Let's be contrarians late in the day.

mbenigni said:
Checked, and they look fine. I also finally got around to testing the fx loop, and that is nice and quiet if the reverb is turned down. Based on what I’ve read, the layout has some issues with noise induction between the power transformer and the tank itself, and the metal cover exacerbates this.

If I run this amp with an HX Stomp in 4cm, it sounds glorious, with all the bells and whistles. But I do wish I could make the onboard spring more usable for when it’s just guitar, cable, amp.

So right now I’ve got a legitimate issue (switching failures) for which I have a workaround (no LEDs), and tubes that are “fine” but arguably could stand replacing to minimize noise. Trying to get a sense as to whether any of this “entitles” me to a further discount from GC. I don’t know how receptive they’ll be given that this is used gear. And I’d never tell them this of course :) but I DON’T want to give the amp back, so I have zero leverage here lol.
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Buy Blue Sky v2 or Golden Reverberator = problem solved!
 
mbenigni said:
There’s a QC “just bolt things to it” joke to be made here…
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Im obviously joking, but that’s probably what I’d be fine with. I’m one of those guys who’d happily pay less for no built in reverb, and someone who’d literally use the Spring setting on a pedal instead of the built in reverb if the amp’s got it. Did that for years with my Rectoverb.
But I certainly not faulting you for wanting the amp to work as intended either.
 
mbenigni said:
Based on what I’ve read, the layout has some issues with noise induction between the power transformer and the tank itself, and the metal cover exacerbates this.
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16805983.jpg

$16.25 at Lowe’s.
 
mbenigni said:
I’d also settle for “pay less for no built in reverb”, as you put it - meaning, it stays broken, but GC throws a couple of bucks - or maybe some tubes - my way. :)
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Forgot to mention this earlier, but head over to the Boogie Boards, and see what they say. It’s definitely a reoccurring issue with the TA-30, and I believe there are a couple of fixes for it.
 
Yeah, I think you can put some copper shielding or something, something to minimize the reverb/fx loop noise
when not bypassed.

I left mine as is---and it is noisier when not bypassed.... but not so much that it bothers me.
:idk
 
la szum said:
Yeah, I think you can put some copper shielding or something, something to minimize the reverb/fx loop noise
when not bypassed.

I left mine as is---and it is noisier when not bypassed.... but not so much that it bothers me.
:idk
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IIRC, there was also something to do with wire location as well. So maybe the copper shielding and/or moving some wires might help. Or, you know, buy a Blue Sky. :D
 
paisleywookiee said:
IIRC, there was also something to do with wire location as well. So maybe the copper shielding and/or moving some wires might help. Or, you know, buy a Blue Sky. :D
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Must be the send/return wires to/from the tank. They are kind of awkwardly positioned, sandwiched right between the tank and the lid, but I didn’t notice any change in noise levels when I moved them around. Something else to fiddle with at a later date.

For now, I’ve buttoned it all up again, with its own tubes. I’m going to play it as is and see what kind of feedback I get from GC and Mesa.
 
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JiveTurkey said:
It's @mbenigni fault :grin


Boogies can certainly have a tendency to have issues. Whether they are on-again/off-again (and maybe self-created?) like my still problematic Badlander cab clone issue. Or the Electra-Dyne freakout on that combo I snagged last winter. The feature set is killer on all their models. But if something can go wrong; there is certainly that possibility. I know there are techs ("techs"?) that whine and moan about them as well. Whether I give an F either way on their opinion. Food for thought as I shop for more :facepalm:sofa:rofl:guiness
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Hi JT,

Given I like to work on my own stuff, I've found Mesa's can potentially be hard to fault find because of some techniques used in their construction.

It's hard to explain, nothing to do with robustness, but they're put together in a way that makes it a bit difficult to isolate problems.

To be fair, not unlike any other reasonably complex PCB-constructed amp. If you've took a tour of a modern Marshall, ENGL etc.

Makes me realise why SLP's and JCM800's are the primary platform for modded amps, not JCM900's, 2000's or JVM's.

As for Mesa's, other than guys mucking about between the minute component differences of the Mkiii stripe series, or modding those back Mkii's, I don't read or hear a lot about Mesa's being mod platforms relative to old stuff from the Big M. Too hard to do it.

