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03-20-2020, 07:02 PM
Hi Kevin,
He doesn't know the history of the amp, except for knowing who the Tech is who did the dodgy Bias mod. I have seen this Tech's work before and repaired some of it. I don't understand why he would have persisted with that burned PCB.
I am curious to know what caused the burn. Maybe the cement resistor hanging off the side is evidence that the original failed and cooked the board, like the Fender amps that do the same thing.
I had a good discussion with the owner yesterday evening and told him much the same as you have said here and he has agreed that we should scrap this PCB and build a new amp. He said that it is better to wear the bad choice of this amp and move on.
To that end, it is now sitting on my bench completely gutted, as a pile of components.
The cab, speaker and all the amp hardware is in good condition and the amp actually sounded really good (surprisingly) before it started misbehaving. I am still surprised that it worked at all and it was always going to be a time bomb, with that shoddy work and the old crap components.
The plan is: to use the cab, chassis & transformers (without any Mesa labelling) and then make a new amp, with quality components, on an eyelet board with the Pre and PI valve sockets mounted on the chassis (the PA valve sockets already are) that can be serviced and sounds great.
The supply voltage runs close to 490V at start-up and settles to 460 at idle, so some good 500V caps will be used.
I agree about Mesa amps; some of them sound good but they cost way too much, for what they are and working on them is a nightmare, which is why I have stayed away from servicing them.
This rebuild may take a while to complete, due to my workload but it will be worth it and he has been using the 40W amp I built him anyway because he says it sounds better than the Boogie did.
Thanks again and I am having fun.
He doesn't know the history of the amp, except for knowing who the Tech is who did the dodgy Bias mod. I have seen this Tech's work before and repaired some of it. I don't understand why he would have persisted with that burned PCB.
I am curious to know what caused the burn. Maybe the cement resistor hanging off the side is evidence that the original failed and cooked the board, like the Fender amps that do the same thing.
I had a good discussion with the owner yesterday evening and told him much the same as you have said here and he has agreed that we should scrap this PCB and build a new amp. He said that it is better to wear the bad choice of this amp and move on.
To that end, it is now sitting on my bench completely gutted, as a pile of components.
The cab, speaker and all the amp hardware is in good condition and the amp actually sounded really good (surprisingly) before it started misbehaving. I am still surprised that it worked at all and it was always going to be a time bomb, with that shoddy work and the old crap components.
The plan is: to use the cab, chassis & transformers (without any Mesa labelling) and then make a new amp, with quality components, on an eyelet board with the Pre and PI valve sockets mounted on the chassis (the PA valve sockets already are) that can be serviced and sounds great.
The supply voltage runs close to 490V at start-up and settles to 460 at idle, so some good 500V caps will be used.
I agree about Mesa amps; some of them sound good but they cost way too much, for what they are and working on them is a nightmare, which is why I have stayed away from servicing them.
This rebuild may take a while to complete, due to my workload but it will be worth it and he has been using the 40W amp I built him anyway because he says it sounds better than the Boogie did.
Thanks again and I am having fun.
