-os in tracking and articulation, especially in the low end
and especially when higher GAIN settings are also applied. Like most of the controls on your Badlander, for
most sounds we suggest using the MASTER controls, and hence overall power, in the middle range for the
best overall response.
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