Info on Nomad amps

[musicbox]

man...all this nomad talk has me a bit teary eyed.. better warm up the angel..

the one greatest attribute i found with the nomad 45(now dylans) was that at medium sized venues, the thing fucking rocked on stage. with my old marshall 4x12, it couldn't be beat by anything. dylan is spot on when he said its a recto eater at 45 watts. at every showed my brother or i played at, the thing was huge and chunky because the power amp was just stressed enough. at those venues all the 100-150 watt rectos were barely warming up and sounded thin and fizzy. regardless of sound guy, the thing just cut and made the band sound huge and full from the stage and from the back of the place. beats hands down any of the current modern marshall range which i have explored extensively, and deffinilty stands up to the big hitters at medium sized venues. as for recording...the mids gave me a headache and i just got fed up. deffinitly find myself missing it from time to time though.

 

[dylan7620]

yea, those mids show up REAL quick when you put a mic up on that speaker :lol: but are great for a live mix!

 

[Angstwulf]

Hey, Xspider FingersX:

If one were to hypothetically get off of one's bum, go into one's garage, take out the router and tools that one purchased with the dreams of being a woodworker only to have them collect dust and IF one were to actually build the 1x12 cab that one keeps prattling on about then...

...what sort of cabinet and speaker would you think works well with the Nomad45? I've never used a Mesa cab (or any other cab for that matter) so I don't have a feel for their character.

30 or 90 watt? Open or closed? Smoking or non-smoking? Why?

Just food for thought.

Laters,
Tommy

 

[Xspider FingersX]

it really really depends on the application youre going to be playing it with.

Its all common sense though, closed back gives major projection, and takes away from tone quality at lower levels, but adds bass

Open back can allow less bass response, but a sweeter tone.

you can never go wrong with v-30s.

I have two cabs that i use with my nomad 100; a marshall 1960 a with the stock speakers and an avatar g2x12 premier w/ v-30s.

I use the marshall for my metal band and any rock band; i use the 2x12 for anything where i dont need to be totally balls to the wall louder then anyone has a right to be.

If you want total versitility, but dont need huge huge volume, go with a 2x12 and make(or buy) 2 backs; my avatar is 16 screws away from being closed back or ported back and it was a 20 dollar option to get 2 backs.

 

[musicbox]

I found a closed back 4x12 much more complementary to the nomad tone then an open back 2x12...infact, I downright disliked the open back. A closed back 2x12 would probably be just as well. As for speakers, the stock speakers in the marshall cab sounded alot better with the nomad than the v30's in a mesa cab...I believe the speakers in the marshall are g12t-75s.

 

[cvansickle]

I like my Nomad combo's 212 (open back) okay for cleans and for Rolling Stones, Black Crowes kind of dirty playing. But for hard rock, metal, most classic rock styles that I play, my closed back 412 delivers the goods, especially on the red channel.

However, when I use a chorus or some sound effect that is pretty swirly, I still think the open 212 sounds better, gives the sound more room to travel and swell. I've got Sound Sculpture and Axess Electronics midi switching devices in my rack to control all this.

 

[dylan7620]

I found a closed back 4x12 much more complementary to the nomad tone then an open back 2x12...infact, I downright disliked the open back. A closed back 2x12 would probably be just as well. As for speakers, the stock speakers in the marshall cab sounded alot better with the nomad than the v30's in a mesa cab...I believe the speakers in the marshall are g12t-75s.

was that the traditional mesa cab or the oversized one?

 

[Angstwulf]

Well, I suppose after I'm done with the pantry shelves and the window frames I have something to look forward to. Thanks for the info, all.

What effect does the number of speakers have? I know that perceived sound is greater but does it also effect tone in any other sense? I would assume that the greater area of cone would mean that each speaker is less stressed for a given noise level, but isn't the opposite preferred?

 

[Xspider FingersX]

Ive had the head through the traditional cab, the road king ported cab, and an oversized before and i've hated it on all of them.

As far as amount of speakers are concerned, i've always noticed a bit fuller sound with more, but you know, thats just more air moving and such, i've never found it to really effect tone THAT much. but then again, everyone has a different ear

 

[musicbox]

it was with the traditional sized one. then again, i've always had marshall cabs so maybe my ears are biased?

 

[Rich M]

I think part of the problem with the Nomad spotty reputation is there were some production problems related to the pots. Specifically, there was a bad run of pots with a certain code (81* IIRC). To Mesa's credit they are standing behind these and have been great in terms of support. Also, there was a problem with the knob design that if you exert inward pressure on the knob, the wiper assembly could push the can on the pot loose, which would cause the wiper to lose contact with the trace. The Nomad 55 I have up for sale had this latter problem and sounded pretty thin/bad when I got it and the tone knobs didn't make a difference (obviously). I recrimped the pots and got some shim spacers from Mesa that snap into the back of the knob to prevent this from happening again. I suspect the Nomad reputation is based on there being a fair amount of screwed up ones being out there. When fixed, they sound great and are very versatile. The manual really helps dialing in great sounds until you get familiar with how it works.

Disclaimer, I'm spelling this out partly to help out other Nomad owners, but mostly to try and sell my Nomad 55 as I need the cash .

 

[dylan7620]

I think part of the problem with the Nomad spotty reputation is there were some production problems related to the pots. Specifically, there was a bad run of pots with a certain code (81* IIRC). To Mesa's credit they are standing behind these and have been great in terms of support. Also, there was a problem with the knob design that if you exert inward pressure on the knob, the wiper assembly could push the can on the pot loose, which would cause the wiper to lose contact with the trace. The Nomad 55 I have up for sale had this latter problem and sounded pretty thin/bad when I got it and the tone knobs didn't make a difference (obviously). I recrimped the pots and got some shim spacers from Mesa that snap into the back of the knob to prevent this from happening again. I suspect the Nomad reputation is based on there being a fair amount of screwed up ones being out there. When fixed, they sound great and are very versatile. The manual really helps dialing in great sounds until you get familiar with how it works.

