Can a Blown Tube Injure the Head?

[Leng]

It'd be awesome to have a used one instead, but the only place I can find them is on eBay and they all want local pickup and it's never even on my side of the country.

I've never seen one on craigslist despite looking for the past few months.

In fact, my Mesa DR was the only Mesa ad I've ever seen on any of the many classified sites and newspaper sites I've visited, and I had to drive 450 miles for it.

So it looks like I might be screwed into buying a new one :?, unless you guys have any more advice? Maybe it'd be worth it to pay the $200-someodd for having one shipped? lol, probably not. ****.

Rampage, you're one lucky sonofagun living in Phoenix. Your craigslist is LOADED with cabinets and all kinds of other Mesa gear.

 

[stash49]

Used- one will turn up eventually. Just pop the back and make sure someone didn't swap out the V30s. Make sure it's heavy, too. 100lbs. I've seen cheap imitations out there. Pay no more then $500. Spend the $400 you save on your girlfriend.

 

[clutch71]

Sante Fe is not that far, nice town too. I'd definitely take it to a Mesa Dealer.

Be advised...If you buy new you'll have to break the speaker in.

Good luck.

 

[eltrain858]

Buying a new amp and tinkering with it to get the sound you want can be frustrating, but think about it this way.. at least you didn't try to start with a Mark IV :lol:

 

[ur86d]

New development. I was about to take the head to Grandma's Music and Sound cause they said they'd have a look at it. Turns out, they're not even a Mesa authorized repair shop.

They let me know the closest shop is in a different city - Santa Fe.

I called the original owner and talked with him more about what the problem might have been. He said that he had never had a single problem on the head.

The head was made in '92, and the owner I bought it from has had it since '94 or '95. He also really knows Boogies well, and would never turn it on without a proper cabinet attached and always let it standby for a while before playing it.

I'm going to go ahead and say that the head just needed to be played for a while because it did sit for a while with no action in his home in its flight case. There's not even any dust on the thing.

I understand where you are coming from Leng. If you aren't to take the amp to a tech at least call Mesa and tell them what happened. You might be right and the pop is nothing to worry about. But it won't hurt to give Mesa a call and see what they have to say about it. They might ask you to test some things out to see if the pop can be recreated and/or to insure the amp is operating properly. All it will cost is a call or two to california.

 

[Leng]

Thanks ur86d, I've been wanting to call them since the 4th but they of course took half the week off for independence day.

I'll give them a call first thing Monday morning.

BTW - played a few hours last night and a few hours today and I feel really bad for saying what I said about my Crate. The Crate was plug and play, the Mesa is a bonding experience and I'm really digging it.

 

[Accio Recto]

I only cranked the master to 2 o'clock with the "loop active master" set at barely above 0. With the "loop active master" at 9 o'clock and the master at 12 o'clock the thing sounds like it's going to break my windows. If I were to put the master up to 2 or 3 with the loop active master at 12 o'clock, I think the cops would be at my house in three minutes and I would need to see a doctor about my ears. I should have mentioned the overall master was very low whilst the individual channel's master was at 2.

One thing you might try is to reverse the volume settings: Lower the individual channel masters, and raise the "Loop Active Master" to get your volume. It changes the sound a lot when you do that, it makes it more "crisp" sounding. I also use the "Diode" setting, and "Bold" power setting.

 

[MKIII]

Dude it seems like you don't even know how to set your mesa.
Read the manual first,than try your settings,than talk to other owners.
If you don't know how to set up properly,how can you expect a good tone from it ?
BTW behringer are crap.
Cabs are good ONLY if they come with celestions.
If they have behringer speakers,it's crap. :wink:

First of all, it's your opinion that Behringer cabs are crap. Mine has Jensen's in it from the factory and sounds just fine with both my MKIII and MKIV. So you're saying that cabs loaded with EVM-12L's are crap too? They're not Celestion's....

All Mesa's take time to dial in and get used to. They take you from frustration to sonic nirvana, but they do require patience.

I came over from the Fender fold and the "helpful" members of this forum offered constuctive advice and helped me to dial in.

Keep chipping away and the folks here will answer all your questions as best they can.

 

[Leng]

One thing you might try is to reverse the volume settings: Lower the individual channel masters, and raise the "Loop Active Master" to get your volume. It changes the sound a lot when you do that, it makes it more "crisp" sounding. I also use the "Diode" setting, and "Bold" power setting.

Thanks - this is exactly the kind of advice I need. I really appreciate both the diode and tube settings... but am starting to prefer the diodes.

All Mesa's take time to dial in and get used to. They take you from frustration to sonic nirvana, but they do require patience.

I came over from the Fender fold and the "helpful" members of this forum offered constuctive advice and helped me to dial in.

Keep chipping away and the folks here will answer all your questions as best they can.

I have Jensens in my Behringer cabinet as well. I've used several heads on it, and for a $250 cabinet, it is absolutely stunning. I'm currently scavenging hours a day for a used Mesa Recto cab - they're nowhere to be found, quite disappointing that I have to spend another $1000 to get one new when I'd be fine with a used one for $500 - $700. Really emptying my account again, that's as much as I paid for the head.

Very well chosen words... I'm starting to find the tone I want. I definitely think I'll need an overdrive pedal to get the palm mutes to sound good, right now they're a little too mellow and lack the crunch I want.

Is it safe to have my gain at 3'oclock? I'm a very high gain player and MUCH prefer how it sounds at 3 to how it sounds at 2 or 1. Thanks in advance, I'd hate to be hurting my head from having the gain up too high.

 

[Platypus]

Leng, running your gain at 3 o clock isn't going to 'hurt' anything.. just shorten your tube life.

