Roadster Tube Problem?

[JJones74]

Well, I ended up returning my Electra-Dyne head and got me a Roadster.
First off, when I saw the UPS man bring in my package, I noticed a third of the box was ripped open!!
The UPS guy was very curtious and gave me his cell phone number and name and told me if I needed anything from him to let him know..
And, since I was at work all I could do was check the head out for "cosmetic" problems.. But I found none!!
Well, I then get the head home, unpack everything, and hook it all up..
I started out on the first channel, set to "BOLD"..
On both "clean" and "fat" modes I had to have the channel master almost cranked to get a "bedroom" level and also have the "output" at almost noon!!!
And this was on the 100 watt setting..
Now once I turned the amp to the "tweed" setting, I noticed a huge volume jump (which I read about, so I turned down the "output" master and channel master)..
And to get a decent bedroom volume I had the channel master at 1 o'clock, and the "output" to 10:30 or 11 o'clock..
I encountered the same thing with channel 2 also, set to "BOLD"..
Once again, this was on 100 watt also..
Channels 3 and 4 were pretty much the same (100 watt, BOLD)...
The only way I could get a decent sound was on "modern" mode..
The minute I switched to "vintage", or "raw", the volume dropped very dramatically.. I knew there would be somewaht of a volume drop, but ****!!! The sound went from bedroom level on "modern" to whisper level on the other 2 modes..
So, I immediately called Magdon and explained whats going on.. I had previously called them to tell them of the ripped open box..
So an hour or so later I tried the amp on "SPONGY" instead of bold.. I got no sound at all, on any channel with the existing settings!!!
I know that you should be able to switch from bold to spongy without losing the sound..
The guy at Magdon said it sounded like a tube issue, but which one he didn't know..
So, he said he would contact his rep and get back in touch.. He said that more than likely he'd be sending me a whole new set of tubes.. From the rectifier, pre-amp, to the power tubes... The whole sha-bang!!..
I do know one thing, I couldn't turn my Electra-Dyne past 9 o'clock and the walls were rattling on 90 watts..
And I've always heard how loud the Roadster was, so I know somethings gotta be wrong somewhere..
If the new tubes don't fix it, he said he'd have me just return the head and he'd refund my money..
I'm keeping my fingers crossed at this time.. I really liked what I heard so far from this amp..
So, what do you guys think? Does this sound like a tube problem to you guys?
unfortunately, I'm not a very experienced "tube" guy..So, I've got to take his word for it..
Sorry for being so long-winded!! :mrgreen:


Jason

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Hopefully it will be something wrong with the valves. Good luck...

 

[Melodyman]

Did the amp come to you straight from the factory, as in the dealer didn't open the box or anything? If so Mesa is notorious for having tube problems straight from the factory.

I grabbed a Roadster straight off the truck at a local Mesa dealer, and there was no sound out of the box. One of the preamp tubes has imploded as there was a white crystalline powder like coating at the top of one of the tubes. Replaced it and the amp worked fine.

I would troubleshoot the tubes first, especially since it sounds like the box took some impact...

 

[farmerboy]

Melodyman is right. I have had a roadster for six months and i have had to change three preamp tubes, two of which were like that direct from the factory.

Check the tubes for signs that they lost vacuum (silvery-white color in the top of the tube ). If none of them show, start swapping tube with a replacement 12AX7. First off start with the V1 postition (far left, closest to the imput jack), if no joy keep swapping. My gut tells me it will be V1, V3 or V5. V1 is the first to go if there is a loud imput (cable comes unplugged, etc) and the roadster is most likely to blow V3 or V5. Don't get discouraged, once you get the tubes replaced you'll be rockin out in no time.

-Farmerboy

 

[JJones74]

Did the amp come to you straight from the factory, as in the dealer didn't open the box or anything? If so Mesa is notorious for having tube problems straight from the factory.

I would troubleshoot the tubes first, especially since it sounds like the box took some impact...

I guess you could say that the amp did come straight from the factory since the dealer I got it from just received it last week, and they never even opened the box..
Shoot, they had to enter it into their inventory so they could sell it to me.. LOL..
Unfortunately, the box took quite a bit of damage other than the "opened" part I described earlier..
After some closer looking, I did find some white marks on the tolex on the bottom where the shipping box had been ripped.. I think it was just plastic from the bag because it came right off when i rubbed it with my fingertip.. There was about 4 marks total..
But once again, nothing actually scarred the tolex at all.. Thank god..

 

[JJones74]

Melodyman is right. I have had a roadster for six months and i have had to change three preamp tubes, two of which were like that direct from the factory.

Check the tubes for signs that they lost vacuum (silvery-white color in the top of the tube ). If none of them show, start swapping tube with a replacement 12AX7. First off start with the V1 postition (far left, closest to the imput jack), if no joy keep swapping. My gut tells me it will be V1, V3 or V5. V1 is the first to go if there is a loud imput (cable comes unplugged, etc) and the roadster is most likely to blow V3 or V5. Don't get discouraged, once you get the tubes replaced you'll be rockin out in no time.

