What's the beef with the Nomad series? My Nomad 100 KILLLSSS

[ctravis595]

I seriously cannot stand the people who say they don't like the Nomad

In my experience, these people threw on a stereotypical Eq structure, gain setting and volume and didn't like what they hear and walked away...

With a tubescreamer, I was able to achieve a thick, full and MUSICAL rythmn distortion channel from channel 2. Channel three is great for gainy leads and solos. Channel one does it's job...

The thing is with this amp, the treble knob doesn't act like a treble knob, the mid knob doesn't act like a mid knob, and the bass certainly doesn't act like a traditional bass knob.

If you read the owners manual, you'll see these pots were designed in a way that instead of getting a black and white difference with each knob to set, you can find a multitude of "sweet spots" and in-betweens. They tend to "shape" the treble rather than actually increasing trouble. The presence control is also very unothordox, you just have to get used to it

Another thing that really got this amp to sound good for me, was some good JJ 6l6 tubes from dougs tubes. I tried el34's in this amp and idk what that's all about....not my cup of tea...

My only real drawback with the nomad design is the lack of reverb. The reverb tends to saturate the tone instead of actually reverbing it. Nothing a holy grail can't fix...

Once I got extremely familiar with modding my amps, and the nomad in particular. I decided to do the popular "mudmod", the "fx loop capacitor mod", the "xtreme switch mod", and also the "fx loop to series mod"...and HOLY CRAP did this transform this amp into a semi-impressive amp. Into a complete and total tone MONSTER. This thing RIPS...I don't even need a tubescreamer anymore...I gave it to my other guitarist...I get compliments on my tone everywhere I go...I'm using an EMG 85 in my bridge so it's not like I'm using a crazy nice guitar either

Again, channel three sounds like a great lead to cut through the mix on demand (i don't switch between channels at all). Channel 2 is SWEET. everything i could want from a crunch channel. so full sounding that sometimes i wonder if i even need a reverb in my fx loop...and only after these mods (fx capicator mod in particular) did this amp really start to sing on the clean channel...very beautiful sounding

Still have some experimenting to do with the reverb mods...

Another huge thing, the mesa 6l6's sound like crap in these amps...we A/B'd in the studio and all I got was unwanted amp noise with the mesa tubes....too scratchy and gainy sounding. Make sure you get some JJ's and a tubescreamer if you dont' want to mod it

Lastly, check out the tone I was able to get for my bands album. I write everything and play rythmn/sing. The rythmn tone is my Mesa Nomad 100 with the fx series mod, xtreme switch mod, mud mod but NOT the fx capicator mod. I also used a tubescreamer

my guitar is a ESP viper 1000 deluxe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr8i1eT994k

 

[dodger916]

I had a 55 combo and didn't like it. It was the first Mesa I owned, and I felt somewhat short-changed. I was able to find some good tones, but it was just a bit too "sterile" for MY taste. My next Mesa was a Mark IV which was much more satisfying to my ears, but the simpler signal path in a vintage Mark II was what my ears were longing for. Glad you're enjoying you're 100. Many people here love their Nomads; many did not.

Oh, and welcome to the Board. Starting your first comment with "I seriously cannot stand the people who say they don't like the Nomad" seems a bit harsh. Tone preference is subjective, everyone has an opinion, and this board has a good reputation for being civil and constructive. Lots of great folks here with vastly different ideas of "good tone". These differences inform us all...

 

[bgh]

I have both a Mark IV and a Nomad. They are both good amps, but cover completely different territory for me. The Mark IV is my go-to for cleans and leads. But, for a thick sound, the Nomad is where I lean. My Nomad is the basic black model. I am wanting to re-do the grill cloth (I started a thread on that), but have not been able to get going yet on it.

To the OP - Glad to hear about your success with the mud-mod. I am seriously considering it for mine. From everything I hear, it makes a good amp even better.

 

[deeman]

When i see the title of this thread, all i am reminded of is

In all seriousness, I tried out a nomad many years back and it didn't meet my needs. Doesn't mean it isn't a great amp. Love it my friend.

 

[scoobyzjr]

I owned a Nomad 55 2x12 and a Nomad 100 head. I tried to like both, but could not do it. The 55 I wished had the 5-band graphic EQ of the 100 watt head. The head had a good channel 1 clean tone, but channel 2 was too muddy for me. I am glad you are enjoying yours. Congrats!

 

[ctravis595]

i do see how i could have come off as brash and for that, my apologies

i'm just very passionate about my mesa =)

and also spreading the word about my music

thanks guys

i personally think the downside to the 55 is it had no negative feedback switch. i modded mine to emulate the no feedback circuit or whatever on the nomad 45 model and it really livened things up. a lot of people either seem to like the 45 (feedback switch, dif tubes also but not a huge game changer in my opinion as compared to circuitry) or they liked the 100 because of the built in eq

modding the 100 to achieve the negative feedback removal gives you best of both worlds

 

[ctravis595]

wow okay everything is starting to make sense...

just bought another guitar with some seymour duncans and i played it through my amp and realized why no one likes these amps..it was lifeless and quite dull

but this whole time i've been falling in love with my nomad, i've been playing with my active EMG pickups

it's literally night and day difference. the emg's have punch, the chords sound full and even with distortion each note sounds clear. the seymours sound good (mostly the single coil tone) but still nothing compared to my EMG's

i know emg's aren't super highly regarded but in my opinion they are a MUST for the nomad

 

[Ylo2]

The EMGs are active pickups and your sound suffers less treble roll-off through the guitar cable. As the Nomad is a dark amp (at least relatively, and with most speakers), EMGs help 'take the blanket off' if you are using a long cable (like 15 feet or more).