2017 Mesa Triple Crown TC-50

Overview

This amp is yet another spin on a more “British” sounding amplifier from Mesa, and I think an argument could be made that it’s the evolution of amps like the Trans Atlantic / Royal Atlantic series. It’s a 3-channel amp, but unlike something like the RA100, each channel has its own set of controls, much like a 3 channel Rectifier series amp. The TC-50 sounds nothing like a Rectifier or Mark however.

Channel 1 has a clean and a light drive mode, and sounds nice and full, clearly inspired by classic “plexi” clean tones. Both Channels 2 and 3 have tight/norm switches, and they are voiced very similarly but with Ch3 having a lot more gain and a more aggressive upper midrange/treble curve. The tight/norm switch changes the characteristics of the low end, helping to accentuate palm mutes for heavier rhythm and solo styles, or in norm mode, add some space and sag instead for a more classic sound.

This is a feature heavy amp as well, with a great sounding spring reverb, with 3 controls on the rear panel so the amount can be adjusted per channel. I don’t find this reverb to be particularly transparent however, and there’s an audible difference in channel 3 when turning off the reverb via footswitch compared to just turning it down on the knob at the rear panel, so I’d recommend using the footswitch (or rear panel switch) to bypass the reverb for any high gain rhythm tone where low end clarity is of the utmost importance. It also has a headphone jack and a “CabClone” line out with 3 cab settings, making it double as a surprisingly versatile practice and recording amp in a do-it-all solution.

The tones from the amp are very good, and cover a lot of ground, but I’m not sure it does anything outright exceptional - but I’m probably being overly critical there. I’ve heard great recorded tones from this amp and it’s one of my go-to amps when I need a “do everything” kind of thing (it spends a lot of time as my living room amp) so it’s a very capable platform. I do not have a schematic for any Triple Crown series amp, but I’d love to see it - I’ve heard the gain stages are very interesting and that it uses a dual-gang pot on the lead channel so I’m interested just how that’s configured (if you have this schematic, I’d love to see it, contact me!).

This particular amp failed on me at random one day. I plugged in and had zero sound, even from the effects loop and recording outputs. Turns out there is a mute function hidden internally on this amp which cuts down on switching noise, and this got latched closed. I spoke with Mesa and since I had to send in another amp anyway, I caved and sent this one in too even though I was confident I could to the repair myself. I was a bit worried about the cost since the amp is out of warranty, but Mesa threw me a really nice gesture and repaired this one for free, so all I had to do was pay shipping one way. That’s amazing and I’m extremely grateful for that, and it’s back and sounding just as good as before. I figure they saw the state of the Dual Rectifier Rev F I sent in along with it and pitied me since I’m sure that’s going to be a very expensive repair!