Mesa Nomad 45... school me!

[Wolfchild]

Don't know much about these save for what I've read on Mesa's site.

What's the general opinion of these amps?
Any reliabilty issues?

Been offered one as a trade but was really looking for an Express 25, how do the two compare?

The real question is: Nomad 45 or Express 25? What do you guys think?


Thanks again in advance,

W.

 

[Koreth]

The Nomad's a bit contentious here. A few, myself included, like 'em. Others hate em. Some think the amp is absolutely too middy and needs an EQ pedal in FX loop or the graphic that comes on the 100W model to make the most of the amp. Some find it muddy. Others don't. What you should do is demo the amp thoroughly before committing to a trade and ensure that you are completely satisfied with the amp.

As for channel voicings go, you have three of them with two modes each. Channel 1's Normal mode is a clean that can go from decently thin and sparkly to decently warm and fat. The alternate mode, Pushed, is louder and can go from barely on the edge of breakup to a full out medium crunch that is awesome in it's own right. Channel 2 and 3 in Modern mode are higher gain channels with similar voicings with a few important differences. Channel 2 is voiced more bass for a fat sound, channel 3 is voiced with less bass for a tight, fast, bright sound. If you like Channel 3, you may not like Channel 2, and vice versa. The Vintage modes, despite what they might imply or how they may sound, actually do *not* reduce the amount of gain or distortion levels for either channel, unless you were already running one or both hot enough to overdrive the FX loop, phase inverter, or power tubes. What Vintage mode does do is make the channel quieter and darker sounding.

One nifty feature of the express you'll loose if you trade to the Nomad is the lower power feature. Though I've never used something like that, the ability to go down to only 5W of headroom has to useful for practice at non-stage/rehearsal volumes.

 

[dylan7620]

I've owned both the Nomad 45 head and 1x12 combo. Like Koreth said, a lot of people view them as the redheaded step-child of the Mesa line but they do have a following. I think it comes from the fact that when most people think of Mesa amps they usually tend to think of the Mark series or the Recto line but the Nomad isn't either. It's not brutal enough for the Recto guys and its tone doesn't have quite the complexity or the Mark series though it is a very capable and versatile amp in its own right. I'll give you my insight to the 45 as I owned two of them and its a little different than its bigger brothers the 55 and the 100.

The 45 is the only one of the bunch that uses the smaller bottles (EL84 vs 6L6 in the others) which tends to give it a bit of a sweeter sound. The clean channel for example has a bit more of a Vox AC charm to it than the blackface Fender-ish sound produced by the other two, but you probably figured that already. The 45 is also the only Nomad to feature the Normal/Extreme switch located on the back of the amp. From the Nomad manual:

This two position toggle switch is a bonus feature and rewards those loyal to the littlest
Nomad...the small but mighty 45. This switch reconfigures the negative feedback circuit of this little dynamo and allows two distinct power
responses from the 4 x EL84 harness. “Normal” wires in the magic amount of negative feedback,
producing a warm, round, bubbly response. This position is where you will find the most
balanced clean sounds and vocal overdrive sounds. We would suggest the Normal position
for most of your channel switching needs.
“Extreme” unleashes the fury of this aggressive mid-wattage power section and allows a
more traditional Euro style response. The early British EL84 amps barked an urgent, fast
attack and screamed with a brash, rebelious nature. Negative feedback is stripped away in
this Extreme rendition to arrive at the most forward of all Nomad personalities.

In normal mode the amp is very tame and IMO very basic sounding, not bad but I couldn't seem to dial in any sort of tone that jumped out at me. I always left it on extreme and to me, that's where the amp came alive. It seemed to me like the "blanket had been lifted off" so to speak and everything just plain sounded better to my ears. Now onto the channels.

Channel 1: As I described before Ch 1 has a very sweet Vox-ish bit about it that is really warm and bell like. It doesn't have quite the "spank" of 6L6 (I compared it often to my buddy's F-50 since he left it at my place for nearly a year) but I love the cleans on this amp. To be honest I like the 45's cleans better than my Mark Iv's but still a little behind the Blue Angel I had years ago, now THAT had some gorgeous cleans. Pushed mode is also pretty cool. You can dial it to be quite a monster if you want, as far as "clean" channels go. I can't think of any other high gain amp that can push out that much drive from its green channel, maybe a 5150 in crunch mode.

