Loss of gain

[WMiller96]

Dear Mesa Boogie

I have a Triple Rectifier and have experienced an issue where I lost a large amount of gain and sustain on my distortion channel, even with an overdrive pedal. I looked into it and found that it could be the pre-amp tubes. I ordered them and replaced them. It improved the sound a little bit but I'm still having issues with the gain as well as a lack of bass in my tone. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated or a link to a thread were this was already covered.


Thanks,
Will

[elvis]

I strongly recommend you call Boogie customer service. They are very helpful. Boogie monitors this forum, but you're best going to them by phone.

I suspect you have a bad relay or LDR. They will want to know the serial number so they can check the correct schematic and also they will know the age.

[WMiller96]

Ok, cool. Thanks for the help!!!!

[WMiller96]

Ok. I had called Mesa Boogie customer service to ask for advice and I got the usual "take it to a technician". I did find out that my Triple Rec. was made in 2005. I called every tech within a reasonable distance and they all said it would take about 2 weeks or that they are backed up for 2 weeks. Bunch of bull if you ask me. So, I took it upon myself, and my mom, to open it up...........well........lets just say it looked brand new inside. No corrosion or cracked solders, nothin. So, I thought it might be the channel switch on the rear panel of the amp. Because I get the same degraded tone on every channel I thought that it might have been the switch, being used so many times, had maybe come lose or dirty and wasn't completing the circuit completely. So, we tried to take it out but the mother board was in the way and we had no luck. But, testing it out after the operation it sounded good again. But, the switch was inoperative and it would not switch channels. So, I was thinking that after moving it around a bit it realigned itself but we broke the switch. And the real way to see if the tone problem was fixed was to go to my clean channel and see if I get the slight overdriven tone, when the volume knob on my guitar is all the way up. Because with the tone problem even with the guitar volume all the way up I didnt get that. I am going to open it back up again and see if maybe a connector came loose and it needs to be put back in place. If no luck I probably need to get a new switch. Does anyone know the specific name of the switch? I've been looking everywhere but cant find it. Oh, and its solderless too.

So, in all if anyone else has this problem check the switch. It might be worn out or old.

[domct203]

Welcome to the forum.

Please take your amp to a tech. Your amp will hold up to 500 Volts in its power supply capacitors, even when unplugged for days. That is enough voltage to stop your heart. Don't go poking around in there, if you get shocked it could kill you. Techs have the proper tools to drain the voltage from those capacitors.

Audio signal does not pass through that switch, it simply controls a very complicated switching system in the amp. You most likely have a faulty relay or transistor, both of which are soldered to the main board.

Dom

[WMiller96]

When all else fails I'll take it to a tech. But, for now I'll replace the switch on my own. Less money I have to pay. Thanks for the concerns though.

[domct203]

When all else fails I'll take it to a tech. But, for now I'll replace the switch on my own. Less money I have to pay. Thanks for the concerns though.

Call Mesa, they will sell you the switch. The part number is in your amp's manual.

Dom

[WMiller96]

Ok. thanks for the help. I didnt mean to sound arrogant in the other post. It was just that I knew the risks of going into the amp without the proper tools and experience. But I was just looking to see if I couldn't find the problem and then if I couldn't fix it send it to a tech knowing what the problem was and tell them. Maybe it would have shaved off some time for repair and replace. But, from the sounds of it a theoretical one or two day job takes weeks for them to complete. Even if they dont have to wait for parts. Which I find kinda ridiculous. But, oh well.

[domct203]

Ok. thanks for the help. I didnt mean to sound arrogant in the other post. It was just that I knew the risks of going into the amp without the proper tools and experience. But I was just looking to see if I couldn't find the problem and then if I couldn't fix it send it to a tech knowing what the problem was and tell them. Maybe it would have shaved off some time for repair and replace. But, from the sounds of it a theoretical one or two day job takes weeks for them to complete. Even if they dont have to wait for parts. Which I find kinda ridiculous. But, oh well.

