Let's be contrarians late in the day.

I've owned around nine Boogies (three of which are/were Electra Dynes :grin) and only had a problem with two of them.

One was bad switching relays in a TC50 (that I wanted to return anyway) and the other was a weird incident with my second Electra Dyne, where something vibrated loose inside and caused all sound to cut out. Never a problem after a tune-up or repair job, though.
 
MirrorProfiles said:
Brad is a legend, his Mesa videos are quite funny because he’ll just rant and rant about all the dumb stuff Mesa do.
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Ohhhh maaan. I had the Mark Five: 25. I decided that I was going to swap out the UK power transformer for a US one myself because, hey... it's "only a few wires, and then I'm done".

I opened it up and was all "HOLY F**K!". You couldn't even see the transformer - it was buried below the main board and that board was pinned in by the controls board and... and... well there was just crap everwhere; it would have been a nightmare for me. I don't think techs are being unreasonable when you compare that to working on an amp with a simple circuit and a chassis with gobs of space to spare, for example: a Deluxe Reverb.

Having said that, I _did_ hand the job over to a tech and he didn't complain. Took me a month to source the replacement transformer though... I found just ONE available on the planet and it was in Russia - had to take a gamble on ordering that, but it arrived in the end. And that brings me to the other thing about Mesas - sourcing parts can be a total PITA.

I would still like to try the ✨ Badlander ✨ though!
 
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Anecdotally, over the course of eight years, I’ve seen extremely little in the way of Mesa repairs that were actually the fault of the amp. Most are clean and checks, or someone badly “modding” the amp. Or in one case, plugging the wrong foot switch into the amp and causing havoc.

Most repairs are Fender and Marshall, probably due to the high amount of them out there.
 
TubeStack said:
monty python GIF
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I can call it a draw without even leaving my house. The reverb on my Express 5:25 is useless to me - adds too much white noise without adding anything all that musical. Whereas, I loved the reverb on the TA-30 I just got instantly. Speaking of which...

TubeStack said:
I've owned around nine Boogies (three of which are/were Electra Dynes :grin) and only had a problem with two of them.

One was bad switching relays in a TC50 (that I wanted to return anyway) and the other was a weird incident with my second Electra Dyne, where something vibrated loose inside and caused all sound to cut out. Never a problem after a tune-up or repair job, though.
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Can you please elaborate on the problem with bad switching relays? I'm wondering if I'm having a similar problem with the TA-30 (which I would rather not return, but I don't know if my symptoms are the same. People discussing TA-30 switching issues on YouTube demonstrate the sound cutting out when they toggle from one wattage to another. I'm sometimes seeing this, but also hearing sound cut out (and the fan stopping) randomly after so many seconds (or minutes) of working OK in a given mode/ wattage.
 
TubeStack said:
I've owned around nine Boogies (three of which are/were Electra Dynes :grin) and only had a problem with two of them.

One was bad switching relays in a TC50 (that I wanted to return anyway) and the other was a weird incident with my second Electra Dyne, where something vibrated loose inside and caused all sound to cut out. Never a problem after a tune-up or repair job, though.
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mbenigni said:
Can you please elaborate on the problem with bad switching relays? I'm wondering if I'm having a similar problem with the TA-30 (which I would rather not return, but I don't know if my symptoms are the same. People discussing TA-30 switching issues on YouTube demonstrate the sound cutting out when they toggle from one wattage to another. I'm sometimes seeing this, but also hearing sound cut out (and the fan stopping) randomly after so many seconds (or minutes) of working OK in a given mode/ wattage.
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Honestly, I don't know the details, as I was planning on returning it anyway and didn't go to far with it. But it would work normally for a few minutes, then the fx loop and reverb would shut off and it would stop being able to switch channels at all.
 
paisleywookiee said:
Additionally, anyone caught criticizing Mesa Boogie again will be banned, moderators and administrators included. Randall Smith himself will come here, invoke god-mode (up up down down left right left right ABBA start) and ban all heathens.
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While he's in the neighborhood, will he fix my TA-30? I'm really trying to love it.

P.S. reporting @EOengineer, who wasted little time. :D
 
TubeStack said:
Honestly, I don't know the details, as I was planning on returning it anyway and didn't go to far with it. But it would work normally for a few minutes, then the fx loop and reverb would shut off and it would stop being able to switch channels at all.
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I've got some kind of variation of same, I think. Plus the FX/reverb is making a ton of noise, and a feint whistling sound... but only on Ch.2. Which is weird because the amp uses the same tubes for reverb and FX irrespective of channel. (Though I'll admit, I don't understand what the specs mean when e.g. "V5 A/B" is indicated, and there's only one physical tube present. Do the tubes operate differently for each channel? :unsure: ) Well, kind of a moot point, really, because I've replaced both those tubes with "known good" to no avail. It doesn't appear to be a tube-related issue at all.
 
la szum said:
Wish we could help you more @mbenigni . :hugitout
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Appreciated. I think this amp has problems above my paygrade. On the other hand, it really is a TA-30 for TA-15 money, so...

pulling-hair-out-crazy.gif


P.S. to the guy who apparently sold the amp to GC while the wind was blowing in the right direction: :cuss
 
Seems like the amp has been smashed around a bit. I’d go with having a tech make an assessment if that fits within the return window, and then either repair or return it. If looking at it is not within the window then I’d dump it, and find a better working example.
 
Gearzilla said:
Seems like the amp has been smashed around a bit. I’d go with having a tech make an assessment if that fits within the return window, and then either repair or return it. If looking at it is not within the window then I’d dump it, and find a better working example.
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Yeah if you've got a good tech that can at least provide a diagnostic it might be worth a shot to provide that to Guitar Center (contact the manager of the store it's from, not your local store) to see if they would cover the cost (assuming it's not something super fatal)/provide a partial refund :idk
 
Update (is this the right thread to hijack, or should I be in the last thread I hijacked, or should I start a new thread...?):

I stumbled on an ancient thread last night where a guy talked about the current draw from the LEDs screwing up the switching, and how he disconnected the LEDs and all the switching problems cleared up. That seemed too weird to be true - how much current could LEDs be drawing, and how would a constant draw ever present a problem?

Well, I tried it, and the amp is no longer cutting out at random. I ran it for nearly an hour just now, and it seems fine (in this regard.) :idk

So... I know I said I hated the blue lights in the first place :rofl but should I be concerned that disconnecting them is a requirement in order for the amp to actually function? Does this signify some broader issue that's going to bite me down the road. (Resale value is already a huge question mark.)

There's also a completely different category of issues relating to noise. Most if not all of these seem to center around the reverb, and perhaps the reverb potentiometer in particular. Sometimes, turning that knob will cause little squealing sounds, and increase/decrease hum unpredictably. There's also that weird, whistling noise I described, which it now seems only happens when reverb is engaged. All of this is maybe partly guitar-dependent, too, which implies a grounding issue(?) Everything (every mode, every wattage) but ch. 2 reverb is usable with my Jem Jr., noise gets a little more unpredictable across the board with my SG.

I'm also puzzled by the fact that the amp doesn't seem appreciably louder in higher wattage settings, but maybe my expectations are out of wack?

So I've clearly got more testing to do, and a little more research to determine what that dumb LED bug is all about. Talk about unnecessary features.
 
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