Channel 2: This one is just plain fun. It didn't start out that way though, I had a head with some VERY tired tubes and the bass pot was busted with the thing cranked all the way up. It led to nothing but a mushy mess and I never like it until I did a full retube and I got the idea to throw an OD in front of it. I put a Digitech Bad Monkey in front (before getting any negative thoughts about Digitech you must know that the Bad Monkey is a real gem with quite the following including many non Digitech users) but the cool thing about the Bad Monkey was the low and high EQ controls instead of the basic single tone knob. I turned down the bass all the way on the pedal essentially sucking all my guitar's lower frequencies out of the signal that hit the amp and WOW. All of a sudden I knew what this channel was about. I could do just about anything from light gain jazz tones to bluesy crunch to gainy liquid bliss. On vintage mode everything is dialed back a bit, a tad more civilized. Switching to modern mode you get a bump in volume and increased cut and presence in all frequencies across the board. With the OD in front I was playing with a metal band and getting all the gain I needed. My other guitarist nearly threw a fit when our bass player told him I had better tone than him and his Soldano Avenger w/upgraded SLO tranny.

Channel 3: Think a bit more "brit" here. Not as full sounding as Ch 2 and you can really tell when going back and forth between them. The low end doesn't have the depth or the resonance and the whole structure of the gain is much more dry sounding in general. When describing it like that it might sound like a bad thing but if you know what to expect and know what context to put it in it can be an incredibly useful sound. I'm sure if you had a Nomad 100 with EL34s you could dial in quite the good Led Zepp tone and many other classic Marshall sounds as well. Maybe die hard Marshall dudes would call BS on that and yea... a Mesa will always have that Mesa flavor to it but I seriously think you could pull it off better than any JCM2000 series. But coming back to the 45 with its tiny bottles the sound once again leans a little more to the Vox side of things but still on the dryer side. I think that might partially be because AC30s are usually biased rather warm where as the fixed bias of our Mesas run on the much cooler side. I've heard of AC30s burning up for that reason but I can't say I have any first or second hand experience so that could be some internet smoke being blown up my rear. The only thing I could ask for is for this channel to have the low end that the orange (ch 2) has. If those two channels were combined it would be brilliant. Then you could get yourself a 45 watt 2x12 with some Alnico Blues and then no one would have to buy a new AC30 ever again.

As far as reliability is concerned.... POTS!!! Everything else was awesome and I played out with the Nomads SO many times and they took it like champions but on both my head and my combo there were issues with the pots. I already explained the head, on my combo there was one or two pots giving me trouble. I distinctly remember the treble pot on the third channel being a pain. I had to shove a piece of paper under the knob, without the shim it wouldn't respond when I turned it and it seemed as though whenever I tried turning it up that I would LOSE top end. Very frustrating considering how Boogies work with that having an affect on the gain and the other knobs. So I just turned it up and compensated with the presence.

Now the Express series. I've had only moderate amounts of time with these and most of that was in guitar stores, bad I know. Still, I'm not a huge fan. I wanted to like them, I really did. I had my Nomad combo at the time when the Express series came out. Being a fan of the DCs, Nomads and especially the F-series I thought it would be awesome. I was really intrigued by that 5w setting. But nonetheless, it didn't do much for me. It felt similar to my Nomad with the poweramp voicing set to "normal." Which again, isn't a bad sound but just uninspiring to me overall. Plus I found out that I actually preferred the sound of the amp running full power turned down versus the 5 watt mode. Of course this is all just an opinion and I'm sure there are plenty of peeps who swear by their Express but if it were me... I'd be looking at another Nomad 45 or an F-30 before I even thought about the Express. Sorry for the uber long post, I just feel the need once in a while to stick up for the little guy (Nomad) since it gets a lot of bad press. Also, I'm hoping I won't get too much heat from the Express guys but it's a really long post and they don't have the time to read all the way through it to get to the bad part, they want everything now! now! now! That's why they got the Express in the first place. :lol:

 

[jbright44]

I had a nomad head for a while and I personally liked it. It is definitely not a Recto but kind of has it's own flavor. I liked it simply for the fact that it was different and the switchable EQ really kind of gave you another "voice" you could kick in. To me it was nice having a good three channel amp and having a different tone than all the Recto guys out there since I was playing some heavier modern rock at the time and really allowed my tone not to get all mixed in with the other guitar players recto.

 

[Dolebludger]

I had a Nomad 55 2X12 for a good while, and must confess I never could get the tone I wanted out of it (personally only). Also, it weighted close to 80 lbs., and I was having problems hauling it to gigs. So I sold it at a good price to a guy who was very glad to get it. While I play classic rock, blues and a little jazz, he played southern rock. I insisted that he "play before he paid", and out came the best southern rock tone I had ever heard. Yes, he was a good player, but it wasn't all him. Much of that great southern rock tone was from the amp! I took the proceeds and got an amp more capable of my styles of music, so it was a "win-win" situation for both of us.

Bottom line on this, the suitability of the Nomad for you will depend on the style of music you play, to a great extent.

I never had any problems with this amp. The only thing is that the Nomad reverb is very weak and not good sounding by design. I've played on some where the owner attempted out "mod out" this problem, and even that just didn't cut it for me. So if you like any reverb at all, you'll need a good reverb pedal with a Nomad.

 

[giorikas81]

I've owned both the Nomad 45 head and 1x12 combo. Like Koreth said, a lot of people view them as the redheaded step-child of the Mesa line but they do have a following. I think it comes from the fact that when most people think of Mesa amps they usually tend to think of the Mark series or the Recto line but the Nomad isn't either. It's not brutal enough for the Recto guys and its tone doesn't have quite the complexity or the Mark series though it is a very capable and versatile amp in its own right. I'll give you my insight to the 45 as I owned two of them and its a little different than its bigger brothers the 55 and the 100.

The 45 is the only one of the bunch that uses the smaller bottles (EL84 vs 6L6 in the others) which tends to give it a bit of a sweeter sound. The clean channel for example has a bit more of a Vox AC charm to it than the blackface Fender-ish sound produced by the other two, but you probably figured that already. The 45 is also the only Nomad to feature the Normal/Extreme switch located on the back of the amp. From the Nomad manual:

This two position toggle switch is a bonus feature and rewards those loyal to the littlest
Nomad...the small but mighty 45. This switch reconfigures the negative feedback circuit of this little dynamo and allows two distinct power
responses from the 4 x EL84 harness. “Normal” wires in the magic amount of negative feedback,
producing a warm, round, bubbly response. This position is where you will find the most
balanced clean sounds and vocal overdrive sounds. We would suggest the Normal position
for most of your channel switching needs.
“Extreme” unleashes the fury of this aggressive mid-wattage power section and allows a
more traditional Euro style response. The early British EL84 amps barked an urgent, fast
attack and screamed with a brash, rebelious nature. Negative feedback is stripped away in
this Extreme rendition to arrive at the most forward of all Nomad personalities.

In normal mode the amp is very tame and IMO very basic sounding, not bad but I couldn't seem to dial in any sort of tone that jumped out at me. I always left it on extreme and to me, that's where the amp came alive. It seemed to me like the "blanket had been lifted off" so to speak and everything just plain sounded better to my ears. Now onto the channels.

Channel 1: As I described before Ch 1 has a very sweet Vox-ish bit about it that is really warm and bell like. It doesn't have quite the "spank" of 6L6 (I compared it often to my buddy's F-50 since he left it at my place for nearly a year) but I love the cleans on this amp. To be honest I like the 45's cleans better than my Mark Iv's but still a little behind the Blue Angel I had years ago, now THAT had some gorgeous cleans. Pushed mode is also pretty cool. You can dial it to be quite a monster if you want, as far as "clean" channels go. I can't think of any other high gain amp that can push out that much drive from its green channel, maybe a 5150 in crunch mode.

Channel 2: This one is just plain fun. It didn't start out that way though, I had a head with some VERY tired tubes and the bass pot was busted with the thing cranked all the way up. It led to nothing but a mushy mess and I never like it until I did a full retube and I got the idea to throw an OD in front of it. I put a Digitech Bad Monkey in front (before getting any negative thoughts about Digitech you must know that the Bad Monkey is a real gem with quite the following including many non Digitech users) but the cool thing about the Bad Monkey was the low and high EQ controls instead of the basic single tone knob. I turned down the bass all the way on the pedal essentially sucking all my guitar's lower frequencies out of the signal that hit the amp and WOW. All of a sudden I knew what this channel was about. I could do just about anything from light gain jazz tones to bluesy crunch to gainy liquid bliss. On vintage mode everything is dialed back a bit, a tad more civilized. Switching to modern mode you get a bump in volume and increased cut and presence in all frequencies across the board. With the OD in front I was playing with a metal band and getting all the gain I needed. My other guitarist nearly threw a fit when our bass player told him I had better tone than him and his Soldano Avenger w/upgraded SLO tranny.

Channel 3: Think a bit more "brit" here. Not as full sounding as Ch 2 and you can really tell when going back and forth between them. The low end doesn't have the depth or the resonance and the whole structure of the gain is much more dry sounding in general. When describing it like that it might sound like a bad thing but if you know what to expect and know what context to put it in it can be an incredibly useful sound. I'm sure if you had a Nomad 100 with EL34s you could dial in quite the good Led Zepp tone and many other classic Marshall sounds as well. Maybe die hard Marshall dudes would call BS on that and yea... a Mesa will always have that Mesa flavor to it but I seriously think you could pull it off better than any JCM2000 series. But coming back to the 45 with its tiny bottles the sound once again leans a little more to the Vox side of things but still on the dryer side. I think that might partially be because AC30s are usually biased rather warm where as the fixed bias of our Mesas run on the much cooler side. I've heard of AC30s burning up for that reason but I can't say I have any first or second hand experience so that could be some internet smoke being blown up my rear. The only thing I could ask for is for this channel to have the low end that the orange (ch 2) has. If those two channels were combined it would be brilliant. Then you could get yourself a 45 watt 2x12 with some Alnico Blues and then no one would have to buy a new AC30 ever again.

As far as reliability is concerned.... POTS!!! Everything else was awesome and I played out with the Nomads SO many times and they took it like champions but on both my head and my combo there were issues with the pots. I already explained the head, on my combo there was one or two pots giving me trouble. I distinctly remember the treble pot on the third channel being a pain. I had to shove a piece of paper under the knob, without the shim it wouldn't respond when I turned it and it seemed as though whenever I tried turning it up that I would LOSE top end. Very frustrating considering how Boogies work with that having an affect on the gain and the other knobs. So I just turned it up and compensated with the presence.

Now the Express series. I've had only moderate amounts of time with these and most of that was in guitar stores, bad I know. Still, I'm not a huge fan. I wanted to like them, I really did. I had my Nomad combo at the time when the Express series came out. Being a fan of the DCs, Nomads and especially the F-series I thought it would be awesome. I was really intrigued by that 5w setting. But nonetheless, it didn't do much for me. It felt similar to my Nomad with the poweramp voicing set to "normal." Which again, isn't a bad sound but just uninspiring to me overall. Plus I found out that I actually preferred the sound of the amp running full power turned down versus the 5 watt mode. Of course this is all just an opinion and I'm sure there are plenty of peeps who swear by their Express but if it were me... I'd be looking at another Nomad 45 or an F-30 before I even thought about the Express. Sorry for the uber long post, I just feel the need once in a while to stick up for the little guy (Nomad) since it gets a lot of bad press. Also, I'm hoping I won't get too much heat from the Express guys but it's a really long post and they don't have the time to read all the way through it to get to the bad part, they want everything now! now! now! That's why they got the Express in the first place. :lol:

Dude excellent post! Could you make a parallel comparison between the nomad 45 extreme power amp setting and f-30's contour mode. Funny thing is, that the manual must be either wrong or just that mr Smith or whoever designed it did intend for different things. On the f-30 the blanket lifting effect is more or less achieved with the contour on which increases somewhat the negative feedback I think (?) thus tighening the amp and giving more pressence. Also it inserts a fixed graphic V eq.

On the nomad the extreme seems to take out the negative feedback (much like the modern mode on the recto) which should conclude to a gainier warmer sound (indeed the vintage mode on the recto is brighter and has negative feedback and is tighter whereas the modern mode is gainier but looser with big amounts of gain and...muddier).

Anyway whatever the means please do a comparison between the f-30's gain channel and the nomads. I am thinking of buying another small bottle tube equipped boogie and want either a dc-3 or a nomad...

 

[dylan7620]

Oh man, it's been a while since I've actually had my hands on an F-30. Most of my F-series experience comes from the 50 but seeing as they have the same preamp most of the core characteristics are still the same. Obviously the typical flavor change when the power section is running 84s (a little sweeter sounding and rounded off highs and lows) compared to the straight forward and ever stern 6L6s. Then there's the compact 1x12 vs the widebody and the v30 vs the c90 also but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I've never heard that the contour mode did anything affecting the negative feedback, just that it was a essentially a basic V shape that most people dial in on the 5 band anyways.

The contour mode is a little more aggressive compared to the Nomad's ch2 modern w/extreme. The F series in general just has a bit more recto flavor infused in its gain channel. I likened my buddy's F-50 ch 2 contour mode (into a 4x12) to sounding like my other friends Tremoverb if it was stuck somewhere in between the vintage and modern modes with about 80% of the available gain. The F-series can do most forms of metal (this side of deathcore or whatever) on it's own where the Nomad usually benefits from a pedal slamming the input a bit harder to get there. (or the 100w with the 5 band). It's not that the Nomad doesn't have enough gain, it does... it's just not angry enough, it always wants to sing instead of scream. Of course, if you don't play teh bro0talz ever then that probably doesn't help you out any, lol.

I'd say look at what features want in your amp. If you want a more straight forward amp with a couple channels then look at the F or the DC (being voiced much like the F but a little more classic Boogie flavored instead of the slightly more modern tone in the F) But if it's features you want, the Nomad may be your ticket. I love my Mark IV but I'd love it even more if it had a solo boost and separate reverb levels for each channel.

 

[Dolebludger]

I've got to say from my experience with my former Mk III, and my now former Nomad 55, and from playing a number of other Mesa amps that I find their reverbs very lacking. My Nomad had separate reverb controls for all three channels. It was barely there on the clean channel, and wasn't there at all on the other two, with all controls full up. The solo boost function on it, however, was a neat and useful control.

 

[dylan7620]

I've got to say from my experience with my former Mk III, and my now former Nomad 55, and from playing a number of other Mesa amps that I find their reverbs very lacking. My Nomad had separate reverb controls for all three channels. It was barely there on the clean channel, and wasn't there at all on the other two, with all controls full up. The solo boost function on it, however, was a neat and useful control.

True, I usually had it up all the way on the clean channel and completely off on the gain channels and left it switched on all the time. It gave a bit of "air" to my cleans without swallowing them up, since Mesa reverb on 10 is like Fender reverb on 2. :lol: I've been thinking about modding the verb on my mkIV so I can get my surf on!

 

[Dolebludger]

Yeah, and it's not like I was trying to sound like Dick Dale with my Nomad 55. I was only trying to get enough reverb out to compensate for a "dead" room -- and couldn't even do that, not even on "clean". I've been amp shopping recently, and didn't encounter a reverb on any other brand amp as weak as that on my former Mark III and my former Nomad. So I'd advise anybody pricing out a Nomad to through in the price of a good reverb pedal, if he wants any reverb at all.

 

[gator]

I purchased my Mesa Boogie Nomad 45 212 in 2002. I have gigged nearly every weekend with it for nearly 12 years. It has never failed me and always sounded great.

I personally prefer the EL84's as the amp really sounds like your working the hell out of it at a low club friendly volume. The tone controls are extremely useful guitar tone controls. Not ridiculous 0-1000 tone controls that hopefully have a sweet spot somewhere. Dialing in a music guitar tone is quick and easy as anywhere in the spectrum sounds great.

I like the subtle reverb as opposed to the harsh tinny high end feedback laden reverbs found in many amps. The pristine clean sound of channel 1 is the best clean tone I've ever gotten out of any amp. Channel two quickly allowed me to dial in that singing sustain tone ala Carlos Santana which is were I'm at home! Channel 3 easily offers the rhythm crunch used for many classic rock sounds.

I've only had to set in on stage and turn it on, never having to chase a tone. The only drawback is the size and weight but you don't build something this bullet proof and keep it light weight. I will eventually find a smaller lighter Mesa as I'm no spring chicken any more.

 

[bgh]

I purchased my Mesa Boogie Nomad 45 212 in 2002. I have gigged nearly every weekend with it for nearly 12 years. It has never failed me and always sounded great.

I personally prefer the EL84's as the amp really sounds like your working the hell out of it at a low club friendly volume. The tone controls are extremely useful guitar tone controls. Not ridiculous 0-1000 tone controls that hopefully have a sweet spot somewhere. Dialing in a music guitar tone is quick and easy as anywhere in the spectrum sounds great.

I like the subtle reverb as opposed to the harsh tinny high end feedback laden reverbs found in many amps. The pristine clean sound of channel 1 is the best clean tone I've ever gotten out of any amp. Channel two quickly allowed me to dial in that singing sustain tone ala Carlos Santana which is were I'm at home! Channel 3 easily offers the rhythm crunch used for many classic rock sounds.

I've only had to set in on stage and turn it on, never having to chase a tone. The only drawback is the size and weight but you don't build something this bullet proof and keep it light weight. I will eventually find a smaller lighter Mesa as I'm no spring chicken any more.

