I ran into a DC-10 head an old feller wanted to sell. Picked it up for a song and picked up a 2x12 cab for a dance with a few odd contingencis to the deal. The foot switch LEDs didn't work "all the time" and the pots where noisy as all of hell on Sunday on a few of the tone-gain controls. Plus, the Main Volume/Level was a scratchy as a cat in a dog pen. Oh and the EQ "didn't want to work."
So, I got it home and began my scrutinization of every parameter.....found out that I like it the best dimed out on the lead channel.....for every pot except the reverb. I may not be operating the thing "correctly" but I use the Main volume/level to control the output. This amp has quite a bit of ass to it....it's 100 watts. This is the DC-10 with the all metal switches by the blue pilot lamp.
Well, the one odd thing about the amp is that when the rhythm channel has the gain turned down....making it super clean, there is some soft "bleed through gain" from the lead channel. I can turn the gain down on the lead channel, while on the rhythm channel, and listen to this "bleed through gain fizzle" go away. That's got to be fixed eventually.
So, ordered new tubes....power and pre. Started replacing the pre-s...one at a time. This oddly fixed the EQ issue. Ran some d-oxit on the pots, and cranked the sucker up after finally putting new power tubes in it.....they were probably close to 20 years old and I wanted to start fresh with this amp. Maybe that was a bad idea....maybe not.
Here's the odd stuff that's going on with the amp. The volume can swell and sink every once in a while by a little bit and the tone changes in odds ways....the bass and parts of the mids drop out for a bit then come back. That actually may be the sagging of the volume that is happening and I might not be able to tell the difference.
You guys may laugh but, even with all these weird things....this amp sounds absolutely amazing. It's one of my favorites...I have one other Mesa...dual rect 3 ch...without the power switching... (love it).
I placed an 8 Ohm THD hotplate on the output and connected the cab and these issues went away when I crank the dang thing up. The Main Volume/Level does not change the output when pushed past 4 or so when using the 16dB controls on the hotplate.
I haven't noticed the sag swell yet or the loss of bass at random time but, THE BLEED THROUGH FROM THE LEAD CHANNEL DISAPPEARED!
what's up with that? :shock:
Also, two of the tubes glow a bit brighter than the other two (100 wtt mode)....the far left two power tubes while cranked up.
So, I got it home and began my scrutinization of every parameter.....found out that I like it the best dimed out on the lead channel.....for every pot except the reverb. I may not be operating the thing "correctly" but I use the Main volume/level to control the output. This amp has quite a bit of ass to it....it's 100 watts. This is the DC-10 with the all metal switches by the blue pilot lamp.
Well, the one odd thing about the amp is that when the rhythm channel has the gain turned down....making it super clean, there is some soft "bleed through gain" from the lead channel. I can turn the gain down on the lead channel, while on the rhythm channel, and listen to this "bleed through gain fizzle" go away. That's got to be fixed eventually.
So, ordered new tubes....power and pre. Started replacing the pre-s...one at a time. This oddly fixed the EQ issue. Ran some d-oxit on the pots, and cranked the sucker up after finally putting new power tubes in it.....they were probably close to 20 years old and I wanted to start fresh with this amp. Maybe that was a bad idea....maybe not.
Here's the odd stuff that's going on with the amp. The volume can swell and sink every once in a while by a little bit and the tone changes in odds ways....the bass and parts of the mids drop out for a bit then come back. That actually may be the sagging of the volume that is happening and I might not be able to tell the difference.
You guys may laugh but, even with all these weird things....this amp sounds absolutely amazing. It's one of my favorites...I have one other Mesa...dual rect 3 ch...without the power switching... (love it).
I placed an 8 Ohm THD hotplate on the output and connected the cab and these issues went away when I crank the dang thing up. The Main Volume/Level does not change the output when pushed past 4 or so when using the 16dB controls on the hotplate.
I haven't noticed the sag swell yet or the loss of bass at random time but, THE BLEED THROUGH FROM THE LEAD CHANNEL DISAPPEARED!
what's up with that? :shock:
Also, two of the tubes glow a bit brighter than the other two (100 wtt mode)....the far left two power tubes while cranked up.
