New 5:25 owner question about 5 watt volume

[dsearles]

I am new to Mesa Boogie amps, I just got a 5:25 about three weeks ago and when I play it through the 25 watt it has excellent volume but when I play through the 5 watt power mode, it has very little volume. Would the lack of volume in 5 watt mode be something I can fix by replacing tubes? If so which ones?

Thanks in advance

 

[Don]

The amp should still be pretty loud set to the 5 watt mode. Replace the driver/phase inverter tube. I believe it is V4. This tube seems to have to work harder in the 5 watt SE mode than in the 25 watt PP mode. When it failed on my 5:50 the 50 watt mode still worked and the 5 watt mode did not.

 

[grayson73]

For me, I was expecting a dramatic dropoff from 30w to 5w, but found that the 5w is still too loud!

 

[edward]

Going to 5watt mode reduces your clean headroom, as well as the volume. It is noticible, to be sure, but with a slight increase of the volume knob and the amp should still get plenty loud. If not, then soemthing is wrong.

Edward

 

[FXR]

I have had volume issues with my Express 5:25 since I got it. I even sent it to Mesa and they say it's fine. It's not. The volume sometimes drops out, a lot, for no reason at all. Mesa even sent me all new tubes. It's not tube related and it's not something one can duplicate at will.

One minute it will be blasting, then suddenly it will fall off. Turning the guitar up and the master on the amp up are no help.

Right now I'm at a point where both 5 watt and 25 watt seem almost the same, I can hardly turn the master on at all and the amp is blasting loud. I am not as happy as I'd like to be.

 

[grayson73]

I have had volume issues with my Express 5:25 since I got it. I even sent it to Mesa and they say it's fine. It's not. The volume sometimes drops out, a lot, for no reason at all. Mesa even sent me all new tubes. It's not tube related and it's not something one can duplicate at will.

One minute it will be blasting, then suddenly it will fall off. Turning the guitar up and the master on the amp up are no help.

Right now I'm at a point where both 5 watt and 25 watt seem almost the same, I can hardly turn the master on at all and the amp is blasting loud. I am not as happy as I'd like to be.

That's how mine is. 5w and 25w seem almost the same and I can hardly turn the master on at all and the amp is blasting loud. Since that's how it is for both of ours, maybe that's the way it is supposed to be?

 

[FXR]

Hi grayson73,

Right now she is working well, it's fun and fits what I do so well. But, it was only a few weeks ago I had the volume drop out during a show. Hitting the channel foot switch from green to red and back fixed the issue that day.

I have that hanging over my head and it takes away from the positive experiences with the amp often.

 

[NomadExpress]

A 5W amp is about 75-80% of the SPL of a 25W amp. Both settings should be fairly loud.

It goes like this:
Due to the logrithmic relationship to SPL and power, a 100W amp is twce as loud as a 10W amp which is twice as loud as a 1W amp. Yes, a 100W amp is only 4x louder than a 1 W amp, all else (speaker/input) being equal.

There should be a noticible, but not a great deal of difference in volume between a the 5W and 30W settings. There should be a fairly noticible difference in clean headroom.

 

[Newysurfer]

Hi grayson73,

Right now she is working well, it's fun and fits what I do so well. But, it was only a few weeks ago I had the volume drop out during a show. Hitting the channel foot switch from green to red and back fixed the issue that day.

I have that hanging over my head and it takes away from the positive experiences with the amp often.

Sounds like an intermitant connection somewhere and these can be a real pain in the ***.
But you've been stuffed around too much already imo.
If your 5.25 is new and still on warranty next time the volume drops out I would call Mesa and say

"I'm sick & tired of stuffing around with this faulty amp. Your attempted fix with tubes failed so give me a whole NEW amp plz" :mrgreen: