New/Old Member needing advice

bryantkh · Jan 20, 2010

Hey guys. I was a member on the old boards, but found my way back here. I need some help from you guys. I have a 2006 LSC 1x12. No mods, completely stock, bought new. I have used it for many gigs since I have had it. I did a re-tube after buying it with JJ's and loved my tone. I swore I had the best possible amp for what I needed. I re-tubed again with JJ's recently and hate my tone. I cant stand it every time I play live. So I figure it may be a bad batch of JJ's. I order another set and its the same thing. I then throw Mesa tubes in and the problem still exists.

The problem with the new tone is hard to describe. The best word I can use to describe it is stiff. The tone lost its warm round edge it used to have, especially when distorting. There seems to be a loss in touch, as well as a loss in overall volume available. More fizzy, less organic tone. (BTW I go for warm clean on channel 1 and warm overdrive on 2, nothing high gain.) Any ideas? Maybe it just needs a tune up? I am hating to the point that I am about to just sell it. Its still under warranty, but the closest center is and hour and a half a way.

Old BF Shred · Jan 20, 2010

Time for a trip to the Mesa repair shop....

I know it is not a convenient answer, esp. if the shop is hours away, but you say it used to work great and now it does not...and it sounds like you have eliminated the tubes.

That is what the warranty is for and let's face it....you will have a hard time selling an amp that needs repair.

I wish you...
Good luck!

bryantkh · Jan 20, 2010

Yeah, I probably just need to bite the bullet and make the trip to the center...

djw · Jan 20, 2010

I guess you probably know your way around the amp pretty well so some of this might be obvious or non-factorable, but here are some things I observe that get overlooked:

Speaker impedance / output match is correct?
Effects send level is where you are accustomed to it (or off, or whatever)?

...and you said you did a couple of retubes, but did you do a FULL retube -- power and preamp? and rectifier?
What you describe really reminds me of preamp tubes that I didn't like, or were bad.
I know that JJ's high-gain 12AX7 (the ECC803s) is often recommended, but I hated the way it sounded in V2, so I bailed on it. Sounded a lot like what you're describing.

And it's possible that even though you've gone through two retubes, it doesn't necessarily eliminate a bad tube in both batches. It does happen.

But all else failing to change things, it does sound like a trip to the warranty repair shop. It'll be so worth it though... once you remember how great it sounds when it's working properly, you'll glad you made the trip.

bryantkh · Jan 21, 2010

Thanks for replying guys. I am going to make the trip soon I guess. Answers below.

I guess you probably know your way around the amp pretty well so some of this might be obvious or non-factorable, but here are some things I observe that get overlooked:

Speaker impedance / output match is correct? Yeah, never changed it.

Effects send level is where you are accustomed to it (or off, or whatever)? Yeah I check it before every gig. Stays about 2 o clock.... should I play around with this more?

...and you said you did a couple of retubes, but did you do a FULL retube -- power and preamp? and rectifier? First was full. Every tube. Then I swapped out the power tubes. Then I just did another full retube with Mesa tubes. The last retubed helped, but the problem still is there.

djw · Jan 21, 2010

The Effects send thing is probably not a factor, at least for what I hear in your description. If anything, backing off on the level kind of warms the tone up a little, and reduces the output. And if it's always where you have had it, then it's probably not the issue.

The speaker output could be a factor if you'd previously used the amp at 100 watts, and then moved both channels down to 50 watts. At that setting, it's advisable to plug your speaker into one of the 4 ohm outputs (there's a note about this on the back of the amp). If you don't do this, the tone can definitely sound icy cold.

Definitely give Mesa a call (do it today, they're closed on Fridays) and see what they have to say about it. They'll at least give you some guidance that you can pass to the tech.