Couple of problems

Just wanting to know if anyone else is having these issues. First one is with the foot switch for the Dyne. I will plug it in and it will light up on the switch itself but will not change the channel on the amp. I am going to get a new cable to test it out but with the holidays and work schedule haven't been able to make it to the music store and figured I would go ahead and ask.

The second one is more of a question to see how many other people have this issue, because there probably isn't much to be done about it. Seems to me like the tubes are going out a lot sooner than they should. I have had the amp a year and a half and have been through a few sets of power tubes (all mesa brand) and quite a few preamp (mostly mesas go out, I have a few mullards and tung-sol and they haven't given me any issues yet) and mesa has been great with the warranty if it was within 6 months, bought some extras all at the same time so it is possible I got a bad batch. Now I think it has to do with how hot the amp gets and how much I use it. It is the 27" 1x12 combo and it gets hot, I had a fan that seems to have vanished and I will get a new one. This is my primary amp of choice(I mean how can it not be) I use it twice a week at church but also gig with it and rehearsals so this thing can be used 4-6 times a week I'm always really careful when I move it around also. It had a volume drop last rehearsal so I guess its that time again. This one is more to see how often everyone else is changing them in comparison, and any suggestions are welcome.

bharley said:

Just wanting to know if anyone else is having these issues. First one is with the foot switch for the Dyne. I will plug it in and it will light up on the switch itself but will not change the channel on the amp. I am going to get a new cable to test it out but with the holidays and work schedule haven't been able to make it to the music store and figured I would go ahead and ask.

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I'm guessing you have the toggle on the amp face in the correct position? It is possible that the cable is not working right but there might be a problem with the amp. Hopefully it is still under warranty.

The second one is more of a question to see how many other people have this issue, because there probably isn't much to be done about it. Seems to me like the tubes are going out a lot sooner than they should. I have had the amp a year and a half and have been through a few sets of power tubes (all mesa brand) and quite a few preamp (mostly mesas go out, I have a few mullards and tung-sol and they haven't given me any issues yet) and mesa has been great with the warranty if it was within 6 months, bought some extras all at the same time so it is possible I got a bad batch. Now I think it has to do with how hot the amp gets and how much I use it. It is the 27" 1x12 combo and it gets hot, I had a fan that seems to have vanished and I will get a new one. This is my primary amp of choice(I mean how can it not be) I use it twice a week at church but also gig with it and rehearsals so this thing can be used 4-6 times a week I'm always really careful when I move it around also. It had a volume drop last rehearsal so I guess its that time again. This one is more to see how often everyone else is changing them in comparison, and any suggestions are welcome.

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Well, I play my Electra Dyne just about every day. I got it used and it has the same tubes in it that it did when I got it. No problems at all. What did Mesa say about this? It doesn't make sense to me that 12ax7s and 6L6s would be burning out so fast. EL34s in a Royal Atlantic with the power soak can go down this fast but it sounds like you have a problem. How loud do you run your amp? I'm assuming 'playing at church' means the master rarely goes up over 8:00.

It's possible that the tubes are getting rattled by the speaker (one reason I don't use combos). Either the tubes may rattle until they go bad, or the sockets may be loose. Before you change the tubes, have you tried resocketing them, or retentioning the sockets? You may be throwing out good tubes.

I have been playing my Dyne 1-5 times per week for over a year with the same set of tubes. I also crank it into a power attenuator, so I cook them every time I use them.

Make sure you're using the right cable for the footswitch and make sure the toggle is in the middle. A regular guitar cable won't work right.

+1 on the footswitch cable. When I bought mine, the cable I used to try it out didn't work, even though it was a TRS. Works perfectly with the correct cable.

Thanks for all of the replies. It was the cable for the foot switch, guess it just had a short somewhere in it so that issue is resolved. Volume did drop out again, replaced a set of power tubes and it did fine, all the preamp tubes are doing fine, I think the issue with those may have been a bad batch (all of those that blew were warrantied) but I replaced these power tubes 4 months ago, I think I'm going to give mesa a call on Monday and see what they say. Last time it happened I did contact them to ask, they said it was a common problem and nothing could be done about it but I've searched the forum and I don't think anyone else is replacing them as frequently.