Nomad advice wanted!

[Monsta-Tone]

I've been looking around for another Boogie.
It seems like the Nomads are pretty affordable.
I know that they are sort of the under dog of the Mesa lineup, but it seems like some owners are very satisfied with them.

I'm thinking about a Nomad 45 2x12 combo.

Any opinions?


I had a Nomad 55 1x12 combo when they 1st came out and thought it really sounded good in the store.
I played it with my band the next day and it sounded terrible.
Then, it started having the dreaded channel switching/footswitch failure problem, so I sold it immediately.


I've primarily been a DC player for the last few years, but really liked the Blue Angel & Heartbreakers that I've had as well.

I play mainly rock, classic rock, and some home-brew metal stuff with weird chords.
I want pristine cleans, great crunchy breakup and seriously high gain lead tones.

My DC-5 kills in the clean and lead tones now that I've modded it a little and put Mercury Magnetics transformers in it.
It seems to be lacking in the medium gain crunchy rythm tones if I have it set to a great lead tone. Even when I roll the volume on my guitar back, it seems like it's still too much gain.

I have a Mark III in my shop for some mods and don't really like the cleans or R2, but the Lead tones are nice on it too.

How does the Nomad compare to these amps?
Which model would you get, and why?

I really like the tone of 2x12's, but I also have a 3/4 back 1x12 cab that I could put under a combo.

 

[Koreth]

The best clean sound you'll get from a Boogie will probably from a Lone Star. When I last played one of those in the store, it had beautiful Fender-like cleans. I can't speak to what it's gain sounds sound like as I didn't spend too much time playing with that part of the amp; I was looking for an amp with brutal metal sounds at the time.

That said, a Nomad has good cleans. I've taken a liking to my Nomad 100's cleans, with a vintage RCA 12AX7A short plate in V1 and a GE 12AX7 long plate in V2. A GE 12AX7 short plate in V1 as well as a Sylvania 12AX7A short plate in V2 had a nice sound as well. I can't speak to what current production tubes sound like in a Nomad, other than that RCAs, GEs and Sylvanias are much better than JJs for the clean channel. As far as settings for a clean tone go, I've had the best luck with the factory settings in the manual, or minor deviations from them.

Being one of those poorly playing wannabe shredders that you'll see in any Guitar Center, I've tend to run my Nomad very high when it comes to high-gain sounds. I've done some tweaking and rolled back the gain a few times and have stumbled upon what I thought were nice medium-gain crunchy tones, However, since said tones were a little too honest about my lack of chops and not high gain enough for metal rhythms, IMO, I tend to avoid such tones and haven't written any settings down. They're in there though. I once found a most awesome crunch in the orange channel, but for the life of me can't remember where I had the damn knobs. The Nomad will have plenty of gain for crunch and leads.

I run my Nomad with a Peavey XXL 4x12 slant. When I was testing the amp in the store, it sounded good with a Mesa 1x12 with a C90 in it, but liked the bass response of the Peavey 4x12 better, and got a better deal on the latter cabinet. 'Course, when I got home, I discovered that a 4x12 is a bit much for the house. Oh well, live and learn.

If you can, try to find a Nomad 100 head. It'll be easier to haul around a separate cab and head, and you can use the half-power switch to cut back on some of the headroom and get that power amp breakup a bit sooner. Plus, the graphic EQ is really useful for tweaking and shaping your sound more than just the tone knobs allow. Finally, if you ran run a few different power tubes. Stock, you can run 6L6s and EL-34s, and if you really want that EL-84 sound, you can run a pair or two of YellowJackets.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Hey thanks Koreth!

I had both models of the Lonestar. I don't think that it came close to my Twin, but it was very nice in it's own right.

I hated the delay in Reverb when channel switching and the Lead channel seemed way too muddy for an amp of that price.


Besides, if I don't spend a lot on it, I won't be ashamed of myself when I mod the hell out of it!


Are there any volume swells or glitches when channel switching?

 

[Koreth]

I've not noticed any swells, pops, clicks or similar glitches, though I think there might be a slight delay in switching. I'm not sure, I'll have to take a closer look, I've usually only used one channel at a time, as I'm not yet to a level where I can play through enough of a song that requires different levels of gain from riff to riff.

