anyone ever seen inside of a mesa blue angel?

[JimAnsell]

i got one today, and peeked inside and found a few weird things.

whats with that big black rectangle?

-there are 2 spots where 2 resistors are soldered together, almost like one was added in parallel in each spot.
-there is a blue mini trim pot there too.
is this stock?
-the board says ba-1c.
are there a bunch of revisions to this, like there are with most other mesas?

i've played these before, and nothing sounds out of the ordinary with it, it sounds **** good actually.
just wondering if all this stuff is normal.

 

[RocksOff]

I think that is all normal... i would have to go back and tear mine apart to have a close look. As far as the big black rectangle... I believe that is a propietary seal over some components that probably also doubles as a heat baffle. Not sure though.

 

[Murphy Slaw]

It's mojo mud.

Yep.

That's why mine sounds so fine.

The Blue Angel is the amp Dr. Z keeps trying to build!

Yuk, yuk......

 

[JimAnsell]

according to boogie that is a little eq/slight compression circuit in that black "potting".
i talked to mike bendinelli today, and he said there are some op amps under that similar to the ones in the eq circuit in mark II's.

i actually have to get my whole board replaced in my blue angel because i have a really bad noise issue with it right now.
apparantly some of these are known to have problems under that potting.
he said there are only maybe 1000-1500 blue angels out there.


so i'm sending mine back to get a new board. only 100 bucks for a whole new board and a check up.
not bad considering all the cicuitry is on that board.

 

[Murphy Slaw]

I've got 1806, a 1;12 combo built in Nov. 2000 and it's perfect, gigs every weekend and is a tone machine.

Still using original tubes, although it was a bedroom amp until I got it last spring.

I've got some nos tubes and new Mesa tubes to experiment with if the stock ones ever start sounding funny. As for now it's just a money making tone machine.

 

[SixVeeSix]

according to boogie that is a little eq/slight compression circuit in that black "potting".
i talked to mike bendinelli today, and he said there are some op amps under that similar to the ones in the eq circuit in mark II's.

i actually have to get my whole board replaced in my blue angel because i have a really bad noise issue with it right now.
apparantly some of these are known to have problems under that potting.
he said there are only maybe 1000-1500 blue angels out there.


so i'm sending mine back to get a new board. only 100 bucks for a whole new board and a check up.
not bad considering all the cicuitry is on that board.

Probably priced favorably for the amp owner because it was an imperfect circuit. I need to send mine in for noise, that part is probably the culprit. They have retrofitted quite a few Subway Blues with noisy potted circuitry also. I have a later version of that amp, they stopped putting that in there and mine is quiet. My Blue Angel is # BA-01949, probably a newer one. Way too much hum, I will be glad to have it fixed. The Maverick bears the brunt nobly in the meantime.

 

[JimAnsell]

mike mentioned that the subway blues had that problem too.