Picked up my Nomad 100 this weekend

[Koreth]

Behold.

Initial impressions: Well, I discovered why managed to pick it up for so cheap. At least one tone pot on each channel is damaged, and has either no effect or causes the channel to go mute when turned. So the tone stack on each channel isn't of much use in shaping the sound. I gotta get that fixed. That said, the amp still plays well. It very quickly gets **** loud. The louder it gets, the better it sounds, hearing damage and noise ordinance violations be damned. The cleans on channel 1 are, well clean. The Jagmaster sounds better than the Ibanez, but the Ibanez still has the cheap stock pickups in it. Channel 2 in "Modern" mode is still nice and crunchy, and I think it will do well for rhythm playing. Channel 3 in "Modern" mode with the same gain and master volume as channel 2 sounds a bit smoother to me, and I intend to use it for leads once I got it dialed in. I've not played with the "Pushed" mode on channel 1 or the "Vintage" modes on channels 2 or 3 yet.

Reading up on the Nomad amps, I saw how several people said that the Nomad really needs the graphic EQ found on the 100 models. I'm not quite so sure of that yet and will be reserving judgment until I got the tone stack for each channel working properly again, but I will say that it is definitely useful. The EQ takes an already nice sound and improves it quite a bit, channels 2 and 3 especially.

All in all, I'm happy with the amp, and look forward to when the tone pots are fixed and I've got some better pickups in my guitars.

 

[Rocky]

I have a Nomad 45 short head..no graphic EQ and the amp doesnt need one in my opinion.

I use it for cleans and crunch tones....when I need lead tones I push it with an OD or compressor pedal. I use the modern setting on channel 3 and get a fantastic cutting blues tone (see 'icy blues' in the manual) that is I love. I use the vintage mode on channel 2 and channel one sounds best to me on the normal setting.

The main weakness on Nomads is the reverb....it is very weak.

 

[greatbigtex]

Rocky:

Out of curiosity, what kind of cab do you play your Nomad 45 through? Did you consider the combo when you picked out your Nomad, or were you planning ahead of time on purchasing head and cab separately?

 

[Koreth]

Your Nomad 45 uses EL84s for the power section. Have you had a chance to A/B the sound of your 45 vs a 55 or 100 with either 6L6es or EL34s, and if so, how does it compare (strengths, weaknesses)

I did notice that the reverb was weak, but had forgotten about that till you mentioned it. I'm wondering if its worth trying to upgrade or improve or if money would be better spent with some kind of outboard reverb setup in the effects loop. But that's a concern for down the road.

Right now, my main focus is getting the tone knobs fixed so they can actually *do* something besides mute the channel or alternate between the extremes of thin and muddy. I'm honestly surprised I found sounds I like with an only partially functional tone stack in each channel. I'm not complaining though. I'm a lot closer to my sound than I was with the Peavey VK112

Right now, I um using the Peavey XXL 412 slant shown in the pictures, as I got a deal on it, and I foresee myself using it for the time being. That said, since you have a Nomad, can you recommend any speakers that you've found to work well with it? The same goes for tubes. Can you name any that you have found work well with the Nomad?

 

[greatbigtex]

Right now, I um using the Peavey XXL 412 slant shown in the pictures, as I got a deal on it, and I foresee myself using it for the time being. That said, since you have a Nomad, can you recommend any speakers that you've found to work well with it? The same goes for tubes. Can you name any that you have found work well with the Nomad?

I have the Nomad 45 Combo, so I don't have much experience with anything other than the Black Shadow C90 that came in the cab. I do have a Thiele 1x12 with a C90 arriving sometime this week, though, so check back with me in awhile and I'll let you know what I think.

As for tubes, I'm pretty unadventurous - I've always re-tubed with the Mesa tubes. Boring, I know.

 

[Rocky]

Rocky:

Out of curiosity, what kind of cab do you play your Nomad 45 through? Did you consider the combo when you picked out your Nomad, or were you planning ahead of time on purchasing head and cab separately?

I have a Rectifier 2X12 cabinet with a Celestion Gold and a V 30. I already had the cab when I bought the head. The Gold gives a chime and nice treble that the Vintage 30 doesnt.

 

[Rocky]

Your Nomad 45 uses EL84s for the power section. Have you had a chance to A/B the sound of your 45 vs a 55 or 100 with either 6L6es or EL34s, and if so, how does it compare (strengths, weaknesses)

<snip>

That said, since you have a Nomad, can you recommend any speakers that you've found to work well with it? The same goes for tubes. Can you name any that you have found work well with the Nomad?

The 84's are sweeter sounding, not as much low end as a 6L6 or EL34. I like the feel of EL84 tubes...EL84's really respond to a player.