You mentioned reverb and that reminds me, the reverb on the Nomad is kinda weak. Cranking the reverb knobs for each channel to eleven will get at best a subtle to moderate ammount of reverb. Some might not consider this a bad thing, but sometimes you want just a big reverb sound that makes things sound huge, and the Nomad won't deliver. But when it comes to using that much reverb, there's probably external reverb effects units that would do a better job anyway. Someone here came up with a mod to increase the reverb. You can do a search for it, but I think it had some side effect on channel volume when the reverb is turned down, IIRC

Another thing, the FX loop is a parallel loop. If that's your thing, than cool, but if not, there's some diagrams floating around on these boards detailing how to change it to a serial loop, or if you don't don't use an FX loop, then I suppose it's a non-issue.

I think that's all I got.

 

[fabien]

As a Nomad 45 1x12 owner that recently switched to F50 1x12, here's my 2 cents.

Be aware of the power section of the 45, EL84s won't ever sound like 6L6s. Every time I played or heard a 6L6 amp I was reminded of that fact and actually missed the bass and sparkle when comming back to my 45. The extra mids you get make it sing nicely but still...
Now the small 1x12 cab doesn't help either and pluggin the 45 on a 2x12 (or adding a larger 1x12) improves things quite a lot. A 2x12 combo will be better of course.

The EL84 are starting to cook at a more reasonable level than 6L6s, the F50 is NOT a bedroom amp when using the lead channel.

Nomads are quite dark amps (though you can get shrill tones out of them), anyway darker than my F50, though I expect the F50 to drill through the mix much better.

Nomads are quite versatile with three channels and six modes but I didn't like (nor use) the 3rd channel, but that's personal taste.

The Nomad 45 1x12 is pleasantly light and portable.

I don't think getting a Nomad would be an improvment on your DC5. I too found the low gain on the Nomad not very usable and it didn't cleanup much when lowering the guitar volume. The F50 is much more dynamic.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Fabien

 

[Restless Rocks]

I haven't owned a nomad personally but have had a few pass thru the shop. If memory serves me upgrading the 15 volt zenors in the low voltage power supply to 2 amp (the early versions had I think .5 or 1 amp) will solve the mysterious ft sw failure problem. I spent some time with a particular 55 wide body 1x12 tweaking for three good usable sounds using all three channels. After many preamp tube swaps I found that the brighter sounding sylvania or RCA type vintage or chinese helped a great deal . The darker sounding JJ's did not cut it at all and long plates were too noisey especially in V1. Now keep in mind this amp has the tone stack pre gain on ch 1 and post gain on ch 2 and 3. I found ultimately that this amp was very difficult to tweak the tone controls into good sounds but it could be done with a whole lot of time and very minor adjustments. I was able to get a very good clean and acceptable ch 2 crunch rhythm but ch 3 is only one tone cap different than ch 2 and I could get somewhat near recto rhythm sounds but never a good smooth singing mark type lead sound out of it. That said a very hot local guitar slinger plays this same amp and is able to find a lot of versatility and some real good tone out of it. I'm more of a Mk type guy and the mk III is so easy to mod into a wonderful three ch amp.

 

[mdortona]

Andy, get the Heartbreaker back and do yourself a BIG favor!!!! I have yet to play a Nomad that I liked. Trust me!!! :lol:

Matt

 

[nomad100hd]

isn't the heartbreaker designed for power tube distortion? I really like my nomad i get good low and high gain sounds with my 2x12 rect. My amp has an adjustable bias mod for the 6l6's and a series loop. I regularly run a sonic stomp in the loop.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Andy, get the Heartbreaker back and do yourself a BIG favor!!!! I have yet to play a Nomad that I liked. Trust me!!! :lol:

Matt

I bet you're right. Should have bought yours when I had the chance.

 

[mdortona]

Doesn't "nojap" still have your old one for sale? As my uncles' say, "Make him an offer he can't refuse..." :wink:

Matt

 

[jvk]

The Nomad 45 sounds pretty different to the Nomad 55 and 100, 1) due to having a sweet EL84 powersection as opposed to the 6L6 powered 55 and 100 2) not having a graphic eq. I owned a 45 for several years, and I was pretty happy with it's clean and heavy tones. The Nomad 45 has the best glassy clean tone after the Lonestar, try it and you'll come to the same conclusion.

