Testament to Mesa build quality

[94Tremoverb]

A friend of mine's brother has a Single Rectifier... apparently (despite the friend telling him not to!) he's been running it with no load, with the Slave output connected to his hi-fi, so he doesn't have to get a cab for his apartment.

!!!

Not only must it sound horrendous like that, guess what... it stopped working. There was a burning smell and it kept blowing fuses. Doh. He asked me what was likely to be wrong with it and how much it would cost to fix, so I gave him the bad news first... a new output transformer, maybe blown tubes, maybe both, possibly PCB damage around the power tube sockets, screen resistors burnt...

Now I've checked it out, all I can say is he's lucky he bought a Mesa. It has one blown power tube (carbonised/short in the base) and one that looks very stressed. That's all. Stuck in another pair of 6L6s and it works just like it should.

Don't try this on purpose, folks! But just to let you know that Mesas seem a little tougher than the average, if you do accidentally do it. I can think of some other well-known amp brands that would almost certainly be toast given that treatment.

 

[Old BF Shred]

He was lucky, no doubt! :shock:
A Mesa will take a fair amount of punishment but no amp is going to take abuse like this indefinitely. Some people ignore advice no matter how good it is! :roll:

Reminds me of a similar story: our bass player let his son use his amp (1000 watt Carvin) for a gig where the "know it all, without a brain" soundman told him to run the slave out only into the house PA, without a cab or dummy load.

Sure enough it fried the amp (and cut the gig short). Carvin fixed it for big bucks, but it could have all been avoided in the first place!
You know, the instructions are there for a reason! Read 'em! :lol:

Later.... :wink:

 

[fluff191]

Reminds me of a similar story: our bass player let his son use his amp (1000 watt Carvin) for a gig where the "know it all, without a brain" soundman told him to run the slave out only into the house PA, without a cab or dummy load.

Sure enough it fried the amp (and cut the gig short).

Many years ago when I had first started playing I played a gig at a club with my brand new Crate GX-15 I had bought with my saved-up paper route money and the sound guy did that very same thing to my amp. Mid-show it caught fire and all I was told was "sorry about that kid, I should have known better, huh?" :evil:

 

[YellowJacket]

Word of wisdom, NEVER listen to soundmen. EVER! They know how to mix, mostly, but when it comes to gear they are absolutely clueless about tube amplification.

 

[Don]

I was at a jam where they tried to connect a kid's amp to the PA that way. Even though I repair amps- and these guys know that- they argued with me!

Then there was the time that they wanted to replace a blown fuse with a much higher value when the bass player's amp blew a couple of fuses...

 

[Old BF Shred]

It takes all kinds, eh? :roll:

They don't care if it causes damage; it's not theirs to worry about. :|

Remember one rule: the guy who paid for it makes the final decisions! :wink:


It will serve you well, Obi Wan! :lol:

 

[Silverwulf]

I was talking about Mesa amps with the Foo Fighters guitar tech, Rectos in particular. He said he couldn't count the time their Road Kings had been dropped off of trucks, knocked off of cabs, etc...and the only issue they've ever had was a broken tube once, but they always fired up like new.

 

[fluff191]

I was talking about Mesa amps with the Foo Fighters guitar tech, Rectos in particular. He said he couldn't count the time their Road Kings had been dropped off of trucks, knocked off of cabs, etc...and the only issue they've ever had was a broken tube once, but they always fired up like new.

........................I wanna talk to the Foo Fighters tech about amps..........

 

[Don]

Remember one rule: the guy who paid for it makes the final decisions! :wink:

In the PA system situation that I mentioned above, the owner was willing to allow it! If I'm there, I make the final desision (unless the owner really wants to argue about it).

 

[Old BF Shred]

Thats too bad but it goes that way some times! :roll:
It's unfortunate that it often takes an expensive repair bill before some people are more careful with their equipment.
Oh well, live and learn! :wink:

 

[Roadifier]

the sound guys are out to get people with there new expensive amps :evil: I went to a cannibal corpse concert two weeks ago, the sound tech's were doing a really bad job, and the band dedicated a song to the sound tech's crappy work :lol:

 

[94Tremoverb]

I've just got this amp back for repair again. "Constantly keeps blowing fuses" - he doesn't know why. This time it was after he used it outside in the rain while they were filming a video :shock: :roll:.

I just checked it over. One blown power tube - the water must have caused an arc in the tube base which then carbonised like the last one, so it still blows the fuse even now it's dry. Nothing else wrong with it at all. Chucked a spare single tube in it and a new fuse and it works absolutely fine.

Mesa. Very hard to kill 8). The amp for dumb people :lol:.

 

[YellowJacket]

There is a reason I bought an Electra Dyne in lieu of a JCM2000 TSL60.

Mesa. Very hard to kill 8). The amp for dumb people :lol:.

There is one flaw in your reasoning. Why are they so damn hard to dial in? The 'interactive controls' still frustrate me but at least I understand how they work.

I feel very sorry for that guy's Single Recto. I wonder just how much more abuse it can take. It is an abusive relationship, I say. He doesn't deserve a mesa.