Does The Petaluma Factory Act As A Service Shop?

[squege1]

Hi All- I have a Mark III Green Stripe combo I picked up on eBay last spring. I have some other amps that I've been using as my main gigging amps but I've finally gotten some time to play with the Mark III and realized what I've got; a killer combo that just may be able to pull off the pushed low wattage class A thing that I've been using a Dr. Z Maz-18 for.
When I first got the amp back in May I play tested it and everything was working great. The reverb seems to have taken a break from working recently so I am thinking now is a great time to have the amp sent to a good shop to get some TLC.
I was wondering if the amp can be sent back to Petaluma to get the once-over from the pros there or do I need to find a local shop to have looked after. I am in New Jersey so I could bring the amp over the Central Jersey Music and have Dennis Kager's crew do their thing. I have done a little bit of reading on the forums here and noticed that some folks have the caps replaced since these Mark III's are getting old enough to have that be a concern. In addition to having the reverb looked at I was also interested in having the R2 volume pot mod installed. So I guess my question is if the Petaluma shop does do work on older amps what are their bench fees like and how much can I anticipate the R2 mod to run?
Thanks, JC.

 

[squege1]

Man, I just realized from looking at my old posts here that I actually have had this Mark III since last December, I feel like I has lost a lot of quality tone time by not really think of the Boogie as my main go to amp. I kind of got caught up in the whole boutique Dr. Z thing for a while but the Boogie can do that too on top of all the other hi gain stuff that I don't get out of the MAZ 18. I once was lost but now I'm found...

 

[Platypus]

Hi All- I have a Mark III Green Stripe combo I picked up on eBay last spring. I have some other amps that I've been using as my main gigging amps but I've finally gotten some time to play with the Mark III and realized what I've got; a killer combo that just may be able to pull off the pushed low wattage class A thing that I've been using a Dr. Z Maz-18 for.
When I first got the amp back in May I play tested it and everything was working great. The reverb seems to have taken a break from working recently so I am thinking now is a great time to have the amp sent to a good shop to get some TLC.
I was wondering if the amp can be sent back to Petaluma to get the once-over from the pros there or do I need to find a local shop to have looked after. I am in New Jersey so I could bring the amp over the Central Jersey Music and have Dennis Kager's crew do their thing. I have done a little bit of reading on the forums here and noticed that some folks have the caps replaced since these Mark III's are getting old enough to have that be a concern. In addition to having the reverb looked at I was also interested in having the R2 volume pot mod installed. So I guess my question is if the Petaluma shop does do work on older amps what are their bench fees like and how much can I anticipate the R2 mod to run?
Thanks, JC.

Yep the factory most certainly does checkups for you. Call them and get an estimate for the work as it will depend greatly on what needs to be done to your amp.

That said, you can probably find someone locally who will do the work and has worked on Marks before.

 

[CoG]

You can ship the amp to Mesa for sure, I've done it. The time it takes can be all over the map though, anywhere from a couple weeks to well over a month. It's not worth shipping just to do the R2 volume mod though, any dork with a soldering iron (me) can do that one drunk. But if you want the caps done and the whole once-over, if you have the money it's probably worth shipping it to Mesa just because they'll do a really top-notch job. That said if you're in a big market you may have a guy locally who's just as good.

 

[babow2]

I live in Petaluma. Yes, the factory definitely does the work, but you have to ship the chassis out and back, which adds to the bill. What you want done doesn't seem to be so special that a qualified Mesa tech couldn't do it much closer to home, so you don't have to pay shipping back and forth across the country. Also, Monsta-Tone on this site does mesa service work, and is cheaper than MB factory as well.

 

[squege1]

Thanks for all the info guys. I do have a very qualified shop that I am comfortable with, Central Jersey Music, which is owned and run by Dennis Kager from Ampeg, Reverend, Pignose,Sundown, etc. fame and I believe that their shop is an authorized Mesa service center anyway. Looks like the best route will be to keep it local in this case. Thanks again, JC.

 

[Elpelotero]

There is a list of authorized repair centers somewhere on the Mesa site.