Recent content by Mark 63

I don't find the Clean channel all that useful even though I play mostly clean on a stratocaster. I mostly stay in Crunch, but I don't use a pick.

Where does Mesa put the serial number on an Express? My vision stinks but I can't see one anywhere.

What does the bass player use and where does she put it?

It should. The difference between Class A operation and Class A/B is more voltage runs through at idle.

If you use a 3 prong to 2 prong adaptor how is the circuit grounded?

Check if all the tubes are well seated in their sockets first. Could be just a loose tube.

I plugged an Analogman Ardx2o into the loop. The repeats were clearer, but it wasn't enough of a benefit to warrant the extra wiring. Also tried an auto wah in the loop, and it sounded bad (whooshy).

For the PI to work optimally, balanced triodes are desirable. But I should think higher gain would also be a good thing.

I've been swapping tubes around since I got my Express 5:50 last month; was basically happy with what I got from Doug's Tubes: V1 Tung Sol 12AX7 V2 NOS JAN GE 5751 V3 Penta 12AX7 V4 Sovtek balanced 12AX7 V5 Penta 12AX7 I had also tried a few other NOS tubes in V1 and V2 (Ge 5751s and a balanced...

As the year is winding down this week, I've had some time to play around with different preamp configurations, starting with the mix that Doug put together for my 5:50 after Thanksgiving: V1 Tung Sol 12AX7 V2 JAN GE 5751 V3 Penta 12AX7 V4 Sovtek 12AX7 V5 Penta 12AX7 =C= SED 6L6 Right away, I...

If the PI sent 10 times the current its designed for, wouldn't it overload or blow the output tubes immediately? Electricity is strange business. Sometimes I really wish I had paid attention in school.

That's the 12ax7 substitute I put in V2. But i chose SED 6l6s. The 5751 is not high gain but it's not low gain either. It's very musical.

The tube task chart in the manual is confusing, especially with regard to V2A/B and V3A. Do both the Clean/Crunch and Blues/Burn channels have 4 gain stages as the task chart implies? It looks like Clean/Crunch has 3: V2A or V2B, V1B and V3A. Maybe this explains why Clean/Crunch is a...