Subway Blues, deal?

Dude wants to sell me his Subway Blues for $300. Says there's some weird ghost note hiss in the background.

Should I get it and fix it? What might the problem be? Is $300 worth it?

Yes. It's most likely a tube problem, and if not then it could be filter caps - a relatively easy job on this amp. Either will be needed eventually anyway so you're not getting a problem you wouldn't otherwise encounter at some point.

Nice little amp.

I'd take a chance on it but I repair these things myself and help is only a phone call away if I can't.

So, I went ahead and got the amp.

The ghost notes the guy was talking about in the ad were pretty negligible at practice volume, so I got it.

Since then, the ghost notes have started to get worse. I did some research on bad tubes on Eurotubes, and did some tests, and located what I think to be the problem tube. Will be getting a replacement tube soon.

I was wondering though. This amp is fantastic! I absolutely love it. At certain volumes that is. I'm pushing it with a light overdrive and a home-built Ross compressor, and it's getting me closer to the tone I want than any other amp has before, which I'm pleasantly surprised by. The problem I have with the amp is that it's a PCB amp, and the build quality is generally low for my standards -- yes, I bought this as a practice amp, but it IS getting me the tone I've really always wanted. The problem is flabbiness when I push the amp, and the black shadow, while sounding phenomenal, pretty much shits out anywhere past 2 o'clock.

Would new transformers significantly improve this amp, or should I look into point-to-point versions of this circuit, maybe even go as far as re-engineering the amp as a PTP...? Yeah, I like it that much.

I have several PTP amps, service them and have even built one, but I wouldn't convert a good PCB tube amp to PTP- there's nothing to be gained.

The ghost notes are not normal. Hopefully, it's just a tube, if not, the amp will need servicing.

mugician said:

The problem I have with the amp is that it's a PCB amp, and the build quality is generally low for my standards

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What standards do you have?!

The Mesa PCB is good by *any* standards, and PCB is not inferior to point-to-point in any way. Check how military avionics and other cost-no-object systems are built .

The problem is flabbiness when I push the amp, and the black shadow, while sounding phenomenal, pretty much sh!t out anywhere past 2 o'clock.

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A better speaker might definitely help, yes.

Would new transformers significantly improve this amp

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No.

or should I look into point-to-point versions of this circuit, maybe even go as far as re-engineering the amp as a PTP...?

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No. You won't improve anything, and it may not be as easy as you might think anyway - for a relatively simple amp, it's quite a complicated circuit.

Leave it as it is inside the chassis. Put a better speaker in, put better tubes in - NOS GE or Philips 6BQ5s, GE, RCA etc 12AX7s, try a 12AT7 in the phase inverter - but don't mess up a perfectly good and well-made amp for some idea that point-to-point is better... it isn't.

I owned a Subway Blues once and loved it. Unfortunately, it was during my "broke period" and I sold it. Anyway, a great little amp.
Don't re-engineer the amp, especially if you were already wondering if the $300 price tag was fair.