My Faith in Mesa Boogie is quickly dissolving,.advice please

[Elorps]

A quick history here.

I found a GREAT amp about 3 years ago. The Mesa-Boogie DC-5 with 12" cab. It's gotten me through a LOT of gigs, and fit into the car just beautifully... however,,it's been time to upgrade for quick a while now to be honest. The DC-5 was a beauty, but I needed just a little more punch through the mud.

I play Heavy rock/ early Metal with a mega Punk edge dipped a wee bit in Stoner Rockfaster applications,..in other words..I like it loud and heavy.

I was using an Eppy G-400 modded out with Les Paul pickups which yes added alot to the fuzz tone. I didnt use any pedlas besides a Boss Tuner and a flanger/chorus at the end of it. I was happy with the dirty channel pushin to all nines. The gain was always cranked on the channel, and it performed greatly.

I bought an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul a few months ago, and am VERY happy with the guitar as it cuts through the mud just nicely. So yeah I was very happy. All I needed was a wee bit more crunch though,..Im not a lead player whatsoever,,strictly rhythm kids. Singing and playing is hard enough as it is..(lol) *ahem*.

anyway a few months ago, I was in Long & McQuade where I usually spend my lunch hours and this Mesa Boogie Nomad 100 was there on sale for $950. I went back to work and did some research, and with 3 channels, no doubt in my mind this beast could provide me with everything I needed as far as tone and that bite I was looking for.

So I went back and did some math, and figured this was the time to upgrade I was wiating for. I cleaned up my DC-5 and brought in for trade. Sad to see the little workhorse go, but it really was time to upgrade to a better amp.

SO I brought the Nomad 100 back to the jam space and dialed in almost the same settings as the DC-5 as a benchmark, while easing off of the Gain. The beast worked fine.

And then a week went by. Had a jam, and suddenly Channel 2 (which I was using) decided to simple fizzle and die a staticy death.... ****! I wasn't too impressed. However,,as you all well know,,nothing is immune to circumstance, and this being a piece of equipment, it is prone to Murphy's Law as are the rest of us organics.

So I took the Nomad 100 back to L&M, and they put it in for repair, and oddly enough, gave me back my DC-5 as a loaner!

Hook it up for the next jam, with the same settings as I had on her before. I have them all marked down in the back of the manual. And then *sizzle* goes Channel 2..I was like "WTF?? No wayyyyyyyyyyyy..NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!" SO **** right? Anyway,,I pack her up and begrudgingly bring her back to L&M. The staff there is great and we joke around how I am the Mesa killer now.

So they give me a Single Rectifier as another loaner. CRIPES! What a beast! This rig definately is my favorite so far..just two channels,,that's all I need. It was absolutely fine in the jam space. Again,,I dialed in all of my settings as a benchmark from the DC-5, and it sounded friggin beautiful. The clean chennel sounds better with my strat, but that's ok..I have no problem switching guitars for tones. Anyway, this rig is great because of it's ease of use,,the tone is to die for and I love it.

That is until our gig last Friday in Edmonton. 4 songs in, everythings goin' great. The 5th song, I dont play on, so I switch on the standby, stdn my guitar up and proceed to yell my guts out. Song is done, everyone's happy, I pick up my Les Paul, switch STandby Off, and what do I hear? *siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeee*...I felt my heart break and my dissapointment rise very quickly. Luckily, another band loaned me their Marshall head, and I was back in business,..but man..come the **** on....3 Mesa's in a MONTH?

SO as we speak,,I have a Dual Rectifier outside my door on loan. I have to come in tomorrow night to dial in my settings and get the tone I need for one gig on Thursday night.

needless to say, I am shitting my pants hoping it doesnt crap out on me. I really dont understand why 3 amps fixxle out on the kid. My settings are not THAT crazy. The output dial is never past 3, the master never goes past 4, and the Gain is at 7.5. These rigs should be built to handle all of this.

The only pedals I use is a BOSS tuner and an Ibanez Chorus/Flanger.
I've upgraded my cable to a proper speaker cable from Planet Waves for the amp to runt o the cab. They're brand new cables. My patch cord is a brand new Yorkville from pedal to amp, and brand new Planet Waves from guitar to pedals.

At the gig, the amp was on a dedicated plug/

here in the jam space it's on a dedicated power bar.

I am at wit's end here people. I now have a few people telling me "Yep, that's Mesa for ya!" a lot of horror stories are making their way out of the wordwork about Mesa amps just 'Fizzling' out like that...I am worried now that I have made a mistake and I'm going to have to switch brands,,,,

I don't have a lot of coin, and this upgrade cost me a bit more than I had thought, so I want my money's worth.

I also know plenty of the lads who run Mesa's and have had nothing but glorious victory stories with them.

Now keep in mind,,all of the amps I have tried and fizzled,,have been used amps. This could be straight up coincidence,,or **** knows what.

But I would really appreciate ANY advice if any, that only a Mesa Boogie forum can provide. All apologies if this thread isnt in the right place.

Here are my settings :

Channel 2 on the Single Rectifier and Nomad 100
Solo 0
OUTPUT 2.5
MASTER 2.5
REVERB 6.5
PRESENCE 6.5
BASS 5
MID 2
TREBLE 7
GAIN 7.5

Channel 2 on the DC-5
GAIN 10
TREBLE 8
MID 5
BASS 4.5
PRESENCE 7
REVERB 5
MASTER 2.5
OUTPUT 2

The EQ was engaged in all cases as well with a small variation on the classic "V" wedge.

Any and all help/expertise is greatly appreciated!
Thank you for your time,.

Cheers
~E

The Press Gang
http://www.myspace.com/thepressgang4

 

[lesterpaul]

maybe I missed something..you say they fizzzzle on you...what exactly is getting repaired?what component is fizzling out?

 

[boogiemon]

If you're into 'heavy' then a recto or mark is probably what you want. As for failures at the gig, is this the same ac outlet you use every time? You got a surge suppressor in the path there somewhere? i have a cheap voltage tester i carry around w/me that i use to check the power before i plug in.

g'luck

 

[MrMarkIII]

Hey, Elorps, stay away from my gear! :lol: :lol: :lol:
(Sorry, man, hope your stuff gets sorted out.)

 

[Elorps]

maybe I missed something..you say they fizzzzle on you...what exactly is getting repaired?what component is fizzling out?

"Fizzle" meaning that the gain and power from the channel just fizzle out. Sounds like muted static between stations on the radio. No Gain comes from teh dirty channel anymore.

My Nomad had to be sent away,,something's up with the electrics (dont have all the details yet, but it certainly wasnt a tube!)

 

[Elorps]

Hey, Elorps, stay away from my gear! :lol: :lol: :lol:
(Sorry, man, hope your stuff gets sorted out.)

Sucks eh? lol...thanks man.

 

[Elorps]

If you're into 'heavy' then a recto or mark is probably what you want. As for failures at the gig, is this the same ac outlet you use every time? You got a surge suppressor in the path there somewhere? i have a cheap voltage tester i carry around w/me that i use to check the power before i plug in.

g'luck

The gig we played was a new venue. BUt it was still dedicated to the amp. So I should invest in a powerbar with surge protect? Seems a pain in the *** for an amp. Any other one Ive ever owned just plugs in and we're good to go. The DC-5 was always faithful like that.

I have it on good authority that the Nomad 100 can bring the heavy just as well as the others..

 

[boogiemon]

...doesn't need to be a 'powerbar', i've got a radio-shack cheapie that works just fine.

i've never had a nomad so i can't comment on that one, but i know the marks & recto's can roar.

g'luck

If you're into 'heavy' then a recto or mark is probably what you want. As for failures at the gig, is this the same ac outlet you use every time? You got a surge suppressor in the path there somewhere? i have a cheap voltage tester i carry around w/me that i use to check the power before i plug in.

g'luck

The gig we played was a new venue. BUt it was still dedicated to the amp. So I should invest in a powerbar with surge protect? Seems a pain in the *** for an amp. Any other one Ive ever owned just plugs in and we're good to go. The DC-5 was always faithful like that.

I have it on good authority that the Nomad 100 can bring the heavy just as well as the others..

 

[Chris McKinley]

From your settings on both your amp and EQ, it sounds like your amps died from anemic mids. :shock: :mrgreen:

Other than that, sounds like a bunch of worn out power transformers.

 

[Elorps]

From your settings on both your amp and EQ, it sounds like your amps died from anemic mids. :shock: :mrgreen:

Other than that, sounds like a bunch of worn out power transformers.

Hey man, what can I say? I like that kinda tone,...plus I never got around to channel 3 either for different sounds. Been wanting to explore the clean channel a lot too, just never got the chance. I'll remember the worn out power transformer symptom. Many thanks.

 

[fluff191]

The same thing happened to my buddy a few years ago. We would be jamming, then his amp would die. Tried another, it would die after about an hour as well. He went through 4 amps in total.

I took everything apart and everything looked fine, but he kept smoking tubes, so as a last resort, I took a measurement of his cab, and sure enough he had a dead speaker, which was doing all sorts of funny stuff with his ohms load. Would have never noticed either from the sound.

So I would check your cab out if I were you.

 

[jdurso]

The same thing happened to my buddy a few years ago. We would be jamming, then his amp would die. Tried another, it would die after about an hour as well. He went through 4 amps in total.

