Need input to resolve an issue with my Roadster

Hi guys!

I bought a new Roadster about 2 ½ years ago I absolutely love it!

Since I bought the amp, I haven’t touch any preamp tube except the V1 (Tung Sol).

As long as powertubes are concerned, I think I changed the quad for Ruby’s the moment I purchased it, considering I loved the sound of those in my SR. I’m saying "I think" because I’m pretty sure I haven’t changed any tube in the amp for about 2 years! (I use it for about max 8 hours a week)

I’m posting today because I recently noticed a slight drop of volume mostly on the clean channel (channel 2), but also, my dirt tones (channel 4) seems slightly gainless. I play with a good cable, pretty much new, so I seriously doubt it would be the trouble here. I haven’t pluggued in directly into the amp so far, but since my pedalboard is likely to suck a bit of tone, I don’t think that would be a fair comparison.

So my question is, do you think the power tubes are the cause of this issue?

Thanks a lot!

Have you done any preamp tube troubleshooting? Take a new/known good 12AX7 and swap it into each preamp position, one position at a time. Test the amp in-between each swap to pin-point the tube that is potentially causing the issue.

We recommend new power tubes every 1.5 - 2 years of regular use. When changing power tubes - if using non-MESA tubes, be sure to get correctly rated tubes for the amp. They require a tube with a mid-range current draw.

When troubleshooting the amp - always remove any pedals from in front of the amp or anything in the fx loop. Thanks!

Thank you.

I planned to troubleshoot as you told me maybe this weekend, however I didn’t have the chance to do anything, in the middle of my rehearsal yesterday evening, in a middle of a song my amp decided it was enough! No more sound. I changed my cable, nothing. I pluggued directly into the amp, switching the channels from behind the head, all I could hear was a thiny tiny sound from 3 of 4 channels. My channel 4 (that I use for my heavy chugging) was trying so hard to give me some dirt, but was mostly clean. My channel 2, where the sound was pretty low lately, was hardly producing any sound. Since I didn’t have much time and the tubes were still hot, I’ll check this out after work today.

Note: The powertubes were still Mesa’s stock ones, because I recall didn’t wanna void the warranty. I'll put my Rubys in later today, and pray everything will come back to life.

Hi guys,

I wanna thank you for hearing me out.

I just can’t believe what the problem really was… After I changed the powertubes and the V1 tube without any change or whatsoever, I decided to use my other guitar… ya know, in case! WELL, I haven’t encountered this kind of problem with a guitar before, so the amp wasn’t to blame… Humility lesson here! Sorry and thanks again!