New Mesa combo day (my brother built me a custom enclosure)

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bgh

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Joined
Apr 17, 2012
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I have always loved the look of quilted maple. My mouth has drooled each time I see a Mesa combo decked out in it. For years I have wanted to one own a combo made from quilted maple. My brother heard me talking about it and decided to make one for me - provided I bought the wood and supplies. He is quite busy and told me he would work on it as an "in between" project.

My brother is a woodworker living in the "big city" (Knoxville) a few hours west of us. He has built our kitchen cabinets, our fireplace mantel, multiple bookshelves, ... in short, all sorts of things for us. (If you ever meet him, ask him how much he likes the card game "12-up, 12-down").

It took some time for all of this to work out. We met several times to pick out the wood he would use. Then, we met again (with a bunch of emails and videos) to settle on how he was to use the wood (which part of the board would be the top of the amp, which part would be the right side, ... all of that sort of stuff).

A few weeks ago, he called and said it was ready for me to bring the chassis, speaker, and other parts and re-assembled it. I was blown away with how well it looked, and how well it sounded. We cranked it up while it was in his workshop - and man, did it sound good. It sounds different than it did before the makeover. It has a bit more brightness to the tone, and the notes "ring" a bit more than they used to.

I think the amp is gorgeous.

Here are some pictures my wife and I took of it once we got it home:

front_zpsxxoid8nu.jpg

top_zps7poz5jjo.jpg

right%20side%202_zpseioumx4r.jpg

left_zpswd1fuhbj.jpg

back_zpskspvb0dv.jpg


I know the Nomad series does not get a lot of love. It seems to be a polarizing amp - either you really like it, or you really hate it. Even so, I must be one of the lucky ones. Mine sounds great! Most of the issues mentioned by others have not come up in mine (bad pots, too much mids, ...).

I like the amp quite a bit, and even more so with what my brother has done! I am extremely stoked with what he has done, and really wanted to share it with other "gear heads" on here (and some other forums I belong to).

Thanks for reading!
 
bandit2013 said:
Lucky you to have a brother like that. Looks great. :p
I was really taken back when he decided to do it pretty much for free.
DLDTEX said:
Very nice looking cabinet. Your brother does good work. Enjoy
He does. He made our fireplace mantle, kitchen cabinets, ...
gag halfrunt said:
Wow, that's amazing. Congrats!
Thanks!
BoogieHog said:
Wow! That is very nice!
MkIII Renegade said:
Love it! That would have cost you QUITE a fortune if direct from Mesa! :shock:
That was actually where I got the "bug" to get one of these. I saw quilted maple combos on Mesa's site. They looked superb. But they were in a different area code from me (concerning pricing).

This amp already was a "never want to get rid of it" amp. Now, it's even more so in that category.

Guys, thanks for all of your kind comments.
 
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