I took everything apart and everything looked fine, but he kept smoking tubes, so as a last resort, I took a measurement of his cab, and sure enough he had a dead speaker, which was doing all sorts of funny stuff with his ohms load. Would have never noticed either from the sound.

So I would check your cab out if I were you.

Wow thats a super inciteful post... i've never experienced that but now that you mention it, over time that could kill the fuse, OT, Power tubes... just tons of bad stuff.

One thing i would check is ALL your tubes... if both were used amps and both came from the same place, i owuld suspect the tubes. I've had that fizzle effect when a preamp tube was going and weak gain when a power tube was going. If you haven't already bring it to a certified Mesa repair center (look at the Mesa site for the closest one to you). At the very least they'll be able to access what the problem is. Lots of times it comes down to tubes or something closely related.

As far as these horror stories go... this is the interenet and more often than not people are going to post when they have issues (as you have) rather than when things are going good, because when things are going good you're usually playing not posting. Mesa above almost any other company out there are the most reliable amps, built like tanks and have one of the best customer support systems out there. Honestly companies like Marshall cannot touch Mesa in terms of reliability... i'm not saying this as a fan boy but through many of my own and friends' experiences. Are their lemons out there? Sure every company has them but Mesa makes good on that with their warranty... and in the used amp market you never know what you getting and how well it was taken care of. So any amp is going to have issues but to make it sound like Mesa's are notorious for fizzing out is a bit ridiculous.

 

[Elorps]

Cool,..these are some things I can bring to the table at least right? I for sure will check the cab (which is a mesa 4x12 slant) The cab is the only thing constant in this whole equation gentlemen.

Are there any ways a regular joe like myself can check each speaker to see if they're each upo to snuff? or is this something best suited for the pros?

I'll be checkin out this theory tomorrow for sure!

PS-and just to clarify Ive only ever run from the 8ohm output from the amp to the 8ohm input on the cab.

 

[fluff191]

Are there any ways a regular joe like myself can check each speaker to see if they're each upo to snuff? or is this something best suited for the pros?

Well first you dont have to take the back off to check the toal ohms the cab is asking for. What I did was get a spare cable end and plugged it in, put your meter on the negative and positive contacts (set for OHMS of course) and see what you get. Its never going to be 8 ohms though. If its good you will read something like 7.45 or just UNDER 8 ohms (accounting for the resistance of the speaker cable, etc.).....

In my buddys case, I measured his cab out at something like 14 ohms on an 8ohm cab, and thats when I pulled the back and started measuring the speakers themselves.

For a quick check, you can momentarily touch a 9 volt speaker to the (-) and (+) terminals to see if the speaker is working at all. If you hear anything the speaker is working. Hope this helps and good luck.

And Jdurso is totally right, make sure all the tubes are in working order. But the fact that different amps have done the same thing would lead me to look at the cab before you do anything else.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

One more thing for you to check, it might be obvious but I've overlooked it before, make sure you're using a speaker cable not an instrument cable to connect your amp to your cab - this is something I've seen countless guitarists I've shared the stage with do and suffer all sorts of fun smells and random electronic breakdowns.

 

[rvschulz]

your luck is unfortunate ... and i've never heard of it. however, something to consider ... is that you are dealing with a retail outlet for better or worse. they are getting these amps in on trade and not really caring (from my personal experience) what is going on with them. i NEVER buy used equipment retail ... due to the standard commercial lack of honesty - not that they are TRYING to screw you, but it is Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware.

ALL my Mesa's (that I LOVE and will keep) have come through this board. i have never remotely had a bad deal, much less a crappy failure piece of equipment. something to consider for the future.

can't help you with your electrical problems unfortunately. i hope they work out to your satisfaction.

 

[Elorps]

One more thing for you to check, it might be obvious but I've overlooked it before, make sure you're using a speaker cable not an instrument cable to connect your amp to your cab - this is something I've seen countless guitarists I've shared the stage with do and suffer all sorts of fun smells and random electronic breakdowns.

Indeed I am! I upgraded all of my cables recently. The cable from amp to cab is a brand new Planet Waves speaker cable! Thank you!

 

[Elorps]

I am going today with the Cab to get it tested. Lets hope that is indeed what may be the problem. Your replies have all been very helpful..Im glad I found this board. Many thanks!

 

[Elorps]

Bringin the cab down today 2pm to get tested. Let's hope they actually find that a speaker is indeed gone in it, cause that would solve the mystery right?

 

[Elorps]

Cab checks out. All speakers ok. Ohms are all ok.

The Amp guy expressed his disadain for Mesa Boogie and all of their "un needed" parts to get the job done. So much for the basics eh? No matter,...we'll give this one last go..if this next amp fails me, Im switchin to another brand..But man if that happens it will be tough to find something close to this tone.