Any ideas of what I could've done? The only thing "wrong" I was doing should have been ok. I run my 5150 Cab to the mesa, its a 16 ohm cab however the Mesa doesn't have a 16 ohm output so I have been running it through the 8 ohm output until I get a 8 ohm cab.
Mesa cut off on me yesterday...
No idea what happened. My Solo 50 just turned off, no lights and it won't turn back on. Fortunately my drummer's father is extremely good at that type of thing and is finding out whats wrong as we speak. I am scared that it is something bad/expensive. As soon as it cut off I swapped the power cable, changed the power tubes, and checked the fuse and neither of these made a difference. I really don't know what I could've done to it, its been running through a Furman, and I have a little fan behind it because the EL34s run a little bit hot, but that fan does its job perfectly.
I was able to finish band practice by using my ProCo RAT through a Yamaha keyboard amp....which sucked ass but got us through the rest of our songs. Really hoping its nothing major and something easily fixable that I can avoid in the future.
I was able to finish band practice by using my ProCo RAT through a Yamaha keyboard amp....which sucked ass but got us through the rest of our songs. Really hoping its nothing major and something easily fixable that I can avoid in the future.
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Thats what I figured.....my dad is also a pro audio guy and said it would be ok so I don't think thats it. So... I did nothing wrong and the amp dies? :rofl: Fuck.That's the proper way to run a 16Ω cab with a recto.
I'll tell you though, going immediately from a crushing Mesa Rectifier, to having to use a Yamaha keyboard amp with a RAT for distortion....man, does it suck ass.
Actually I thought it may be the internal fuse... after trying the first three things I immediately googled it with my phone and that was the next thing I found. It did not smoke nor spit fire, but the "tube" smell has been a lot stronger lately. Enough to fill the whole room.Could be an internal fuse. If the thing didn't literally smoke and spit fire, it's probably not a huge deal.
Well hopefully i'll hear back some good news today from my drummer's dad. But this has inspired me to purchase a backup head so as soon as I move my Schecter i'm getting a Jet City or something as a backup. I wish the JCA20 had 2 channels, that would be a sweet backup head.I've had similar experiences with a Recto, never anything a tech couldn't fix though. Mesa gear is great but it does have a bit of a rep for this kind of thing...
:yesway: When do these come out, and do you know if they'll be the same price as the original? I can snag a JCA20 for $189 used, and I don't have much of a budget for a backup head... $300 to $350 after my Schecter sells, so something like this is going to be my best bet.
Yeah, I may just go with a JCA20 its only $189 anyway, I can make due with one channel if needed (Roll volume knob back for clean parts :lolIIRC, $400 is going to be the list. I could be wrong, though. Also, who knows when they're supposed to hit, as they've missed a few dates already and there is a LOT of online interest in them so it's going to be tricky to find one in stock for a while.
. It'll just be a backup accept i'll probably use it in the studio too.
Yeah, I know it won't be a super clean tone and more like a bit less overdriven tone, but I like the raw pushed clean tone too and use it quite often anyway. I'll probably swap the V1 for a Tung Sol, I usually don't do high gain tubes, though I do like JJs I usually swap the 12ax7s, or at least one or two of them for ECC38s.JCA20 sounds great. Not the most volume-knob responsive (although I've found that often changes with amps depending on whether higher-gain preamp tubes are in there), but it sounds great.
Ok, so apparently one of the tubes went bad and blew a fuse. Its back up and running now with the 6l6s back in it. Anyone know any EL34s that last longer than Mullards? I haven't even had the Mullards a year, and it hasn't got nearly as much use as it needs for them to go bad. :shrug: Do 6l6s just generally last longer than EL34s or something?
Gotcha, yeah my first tube amp was a Peavey Valveking and the 6l6s in that were still going strong after I sold it. I owned it over 3 years, no problems or tube failure. I think maybe I should try something other than Mullards though, they sounded damn good but I would like something a bit more reliable.Sometimes tubes just randomly go. You'll have a tube that sounds great for 5 years, or you'll have a tube that blows after 3 months. Such is the nature of owning a tube amp I guess.
I'm looking at the E34Ls, I really liked the tone of the Mullard and am tempted to get more but I do remember reading about them not being really reliable and I would like a tube that is a bit more reliable.
Anyone every try the E34Ls? I may give them a try... "This tube has all the tonal qualities of the JJ EL34 but it has an extended low end response, is a little punchier and more aggressive." sounds like a winner in my book! Can't really beat $28 for a matched pair either.
Dude from Eurotubes is going to pick me a set of E34L's that run a bit cooler so they will (hopefully) have a longer life span than the Mullards. :yesway:
Yeah, really can't beat $28 for a matched pair either way even if they only last as long as the Mullards, and if they give me a bit more low end than the Mullards i'll be satisfied.I'm not 100% sure it will work out that way. Mesa's are fixed bias (without modification), so I think any given tube of a certain type will draw roughly the same current in such a setup, unless the color coding literally translates into a resistance value. I could be wrong about that, but I've caught the Eurotubes guys saying silly things before so I'm not sure.
Mesas are biased very cold anyway, so they generally should exhibit good tube lifespan regardless of what you pop in there.
Regardless, I think Eurotubes are decent gentlemen, and you're getting some good quality tubes at a fair price. :yesway:
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