New Stiletto Ace 1x12 Owner with questions!

[jared]

I pulled the trigger and decided to up from the Express 5:50 to the Stiletto Ace Green Monster combo. I could get some great tone out of the express, but Channel 2 was not cutting it for me. Enter the Stiletto which just rips, even on my strat, which felt thin on the express. Got it New Year's Eve and gigged it that night for a good 3 hrs. Did not disappoint. Still need to tweak those knobs though!

Anyway, a few quick questions to the experts:

1. In the shuffle of getting the amp out the door at my local store as they were trying to close for the year, we must have misplaced the footswitch cable. We pulled it out of the back of the amp and probably left it on the counter. Anyway, for the gig I ended up using a regular 1/4" instrument cable which allowed me to switch channels, but left me in solo boost the entire night. Not the end of the world, but my question is... is the footswitch cable exclusive to control that footswitch? Or is there something wrong? Either way I plan to go get the cable that I was supposed to get. Not to mention the wrong slip cover.

2. I noticed that my effects loop control has an effect on the total volume of the amp with nothing plugged into it. Almost as if I have the master for each channel, filtered through the main output, but then also filtered through the send level. Switching to hard bypass mode cuts out the master output for the amp but allows me to control channel volumes. Again is this normal? (Note, I need to read the manual but this seems a little odd to me)

Thanks folks.

 

[insideout]

Gratz on the Ace!!
The footswitch cable is TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) whereas a standard mono guitar cable is only TR. I believe any stereo cable will work, but mono will only allow you to change one thing.

You are correct on the amp volume features. With loop engaged, the channel volumes can be set and then overall amp volume is controlled with the main volume and solo. If you bypass the loop, the channel volumes become the masters, and main volume is not functional.

 

[jared]

What about the fact that I can adjust the overall volume from the back of the amp with the send level with nothing plugged into the loop? Just messing with the knob yesterday I noticed that I can do so, and that didn't seem right. If that is correct, I figure I'd leave the send level at 12 o'clock and base the rest of the amp off of that?

Or is there a wiring error that allows this to happen? I guess my overall question is, how is that possible? Or am I missing the concept of that knob.

 

[cvansickle]

Welcome to the Aces!

 

[NoGlassNoClass]

What about the fact that I can adjust the overall volume from the back of the amp with the send level with nothing plugged into the loop? Just messing with the knob yesterday I noticed that I can do so, and that didn't seem right. If that is correct, I figure I'd leave the send level at 12 o'clock and base the rest of the amp off of that?

Or is there a wiring error that allows this to happen? I guess my overall question is, how is that possible? Or am I missing the concept of that knob.

When the loop is active (any position other than hard bypass), the FX send controls the level to the loop. The master Output is the loop return level. With nothing plugged in the loop send, the send jack is connected directly to the return. Set your Send around 1:00-1:30 and you'll be fine. If you hook something up to the loop later, adjust Send until you get a good signal level at the input of your FX.

 

[jared]

I've now noticed tonight while tooling around with the new Ace that in spongy mode, I was experiencing some dropout, then it would come back slowly at full force, then dropout again and repeat. At the same time, the large power transformer would randomly click. Going around to the back, and tapping the same transformer, I'd get clicking and buzzing.

Switching to bold, seemed ok, but tapping on the transformer resulted in the same buzzing.

Then it seemed to stop in spongy, aside from me tapping and it buzzing. I was hoping that would stop too.

What's going on here? I've been through two dead mesa's in two weeks before, and I don't want to have to bring this back so soon. I thought these things were tanks, and I'm starting to really have my doubts. I have a gig tomorrow night and don't need this NEW amp crapping out.

 

[recto-robbie]

I just went through replacing my footswitch cable.
Yes a TRS cable is what you need or any stereo cable will work perfectly.
I found a nice cheap one at radio shack.

Only difference if you look at the cable jack,, you will notice two rings on the jack instead of one like an instument cable.
This allows two functions,, same cable.

 

[jared]

I wasn't going to settle for buying a footswitch cable for an amp I had just spent a lot of money on, so I went back to my shop and they gave me the cable.

Still the wrong slip cover though, it's entertaining.

My real concern is with what I described above. Signal fade/dropout and clicking transformers on a new amp screams "warning" to me.

Anyone?

 

[Anonymous]

had some experience like that too - i bet its one of the preamp tubes. in my case the middle one was broke. change the tubes one after the other and it should be fixed.

tubes "usually" break in the first ten hours, had it on two of my ACEs when they came brandnew.

by the way, have the same slip-cover topic also. Some guy, michael, from MESA denies that they could have been shipped with the wrong cover, he is using this nice marketing words but the cover (its about two) are still not here. so far about customer service ...

but the ACE is still THE ACE ;-)

 

[Barry]

I wasn't going to settle for buying a footswitch cable for an amp I had just spent a lot of money on, so I went back to my shop and they gave me the cable.

Still the wrong slip cover though, it's entertaining.

My real concern is with what I described above. Signal fade/dropout and clicking transformers on a new amp screams "warning" to me.

Anyone?

If you got the wrong slip cover with a brand new amp you should demand the correct one . You paid alot of money for the amp and you are entitled to everything thats supposed to come with it . I would'nt settle for anything less .

 

[jared]

The funny thing about that is I went back and got a new slip cover to replace the first one that belonged to a roadster. This second one is too short, so I need to go back for #3.

The one thing I don't like about the place I do business is that they don't seem to keep all the accessories for these things together. It's a wild goose chase to get the manual, footswitch, cable, cover, etc.

But I've been going there for 15 yrs so I cut them a little slack.

Anyway, preamp tubes, I'll check em out.