You have to remember, a good tech is a busy tech, and most techs are doing this for a living. They are not just sitting by the phone waiting for you to call them, they are working on other amps. Anytime I've been at my local Mesa tech, he always has service-tagged amps in the room (mostly non-mesa).

Also, regardless of your guess-based diagnosis, a good tech is going to diagnose the amp regardless, and have a flat bench fee for that.

Dom

[WMiller96]

Well, I did take in and got it back after about 3 weeks. They said nothing was wrong with it but they cleaned it up and did a basic service. So the money spent wasnt completely wasted. I assume I was either hearing things or I had a bad cable or something. So, I got it back this Wednesday and it played fine until today. It had a couple of time where it would cut out completely then go back to normal and now there is no sound and all the lights on the channels are out. As in not on and the channels have no noise what so ever. I've tried changing through all the channels and switching between settings for everything and turned like every knob and nothing happens. So, now another mess of problems. This time legit.

All tubes are bright and running like normal and all preamp tubes are new. So, if the techs screwed with it so I would bring it in again and get more money they got another thing commin..........

[domct203]

Was this a Mesa certified tech?

Regardless, I would take the amp back and show the tech a video of the amp acting up. Tell them that it is no better and that they are to do nothing that is not related to the issue.

Did the tech change the channel select switch you broke?

[WMiller96]

Yea, he is a certified Mesa Tech. The Channel switch wasnt the problem but the Mole-X connector was backward. Ok, easy fix but still now theres bigger issues. It worked perfectly fine before I took it in. Now it has issues? Bunch of bull if you ask me.......

[WMiller96]

Well, I just looked and 2 of the 5 pre-amp tubes are not glowing. Mind you that they are relatively new. So I took 2 of the old ones and put them in and they are not glowing as well. They are the first 2 going from left to right. Which happen to be the ones that deal with the input for all 3 channels.........I'm just not sure if they would also affect the channels not being able to switch. And the fact that the channel lights arent even on........... For any of the channels for that matter!!!

[harem_theater]

I called every tech within a reasonable distance and they all said it would take about 2 weeks or that they are backed up for 2 weeks. Bunch of bull if you ask me. So, I took it upon myself, and my mom, to open it up.

When all else fails I'll take it to a tech. But, for now I'll replace the switch on my own. Less money I have to pay. Thanks for the concerns though.

But, from the sounds of it a theoretical one or two day job takes weeks for them to complete. Even if they dont have to wait for parts. Which I find kinda ridiculous.

So, if the techs screwed with it so I would bring it in again and get more money they got another thing commin..........

It worked perfectly fine before I took it in. Now it has issues? Bunch of bull if you ask me.......

I'll be straight up with ya, man.... no well-educated person will give you the guidance you're after over the internet. You're asking someone to tell you how to open your amp up and poke around hundreds of volts (completely untrained) in order to find a fault which they cannot see. All the while, you're making out like every amp tech you've spoken to is "ridiculous" for actually having a lead time on their services. Everyone pays and everyone waits. You just have to be patient.

Also, if there's a tech out there who's deliberately "screwing with your amp" in order to make more money, they won't be Mesa Accredited for much longer........I suggest you ease up on your expectations of technical servicepersons.

[tbonesullivan]

How was the Molex connector on backwards? They are usually keyed so they can only be connected in the correct orientation.

I had a problem with my DC-5 several years ago, and it was cutting out. The tech was very thorough on asking questions to diagnose the problem. It's been my main amp now for several years and no more problems at all.

Sounds like it could be a heat related issue on a component. I would definitely do as others suggested, which is to take a video of when it happens and show that to the tech.

I also would agree with everyone else that you really shouldn't be in the guts of the amplifier. Aside from simple things like cleaning pots and connectors, I wouldn't mess with anything else inside my amplifiers. I have zero soldering skills, and I'd rather have someone working on it who has done tons of soldering jobs on various types of construction, than have my ham-handed soldering skills bugger up my amps PCBs.