But if Mesa's have one inherent problem - my take - it's jamming too many options into a too smaller space, especially in their narrower head stuff. Guess the sizing DNA is still based around Fender designs (especially with the Mk stuff), so the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
 
mbenigni said:
Checked, and they look fine. I also finally got around to testing the fx loop, and that is nice and quiet if the reverb is turned down. Based on what I’ve read, the layout has some issues with noise induction between the power transformer and the tank itself, and the metal cover exacerbates this.
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Reverb tanks are terrrible in heads because of this. It's pretty impossible to avoid putting them close to the transformers and that can introduce noise. The best you can do is figure out which orientation of the reverb tank results in the least noise.

It's part of why I really don't care about having real spring reverbs in amps, on top of spring reverb being the worst reverb type anyway. Digital reverb is great and with analog dry-through won't cause things like latency or your whole signal being converted to digital and back to analog along the way.
 
laxu said:
Reverb tanks are terrrible in heads because of this. It's pretty impossible to avoid putting them close to the transformers and that can introduce noise. The best you can do is figure out which orientation of the reverb tank results in the least noise.
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I did find a detailed Mesa tech service bulletin concerning this issue and the intermittent failures. (Can't figure out how to attach a PDF file here.) The fix for the former involves bypassing a PCB route with a shielded (point-to-point) wire, and rotating the transformer itself relative to the reverb tank (and everything else in the universe LOL.)

laxu said:
It's part of why I really don't care about having real spring reverbs in amps, on top of spring reverb being the worst reverb type anyway.
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Don't it just figure, though - I really like the sound of the TA-30's spring: nice long tail, transparent and musical. For now I'll have to use it sparingly, and only in modes where it isn't an instant humfest.

Anyway, I made my pitch to GC and they offered me a $230 discount (the manager's max $150 authorization, plus a 10% discount that became available over the memorial day weekend. I didn't want to have to return the amp and buy it right back again LOL.) So at $570 (plus tax and shipping) I think I got a good enough deal that I can work with the amp as is, or eventually get it fully repaired/ modded without the whole investment exceeding average used prices.
 
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la szum said:
I wonder if it was bought and returned multiple times?? GC doing GC kinda things.
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The manager I got on the phone indicated that this was indeed the case. The last guy who bought the amp returned it and said nothing apart from, "I just didn't like it." Oh really, no thoughts concerning the amp just randomly going silent, then?
:hmm

In any case, the return history probably made GC guy more receptive to my complaints that the amp wasn't all that was advertised (for instance, "working".)

:farley

And perhaps less optimistic that they could (or should) just take the amp back and sell it to someone else. Credit where due, though: the GC manager was really easy going, and the discount exceeded my expectations. I actually put down the phone thinking, "It would be altogether too easy to make that same phone call concerning an amp that wasn't defective..." :unsure: ;)
 
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mbenigni said:
Can't figure out how to attach a PDF file here.
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You can't. The file type isn't supported. @DrewJD82 ??
mbenigni said:
Anyway, I made my pitch to GC and they offered me a $230 discount (the manager's max $150 authorization, plus a 10% discount that became available over the memorial day weekend. I didn't want to have to return the amp and buy it right back again LOL.) So at $570 (plus tax and shipping) I think I got a good enough deal that I can work with the amp as is, or eventually get it fully repaired/ modded without the whole investment exceeding average used prices.
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That sounds like a great deal!

Will GC still have a used item shipped to the store you want to visit, free?
 
TSJMajesty said:
That sounds like a great deal!
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That's my thinking at the moment, yeah. I never would have expected to own a 40W Mesa head for ~$600. Hell, I was considering keeping it, warts and all, at $800. If I play it as is it's a great value. Things do get a little more complicated if I try to bring it up to date/ up to spec, though. I've got about $600 margin before I'm into typical used prices, and I could see running through that on an amp tech's bench pretty fast.

TSJMajesty said:
Will GC still have a used item shipped to the store you want to visit, free?
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Apparently not? I had to pay about $35 in shipping, and another $50-ish in tax. It's kind of sketchy IMO, because they've already got trucks running inventory between stores, but if you want to try a used piece that's in a far flung location, you have to buy it in order to "initiate an inter-store transfer" or some such. At which point you're charged non-refundable shipping. :unsure: At which point I say, "Well, you may as well put it on my porch instead." It is, at best, a bit arbitrary; at worst, a rip off. It seems like there ought to be some other way to get a used piece local without committing funds in advance.

Or who knows, maybe the sales dude I spoke with just got it wrong. :idk
 
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