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Enjoying the simplicity of plugging guitar directly into the Street Sweeper today and cranking the gain. It’s not a high-gain amp but it sounds great to me. (And makes me realize how much signal is lost going through my pedals.)

I talked with Alex when Dreamdecay came through a few months back and he mentioned that something like this might be in the works. I think he said it'll be a mother v3 pre with some form of solid state power going on. Basically a super mother for all those bass players who want more than 200 watts.

Aha, I was thinking more like bedroom practice and recording amp. I don’t find that I’m ever cranking my 50 watt head. :shrug:

Reviving this thread because I was wondering if anyone here has both a Science Mother and a Mesa Boogie Fillmore. I'm looking for a great sounding clean pedal platform at lower volumes for my apartment and am considering these two. I would probably go with a 50W single channel Mother with a 2x12 convertible cab. Not sure which wattage Fillmore would be the best pick. Has anyone compared these two and have any opinion? Any other suggestions are welcome too.

Well, I can’t answer your specific question since I don’t own a Mesa Boogie Fillmore. But I do have a Mother mk iii on the way, so I’ll be able to tell you how it does at apartment levels in a few months. I can share a little info about using (relatively) high powered amps as clean pedal platforms in an apartment setting though, from my experience.

The short answer is, just get the amp you want more. Unless you have an amp that has such low headroom it overdrives immediately (maybe Orange Tiny Terror?), most higher wattage amps have great clean sounds at low ish volumes that can be sculpted this way and that. I guess just watch for amps that sound “distinct” when running gainy pedals into them- I’m thinking like the boxy mids thing that Voxes sometimes do, scoopy stuff some fenders do, etc.

I used to have a Mesa Lonestar- it was great at low volumes for clean pedal platform stuff. Same with a Twin Reverb I used to have. I now use a Vox ac30 or a Bluesbreaker for most clean sounds- and they sound great! The Vox sometimes needs an eq to make fuzzes sound right- the Marshall sometimes too, depending on the fuzz/drive. But both are just fine for the low volume apartment application.

I guess the only other thing I can say is all my amps that I’ve thought sounded good for this application have been 2x12s. Maybe it’s the bass content, idk. Maybe it’s just my ego thinking they sound better because the cabinet looks cool with two speakers in it.

I had a Mother mkIII 100 watt as my clean at-home amp for years and I loved it. I ended up selling it to get a combo that I could bring out of the house easily but I miss it. The loudness control is really effective and it sounds good even at low volumes. I generally used it with a 2x12.

FWIW, I tried out a bunch of combos and considered the Fillmore but it seemed too heavy to carry one-handed. I ended up with a Sound City SC20 and I'm happy.

The loudness (master) on most of the amps is great. Retains the grit at lower volumes and doesn't sound too thin. Iirc the Shiv had an attenuator, the MkI Hellhawk has a post phase inverter MV with some tweaks and the Mother was such a clean amp that the getting into power amp distortion was very hard so at any volume up until overdrive in the power amp. The amp's tone was completely consistent. Used all three at home at different times. Hellhawk is the only one I still have. I prefer it's simplicity, tone, and 100 watts with a good MV works for me.

slight diversion from amp talk, but the Science Amps Impulse Responses (which are free!) are really, really good.
https://www.scienceamps.com/irs.html
i got a TC Electronics Impulse to use between an amps line out & my recording interface, and it comes pre-loaded with a bunch of Celestion IRs. The Science IRs absolutely crush them.

Alex's cabs are really well designed and iirc he had a friend who makes pro IRs help make his. On top of that it was an experiment that turned out better than expected so he made em available.

Worth mentioning that right now the only models available are the Mother and Earthling. On his most recent IG post Alex says he's got new models in the works.

I don't have a Mother or a Fillmore, but I do have a 100w Street Sweeper. I love it, it sounds killer. I use it in a very clean platform kinda way. My recommendation would be maybe at least go for the 100w, higher headroom if you ever want to use it clean at higher volumes down the road. Build quality is great, Alex is great. You'd be supporting a real ass dude too. My two cents -

i picked up a used 100 watt HellHawk MK1 a while back, and i absolutely love it. it's huge sounding, but also not fatiguing to play through for extended periods of time. it sounds *good*, not just *loud*.
It's cool that Alex was able to shave off like 4" from the newer head boxes, because this old one is BIG, but it's worth awkwardly lugging it around, because it sounds so awesome.

My boss just got a Hellhawk too lol.

Also has anyone ever noticed that the original Hellhawks have a super unique breakup. But when you throw a strong dirt pedal in front the amp immediately takes on the characteristics of the pedal?

Like it has a very spongy and bass-y breakup like a 60s Super Lead should but I turn on my OCD and it takes on the tight high gain characteristics of the v1.3 OCD.

Mother mk iii is incoming…I can’t fucking wait

ITS HERE. And it’s sparkling.