Ch3 has one or two sweet spots which make this filll the boots of a high gain amp, although it's too easy to get it to sound flabby. Ch1 has the shimmering cleans and also doubles as a really bright lead channel, for Guthrie-like tones, if you like that sort of thing.

All in all, especially considering the low price nowadays, I would buy a Nomad again. I loved the tones and I loved the layout and the EL84 sound. A very nice amp. The reverb can be a bit weak, but I have posted details of a mod where you can reduce the values of some resistors to get tons of reverb.

Search through my old posts for more info on the Nomad, the settings for the sweet spots.

All the best

Jonny

 

[nomad100hd]

i can honestly say if my nomad fried or was stolen i'd have to buy another one. The 2x12 recto and nomad 100HD is a good combo and the graphics EQ makes for an excellent rhythm to lead button. I've only had 2 problem with it even in 50W mode it's to loud, and it can be a little dark (could be the JJ pretubes). Since i had it repaired it doesn't seem as dark, but the repair tech did a bias mod while he was in there for the 6L6 tubes. From looking at the schematics changing the 4 grid stopper resistor for the power tubes to the value found in the rect should increase the brightness a lot.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

Andy,

I used to have the Nomad 100 before getting my DC-5 then later DC-10. The Nomad clean channel stays clean if you want and there was more than enough overdrive for my tastes but the amp just didn't excite me. Once I went to the DC-5 I knew I had what was missing with the Nomad: touch responsiveness, chimmier cleans, sustain for days and in general am amp with soul. My first gig with the DC-5 I just couldn't help myself from grinning like an idiot because the amp sounded great and responded to my touch. The bass player, standing next to me, leaned in and commented on how much better the new amp sounded.

To each his own and there isn't a Boogie that doesn't work for someone but for me I would never go back to the Nomad.

 

[lerxst88]

i have a nomad 100 head and while it may not dominate every sound created by any amp its EXTREMELY versatile and will do a damn good job of getting good sounds. i think if you want only a clean sound get a lonestar. if you want a heavy metal sound get a recto. if you want both and everything in between and are willing to sacrifice a tiny bit, get a nomad!

 

[nomad100hd]

My nomad doesn't get touch responsive till the master is on noon!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

:shock: How do you keep paint on the walls???

My DC is freakishly loud on 2, I've only taken it to 'Noon' a few times!


I'm guessing that if the DC-5 (which is my other amp) is that much more pleasing, the Nomad isn't really for me.
But....I am notorious for modding every amp that I decide to keep for a period of time. This is why the Nomad has peaked my interests. The price is right too!

Thanks guys, keep em coming!

 

[mdortona]

Andy,

Look what I found for you........ :wink:
http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDetails.aspx?Item=1917992

Matt

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I do really like the HB! That guy wants a lot for it though!

I might just buy my old one back from nosajwp. That one was in absolute mint condition and already has the JCM-800 mods done to it.


Too many choices! I really like tube driven Reverb over the solid state Reverb too.
I guess the 3 channels intrigues me though with the Nomads.

 

[mdortona]

Sounds like a very good idea, especially given that it was in mint condition and you already modded it. I distinctly remember the thought of three channels on the Nomad grabbing me too. I remember being in GC in Harrisburg PA trying to decide between a Recto Solo 50 and a Nomad. The Nomad clean was fairly nice, but the other two channels (to me) sound very harsh and fizzy. Tweaking didn't help matters much either. Would have frustrated the crap outta me. To make a long story short, I went with the Recto 50 for the fabled Recto overdrive (chugga, chugga.....) and fairly bland clean channel. Flipped it several months later for something else (might have been a Heartbreaker). :roll: :lol:

PM nosajwp, go have a shot of JD or SoCo and relax! Shrink's orders!

Matt

 

[Monsta-Tone]

:lol: I'll have 4 Coronas and call you in the morning Doc!

Can't drink Whiskey anymore. Once it comes out your nose, it's just never the same! :shock: