Date my DC-5

hey guys, just wondering if you knew the dates of DC-5 againt their serials?

mine is DC-1400

from the model, it has plastic front switches and not the metal ones.

any ideas?

I would say late 1993 to early 1994. Plastic rocker switches appeared on the first production models of the DC-5 and were later replaced with the metal toggle switches. I actually called Mesa at one point and asked them the same Question you asked and they told me mine was produced around oct. 1993. My DC-5 is at the rehearsal space or i would list serial number. yours is from 1993 - 1994 no doubt

but mine has metal switchs and is dc-611 serial number :?

ya im still confused, the tech i just went to said my amp was older, but not to old...i guess there is a DC-5 B which came later. i had always thought the metal switches predated the plastic switches. also, the resistor that is on the OUTPUT VOLUME POT appeared actualyl soldered to the pot, where the later models had the resistor on the board attached by wires...eh, i dont care that much!

1st of all, somebody should ban this 'opqr347' spammer prick!
All I got from any of his posts was, "Last night I was playing with myself......."



:lol: :lol: :lol:



Anyway,
I can't remember about the switches, and there are a lot of guys here who know a lot more than I do.
The DC-5A has LED's for each channel.
The DC-5B does not. This is the easiest way to tell them apart.

My DC-5 is an 'A' version. It has LED's, and metal switches. It had the following differences from the DC-5B drawings:
Different Reverb Circuit
Slightly different clean channel circuit.

I changed the Reverb to the 'B' version of the circuit and it made a world of difference.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Maybe after the coffee kicks in!

thanks monsta. so mine is an "A" with plastic switches...i guess thats all i really needed to know, so thanks. after the recap, i do know its old enough to turn all the lead wires almost to stone! i wass so worried one was going to snap...but i dont think i am ready for the undertaking to replace them, only to know they will eventually end up in the same condition.

what difference did you get from the reverb circuit? i noticed it looks like the bias control circuit is different as well

There is a lot more Reverb available on the knob now. Before, I had my Reverb at 7, now I run it at 4.
The B circuit also changes the tone of the Reverb slightly.
It's still not as lush as my Twin Reverb's is, but it's very nice for an amp with this much gain!



As for the Bias, I never looked at that part of the circuit. I immediately put a Bias pot in, and a switch to go from 'Fixed' (actually adjustable) to Cathode bias and never looked back.

I can't wait to try the Cathode Bias setting with the new transformers and crank it! Haven't had the time though. I'm buried in work at the moment.

i feel ya, i hated getting my new tranny in and then had to head out to india for 10 days with my amp just sitting there. im so glad the caps fixed everything, sounds so sweet now. My friend let me borrow his Alesis box so i should have some recordings to post soon. What sort of power tubes are you rocking?