Nomad questions

Hi mates
i found a used Nomad 100 (with eq) to buy

As i never tested one i would like you to share some thoughts with me....
i'm not looking for a recto tone - i have one - but mostly for decent/beautiful cleans and a liquid smooth solo tone

So i have a couple of questions.

1) is the "vintage" mode like the known "orange" mode? i mean is a duplicate/copy or something? (i love orange mode)

2) i've read many divided opinions about nomad's tone and reliability and i'm kind of worry...

i know that is strictly subjective issue but give me your input...

The Nomad 100 is a much maligned black sheep of the Mesa family, as you'll see by going through the various threads about them on this forum.

I got one of these about 18 months ago, and while I thought it was ok, I was constantly tweaking it to see if I could get a little more out of it. A couple of months ago, I did a number of the mods researched and detailed on this forum and since then it has become an amazing amp that I've completely fallen in love with. As far as far as features go, it;s hard to beat the nomad, three channels, silent recording out, slave out, graphic EQ - and once you get it modded a little it becomes an absolute monster.

It's doesn't really do recto, and the Nomad orange channel is not the same as the recto orange channel, but there are a lot of great sounds to be had. Check out the Nomad Mods a visual reference thread. It condenses the 11 page Nomad Mods thread into a very succinct list of ways to get the most from it. The most useful being the FX loop brightness cap mod, and the Negative Feedback loop mod. These two alone will significantly improve the overall responsiveness of the 100.

I'm an owner of a 100W Head w/GEQ, and have a love/hate relationship with the amp.

It sounds better than my heartbreaker that I love, but it doesn't feel right.

Changing from Mesa STR430 Greens to Yellows (earlier power tube breakup) made a huge improvement to the feel of it. I only run it on 50W mode now and push the power section as much as I can stand. That really helps Ch1 and 2 reach their potential.

The cleans are absolutely superb. The pushed ch1 is great. Ch2 with the gain about 10:30 (with early breakup power tubes) is incredible. Ch3 is.......hollow, gritty, articulate, toneless.

So you see the dilemma.

As far as reliability is concerned. I gigged with mine about 70 times, and haven't had one issue with it. The pots don't scratch, no funny smells. Its been great.

Ultimately, I'm sure I will discover what I did with my Heartbreaker. That a Mesa C90 speaker really isn't the one to make this amp rock. Give it a whirl through a Rectifier 2x12 with v30's. I'm sure that's what was hooked up when I bought it on the spot hearing it in the music store.

I don't think its a lot different than a lot of mesa amps. It tries to cross a lot of genre boundaries. That's a difficult chore for any amp, as what we understand tone to be came from single channel amps that were fitted to a "T" with guitar, amp, tubes, speaker all matching for perfection.

I suppose that's why the Nomad is subtly disappointing. It is a jack of all trades, master of none, and that's frustrating, but inevitable. You can optimze the heartbreaker around the lust or love channel because of the fully independent signal paths on the preamp. The Nomad uses the same v1 tube for the clean channel as it does for the 2 gain channels, and the 2 gain channels share all their tubes. Optimizing is difficult. It's nominally a three channel amp, but you should probably understand that sooner or later one of the channels just isn't going to do it for you, and there's nothing you can do about it. Expectations are everything. The on-board EQ helps an awful lot.

Mates thanks for your inputs, they are really helpful....
Actually i did a small search the last few days and the mods issue runs a lot. I don't know if i would like to go to a path to make mods. Dunno...
On the other hand the amp is a head and i already have a the Mesa 2x12 180w 3/4 open back cab, so maybe they'll match together.
I don't want a huge/metal bottom end. I prefer sparkly cleans and a liquid smooth solo tone hence the open cab.
anyway...
V

Check out the amp. The 100 has an EQ, so you may be able to avoid mods all together, depending on your approach to your tone. I did find that the most effective mod is the FX loop brightness cap mod. The replacement of the one cap turned a trader into a keeper for me.

My tone approach is at least for lead sound a liquid, smooth, sax and fat woody tone.
I play jazz/fusion and i like players like Holdsworth, Henderson etc.
I thought that maybe the 100w (+eq) in collaboration with the "vintage" channel would give me that kind of tone.
I used to have the roadster and vintage channel was spectacular especially slightly boosted.
Unfortunately i don't have rs anymore due to financial reasons but i can afford this nomad.
I thought that maybe is the same orange/vintage channel also in Nomad

All you can do is give it a try, preferably for a week or so, so you feel like you made a sound business decision either way.

Ch2 with the gain at 2:00 oclock or so is pretty close to a Santana tone, sort of a Marshall take on the MK1 classic tone. Its rounder and not quite as "sax-y" as the original Mk1 tone.

The Heartbreaker, on the other hand, actually has both the MK1 tone (Love Channel high Gain/Boost) and the Nomad Ch2 tone (Lust Channel, High Gain).

Both amps have excellent cleans. The Heartbreaker has a Fender Twin clean on the love Channel, and a JTM45/Bassman clean on the Lust channel.

The Nomad only presents 1 clean option and it is more like the clean voicing on most modern boogies with something a little extra special than most (due to paralleled v1) but neither fender nor Marshall, but a good sounding modern clean tone.

Just wanted to point out to whoever has a Nomad that Channel 3 may have a purpose, yet.

The volume control on my guitar does not have a bright cap. If I put the Nomad gain on about 10:30 or so, where it sounds ok, then turn the volume knob on the guitar down to about half, I get enough treble and presence, but no more bees, and the tone isn't half bad.

Maybe it does have some blues capability after all.

That was with EL34's. Funny think about the EL34's is that the sweet spot for the tone controls was very often with most of them in the 12:00 position. YMMV.

I've got the Heartbreaker and Nomad side by side in my music room just waiting for the wife and kids to leave me alone with them for an hour or two so I can figure out what direction I want my Nomads mods to go in. If it came down to my Heartbreaker or the Nomad, it would be an easy decision. Wish the Heartbreaker had a boost though. I've been running a Boss EQ in the effects loop for a boost, but think I'm overdriving the Boss into transistor overdrive from time to time. I use pretty high Channel Master levels, and don't care to back them off.

My main amp is a newer Dual Rectifier, but I still love playing through my Nomad 100. It's a great amp that can do a lot of things. I think is has qualities of both the Mark and Recto series. Not quite either one, but can get in the ball park.

It is a little difficult to dial in, but not that tough. My secret in getting a good tone is to set all tone controls at 12:00. Then adjust the graphic eq for the tone you want (which usually involves a "scoop" shape, as the Nomad is a VERY mid heavy amp). Now go back and adjust each channels eq and you'll have a great sounding amp.