This amp was a bit of a long time coming. I played this head, a TA15, and a TA30 all the way back in 2011 or 2012 when they first came out at my local college town music store. I was playing a Marshall TSL at the time, and while I was impressed with the sounds they had, I was a bit of a gainiac and I really was just lusting after Dual Rectifiers instead.
So now in the present, I’ve learned a few more styles, rolled the gain back a bit, and I spend a lot more time doing mid gain rock tones and so on. I’d kind of forgotten about the Transatlantic series, and it seems they never quite took off or sold that way. Since then, Mesa had moved on and started a new “British” styled amp series with the Triple Crown, of which I have a TC50 model. It’s hard not to compare the TC’s with the RA100 since they share quite a few similarities, and it’s easy to see how the design of the TC evolved from the RA, but also how it is aimed a little more at versatility for a wider appeal, which is where the RA was lacking.
I’ve written more about my thoughts here: 2011 Mesa Royal Atlantic RA100
The most notable highlight to me is the built-in power soak, which can be set to a different level per channel. This is a true, speaker load attenuator between the power amp and the speaker, just like an external attenuator box (like a Weber or THD Hotplate etc). The amp is clearly aimed at vintage tones, and the power soak works amazingly for this - you can get some power tube sag and drive at reasonable volumes, or use it to get a little grit out of the clean channel. The only thing that I suppose would be on my wish list for an amp like this would be a switchable tube rectifier, in concert with the power soak that would’ve be absolutely fantastic to play with.