At 3 o clock you're getting mostly gain in the circuit and very little actual tone. There's nothing wrong with that but you're essentially making your EQ useless in this fashion.

My advice to you (being a former Recto abuser) is to get a tubescreamer style overdrive.. run the volume at noon, gain at 9 and tone at 2 on the pedal.. then lower your amp's gain to something like 1:30. The extra sizzle and chunk you're craving will come from the OD pedal... that, or put your channel master at 11-11:30 (sweet spot) and use the output volume to control overall volume. This works for a lot of people and some people hate it.. you'll just have to try it and see.

I can tell you that I would never play a DR without an OD pedal in front unless I'm cranking the **** out of the volume... just my preference.

 

[Leng]

Platypus, that sounds golden to me, I can tell that this high gain is diminishing my tone quite a bit. Those knob settings mean a lot to me, I'll be sure to dial them in once I get my OD. Been looking at a bunch of them and have been recommended by you and a few others to get a tubescreamer.

Was wondering if you know which tubescreamer would play nice with my DR. The only ones I know of are the Ibanez's, which is great because I can easily afford one, but are there other brands I should be aware of before just buying one of the standard green Ibanez screamers? Thanks again.

EDIT: Woops, there seems to be like four different green Ibanez screamers. Any recommendations on which one? I'll pay $70 extra for the vintage version if you guys think it sounds better:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitar/navigation?q=tube+screamer

Or maybe Ibanez isn't the way to go at all, lol, I have no idea.

 

[Platypus]

Platypus, that sounds golden to me, I can tell that this high gain is diminishing my tone quite a bit. Those knob settings mean a lot to me, I'll be sure to dial them in once I get my OD. Been looking at a bunch of them and have been recommended by you and a few others to get a tubescreamer.

Was wondering if you know which tubescreamer would play nice with my DR. The only ones I know of are the Ibanez's, which is great because I can easily afford one, but are there other brands I should be aware of before just buying one of the standard green Ibanez screamers? Thanks again.

You will get a world of opinions on this subject and everyone is entitled to their own.. here is mine. The completely vanilla stock Ibanez TS9 sounds fantastic with the DR. You can spends hundreds and get the 'real deal' from either boutique pedal cloners or getting the Maxon variety, etc but I'm willing to bet that you will not notice a difference enough that it's worth the extra green. I've played a lot of them and I could never justify the extra cost. There *was* as difference but it wasn't something I was willing to pay money for, plain and simple.

So take that for what it is worth. I'd take advantage of your local GuitarCenter's 30 day return policy.. go buy an Ibanez TS9 and see if it works out for you... if you jive with it then your problem is solved.. if not, sell it and go find something different.. I'm willing to bet it will be a pedal you never turn off when using your DR.

One last little tidbit.. the treble control acts like a gain knob as well (although because of the tone stack it robs your mids and bass the more you crank it) you can get some awesome tones with the treble in the 2:30 area as long as you kick up your mids a little bit

Good luck!

 

[Leng]

Fantastic, Platypus, you've answered essentially all my questions and I can't thank you enough, I'm really pumped.

I found a DR half stack on a local listing and am going to try to buy just the cabinet from the fellow, I might have my rig ready to rumble within the week and then I can really start to focus on getting the right tone.

I totally forgot that Guitar Center's return policy applies to pretty much everything except microphones and talkboxes. I'm gonna get a few pedals and take back the ones that don't help out, great advice.

You guys rock.

 

[Schmoog]

give it the old southern sweep. its real simple, dime the gain, bass, treble, mid, and presence controls. plug in, crank up, rock out. use the presence knob to adjust brightness. take to aspirin afterwards to cure the headache from the pure spl, and call me in the morning.

 

[Platypus]

Fantastic, Platypus, you've answered essentially all my questions and I can't thank you enough, I'm really pumped.

I found a DR half stack on a local listing and am going to try to buy just the cabinet from the fellow, I might have my rig ready to rumble within the week and then I can really start to focus on getting the right tone.

I totally forgot that Guitar Center's return policy applies to pretty much everything except microphones and talkboxes. I'm gonna get a few pedals and take back the ones that don't help out, great advice.

You guys rock.

Rock on, make sure you check back in and let us know!

 

[clutch71]

Glad to see everything has been working out.

 

[Leng]

Thanks Dave, I really appreciate your help on the phone, you know your stuff and helped me to be more patient.

By the way - I distinctly remember one time I got your machine and you called me back and we talked for like 30 minutes or something. Do you want some cash, I know how long distance calls can add up.

 

[clutch71]

Don't sweat it dude. I wouldn't have given you the number if I was concerned about it.

Dialing tone - took me about a month to get the ROV where I found the tone I really liked. Just haven't really had the time to work with the DR just yet.

One piece of irony, I loved my rectoverb quiet and didn't like it cranked. My DR I like cranked but don't like it quiet. Time for a power soak.

And before anyone say's "Mesa's aren't bedroom amps!" I know that They can be tamed :shock: I'm not all that good anyway :twisted: Oh and I keep it in the garage 8)

Hi Jack - Ever been to Little Anitas? One of my favorite Mexican restauraunt's in the country. There was also a local Italian joint around the corner from where I stayed that was excellent, but too many beers and too many hotels have faded it from my memory.

 

[Leng]

I haven't eaten there, but there is one rather close to me, I'll have to give it a try. I'm too white for most of the really hot Mexican food joints here, but I love Garcia's and Dos Hermanos, a couple local paradises of greasy goodness.

I like Italian food much more than Mexican, too bad there aren't as many good places to get a lasagna as there are a burrito in New Mexico.