I have tried all kinds of different tubes but like mine best with regular Mesa branded EL84 and 12AX7s. I tried JJ's and they were WAY to dark...and the amp went through a set of JJ EL84's in no time at all. I tried some NOS Phillips, Mullard and Westinghouse preamp tubes and found that this amp didnt really like them. This is my only amp that seems to be at its best when it is left completely stock as far as tubes.

see my post above this one for the speakers I use....namely the Celestion Gold and V 30.

 

[gearboy]

I'm really liking my Nomad 100 I picked up a couple months ago. To me, it is very mid-heavy, so I have the graphic set to a V and leave it on. I am using it with EL34 BSTR's and a bunch of different pre tubes through a Bogner 2x12 with V30's. My band tells me this is the best sounding amp I've dragged out in the last year (after Marshall, Kettner, Peavey, Fender, Egnater, Rocktron). Get that thing fixed and enjoy!

 

[chemten]

what kind of speakers are in that cab?

 

[thinkofone0]

I have the 100 212 Nomad Combo - the best thing I bought for it was an Axess Electronics CFX4 so I could channel Switch it with midi. After a year with mine I have gigged it pretty hard and am quite pleased with it. I could never go back to a non 3 channel amp again

 

[Koreth]

I have the 100 212 Nomad Combo - the best thing I bought for it was an Axess Electronics CFX4 so I could channel Switch it with midi. After a year with mine I have gigged it pretty hard and am quite pleased with it. I could never go back to a non 3 channel amp again

How do you do the midi channel switching. Looking on the back of the amp, I don't see any jacks or plugs for external switching beyond the footswitch plug. Looking at the footswtich plug, I can see it looks to be a DIN connector, but isn't it some propriatary pinout, or is it really just a midi plug in disquise?

 

[thinkofone0]

The cable made by Axess is proprietory to the Nomad - it mimics the din shape of the factory supplied switch.

 

[lerxst88]

Welcome to the Nomad fold!

I have a 100 as well and I love it. Mine had a few bad pots but hit up radio shack or pedalpartsplus.com and youre set! just dont get flux in the pots!!!

I love the EQ option, it really adds a whole new channel to the amp if set up properly. for example, on ch3 with the EQ on It sounds pretty Mark-ish and when its off it has a great sounding soloing voice (think santana).

Also great job on taking lots of pics! Very detailed!

If you ever wanna talk Nomads look up the thread "no love for the nomad".

 

[nomad100hd]

My nomad rocks love it!

 

[cscotto]

Hi,

Congrats on the new head. One more reason to have a Nomad subsection. I had a couple of pots go bad on the Nomad. Call Mesa, they may send you them free of charge. The only other issue I had with my Nomad 100 2X12 is an FET for channel switching went out.

 

[Koreth]

This thread is over a year old. My Nomad's been in perfect working order for at least a year now.

 

[cscotto]

OK, I see where things went wrong. Someone resurrected the thread for the midi switching question. I was just jumping on the bandwagon without looking at who the OP was. Oh well, glad all is fine.

New question. Do you still use the Peavy cab? Have you tired other cabs, and if you have how does the Peavy compare? I can get those cabs for a good price used where I live.

 

[Koreth]

The only other cabs I've tried are a couple Ross Systems 1x10s left over from A Ross Systems 22 that blew over a year ago. They're okay, but it's a no-name speaker specially made for Ross Systems (who the Internet has apparently never heard of) that's all mids and highs and no mids and bass at all. Yuck. While it would probably sound decent in a mix and cut through well without stomping on the bass guitar's bandwidth at all, by itself, it sounds gross. Gimme some low end at least.

I tried an open back C90 in the store when I bought the Nomad, which was nice, but when compared to the 4x12, the 4x12 sounded deeper and fuller, probably in no small part due to the nature of a big closed back cabinet versus a small open back one. I haven't compared the XXL 4x12 with any other speaker cabs so I really can't say I have much of an informed opinion on the sound of the XXL cabs versus other cabinets. I would love to try it through some Mesa Cabinets, or a ported Thelie with a EVM-12L, though.

I've really had no issues with the Peavey XXL4x12, aside from it's size and weight, which can make it diffiuclt to throw in the car for jam sessions or practices. One thing to watch out for however is the cabinet's impedance. The XXL 4x12 is 16Ohm, and the Nomad has only 8 and 4 ohm outs. I have to run the amp in half power to get a proper impedance match on the 8 ohm out. IMO, it's a decent cab, but I've been warned by others that the XXL line of cabs is cheap for a reason, and that other Peavey cabs such as the XXX and 5150 line are much better.