Mesa Rules

[spawnofthesith]

Friday afternoon I sent an email to Mesa support with a fairly mundane question regarding my Roadster. They called back today and left a detailed voice message (I was napping) and said to call back to discuss further if I’d like.

Csb and all but I think that’s some solid support for an actual person to call me back over a question about a discontinued amp that I purchased used

 

[norminal]

 

[norminal]

Despite the criticism they get from being a part of Gibson, they are a class-act.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I called them once and also left a message, and never got a return call. So there! (But I still love 'em.)

 

[la szum]

I called them once and also left a message, and never got a return call. So there! (But I still love 'em.)

I love Mesa, too. Had good dealings in the past with CS. But I sent in a repair request for my Mark V and
never heard back. I just want it gone over and get a physical.

 

[Desertdweller]

I have two Mesa stories, both are relatively small potatoes, but they left a lasting impression.

First one, I was 18 or 19 and had bought my first tube amp, a used 50/50 I had found in a shop cheap. It needed new tubes, and I bought a fresh set of Mesa tubes from another store. One of the tubes failed, and the store had a no returns policy on tubes. I called Mesa directly and they asked me what amp I was using the tubes in. When I told them the amp, they fedex overnighted me a new pair of matched 6L6s, completely free.

Second story, much more recent, I found a beat up old Mark III that really needed a new home. This was in early 2021, still in the pandemic, and I called up Mesa. The guy that answered the phone totally got what I wanted to do and spent about 40 minutes with me going through options. He had a Mark V35 headshell made for me specifically for my Mark III and shipped it to me with a new reverb tank and fan. Mind you, it wasn’t cheap, but they didn’t have to do that and could have easily told me no and to look at one of their current offerings. The amp looks brand new now and I love it.

Excellent people at the company.

 

[Deadpan]

Back in the day Mike B would chat with you as long as you would stay on the phone. Awesome guy!

Recently I bought a Trioke Rectifier that was sold with the transferable warranty and they wanted me to show a receipt before they would fix a Factory defect. I wasn't happy.

Luckily it was just an assembly mistake and I was able to open it up and fix it.

Before Gibson this would have not happened.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Back in the day Mike B would chat with you as long as you would stay on the phone. Awesome guy!

Recently I bought a Trioke Rectifier that was sold with the transferable warranty and they wanted me to show a receipt before they would fix a Factory defect. I wasn't happy.

Luckily it was just an assembly mistake and I was able to open it up and fix it.

Before Gibson this would have not happened.

In fairness, back in 2010 when I was registering the transferable warranty on my Mark V they told me I needed a bill of sale from the original owner plus a copy of the original receipt

 

[Deadpan]

In fairness, back in 2010 when I was registering the transferable warranty on my Mark V they told me I needed a bill of sale from the original owner plus a copy of the original receipt

Wow, they've never asked me for anything prior.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I seem to recall that if you couldn't produce paperwork, they'd still honor the warranty transfer, but the date would just be from Mesa's records, i.e., date of manufacture.

Which makes sense. Because if the policy is- Warranty is transferable, then they should honor it, regardless of whether or not you can produce the original receipt. Iow, I always understood the reason for them wanting the original receipt, was to prove that the amp went "into service" on such-and-such date, say, if it sat in a store for a year before it was sold, then the warranty period would start when the amp was sold. But if that meant the amp was actually out-of-warranty, as far as Mesa was concerned, they just wanted some sort of proof of when the amp was first sold.

So I understand where they're coming from, but even without the receipt, if it's within the warranty period, from the date they built it, they should honor it.

But I imagine by now it's all moot anyway, since their warranties are no longer transferable.

 

[PBGas]

Can't argue!

I sent an email last Friday afternoon just to make sure about disconnecting the reverb tank on the MK VII rack and got a response back the next day on Saturday morning.

Great service and communication!

 

[dronerstone]

That sounds like good customer support. Nice!

Not intending to derail, but I did inquire about a discontinued (in the early 00's) expensive 100W tube amp with a certain "big player" US company once, and they wouldn't even move their butt to try and help.

The response was quick, but it was basically a copy/paste that told me I reached out to the wrong department, without supplying further directions.

Fortunately, I was able to find useful information online. Forgive me for thinking the actual manufacturer could help me troubleshoot that 1,500 bucks amp.

