Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Andrew Lamprecht

Andrew Lamprecht

Minion of One
I have a Mesa Mk II for those of you who don't know. I love the amp, great sounds, really versatile, can do everything I need it to but for the past 5 or 6 months I get this static that overpowers the guitar. It only happens when the volume is on 3 or above. It happens when the signal is dying off, so instead of that beautiful feedback it goes into a tv type static.

I've taken it to 2 techs and neither has been able to figure it out. I've had the amp recapped. No help. The amp has been retubed with 2 different sets of tubes. No help. The second tech thought he found it in the master push pull, because when he touched it, it made the same noise. Ordered a replacement, no help. I've had all the solder joints gone over. The connections to the speaker redone.

This still happens when I plug into an external cab.

Sometimes the static goes away and I love the amp again only to find the next day it's back. I have put so much money into this amp now and it's driving me ****ing nuts. I've honestly been considering selling it and saying there is static and finding something new.

Any ideas before I throw this thing out my window?
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

better amp techs? as long as you can get it to make the noise on a bench a scope should help diagnose where its coming from
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Are you 100% sure it's the amp and not the guitar? I only ask because I have had similar issues and it turns out my G&L legacy guard causes the problem, never happens with any other guitar. If I touch the guard or gently move my hand across the guard its there.
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Call the Mesa people and ask for their repair guys. They should be able to help you. You could send it to them for repair of course, but a phone conversation might get you pointed in the right direction. Or, have your tech call them.

You might also check with some of the guys on the Mesa Boogie Forum, I think it is grailtone.com

I'm going to go out on a limb, using my psychic powers, and make a 10-cent bet that it is probably something simple and inexpensive--one that will have your tech doing a Homer Simpson "DOH!!" moment.

But I have been known to be wrong....

Take care; I wish you the best.

Bill
 
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Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

d1dsj said:
Are you 100% sure it's the amp and not the guitar? I only ask because I have had similar issues and it turns out my G&L legacy guard causes the problem, never happens with any other guitar. If I touch the guard or gently move my hand across the guard its there.
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Try rubbing the pickguard with a dryer sheet, like Bounce. That usually works. Some guys will install them under the pickguard, et voila, no more static.

Good luck!

Bill
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

I agree with evreything everone has said .Easier said then done to find a tech willing to trace a hard problem down for a reasonable price. One thing though, is ask yourself, is it really worth the aggravation? Only you can answer that.
Might be time to just ditch it.
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

What is it with you and amps? You have never had luck with any of them it seems. You really need to check and see if you live on an ancient Indian burial ground.
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Tell you what Andy, send the amp to me. If I can't fix it in a day or two, I'll just keep it and relieve you of all the aggravation.

And save you the return shipping charges.
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

I've had Mesa amps I've wanted to throw through a window, and they were functioning just fine! LOL

Seriously, there's some pieces of gear that are best serviced by the manufacturer, and I'm sure that's one of them, if it can't be traced to a noisy tube. Same goes for other complicated pieces of gear.

I remember having a Mesa Abacus MIDI controller, and the only people who could figure it out were the techs at the Mesa Hollywood store. If it's a deep problem, they just swap an entire board or something.

It could be one tiny capacitor on a complex PCB board and no tech would figure it out, but Mesa's techs may have seen the same problem dozens of times, so they know. I had a problem with my Bogner head once, and spent money on a tech who tried, but it took Bogner's assembly guys to figure it out and finally fix it.
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Boogie Bill said:
Call the Mesa people and ask for their repair guys. They should be able to help you. You could send it to them for repair of course, but a phone conversation might get you pointed in the right direction. Or, have your tech call them.

You might also check with some of the guys on the Mesa Boogie Forum, I think it is grailtone.com
Click to expand...
Bill the tecs at Boogie was really cool walking me through some things on a hum issue with the old .50 Cal + I just got so great advice.
BOTH the Boogie boards i found will not respond to membership requests and both look pretty inactive so if you have an alternative site to the Boogie Board let me know. Still struggling a little with the .50 Cal + as it responds differently in the controls than most other amps I have owned. In particular on finding some tonal balance with only the single gain control for both channels has not been easy.
 
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Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

I'm on that board (grailtone) and you are right, it's a pretty slow board. Some of the newer model amp sections are a bit more active but in general it's pretty slow and I bet the older, discontinued amps probably get very little traffic. The Boogie techs do check in from time to time, but if you already got them on the phone and got some help then it sounds like you are headed in the right direction.

Ascension said:
Bill the tecs at Boogie was really cool walking me through some things on a hum issue with the old .50 Cal + I just got so great advice.
BOTH the Boogie boards i found will not respond to membership requests and both look pretty inactive so if you have an alternative site to the Boogie Board let me know. Still struggling a little with the .50 Cal + as it responds differently in the controls than most other amps I have owned. In particular on finding some tonal balance with only the single gain control for both channels has not been easy.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Hey out of curiousity does that Mk II have a reverb? Just wondering if it could be something in the reverb circuit. My old Princeton acts up sometimes when the reverb is turned on, crackling static, etc. Tech checked it out and found nothing but it still happens sometimes. I assume when you retubed you also retubed the pre's as well? The other tip I have heard is -- get some electronics cleaner and spray the tube pins with 'em. Then seat & reseat the tubes a few times and it is supposed to help to clean out the tube sockets and make better contact to avoid problems. Maybe you already tried all that but if not, I can vouch that cleaning the tube sockets this way does help with noise.

Good luck - don't give up on that Mk II they are supposed to be awesome amps!!
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

hydro said:
I'm on that board (grailtone) and you are right, it's a pretty slow board. Some of the newer model amp sections are a bit more active but in general it's pretty slow and I bet the older, discontinued amps probably get very little traffic. The Boogie techs do check in from time to time, but if you already got them on the phone and got some help then it sounds like you are headed in the right direction.
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The contact I had with Boogie CS was stellar and I am hugely impressed with the company now. My particular amp is one however that went out of production however in 1993 so was really hoping to be able to hook up with a couple folks who are using them in the real world on stage off the boards.
Main issue I am fighting is the way Mesa used a single gain control on both the clean and crunch channel on this amp. When I dial the clean gain to where it's nice round and has just a bit of hair the crunch side is way to buzzy but when I set the crunch where I want it then the clean is to weak and thin sounding. Also can't get a fat smooth singing tone out of the crunch using the Auto setting on the graphic like I want. The controls on this amp are set up and respond much differently than I am used to so getting with a few that have run the amp in the real world would help. Amp has potential to be a long term keeper if I can sort a couple things out here.
 
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Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

hydro said:
Hey out of curiousity does that Mk II have a reverb? Just wondering if it could be something in the reverb circuit. My old Princeton acts up sometimes when the reverb is turned on, crackling static, etc. Tech checked it out and found nothing but it still happens sometimes. I assume when you retubed you also retubed the pre's as well? The other tip I have heard is -- get some electronics cleaner and spray the tube pins with 'em. Then seat & reseat the tubes a few times and it is supposed to help to clean out the tube sockets and make better contact to avoid problems. Maybe you already tried all that but if not, I can vouch that cleaning the tube sockets this way does help with noise.

Good luck - don't give up on that Mk II they are supposed to be awesome amps!!
Click to expand...

No reverb here. I'm going to call them up right now.
 
Re: Mesa really hitting my last nerve.

Well that was cool. I called Mesa. They offered to pay for shipping to California so their tech could look at it. The guy who put my amp together in 1980 still works for them and he does the repair work on all the old Mesa's now. So it will be back to him after 34 years. I thought that was pretty cool and so far Mesa's customer service is awesome.
 
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