TA-15: Channel 1 MV does nothing past Noon

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

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

geetarplayer

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
On my channel 1, if I pull out to use the master volume, it has zero effect once it gets to Noon. Everything past that is the same as noon. Is this the way it's supposed to be?
 
Do you mean zero effect on volume ? if you push the master up past 12:00 then you should start pushing the output stage into overdrive and that will change the tone, character and feel, but usually not in a huge way.

My Electra dyne and Royal Atlantic react in a similar fashion. I expect Mesa set up the master control like that so you can control the output stage overdrive for more artistic control :lol:
 
After it reaches maximum volume it'll start to overdrive the power section... so having some play left at max volume gives you more control over how much you overdrive the amp.

As for why it only increases the volume until noon... it has to do with the gain knob. Set the gain near the minimum and you'll have to crank the master right up, whereas gain on full will require you to run the master much lower.
 
My TA-15 is exactly the same - so I think it is a 'feature'. It's not what you expect from a master volume as even when set super clean (i.e loads of headroom in the output tubes) it has almost no effect past 12 o'clock.
At the end of the day it's just one of those ideosyncracies of the TA that you take into account when dialling it in. One thing I like about the TA15 that I haven't found in other mesas is that it sounds stunning with every thing on 12 (adjust volume to surroundings tho'!) and this is where many people start off when dialling in an amp - perhaps the wierd taper on the cut/MV control contributes to this?.
 
Back
Top