Props to Mesa Boogie - The transatlantic TA-15 incident

[Madureira]

I started a topic the other day about a problem I had with my newly acquired Transatlantic TA-15 head.

Basically what happened is that after flipping the standby switch to ON, a very loud POP and smoke with burning odor, occured. After further investigation, there was a blown power tube, that took some components with it...I looked at the surroundings of the tube socket, and there was clearly some shinny copper in a place that should be grey - like solder grey. This means something burned.

Now, I have to say that Mesa Boogie guys are great to deal with. I just wanna say that Mr. Staller, Mr Duvall, and Mr. Longacre are the best.

We exchanged several (maybe twenty or more) emails, and I have all but good things to say about them. They're even sending a set of tubes just in case something burns up in the near future.

I now that with the price that a Mesa amp costs, they better give great support...but still. There are tons of companies that charge lot's of money for their products and then when something goes wrong...oh well, tough luck.

Honorable mention for Long & Mcquade that were great as well. I sent the amp back, and they gave me a new one within a week.

Now I'm a happy owner of a TA-15 that is becoming my favorite amp of all time!

Anyone care to share similar experiences?

 

[Jared Purdy]

I started a topic the other day about a problem I had with my newly acquired Transatlantic TA-15 head.

Basically what happened is that after flipping the standby switch to ON, a very loud POP and smoke with burning odor, occured. After further investigation, there was a blown power tube, that took some components with it...I looked at the surroundings of the tube socket, and there was clearly some shinny copper in a place that should be grey - like solder grey. This means something burned.

Now, I have to say that Mesa Boogie guys are great to deal with. I just wanna say that Mr. Staller, Mr Duvall, and Mr. Longacre are the best.

We exchanged several (maybe twenty or more) emails, and I have all but good things to say about them. They're even sending a set of tubes just in case something burns up in the near future.

I now that with the price that a Mesa amp costs, they better give great support...but still. There are tons of companies that charge lot's of money for their products and then when something goes wrong...oh well, tough luck.

Honorable mention for Long & Mcquade that were great as well. I sent the amp back, and they gave me a new one within a week.

Now I'm a happy owner of a TA-15 that is becoming my favorite amp of all time!

Anyone care to share similar experiences?

Regretfully, I have had the exact opposite experience. To be fair, Mesa never got involved. I bought a 112 LSS at Steve's in Toronto last year and soon after it started blowing recrifier tubes and fuses. I'm not sure how many times I took it back there, but I ended up with a store credit, and nothing more. They woudl not give me a refund. They couldn't find anything wrong with it. I never delt with them again, and won't in the future. I should have had Mesa involved. Unfortunately that experience also sullied my feelings towards Mesa, and that is likely not fair either. However, I am ginving it another go as I'm getting another LSS, and hopefully ti will be free of issues. I'm happy to hear that your experience was so positive. From my dealings at Long & McQuades, I woudl have to say that they are high up there on customer serivce and their return/refund policies leave Steve's in the dust.

 

[Madureira]

I'm not gonna start talking about Steve's Music. They're ok if you go in and buy in store, and they open the box in front of you...still...Let's just say I'm not very fond of them. I must say though, that I had an issue with a bass, online order, and I got a full refund. Maybe the fact that I called everyday helped a bit...I can be a real pain if I want to. Call it professional default...

Anyways, as soon as I powered the amp and it died on me, I sent an email to Mesa Boogie. Even before talking with Long and Mcquade. Then, once I had a feedback from Mesa, I called L&M, and let them know that Mesa was aware of everything. Maybe that helped.

Up until now, I've ordered several things from L&M, have them shipped to Montreal without any issues. That includes guitars and tube amps. Hope you get a good experience as I have.

 

[talltxguy]

I'm gonna have to join this discussion although I didn't really want to. Yesterday my TA-15 stopped producing sound on channel 1. I flipped to channel 2 and got sound, but the red channel light was dim and flickering. Went back to one, had sound, then got nothing - no buzzing, no hum, no nothing. I was using Mesa yellow EL84's with NOS preamp tubes. I put Boogie preamp tubes back in it and got the same occurence.

I always let my amps warm up, usually five minutes and sometimes 10 or fifteen, before playing them. I've done no mods to the amp. And it's never left my home studio.

I called Boogie yesterday and got an RA number. Steve even said they'd pay for return shipping since the amp was fairly new (I purchased it from Sweetwater as a demo a couple of months ago.). Sure enough the UPS label was immediately sent to my email. I've got the original box, packing, etc. and will get the amp back to them Thursday as I'm quite busy the next couple of days.

I was going to have a Mercury Mags choke installed on the amp, but this little incident has convinced me to leave the amp stock until my warranty expires. :lol:

I'm curious to hear what the problem is and look forward to getting the amp back. They said it'd be about a month from when I sent it - week in transit, 2 weeks at Petaluma, and another week in transit.

Needless to say, crap happens; and I don't think any less of Boogie because of this issue. In fact, I think more of them because their customer service is second to none.

 

[geetarplayer]

I started a topic the other day about a problem I had with my newly acquired Transatlantic TA-15 head.

Basically what happened is that after flipping the standby switch to ON, a very loud POP and smoke with burning odor, occured. After further investigation, there was a blown power tube, that took some components with it...I looked at the surroundings of the tube socket, and there was clearly some shinny copper in a place that should be grey - like solder grey. This means something burned.

Now, I have to say that Mesa Boogie guys are great to deal with. I just wanna say that Mr. Staller, Mr Duvall, and Mr. Longacre are the best.

We exchanged several (maybe twenty or more) emails, and I have all but good things to say about them. They're even sending a set of tubes just in case something burns up in the near future.

I now that with the price that a Mesa amp costs, they better give great support...but still. There are tons of companies that charge lot's of money for their products and then when something goes wrong...oh well, tough luck.

Honorable mention for Long & Mcquade that were great as well. I sent the amp back, and they gave me a new one within a week.

Now I'm a happy owner of a TA-15 that is becoming my favorite amp of all time!

Anyone care to share similar experiences?

I'm glad that it worked out well for you, but it would have been much better if you'd been able to say you exchanged 2 or 3 emails. That sounds like it was a full time job for you for a while!