Why does my amp get dirtier the longer I leave it on?

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

camsna

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
580
Reaction score
1
I had never experienced this before. Start the amp (Mk III) beautiful, sparkling cleans. After about an hour, still beautiful, but not sparkling; crunching.

Weird.

Put it in standby for 40 minutes — sparkling again.

As long as I turn the amp off or put it on standby between sets, it stays clean. Leave it on and it goes dirty after and hour or so. And not subtly so. Clean channel is like R2 crunchy.

What gives?
 
I used my mark 3 in 1988 to play Slayer and Judas Priest songs with a Jackson[/quote said:
You lucky dog! Mesa/Boogie and Jackson ruled back then. I had 2 custom made Jacksons, well, still have them, back then but couldn't afford the Mesa so I went with a Marshall JCM 800.

I never played a Mesa until about 5 years ago when I stumbled upon a Mark IV at a pawn shop for $650. I sold off most of my Marshall and Fender amps last year as they were collecting dust. I'll be keeping the Jackson guitars though they never get played anymore. I like my Steinberger GR4 guitars today.

As for the OP, something in your amp is old and needs to be replaced. Don't try to fix it yourself, you'll just get shocked! It's tune up time, just do it, now is not the time to procrastinate over something this important. When the amp comes back and you are howling/barking at the moon, we'll share a drink.
 
Every Mesa I've owned starts off stiff and harsh while cold, then starts to get smoother and more compressed as they heat up. Usually takes about 15-20 minutes of playing before they get hot enough to compress.

The trick is to dial the amp in while hot.
 
Time to check out the clean channel and try a tube screamer until you can afford repairs. I know it's blasphemy,but you said you wanted a clean sound. And if it gets dirty on that channel you know you've got a problem.

Play with every switch/knob and see what happens, you could also take a chopstick and hit the tubes to see if any one of them makes a strange noise.

My Mark 1 is a '91 and I had to get the filter caps replaced because I got it in 2009, sounded like 80 dB on Ten! I got it for a Triple XXX combo straight trade, but a Boogie is so much louder after it was repaired 8) !
 

Latest posts

Back
Top