Hello. I am new to this site and thrilled to have found it. I have a Mesa Boogie, MK 2c+, (yes it's a bona fide +) Serial# 1242x, 60 watts, no EQ and no reverb. Despite having this amp for several years, I feel pretty new to the inner workings of this unit as well... if I sound ignorant, it's because I am.
I am also a tone chaser and I am NOT new to that! I play harmonica and as much as I love my amp and sooo don't want to complain, the sound I get is bright for my tastes. I understand that this amplifier was designed for guitar use and of course a harmonica is very bright to begin with only compounding the problem. Of course, I can dial out the bright but not enough without dialing in mud! I don't need a Mesa to put out mud and I refuse to do so. I also refuse to believe that I can't get dark without getting muddy given the caliber and quality of this amp. Others do it with other amps and I'm of the belief that I can and should be able to get there with my Boogie. For the record, I've experimented with mics and pedals as well and it has helped but I'm not convinced I've done all I can do with my amp.
Which leads me to this site and specifically this topic, tubes! I am currently running a pair of Tungsol 6L6's, 2 Ruby 12ax7 HG+'s and a pair of Tungsol 12AX7's. Those tubes were selected and installed by a Mesa certified tech in Dallas. I had a power tube socket fail and since I had not have my amp serviced prior to that, I had the tech go through the whole thing. All it need was a cleaning, the new socket and a couple pre amp tubes were weak, I had him replace all the tubes. That was money well spent, I sure wish I'd had this conversation with that guy then... derrrrr!! Prior to that, the power tubes were Ruby 6L6's and the pre amp tubes were Mesa 12AX7's. I recently read that 6V6's sounded "darker" and likewise 12AT7 and 12AY7's somehow lend themselves to that. I also somehow suspect that given all the electronic alchemy that takes place from when a note is played to when it's pushed out of a speaker, the solution is not as simple as grabbing a handful of tubes and swapping them out. I can't help feeling there's an egregious "no no" in there somewhere. I can burn up a few dollars for the cost of a tube experiments but not at the cost of burning up my amp! Sooo fellow Boogie men and tone chasers... what say you? Thank you
I am also a tone chaser and I am NOT new to that! I play harmonica and as much as I love my amp and sooo don't want to complain, the sound I get is bright for my tastes. I understand that this amplifier was designed for guitar use and of course a harmonica is very bright to begin with only compounding the problem. Of course, I can dial out the bright but not enough without dialing in mud! I don't need a Mesa to put out mud and I refuse to do so. I also refuse to believe that I can't get dark without getting muddy given the caliber and quality of this amp. Others do it with other amps and I'm of the belief that I can and should be able to get there with my Boogie. For the record, I've experimented with mics and pedals as well and it has helped but I'm not convinced I've done all I can do with my amp.
Which leads me to this site and specifically this topic, tubes! I am currently running a pair of Tungsol 6L6's, 2 Ruby 12ax7 HG+'s and a pair of Tungsol 12AX7's. Those tubes were selected and installed by a Mesa certified tech in Dallas. I had a power tube socket fail and since I had not have my amp serviced prior to that, I had the tech go through the whole thing. All it need was a cleaning, the new socket and a couple pre amp tubes were weak, I had him replace all the tubes. That was money well spent, I sure wish I'd had this conversation with that guy then... derrrrr!! Prior to that, the power tubes were Ruby 6L6's and the pre amp tubes were Mesa 12AX7's. I recently read that 6V6's sounded "darker" and likewise 12AT7 and 12AY7's somehow lend themselves to that. I also somehow suspect that given all the electronic alchemy that takes place from when a note is played to when it's pushed out of a speaker, the solution is not as simple as grabbing a handful of tubes and swapping them out. I can't help feeling there's an egregious "no no" in there somewhere. I can burn up a few dollars for the cost of a tube experiments but not at the cost of burning up my amp! Sooo fellow Boogie men and tone chasers... what say you? Thank you