Sounds like you enjoy your Nomad as much as I enjoy mine! Very cool. Haven't had a lot of time to play lately, though.

 

[joejohnson0515]

I am a fairly new guitarist, been playing about 6 year, the only amp I owned before my Mesa Nomad 45 was a Vox AC4. I got the Nomad from an old friend for a steal and I personally love it. I have a lot of control of my tone, I get clear full cleans out of channel 1. Channel 2 gets as dirty as I want but is still very intelligible. I normally use channel 3 along with the solo boost at times for leads and solos but stick with channels 1 and 2 for most of my rhythm playing. Playing through my Les Paul Special 2 with the dual coil pick ups I love the tone I get.

Many of my friends own fender amps but they have just never done it for me. I love my Nomad 45 2x12. The only down sides, as previously stated above, are that it is very heavy weighing in around 80 pounds, and I wish it had more in the reverb department. But that's also what I have an Eventide Space for.

All in all, a great amp and I love it!

 

[bgh]

Sounds like you are definitely enjoying your Nomad! They seem to be the "ugly dog" in the Mesa breeding line - either you hate them or you love them. People complain about them. I guess we are the lucky ones!

Channel 1 is very responsive to having an OD pedal in front of it. I play my Jester and Big Cannoli into it and get some truly nice sounds. Channel 3 can be dialed into the same neighborhood as a Marshall (for rhythm) - especially when I turn the reverb completely off! For leads, I am a big fan of channel 2. I don't play a lot of high-gain. and channel 2 is very good for low to mid gain leads. Putting the Big Cannoli in front adds bloom to the notes and makes for very sweet leads.

It took some time to get used to the interactive tone controls (like, when you turn the treble down, the mids go up). But once you get used to it, the amp is not that hard to dial in at all.

Thanks for reading.

 

[joejohnson0515]

I'm sure it also has to do with the cones you have in the amp. In the user manual for the manual it shows some random EV cones, but I've never been a fan of EV. When I bought mine it came with Celestion G12 V30 which are a sweet all around cone.

I've contemplated switching one of the cones out with something else to give me just a little bit of a different sound on one side. But there are so many options to sort through and I've never had a need. My amp has always sounded fantastic as is.Why try to fix what isn't broken!

 

[bgh]

I'm sure it also has to do with the cones you have in the amp. In the user manual for the manual it shows some random EV cones, but I've never been a fan of EV. When I bought mine it came with Celestion G12 V30 which are a sweet all around cone.

I've contemplated switching one of the cones out with something else to give me just a little bit of a different sound on one side. But there are so many options to sort through and I've never had a need. My amp has always sounded fantastic as is.Why try to fix what isn't broken!

Mine has the MC90. So does my Mark IV. I am quite pleased with how both of them sound.

 

[Nomads]

I recently purchased a Nomad 100 2x12 combo, and i most say, that i agree with some of the folks here when they say the nomads are really lacking in the reverb department on all 3 channel, they are muddy and lack mid range bite. However the clean channel is very impressive and thanks to the EQ you got tone for days, channel 2 and 3 can go from gritty to high gain in just a twist of a dial. So i started doing some research on mods that have been done to Nomads, and in no time i dove head into the chassis soldering iron in hand. First i started with the NFB mod, and the results were astounding. The amp was no where near as muddy as in its stock form, the mid range had greatly improved, and the in higher gain setting it sound very raw, throaty and brutal? Then i thought its $time for mod number 2, i the started to remove one leg of the 2 resistors on the buoard (also known as the ud mod,
Also a hugh improvement, the amp was no longer muddy. With 2 smsl

 

[bgh]

Very cool. The 45 has a switch for the NFB. Makes it very nice.

 

[Fenderflame]

Hi All

Love my 1 X 12 Nomad 45. One thing has always puzzled me though. When using the amp live I can never switch modes like 'clean' to 'pushed' on channel 1 because of the volume jump. You set the amp up at sound check to balance the master volumes on all 3 channels so that the whole band mix sounds right. There are such big volume changes between the modes on each channel that you really can't change modes during a gig. I have heard people use the solo function to manage this but I use the solo function for solos.

I wish there was a mod where you could put a resistor or something in so that master level for each channel was unaffected by the mode switch. Anyone know of one?

The same is true of the NFB switch. It gives a huge bump in volume a well as the changes in tone.

Thanks