Armchair modding...

[Angstwulf]

After reading all this talk about Hotplates and the LSS I got to wondering...

Which gives better poweramp distortion at lower levels, 4 EL84's and the Hotplate or switching down to 5 amps? and

Could I mod my Nomad 45 to cut the poweramp section to 2 or 1 tubes (rather than just pulling the tubes out)?

Laters,
Tommy

 

[musicbox]

the lonestar runs in TRUE class A when you're running in the 5 watt mode. This is the only time ANY mesa amp has ever run in this mode, and the poweramp is configured in a very unique way, a way that cannot be modified into the nomad poweramp, short of building a new poweramp. the nomad runs in a typical push pull class AB, meaning that it needs a minimum of 2 tubes to put out a signal. theres alot of literature about this on mesa's website, it has to do with each tube creating one half of the frequency.

second point, the nomad 45's poweramp is unique with its dyna-watt whatithoosit, so i don;t know about fucking around. youd have to have pretty extensive knowledge of how the amp worked before you tried anything. best bet would be to use a hotplate and saveyourself the effort.

in terms of the 5 vs. 30 watt thing, their characters will be very different... infact, it won't even sound like the same amp in high saturation, although i cant say which one is nicer. the 5 watt would probably be alot smoother sounding, with a fair amount of sag and touch sensitivity. the 30 watt would probably be alot tighter, more modern. crunchier? if you own a lonestar special, just crank it up and listen.

there isnt alot of people around doing big mods to nomads, probably becuase the circuit is so complex and messy. open the thing up and have a looksy..

good luck in your search for your sound,
atleast your headed in the right direction
Andy.

 

[Angstwulf]

there isnt alot of people around doing big mods to nomads, probably becuase the circuit is so complex and messy. open the thing up and have a looksy..
.

I already have. It scared me.

Thanks for answering and thanks for speaking down to my technical level. I just printed up Randall Smith's article on A vs. A/B and hooboy I've got the overload.

http://www.mesaboogie.com/US/Smith/ClassA.htm

 

[no soul]

If you want it modified, talk to Trace @ www.voodooamps.com

 

[musicbox]

another option if you have both of these amps is to run a patchchord between the effects send of the nomad, and the effects return of the lonestar special. this would allow you to use the nomads 3 channel preamp with the class a poweramp of the lonestar.

you might also want to experiment with using the slaveout on the nomad, and putting it into the effects return on the lss. thisll give you a slightly more flavoured sound than just the effects send as it included the colouration from the nomads poweramp, which is heavily padded down.(its about the same as the lineout on the Mass, so its more than safe for the effects return.)

 

[Angstwulf]

...if you have both of these amps...

I can only wish...