Mark IV Not Working Through a Power Strip! Need Help

[eroe577]

I just bought a used wood/wicker Mark IV yesterday, and I noticed a few things that puzzled me. First thing is that when I plug the amp into a power strip the amp does not turn on however, when you plug it straight into the wall it turns on just fine. The other thing I noticed is that there is a fair amount of hum when i'm on the R1 channel, that isn't that big of a deal, but the first issue i think is. Should I go back to where I bought it and return it and get an express?

 

[madryan]

I just bought a used wood/wicker Mark IV yesterday, and I noticed a few things that puzzled me. First thing is that when I plug the amp into a power strip the amp does not turn on however, when you plug it straight into the wall it turns on just fine. The other thing I noticed is that there is a fair amount of hum when i'm on the R1 channel, that isn't that big of a deal, but the first issue i think is. Should I go back to where I bought it and return it and get an express?

Before plugging it in again you need to go down to your nearest hardware store and buy an outlet tester and use it on every outlet you ever plan on plugging your gear into. Carry it in your gigging stuff.

 

[Scrapinger]

I've had lots of probs with my Mark IV. The first issue I would address is pull ALL the Mesa Boogie labeled tubes out of it and put in good Russian tubes. Shop online for tubes as Boogie's are junk.

 

[madryan]

I've had lots of probs with my Mark IV. The first issue I would address is pull ALL the Mesa Boogie labeled tubes out of it and put in good Russian tubes. Shop online for tubes as Boogie's are junk.

Tubes wouldn't be causing the OP's problem. Mesa preamp tubes are pretty much garbage but their power tubes are fine.

 

[Scrapinger]

I blew two Mesa power tubes within a week, one EL34 and one 6L6 in my Mark IV. When I pulled the newer 6L6's from my Mark IIB and put them in my Mark IV, one of them blew. I threw and old pair of Russian 6L6's that were actually labeled 5881's, that the Tube Store told me were actually 6L6's back in my Mark IIB, I couldn't believe how much better my Mark IIB sounded.

So I respectfully disagree with you. In my limited experience the Boogie tubes have poor tonal quality and poor reliability. In the past this was not the case, but now......different story.

 

[mr_fender]

I've not had any problems with Boogie tubes in any of my amps. If your amp is blowing that many tubes, I'd say it's time to take it to an amp tech rather than blame the tubes. Blanket statements like "Boogie tubes are garbage" are complete nonsense. Also, many of Boogie's tubes ARE made is Russia. Mesa does not make tubes. No one in the USA does. They buy from China and Russia just like everyone else, test, sort for a specific bias range, and relabel them as Boogie tubes. Boogies are generally biased on the cold side, so if you've had numerous consecutive tubes blow in your amp, there's a good chance something is wrong. Tubes don't generally just blow for no reason. Did you by any chance mod the amp for an adjustable bias?

 

[Scrapinger]

Hey,

I appreciate your reply. Today I posted a reply to another topic that detailed all the issues with my Mark IV. My Mark IV head is currently at the Boogie factory for the third time in a year. The first two times among the other issues was bad MB 12ax7's. When I finally got rid of any MB labeled 12ax7 my amp came back to life.

Fast forward to present issue, I had relatively new MB EL34 and then a 6L6 go bad within a week of each other both in class A sockets. The EL34 on the outside slot and the 6L6 on the inside. Boogie gave me a RA and when they got it back I got the usual condescending attitude and they told me there is nothing wrong with my amp and all I had was a bad tube. They ignored a two page letter deatiling the issues I have been having and THEY themselves blamed it on THEIR tubes.

So what are the odds that 2 out of the original 12ax7's that were in the amp new were bad? Three of the 5 brand new replacement MB tubes the retailer gave me to replace them were bad? Now two power tubes within a week of each other? All these tubes are MB labeled. The tubes that I have used that are not MB labeled have been no problems. The Tung Sol 12ax7's were all good and sounded great. The MB 6L6's that I pulled from my Mark IIB and put in the Mark IV (of which one was the 6L6 that I mentioned went bad) sounded like crap. After pulling them from my Mark IIB, I put my old Russian 6L6's and this totally brought my Mark IIB back to life.

My conclusion then....MB tubes are junk. I have had better performance from other brands. ALL of the preamp tubes that I have had in my Mark IV were Chinese made and MB labeled and a high percentage of those were bad.

BTW if you read other posts here and do research, you will find that some tubes ARE made in the US:

http://www.vacuumtubes.com/6BG6.html

http://www.vacuumtube.com/Mfg.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vacuum_tubes

http://store.tubedepot.com/nos-12ax7-janph.html

 

[fretout]

I've had lots of probs with my Mark IV. The first issue I would address is pull ALL the Mesa Boogie labeled tubes out of it and put in good Russian tubes. Shop online for tubes as Boogie's are junk.

