Roadster headaches. Would Power conditioner help?

Just a little background on what I've been going through:

My previous "rig" was a Triple Rec and Music Man HD-130. I used this for about a decade and didn't have many issues. Replaced a tube here of course and there but nothing major. Fast-forward to the Roadster head... I sold those other 2 heads to consolidate into this single head. I bought my Roadster shortly before my band stopped playing out and I switched over to doing mainly acoustic "coffee shop" gigs. And actually, I also paid to completely re-tube the head right before our last gig a couple years ago. It's maybe gotten 10-15 hours of play time since receiving all new tubes.

So, in short, I have experience with other tube heads, and I'm not actually even using the Roadster all that often.

That all being said, I swear every single time I turn it on, I discover a new issue. Normally a bad tube. You guessed it ---> That's the reason I don't use it very often.

For a while there my reverb stopped working so I got some recommendations from a Mesa tech, tore it apart, tested the tank with a multi-meter, put it back together again. Reverb works now... not sure why because all connections seemed tight beforehand and I didn't actually replace anything.

I was so happy to have the reverb working again but now, I turn it on and I have a "crackling" sound nonstop. I'm guessing there's a bad tube somewhere.

So, I understand that tube heads require a little TLC, but I'm maybe only putting 30min hour on it per month (at the absolute most) and like I said, every time I turn it on, something else seems to have gone wrong.


I apologize for the long-winded post. Just trying to get my point across I guess. So as the title already asks... would a power conditioner help perhaps? Could dirty power maybe be screwing with my head and killing tubes prematurely? I never used a conditioner on my previous heads, but I also never owned them while living in my current house.

A power conditioner couldn't hurt, but I seriously doubt this is the issue.

Did you buy the head new or used?

If used, it may have been run very hot (perhaps in an enclosure with poor ventilation) and you may be seeing a combination of

1. Oxide on contacts
2. Degraded solder joints
3. Premature capacitor degradation/failure

If it were me, I'd open it up, clean out the dust, deoxit all the plugs and switches, change the caps and reflow all the solder joints I could get to. If you don't have the experience, a tech can do that for not a ton of money. Or Mesa can recondition it, though I don't know their fees or lead-times.

It can also be tubes. Unfortunately, tubes today are not what they used to be. But in my experience, they seem to go early or not at all. So you retube, have one fail pretty soon, replace it, have one get noisy, replace it, and then they run fine for years.

OTOH, if you bought it new, I'd ask Mesa to make it right - that's just not OK.

I did buy used unfortunately, so your suggestion on it's previous life may very well be correct. I suppose if things continue this way maybe I'll have to drop it off with a tech.

Thanks for the reply!

The crackling could still be a part of the reverb circuit. Pull V4 and see if it still happens. Don't bother replacing it, just yet. Simply pull the valve and power up. Play the amp and see if the same thing happens.

If you're not using it much or often, let it spend a good bit of time on standby before powering up fully. A good 2-5 minutes.

I think you're right about the crackling being part of the reverb circuit because I actually powered it up Friday night and had planned on testing some tubes but the crackling AND reverb were gone again. Last night I finally just said "enough is enough" and made the 90min drive to the nearest music store that repairs Mesas. We'll see what happens but I'm guessing it's the reverb circuit from what I've heard.

Glad to hear you are getting it resolved professionally, sometimes we all have to suck it up and go that route. As for power conditioning and Mesas; my band rehearses in my basement and the power is pretty dirty. Lots of florescent lights and electronics causing humming until I got a good power conditioner. Now, it's dead quiet.

Thanks for the power conditioner input. I have one ordered for when I get it back it back from the repair center.

I have to say though, I wish that I had just sent my head directly to Mesa. The repair center is telling me all I have is 1 bad 6L6 and a bad reverb tank. And the price to repair? ...$280! I almost fell out of my seat when they told me the price. They're an "authorized Mesa repair center" for warranty work, but tried to give me some BS about having to replace all 4 6L6 tubes because if I don't I'll "screw up the head's BIAS." The tubes aren't that old though, and I know I only have to replace 2 (matched pair), so I told them not to touch the tubes. I'll handle that myself. I had to give a $50 non-refundable deposit and they said $60 more for the tank replacement so I figured with tanks costing $45, I might as well suck it up and let them swap that out. Long story short, I need a new repair tech. Those guys lost my trust and confidence when they insisted that my 6L6s could only be replaced in a set of 4. Additionally, Mesa quoted me around HALF that for those repairs, plus I'd have way more confidence that the repairs would actually be worth the money. Too bad shipping a Roadster head would be pretty **** expensive. I've used Mesa in the past on a smaller (more easily shipped) item and they were very very reasonable in their repair costs. If I can't find a local guy I trust soon here I'm going to have to suck it up and just pay for the shipping next time around.

Sorry for ranting... Haha. I know there's always a premium price to have items serviced so I guess I should have expected an almost-$300 bill. In the future I need to just get better at diagnosing a reverb tank failure on my own.