PS: I work in customer support at a huge company in the media/broadcast sector, so I know how to handle s**t, and if I can't answer your question, least I can do is give you various options or supply suitable contact details for other places that should be able to help. "Happy customer" is always the main goal, as long as they're not swearing at or threatening you with all kinds of BS.

 

[NKP]

Despite the criticism they get from being a part of Gibson, they are a class-act.

I still don’t get the problem with Gibson .

 

[dronerstone]

I still don’t get the problem with Gibson .

I suppose it's mainly people being sour at quality control issues in 5,000$ guitars.
Can't recall any outstandingly bad customer support issues though.

 

[NKP]

I suppose it's mainly people being sour at quality control issues in 5,000$ guitars.
Can't recall any outstandingly bad customer support issues though.

But… if they just own it and don’t change the rules ?
I bought myself a lp standard 2 years ago and I am super happy with it. That’s why I don’t get all this hate everytime … yes it can be that sometimes they fail but … as everyone

I ve been a Mesa seller for 18 years, and got a lot of troubles with their amps. Tubes, reverb, this and that … quite every amp I’ve sold came back one day for a reason. And I love boogie hm

I mean they don’t have waited Gibson if one day someone got a problem with their amp

 

[DrewJD82]

But… if they just own it and don’t change the rules ?
I bought myself a lp standard 2 years ago and I am super happy with it. That’s why I don’t get all this hate everytime … yes it can be that sometimes they fail but … as everyone

I ve been a Mesa seller for 18 years, and got a lot of troubles with their amps. Tubes, reverb, this and that … quite every amp I’ve sold came back one day for a reason. And I love boogie hm

I mean they don’t have waited Gibson if one day someone got a problem with their amp

Gibson hasn’t exactly been known as a brand that can leave well enough alone and making decisions that their own customer base pissed off. It seems to have leveled out under Caesar, but I think it’ll be a while before they’ve earned the trust back from the general public.

While you may have found a Standard you really dig, that doesn’t excuse some of the things they’ve allowed leave the building over the years and that stuff is still continuing. I’m sure there’s a higher majority of killer guitars and most of the issues are cosmetic, but still, if you’re spending $4500 on a guitar you don’t really want to see tooling marks on a fingerboard or razor scrapes on the binding. There‘s at least 1 Gibson QC thread a week over at TGP, sometimes 2, that highlight this stuff time and time again and it’s often met with a “Well, you’re not paying for perfection, you’re paying for a handmade guitar that comes with a pedigree” and Gibson fans will reason that just because it’s a handmade Gibson, defects are ok, while plenty of other companies go the extra mile to exclude that stuff, or sell it as B-stock.

Again, it’s the minority of guitars that end up with issues, but the fact it continues to happen with no real evidence they want to correct it. I mean, if Fractal were putting out AxeFX’s and every 5 out of 100 had the big wheel randomly falling off or someone dropped a cup of hazelnut Dunkies inside the chassis and it smelled like roasted nuts in everyone’s AxeFX, they’d probably have some people bitching, too.

@spawnofthesith, shine up your armor!

 

[NKP]

@DrewJD82 i agree yes .that’s why it is important to see and try what you buy when you spend that much. Personally I was in a Music Store to buy it. I’ve tried it, watched it . With this no problem . That’s why Music Store still matters to me ( if we don’t include that i’ve been there half of my life)
Then yes, Chinese products are « perfect » in finish but don’t sound as good so . When it is more done by humans … but yeah normally if you miss something you don’t sell it yes …
I prefer Mesa to be with Gibson than with a Chinese group

 

[norminal]

I still don’t get the problem with Gibson .

Beats me.

 

[Fireproof]

Mesa Rule #1: Everyone needs at least one.

 

[bgh]

I am satisfied with the Mesas I currently have. The only one I "wish" I had is the LSS. But the price keeps gas in check.

I had an issue with my Nomad once where I (unthinkingly) had it plugged into the same circuit as a window A/C unit. The power fluctuation got to the amp and I had to send it in for repair. When I called them, they were very helpful. Plus, the guy on the phone started talking about the amp, asking me what I liked, disliked, how I used it, all that sort of stuff. I told him my brother was building me a new cabinet for it ... and Mesa was very interested. They wanted me to send pictures.