-Farmerboy

Hey Farmerboy,
I'm seriously hoping that once I get my tubes and do a full tube replacement, that I'll be up and rollin.. Because quite honestly, I was VERY impressed by the tones I did get outta this beast..
I called my dealer and asked if he had gotten in touch with the Boogie rep yet, and he said "NO"..
I hope this doesn't take forever to get an answer, because my dealer won't ship the new tubes without approval from Boogie that Mesa will reimburse them with a new set of tubes..
But, we'll see.. :mrgreen:

 

[Supreeth]

Well, I ended up returning my Electra-Dyne head and got me a Roadster.
First off, when I saw the UPS man bring in my package, I noticed a third of the box was ripped open!!
The UPS guy was very curtious and gave me his cell phone number and name and told me if I needed anything from him to let him know..
And, since I was at work all I could do was check the head out for "cosmetic" problems.. But I found none!!
Well, I then get the head home, unpack everything, and hook it all up..
I started out on the first channel, set to "BOLD"..
On both "clean" and "fat" modes I had to have the channel master almost cranked to get a "bedroom" level and also have the "output" at almost noon!!!
And this was on the 100 watt setting..
Now once I turned the amp to the "tweed" setting, I noticed a huge volume jump (which I read about, so I turned down the "output" master and channel master)..
And to get a decent bedroom volume I had the channel master at 1 o'clock, and the "output" to 10:30 or 11 o'clock..
I encountered the same thing with channel 2 also, set to "BOLD"..
Once again, this was on 100 watt also..
Channels 3 and 4 were pretty much the same (100 watt, BOLD)...
The only way I could get a decent sound was on "modern" mode..
The minute I switched to "vintage", or "raw", the volume dropped very dramatically.. I knew there would be somewaht of a volume drop, but ****!!! The sound went from bedroom level on "modern" to whisper level on the other 2 modes..
So, I immediately called Magdon and explained whats going on.. I had previously called them to tell them of the ripped open box..
So an hour or so later I tried the amp on "SPONGY" instead of bold.. I got no sound at all, on any channel with the existing settings!!!
I know that you should be able to switch from bold to spongy without losing the sound..
The guy at Magdon said it sounded like a tube issue, but which one he didn't know..
So, he said he would contact his rep and get back in touch.. He said that more than likely he'd be sending me a whole new set of tubes.. From the rectifier, pre-amp, to the power tubes... The whole sha-bang!!..
I do know one thing, I couldn't turn my Electra-Dyne past 9 o'clock and the walls were rattling on 90 watts..
And I've always heard how loud the Roadster was, so I know somethings gotta be wrong somewhere..
If the new tubes don't fix it, he said he'd have me just return the head and he'd refund my money..
I'm keeping my fingers crossed at this time.. I really liked what I heard so far from this amp..
So, what do you guys think? Does this sound like a tube problem to you guys?
unfortunately, I'm not a very experienced "tube" guy..So, I've got to take his word for it..
Sorry for being so long-winded!! :mrgreen:


Jason

It may very well be a tube problem but it might be worth it to check a couple of things first. What is your "Send Level" knob set to? The normal level is 12:00. 7:00 causes a great drop in volume much like what you're experiencing. Also experiment with doing a hard bypass of the FX loop and using the channel master to control the overall amp volume.

 

[JJones74]

"It may very well be a tube problem but it might be worth it to check a couple of things first. What is your "Send Level" knob set to? The normal level is 12:00. 7:00 causes a great drop in volume much like what you're experiencing. Also experiment with doing a hard bypass of the FX loop and using the channel master to control the overall amp volume."

The "send" level on the back is at 12 o'clock.. I never touched that..I've read about that issue..
I'm not running any pedals or anything right now, I'm just trying to get it to work, nuthing more.. LOL..
I haven't tried the "hard bypass" of the effects loop, but I do have the individual channel "FX Loop" switches turned "off".. Don't know id that matters or not..
But I will try that out when I get home from work here in an hour or 2..
Thanks for the tip..

Jason

 

[Supreeth]

There is a "Hard bypass loop, output and solo" switch which needs to be turned off too bypass the effects loop, output and solo controls. At this time each individual channel's master controls act as the master volume for the entire amp. I suggested checking the send level control because when I got my Roadster, that little knob was sitting pretty at 7:00 and I was scratching my head for 15 minutes wondering why the volume was so low :lol:

 

[JJones74]

There is a "Hard bypass loop, output and solo" switch which needs to be turned off too bypass the effects loop, output and solo controls. At this time each individual channel's master controls act as the master volume for the entire amp. I suggested checking the send level control because when I got my Roadster, that little knob was sitting pretty at 7:00 and I was scratching my head for 15 minutes wondering why the volume was so low :lol:

Yeah, I know about the hard bypass feature.. LOL..
I just got home from work and can tell you that the effects send level control is definitely at noon..
I also tried the hard bypass thingy and am getting the same result!!! :x
Well, hopefully my dealer calls me soon, this is getting frustrating.......

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Some of you must be darn out of luck, cause my valves are a-ok... :shock:

 

[JJones74]

Well, I just got off the phone with my dealer..
Looks like after describing the problems I'm having to the Boogie Rep, he said not to send a full set of tubes to me, but to only send me tubes for V1, V2, & V3..
Hope this works!!!