Foil shield shedding inside

[Induktionator]

After a year of bliss, my Mark V had to go in the shop.

Recently it had been making an intermittent fairly loud 50Hz noise. Fine for hours then RRRR! RRRR! Any channel, any power setting, independent of any volume settings, regardless of if the efect loop or guitar cable plugged in or not. Swapped power tube pairs and inside each pair, no difference. Swapped all the preamp tubes one at a time, still happens. Switching channels sometimes made it stop for a little bit, I think because of the vibration of the relays clicking.

Then I opened it up to have a look if there's something obvious loose or burnt. And found the foil shield (Against radio interference) had shed a bunch of little aluminum boogies inside. One was sitting right on top of the connector for the cable between the main board and the power tubes board, a tiny melted spot underneath it. A couple more harmlessly sitting in the bottom of the chassis.

So if you open your Mark V, inspect the foil shield for any loose bits.

Great, I though, I found something clearly wrong. Played all day with it open, no sudden loud hum. Put it back together the next day, played a bit, then it does it again. I was so disappointed. I guess there's a couple more aluminum bits floating around in there that I didn't see, and moving the amp shifted them, or shifted the one that has been making the problem all along.

Unfortunately swapping the tubes around and opening it up cost me my warranty, but it's already been a year now. I think it's actually a bit of a design flaw, the chassis should ground against the shielding some other way that avoids damaging the foil. Right now I just want it fixed. Someone else can spend their time looking for what's wrong.

If you read on the internet you always read the bad news about a product. I would still recommend the Mark V, it's a great amp. I'm just a bit sad I'll be without it for several weeks. We'll see what the repair finds, maybe I'll give some feedback to Mesa.

 

[yeti]

swapping tubes? really, cost you your warranty?

i guess only if you mention that to them.

:mrgreen:

same with the alum shavings and the chassis being opened?

 

[Induktionator]

This was what the guy at the store said, I don't have information back from the official Mesa distributor/repair yet. I have long ago ceased to expect things in Switzerland to work the same way as they do in the US.

 

[K-Roll]

swapping tubes does not cost you your warranty.. it only does when you use different brand than mesa so, anytime you need to bring it to the shop/ official tech, you just keep the stock mesas in and you should be fine to go

 

[Induktionator]

Several weeks is turning into several months. The saga continues.

 

[Induktionator]

My call today to the store that I bought it from seems to have resulted in some back-and-forth between the store, the authorized repair shop and Mesa, and some management escalation. The store called me back, I didn't quite understand the explanation as it was on the phone and in German (I do OK face to face, but on the phone is hard). What it comes down to is, I guess, the repair place has tried and tried to fix it but still cant, 3 months is not acceptable (Independent of whether it would be covered by warranty or not), so they are getting me a brand new factory packed unopened one, ETA Tuesday 18.October.

So Tuesday (hopefully) I'll try to understand better exactly what the story was, and should have a new Mark V. My guess is, this is a complicated amp, and it can be there are some problems that the specific cause just isn't diagnosable: The little foil bits I found is very general. Exactly where one little bit is and what specific part has a problem as a result is the specific problem to be fixed. Unless it is something else all together. I guess they could wind up replacing every single PCB to find it, and at that point it might as well be a new amp.

We'll see on tuesday

 

[jb's 52]

Wow...good luck!!!

I'd go nuts if I didn't have this amp for that long

 

[Rkorn]

to the store that I bought it from seems to have resulted in some back-and-forth between the store, the authorized repair shop and Mesa, and some management escalation. The store called me back, I didn't quite understand the explanation as it was on the phone and in German (I do OK face to face, but on the phone is hard). What it comes down to is, I guess, the repair place has tried and tried to fix it but still cant, 3 months is not acceptable (Independent of whether it would be covered by warranty or not), so they are getting me a brand new factory packed unopened one, ETA Tuesday 18.October.

I guess this is really unacceptable.
I guess if everytime we felt something was unacceptable we went to the store with a Lawyer 3 months would turn into 1 month.
There are laws that the stores, manufacturers, warranties must fulfill and that is what you must learn to protect yourself.

Its funny because when i had some troubles with the amp it was always ready next week... and it wasn't! The amp came back and forth always with same problem. 1 time the amp spent 1 month at the rep, I made a few calls, got in touch with the law and wrote a nice email to the store with copy to the rep and to Boogie (I'm in Portugal, this is not California). Boogie called me the next day through skype, after 1 hour the guy told me he would have news the next day.
The next day the news were: You will receive a New amp till friday (it was tuesday or wednesday). Friday morning i got a call from the store saying a new amp had arrived, and an email from the rep apologizing.
And they were telling me they weren't forced to give me a new amp??? with all the law on my side??? All reps should beware of smart/informed customers. And all of us should smarten'up regarding this questions. As the stores are not getting dumber.


Ahhh, one more thing: the guys at the store, everytime I went there they just don't smile anymore.. hehehe (only one of them does and its the guy that told me to complain)

 

[Induktionator]

Got my brand new replacement Mark V now, factory sealed box.

Some minor differences:
- The new one came with a very nice dust cover that I'll probably never use
- It didn't have the plastic 'cheat sheet' on top showing all the sample settings
- The tube cover snaps in place on plastic stand-offs rather than screwing into the wood in back
- Reverb cable goes through a nylon cablesupport
- Reverb can doesn't hang out the bottom as much, it has extra spacers under the mushy rubber isolators.
- It came with one of the new power cords that the prongs are partly insulated except near the tip, the ground prong is bare the whole length (Like British and Euro plugs)

Every single knob was at 7:00, and every switch was in the down position. Amusing.