I actually prefer Mesa tubes. They sound fuller to me (I have tried Rubys, Svetlanas, GT, Sovteks, ect.), but to each their own. I should mention that my Mesa branded tubes (I beleive they are rebranded Rubys) have lasted longer than I ever could have imagined.

 

[fretout]

I've not had any problems with Boogie tubes in any of my amps. If your amp is blowing that many tubes, I'd say it's time to take it to an amp tech rather than blame the tubes. Blanket statements like "Boogie tubes are garbage" are complete nonsense. Also, many of Boogie's tubes ARE made is Russia. Mesa does not make tubes. No one in the USA does. They buy from China and Russia just like everyone else, test, sort for a specific bias range, and relabel them as Boogie tubes. Boogies are generally biased on the cold side, so if you've had numerous consecutive tubes blow in your amp, there's a good chance something is wrong. Tubes don't generally just blow for no reason. Did you by any chance mod the amp for an adjustable bias?

If he is continuously blowing tubes, it sounds like it could be a fuse issue...

 

[Jackkate]

"First thing is that when I plug the amp into a power strip the amp does not turn on however, when you plug it straight into the wall it turns on just fine. The other thing I noticed is that there is a fair amount of hum when i'm on the R1 channel, that isn't that big of a deal, but the first issue i think is."

As to your first problem - you have a bad power strip.

If you plug into the wall and the amp turns on, but won't turn on when plugged into the power strip, then the strip is either not plugged in, not turned on, or it's broken. There simply is no other answer.

The hum could be any number of things, not necessarily tubes, but possibly.

 

[mr_fender]

BTW if you read other posts here and do research, you will find that some tubes ARE made in the US:

Actually, nearly all of the links you posted refer to NOS tubes. NOS stands for New Old Stock. These are old tubes that were made 20+ years ago and were never sold. Phillips, GE, and RCA no longer make tubes. There are USA made NOS tubes available, but they are very expensive and in short supply. While there is a very small number of US companies that make specialty tubes (mostly discontinued HIFI tubes), there are currently no volume manufacturers of EL34's, 12AX7's, or 6L6's here in the US. Just about all of these types come from either Russia (including former Soviet eastern European countries) or China. There are only a handful of vacuum tube factories left in the world. As a result, many of the popular brands sold today come from the same factories and are simply re-branded. For example, new tubes from Electro Harmonix, Sovtek, Mullard, Svetlana, Tung Sol, and New Sensor are all made in the same Russian factory.

I've been using Boogie tubes for nearly 10 years, have worn out quite a few sets in that time, and the closest thing I've had to a failure was one preamp tube going microphonic after a drunk "friend" dropped my amp head. In my experience, I've had no reason to doubt the quality of Boogie amps or tubes. I'm not saying they are the best, but they are far from junk. Now, it is unfortunate that your experience with them was not so good, but given the number of tube failures you had it would seem that more is going on here. Do you use the standby switch, to allow the amp to properly warm up and cool down? Do you allow the amp and tubes to cool down before moving? Do you have the proper fuse installed in the amp? It's entirely possible that you simply got a string of bad tubes: just crap luck. However, I'm certain that your experience is the exception rather than the rule. If everyone had that many failures, Mesas would be shipping with different tubes or else they'd lose a lot of business. That doesn't seem to be the case at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so we'll just leave it at that.

 

[Scrapinger]

Agree to disagree. i also have used MB tubes for years, but have run into a really bad patch. Just got a call and my Mark IV is ready and they couldn't find anything wrong other than 2 bad tubes.

Peace

 

[madryan]

We just swapped some preamp tubes from my buddies Road King. They were the stock tubes and he was complaining because the noise floor had been steadily increasing. I pulled the Chassis and we swapped different tubes through V1 till we found a couple of NOS Groovetubes I had in my spares case that worked really well. They're really nice expensive tubes but they sound great. The boogie branded (Electro Harmonix) tubes we took out were pretty much junk. Thin sounding and noisy but they'd also stood up to a year or so of fairly steady use. I've always had EH tubes (Mesa Russian 2) tubes crap out and sound like *** on me in fairly short order so I usually ditch them when I get a new Mesa.

As I said... Power tubes failing is usually a problem with your power (Hence that tester I posted a pic of) or a problem with your amp. If they work for a while then just pop it's probably the power. If they fail right off the bat it's usually the tube.

 

[4406cuda]

My Mark V came stock with re-branded JJ Tesla preamp tubes. I believe they are made in Czech.

 

[ryjan]

JJ tubes are good quality in my experience. The tone is not for everyone however. :|