2006 Mesa Stiletto Trident V2

Overview

This amp was Mesa’s take on a more “British” sound, but based on the Rectifier platform, and it predates the Royal Atlantic and Triple Crown series amps (which are a continuation of that idea, but the execution is vastly different). When I first saw these, I expected it to be sort of like a 2 channel Rectifier, but while you can hear a little bit of that DNA it does sound quite different, and I wouldn’t use a Stiletto as a stand in for a Recto tone if that’s the goal. This particular unit is a very early “V2” model, with V2’s starting around SN 02418.

While it’s no “Recto,” it’s still a great sounding amp and it feels much more aggressive to me than my Triple Crown (I haven’t had the chance to own a Royal Atlantic just yet!), but with a looser bottom end. I suppose that comes from the Rectifier heritage, or maybe it’s an intentional attempt at giving it the ability to emulate classic tube-rectified British tones (such as those from an early Marshall JTM45) - hard to say.

It’s really not productive to compare it to rectifiers, modern EL34 powered Mesas, or old Marshalls because that’s not exactly what this amp does. It’s kind of its own thing that’s hard to describe without getting into the room with it and hearing it for yourself. The various modes give some flexibility as far as channel switching and this “V2” version has much more gain than the V1’s did. I haven’t had a V1 to directly compare, but I have played them in shops and I always felt they weren’t really capable of metal without a boost, but this V2 model set to “Fluid Drive” could easily do metal unboosted, it just might take a little coaxing of the EQ for the best tone. Quite a special sounding amp and a little underappreciated I think, with only 5383 units made (and only 2965 of those V2’s).