Dying Mesa nomad 100.. help

[spiegel0]

Hi,

I've bought MESA NOMAD 100 amp head 3 month ago, and it seems to have many problems.


first problem was that it had its volume going up&down

i went to a tech, and it costed me $400(in US dollars) for new tubes&repair..
but he didn't fixed it correctly, and my amp DIED,,, even the power didn't went on...

so i went to ANOTHER TECH, and he was better than former one.. he fixed it.. i've had no problem for 1.5 months. $100.

but recently ONE of my friend BOOSTED the channel 3(heavy modern gain) with his DISTORTION PEDAL and my amp died again

at first its volume had decreased.. i checked tubes and found PHASE INVERTING TUBE was out of order. i replaced the tube, worked well for 2 hrs.. and suddenly the power went out.. &never came back.


I've heard some rumors that NOMAD has built-in defects(NICE!).. is it true..or just mine is so WEAK :-(


looking for help. thx

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Where are you located? Maybe someone here knows of a good tech in your area!

 

[Restless Rocks]

I don't know that I'd say the Nomad has built in defects but the ones I see in my shop seem to suffer from a couple common problems. First, for some reason, Nomad owners seem to carry their amps thru doorways with the knobs facing out and bang the knobs around which causes the pots inside to fail. Usually the lower row or tone knobs. The symtoms range from intermittent volume swells to noise and lose of the channel all together. The second most common problem I see is failure of the switching matrix to some degree or complete failure. I've solved this by replacing certain zenor diodes with a higher amperage rating. You could also have a bad tube socket or simply just be getting inferior tubes. Try a different brand. If by "having the power go out" you are saying that the amp won't power up, check for a blown fuse. This would say the first thing you should check are your power tubes. Swap with another known good set, replace the fuse and let us know what happens.

 

[spiegel0]

Where are you located? Maybe someone here knows of a good tech in your area!

I live in in KOREA, and we don't even have official MESA dealers. anyway, thanks for concern!

 

[spiegel0]

I don't know that I'd say the Nomad has built in defects but the ones I see in my shop seem to suffer from a couple common problems. First, for some reason, Nomad owners seem to carry their amps thru doorways with the knobs facing out and bang the knobs around which causes the pots inside to fail. Usually the lower row or tone knobs. The symtoms range from intermittent volume swells to noise and lose of the channel all together. The second most common problem I see is failure of the switching matrix to some degree or complete failure. I've solved this by replacing certain zenor diodes with a higher amperage rating. You could also have a bad tube socket or simply just be getting inferior tubes. Try a different brand. If by "having the power go out" you are saying that the amp won't power up, check for a blown fuse. This would say the first thing you should check are your power tubes. Swap with another known good set, replace the fuse and let us know what happens.

Thanks for concern! Just spotted the problem. it was either fuse holder or AC power cable which caused bad contact. i'm so happy that it wasn't a big problem

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Right on! I love easy fixes!