i'm not liking my nomad so much...help??

[rescue squad]

i picked up a nomad 100 head last week as an early graduation present. when playing it in the store, i think it sounded great. i had to choose between the nomad or a soldano avenger. i chose the nomad because of the features...3 channels, 6l6/el34, you know...the works.
also, in the store, i noticed the tubes were glowing blue, so i picked up two matched pairs of new mesa 6l6's. when i got it home and swapped them out, there were 3 mesa tubes and 1 sovtek. so i'm guessing they weren't matched and that was causing them to glow blue?
anyways, i've played it for hours, and at band practice, and i can't really seem to get a good sound out of it. i know mesa's are "tweaking" amps, since i also own a walkabout bass head, but i just can't get satisfied with this amp.

today is march 6th, i have until march 11th to decide whether i want to get a new amp or not.
if anybody could post any suggestions as for settings or anything, it would be greatly appreciated.

oh yeah, i'm running it through a traditional rectifier cab loaded with 2 v30's and 2 g12h30's. i've also run it through a professionally build 2x12 with greenbacks (which i really didn't like at all)

 

[jbird]

You'd have to tell us what type of music, or who's tone your after?

 

[rescue squad]

i play agressive technical lead type stuff. i want it to sound gritty and articulate, but not oversaturated. since there is no other guitarist in my band, i do some rhythm as well, but not much.
kinda sounds like the fall of troy if you've ever heard them.

 

[ylo]

What kind of speaker cab are you using? The more distorted sounds (ch 2, ch 3) may sound too buzzy with an open back cabinet, depending on your tastes. Running the amp into a 4 x 12 or 2 x 12 rolls off the highs a little and improves the sound of Ch2 and Ch3, in my opinion. Of course this depends also on the type of speaker. Converseley, you may prefer the sound of Ch1 with an open back cab.

The blue glow is normal. Mismatched output tubes will affect clean headroom, but probably will not make too much difference in tone at lower volumes. You may want to try various brands of preamp tubes in the V1 slot to change the tone of the amp a little.

 

[strumminsix]

My greatest stumbling blocks with Mesa:
1. Understanding the tone stack
2. Compensate for volume changes with the tone stack

Maybe these are yours as well? For me I needed about 2 hours of tweaking with "ear breaks" in between and the ability to open it up bit. I'm still not 100% perfect but really, really close.

I don't know but figure this may help.

 

[rescue squad]

What kind of speaker cab are you using? The more distorted sounds (ch 2, ch 3) may sound too buzzy with an open back cabinet, depending on your tastes. Running the amp into a 4 x 12 or 2 x 12 rolls off the highs a little and improves the sound of Ch2 and Ch3, in my opinion. Of course this depends also on the type of speaker. Converseley, you may prefer the sound of Ch1 with an open back cab.

The blue glow is normal. Mismatched output tubes will affect clean headroom, but probably will not make too much difference in tone at lower volumes. You may want to try various brands of preamp tubes in the V1 slot to change the tone of the amp a little.

like i said above, i have a mesa traditional rectifier 4x12, with 2 v30's and 2 g12h30's.
to clarify on the sound i'm looking for, i want leads to sound bright and punchy, but not too boomy. i'm fairly happy with the clean sound i have right now.
also, how much of a difference does it make while running it at 50w to push my cabinet at 4ohms compared to 8? i know in the manual it suggests going from 8ohms to 4 when switching between 100w to 50, but i haven't tried 50w at 8ohms.

 

[Nomad100]

I went through the same thing myself. The amp has a lot of tonal possibilities, but they don't always come that easy.

From my experience, here's a few things that might help you out:

1. The Nomads can be slighty revoiced by switching to a different tube type. I like 6L6's for clean sounds, but prefer EL34's for my dirty sound. (Yeah, it's a pain to buy more tubes, but is worth it).

2. Play around with cranking the master for a specific channel, then cutting the overall volume with the global control. Gives a different sound that I prefer.

3. Experiment with different cabs. I know you've already done this so it may not apply, but if you have a friend with a different cab/speaker type, try it out.

4. The BIGGEST thing on the Nomad 100 (Not the 45 & 55) is the 5 band eq. I always set my tone controls slightly less than half way up (regardless of which one), then I set the graphic for the best sound on my main channel (this is usually a V shape. the Nomads have alot of mids that I think need cutting). Finally, I'll reset the individual tone controls for the best sound for each channel. Always Leave the Graphic EQ In, It's your best friend.

 

[ylo]

The advantage to switching to 50 W is that you are pushing the power tubes into compression and then distortion a little sooner (at slightly lower volume), but not by much in terms of volume. Most people love a little power tube compression.

You have to plug the speakers into a different jack (8 ohms vs 4 ohms) in the 50 W setting because you are only using two of the four output tubes. This changes the impedance on the primary (tube) side of the output transformer. If I recall correctly, this doubles the impedance on that side (tubes in parallel). Anyway, you have to make a corresponding change on the speaker side to maintain a good match, either by running different speakers or by plugging the speakers into a different set of output transformer taps, as outlined in the manual. If the speaker impedance is too low, you can burn your power tubes out. If the speaker impedance is too high, it supposedly does not do any damage, but reduces volume and tone a little bit.

Switching to EL34s will soften up the sound a bit more at high volumes, giving a slightly earlier onset of power tube compression compared to most 6L6 tubes, more of a Marshall type sound as opposed to Fender.

 

[dual rec]

I had the same problem with my dual when I first got it. My uncle is who hooked me up with it and he talked about how awesome it sounded and all the people in the store thought it was awesome etc, but when I got it I was dissapointed. It almost made me want to sell. About a month later it got better. A month after that better, and so on, but until it hit me I didn't think it was that great.

 

[rescue squad]

thank you all for the help. i'll be completely honest and say that this amp just isn't for me. it really does have good unique sound to it, but it's not quite what i was looking for. i usually play a handwired jmp45 that was built as an 18w, which i love to death, but isn't loud enough for gigging. my dad offered to build me another plexi with a 100w power section, but said it would be a couple months before he could have it finished. so i decided to shell out the extra 600$ and get the soldano avenger.

 

[dylan7620]

too bad its not for you. my nomad 45 with an od in front of it will take anything my other guitarists avenger will dish out. BTW did you get the one with the transformer mod?