Help! My F50 stopped working!!

[ericlingus]

Did the light on your amp come on or just the tubes? I'll try replacing the v4 soon. I'm gonna give mesa a call tomorrow.

 

[estring]

Lights came on, tubes glowed and the headphone out worked, but I had no sound otherwise or at least very very very low sound like you described.

 

[disassembled]

Maybe the lightbulb just burned out for the front....................


Greg

 

[ericlingus]

the amp has no noise except crackling. It seems to not get any signal from the guitar.

 

[Charlie]

Dude.

Did you try calling Mesa yet?

 

[ericlingus]

I just tried right now and I was directed to tech support. THe answering picked up. I'll try again in a few.

 

[ericlingus]

well I called and they weren't very helpful at all except for giving me the number a an authorized mesa repair center that's closest to me. Unfortuneatly it's still over an hour away. He said sounds like it a fuse. But then I told him the power tubes light up and he said oh that doesn't make any sense and that it's going to have to be looked at. For having a reputation for such great customer service I have to say I am dissapointed. The guy didn't even seem to show any signs of caring. The impression I got from him was "oh great another jackass that I have to pretend to help out". Oh well. I hope this doesn't cost too much as I don't have much money at all. Sucks that there was a problem with my amp already. I thought it was my fault with connecting the external cab wrong but it actually was the correct way. Well if anyone else has anything input i'd appreciate it.

 

[ericlingus]

hmm I tried turning my amp on again and about 20 seconds after I turned it on everything lit up and it worked fine. I flickedered on and off a couple times. It's been stable though now for about 5 minutes. I called mesa up again and told them this. It was a different guy who seemed to be nicer. He said maybe it is the power cable. He still didn't know and said I should get it checked out. I was a lot more pleased with the customer service the second time around. I could have just got one guy at a bad time. He wasn't really an *** or anything and if it was another company I wouldn't think anything of it but since mesa has such a great reputation for customer service I had higher expectations.

 

[plumptone]

Bad speaker?

Try running the amp through a known good extension cab only.

I got my F-50 a couple of years ago and there was a batch sent out with bad speakers - mine was one of them. I tried all sorts of things before finally confirming that's what it was. My symptoms were slightly different - intermittent drop out (DURING GIGS!!!!).

Good luck.

 

[domct203]

hmm I tried turning my amp on again and about 20 seconds after I turned it on everything lit up and it worked fine. I flickedered on and off a couple times. It's been stable though now for about 5 minutes. I called mesa up again and told them this. It was a different guy who seemed to be nicer. He said maybe it is the power cable. He still didn't know and said I should get it checked out. I was a lot more pleased with the customer service the second time around. I could have just got one guy at a bad time. He wasn't really an *** or anything and if it was another company I wouldn't think anything of it but since mesa has such a great reputation for customer service I had higher expectations.

Glad to hear the amp's working :?

Have you checked out the footswitch cable good? Intermittent problems with cables can be a tricky one to catch.

Most things electronic in nature don't just fix themselves. When you can spare the $$ get the amp on a tech's bench.

Good luck,

Dom

 

[ericlingus]

well it stopped working again. It's not the speaker because it did this with my external cab for it as well. It can't be the footswitch because I plugged it back in and it was working at the time. I also tried unplugging it again when the amp shut off but it didn't do anything. Maybe a wire it loose in the amp or something. This sucks. I've had the map for less than two years and I never have moved it from my bedroom and it breaks. I felt good having a mesa since they are supposed to be such solid amps. How much do techs usually charge for diagnosing an amp? Say it is just a wire that needs to be resoldered, how much do you think they would charge me to fix that plus however long it takes them to identify the problem?

 

[Charlie]

Make sure you have tried the following first:

Check all cables, including the power cable to the amp, speaker cable etc...

Try a different power outlet.

Switch the fuse out.

Try changing your preamp tubes with a known working preamp tube one at a time.

Try a different set of power tubes that are known to work (I think you already tried this).

If you've done all of this then it's time to take it to a tech. Most charge a minimum of something like 30-50 bucks.

All amps are prone to failure at some point. Mesa's are great but they will fail at some point too. It's a crap shoot just like anything else. You win some and you lose some there is only so much any amp manufacturer can do. I've heard a lot of people make complaints about Marshalls breaking down but I've had mine running strong on the same tubes for 15 years now so go figure.

Good luck.

 

[ericlingus]

I have tried all of those things except a new fuse and pre amp tube. If it was the fuse though then the amp wouldn't have worked at all even briefly and the power tubes wouldn't light up. Mesa said it was not the fuse. I'll try it though anyways. I'll have to buy a pre amp tube and try replacing the ones in the amp. Thanks a lot for your help.