Disclaimer, I'm spelling this out partly to help out other Nomad owners, but mostly to try and sell my Nomad 55 as I need the cash .

my channel 2 bass knob is like that. how should i go about fixing it?

 

[Dersu Uzala]

I guess the original owner of my Nomad 55 had a similar problem and either ordered new pots or had his techie fix the problem. Now, a number of pots are a bit stiff when dialing them, not in terms of sound but in terms of how smooth they rotate. I need to exert a bit more pressure to dial some of them. On the bright side, once I set them the way I want them they won't easily change their position by accident, such as when wiping the front panel with a cloth or something.
The 'feeling' is kinda 'Soviet' if you know what I mean 8) .

Ah, but the sounds it produces....and the flexibility....for that kind of price. Ridiculously good deal.

 

[Rich M]

Dylan,
To fix the pots, you need to pull the chassis, safely discharge the caps (look online for advice for this). Then it is a simple matter of removing the knob/pot and recrimping the metal tangs that hold the can onto the pcb wafer that the solder lugs are riveted to. A set of needle-nose pliers worked for me. Having fat fingers, like me makes this real fun. Be sure that the board is seated nice in the can shoulder and level and all the way around before you recrimp as this will ensure good contact on the wiper. Check the others for looseness while you have it out. Pull your knobs off. If they don't have a milky colored washer snapped in the back of the knob, call Mesa and request a set of knob shims to snap in there. I think they are no charge, but I can't speak for Mesa. This will prevent this from occuring again. I can tell you, fixing this really makes a difference.

Dersu,
When I recrimped mine, they all returned to normal. If yours are tight, I suspect that perhaps the can wasn't seated properly when it was recrimped or the pot is bad. Another possibility is that when/if the shims were installed, the knob was pushed too far down the shaft and the washer is rubbing HARD against the threaded shoulder of the pot. You want the smaller possible gap there (paper shim) so that these parts contact only when there is inward pressure on the knob. Obviously, if the gap is too big, the problem can reoccur.

Finally,
You should check the pot codes while you have the unit out. I thought about it some more and think that 81* may be the codes that were in my amp and NOT the defective one. If someone calls Mesa, can they find out the bad lot (maybe 83* ??) and post it here so this info will be all together.

No interest on the Nomad 55 I have listed. I guess I'll need to teach my kids to play...

 

[Rich M]

2. Channel three: Humbuckers. Please. I tend to avoid channel three when using a single coil guitar.

I would have said the exact opposite. I plugged my frankenstrat with Kinmans into my 55 the other night and it smoked on Ch3. Never could get it to sound good through any of my main amps, so maybe it was weird confluence of factors. Made me think I need to get those Kinmans out of that Floyd Rose armed POS.

 

[Angstwulf]

2. Channel three: Humbuckers. Please. I tend to avoid channel three when using a single coil guitar.

I would have said the exact opposite. I plugged my frankenstrat with Kinmans into my 55 the other night and it smoked on Ch3. Never could get it to sound good through any of my main amps, so maybe it was weird confluence of factors. Made me think I need to get those Kinmans out of that Floyd Rose armed POS.

Gee thanks a lot, Rich. Now I'm going to obsess over Kinman pickups and lose more work time window shopping for them...

Seriously, I'm glad you found a good tone on Ch3 with singles. I was overgeneralizing a tad there (you know, opinions are like a**holes, everyone's got one). I have a mid-80's Japanese strat. Lovely guitar but the tones tend towards mellow and you really have to work hard to make it sound raunchy which is what I think Ch3 is best at.

Laters,
Tommy

 

[Rich M]

Tommy,
Funny about the Jap strat. I plugged my stock SQ strat into it first and it sounded like crap. Maybe the pickups from down under are wound the other way (y'know like the toilet flushing thing).

 

[Jeff Courtney]

I bought a Nomad 55 (my first Mesa Product) and at the time was looking for a much more high gain then that offered, but I decided to go with it. Looking back and watching videos, it sounded awesome, but I didnt think to highly of it while I had it. I knew it had a great tone, but it didnt have the gain I was looking for. I sold it on ebay, and now I wish I still had it. Even if I wasnt gonna use it, like I said, after looking back, I realized it had some awesome tones. I currently have the RK and a F-50 combo. I love both of those also. Although I think there is something wrong with my Rk, but the Nomad 55 isnt in production anymore, so if you get it...KEEP IT! Learn from my mistake lol

My 2 cents
Jeff

 

[marshman]

I played bass in my last band, but got to do a few numbers on guitar. Used the guitar players Nomad 55 1x12. Mostly bluesy stuff, so never needed ch3. Main user played a Les Paul, and I found his settings were plenty useful for my strat. On a really good night, I was able to turn on ch2 and use my guitar vol to go clean and crank it up for leads. Very convincing SRV-esque tone.

Ch 3 could dial in any number of heavy tones, although we never went for anything heavier than AC/DC.

We have played with tubes plenty now that the warranty has expired. Pumping amp through a 2x15 was a blast, but probably too loud for most purposes.

Basically, a **** fine amp.

 

[Angstwulf]

Tommy,
Funny about the Jap strat. I plugged my stock SQ strat into it first and it sounded like crap. Maybe the pickups from down under are wound the other way (y'know like the toilet flushing thing).

That may explain why the more I play the more I suck.

In all seriousity, when you compare your SQ (Squier?) to your Kinmans are they similar in output or are the Kinmans wound to sound a little hotter?