Faulty Treble Pot

[darth_tar]

Hello, I have owned my Express 5:25 for about two years now, gig about once or twice a month maybe about 10 times a year plus various rehearsals and jams. The Treble pot on the high gain channel started acting like a volume pot, when you turn it clockwise it cuts volume on the dirty channel and when you turn it counter clockwise the volume comes up (somewhat) but all the treble is turned down. Thought it was the pre-amp tubes that contribute to channel two and changed them, no effect. Called Mesa and they said the treble pot went bad! It's at Mesa Hollywood now for repairs but I was wondering if anyone else has had any of the pots go bad on their Express models. Also, there is absolutely no high gain on channel two anymore, can only get clean sounds on that channel. Thanks for any input.

 

[Don]

After tubes, pots and jacks are the next item to go bad on an amp. That's part of the reason Mesa doesn't mount them to the PCB.

I had a bad connection on the mids pot on the dirty channel of my Express 5:50. At that point the pot did nothing and the channel had very little gain an punch. Once it was repaired the amp came back to life.

 

[darth_tar]

Hi Don, thank you for your reply. Mesa fixed it under warranty, customer service was great BUT now I am a little skittish, every time I step on the channel switch pedal I have that millisecond of fear that the distortion channel won't work! Oh well, thanks again!

 

[Don]

I'm glad you got it sorted out. They let me repair mine when I made it clear that I knew exactly what was wrong and how to repair it.

Other than that and a bad Accutronics reverb tank (replaced under warranty) my 3-1/2 year old Express has been reliable.

You'll get over the fear of imminent failure eventually (but should be prepared if you gig).