The Mesa Boogie Rectifier Badlander 50 Combo was featured as Musician’s Friend Stupid Deal of the Day at $1299. This price was better than used prices by several hundred dollars, so i had to jump on the deal. A total impulse buy, but perhaps one that is actually worth it.
The amp is said to be more on the Marshall-side of the tonal spectrum, like a Stiletto or Triple Crown rather than a Rectifier. When the Badlander was introduced in 2020, it was assumed that the amp would be voiced like the Vintage/Modern channels of the typical Rectifier series. The Creamback M65 that comes in the amp does give it a more British voice. The speaker is 8 ohms and sounds much smoother than my 16 ohm Creamback M65 that I’ve loaded in various cabs.
With some tweaking, I was able to dial in the Crunch mode to sound similar to Vintage mode on my Dual Rectifier Multi-Watt by dialing back the treble and presence. Cranking the gain on the Clean mode gets some dirt, like a different flavor of the Pushed mode of the Recto Multi-Watt’s Green Channel.
For rock tones, I am generally happy with the Crunch channel’s gain around 2/3 of the way up. The Crunch channel can be boosted with the gain cranked for heavier tone. The Crush channel is a little more loose in the low end. The gain of the Crush channel can easily be cranked, but I prefer to back the gain off a bit if I am boosting the input.
The combo itself is compact. My Vox AC15 combo and Eminence 1x12 Extension Cab are wider than the Badlander 50. The omission of diamond plate makes this Badlander look more like a low gain boutique combo.
I posted some captures on TONE3000 of the amp. I used some synced DI and video clips to make a short video demonstrating some of the tones of the amp.
To be continued.
