I’ll get on those Blackbirds!Good amp day today! The replacement preamp tube arrived from Petaluma this morning, followed by the arrival of the Weber Z-Matcher.
Played for a few hours mixing & matching the internal 8 Ohm MC-90, a 16 Ohm V30 loaded closed-back 1x12, and a 4 Ohm Seismic Audio "Traditional" 2x12 loaded with Jensen Blackbirds.
Oh so good, regardless of the combination.
The Blackbirds sounded good in the Mesa 1x12 open-back and 1x12 Thiele cabs, but inside the oversize Seismic Audio 2x12 open-back they really come alive, especially for clean, EOB, and crunchy tones.
Thanks. I can check that tonight if swapping preamp tubes doesn't remedy the issue. I think the batch of preamp tubes used to populate my combo at the factory were shite
www.tubeampdoctor.com
I have a collection of 20+ NOS, new and slightly used modern 12AX7 tubes. However, I expect Mesa to provide a working replacement for use as a spareIt costs a bit more but I'll only use tubes from TAD now.
So sick of dealing with what amounts to a crap shoot with some of the other sellers/dealers.
Tube Amp Doctor
yeah the gain is a bit stiff sounding but it takes pedals well so it's not completely impossible to get good distortion out of it.Former Fillmore 50 owner here. Cloned channels is
It's a great amp for those looking for a quasi-Fender style pedal platform. I
didn't love the Gain on it. Clean to EOB is tasty as all get out, though.
Having a few vintage Fender amps it was a but redundant here.
At least in the case of my Fillmore. I've had zero issues with my Mark VII or Badlander 100.Safe to say Mesa (Gibson) are slacking on outgoing QC as well as who they're getting their tubes from.
Kris @ Mesa Boogie provided tech support for my two previous valve failures. He insisted it's not a problem with the amp, just bad luck with tubes.
Apparently Kris is on vacation this week so one.of the techs he supervises called me back about 5 minutes after I left a voicemail with customer service.
She recommended sending the amp back to the factory for inspection/repair until I explained that Kris (her boss) previously insisted to me that the amp was fine, just bad tubes.
Now she's going to consult with Kris later tonight before authorizing an RMA for warranty repair.
That’s interesting. They used to be fairly insistent things go to home base in Petaluma for repair. The authorized repair places have always existed but they’d tell you to use Petaluma if possible.
filament voltage to be exact
