the fan concept

[ANIMATED SUSPENSION]

If your tubes aren't getting too hot to touch, I'd get it checked over. It's more to circulate the air because of there being no top or front vents on the MKIV. Heat rises and what's above the tubes ?!?!?!

 

[lyman]

seems generally ridiculous given how cold the power tubes in boogie amps are biased.

my rivera doesn't have a fan and I don't want it. neither do marshalls.

instead of installing the fan, they should give the option of hotter-biased power tubes, either with a different resistor (non-adjustable) or with a trim pot.

I really wonder sometimes if these pro mesa users get mods for the bias...

"class a" (cathode biased) mesas tend to run tubes hot.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

It's funny you would complain about this. The fan is almost silent. The only time I hear mine is when I'm recording.


Those amps get really fucking hot when the fan is off. It has a tendancy to fry circuit boards or make solder connections go south. That's why the fan is there.

You may not need it if you aren't playing it at gig levels, but the Class A settings will get hot too.

That amp is engineered to be able to play it LOUD for several hours at a time.

I think that there are other amps that needed fans in them too, like the DC-3. I actually installed one in my old DC-3 because it got so hot.



This is like saying, "Why are the brake pads on my car so big? The pads on my other car are much smaller and it stops just fine."


I do really agree that they should be biased a little hotter, and would venture to say that most guys who use them professionally at least think about it.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

You could easily get those tubes heated up a bit more. It would probably liven the amp up a lot too.


I think there's a lot of waste on the Mark IV, but the fan may have come about because the 1st ones had over heating problems or something.

I use the one on my LSS all the time, but that thing runs very hot.

 

[t0aj15]

just think it's an unnecessary item given other amp manufacturers don't use them in their heads...

Just because they don't use fans in their amps doesn't mean they don't need them, especially if the amp is the type with the chassis at the top and the tubes hanging down under it. For more years then I can remember I have been using fans to cool my amps. I remember one friend in particular that actually melted the knobs on his Fender Twin because the chassis got so hot, not to mention the VERY damaging effect heat has on ALL the components inside the amp as well as the tubes themselves. IMO all amps should have fans integrated into their design. Just because the term cold is used when referring to the way Mesa bias's their amps it does not refer to the actual temperature of the tubes, they still get VERY hot.

 

[Buddy]

Rabies , at the rate you melt power tubes you probably need an additional fan ! :lol:
Did you finally work that out?

 

[Ercek]

Heat is one of your worst enemies, in terms of electronic components. Entropy. I have run my Mark II with and without the fan and difference is significant at stage level volumes. My tubes have told me that they prefer air-conditioning to Death Valley. :lol:

 

[Buddy]

You got to deVolve ,
man .... Perhap's a mark III is in order .

make it simpler , get down to basic , squirrel's falling out of the tree's tone .

Just do .. young fretwalker .

And some killer microbrew's hurt not .

8)

 

[CoG]

re: fans, if you crammed the guts of a JCM800 into a Mesa short head it'd melt. I think the thing with the fans is that the pre-MkIV short heads and combos have no "through" ventilation, since they're small and built very tough.

Obviously this is evidence that Mesa sucks :wink: