What a job! The transformation of the whole thing is remarkable, but you deserve a medal for giving a new lease of life to those fader/sliders. Awesome!
Man, I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know how much I enjoy the videos. You have some outstanding knowledge and skills there Brad and I appreciate the amount of effort it takes to put these out. Great job mate.
Yeah!! Well Done! You've sufficiently scared the bejebus out of me. I've got 3 Mesa's, but after watching you and Lyle at work, there won't be another.😅
I own this exact amp. I bought it used around 1991 or 92. It has sat unused for about 10 years collecting dust. It's currently on my work bench for a refresh. And you are correct, it is major pain to work on. The PCB has the same sort of damage were the resistor failed and burned the board at R131 and C9. I replaced R131 with a 1k ohm/2w resistor and C9 from 470uf x16vdc to 3300uf x16vdc. This seems to be a major failure point on this particular amp design.
Thanks for the heads uup on Mesa's use of 400 volt rated capacitors in the power amp section of Mark V units that routinely expose them to 450 volts. Wish I had seen more of these prior to 2009 when I bought my Mark V. I guess the bright side is I haven't had reliability issues. Of course, there's a good reason for that. It only has about 100 hours of use in 14 years. It's so hard to get decent sounds, I quickly reverted to other amps in the stable.
I have one of these. Bought it some years back and had it for quite some time with the tubes it came with, but those gradually died and lost volume. Now I've had pair of JJs for maybe 2 years and though I don't use it daily, there's some hundreds of hours on them. I'll have to open it and measure the voltages, maybe it's somehow different being a very early '86 model as those tubes seem to last like reasonable time. No way near how tubes last in my other amps, for example my silver jubilee hasn't had tube change in over 10 years and it's still loud and ballsy.
"think" that's the critical word..... they don't.... Another BGG wins the internet for today (but there were so many winning comments in this Ep. that I couldn't stop myself chuckling.. Thanks for the entertainment mate. 💯 gold.
i had one of those from the 90’s…never had a single issue other than the hiss…but not on the clean channel. wish i hadnt sold it. played it everyday for years. 🤷♂️
Back in the 90s I used to try the Boogie stuff thinking it would be cool. Nope! Peavy was actually the same way back then. At least I’m pretty sure James Brown at Peavey knew better than to go along with some of the folded PCB designs, but had to do it at Peavey’s cost saving insistence. I would love to hear from someone who worked at Mesa WTF they were thinking and the amps weren’t cheap.
I’ve run with mesa for the last 22 years. Mark 1V and single recs. These tech videos make me nervous. I have had failures, but I love their tone. But also have been looking into more local amps like headfirst and MI audio. Seems mesa is a ticking time bomb, and very few interested techs to fix them. I’m definitely feeling nervous with my current amp. You’re very interesting to watch and listen to. Great video
Don't stress too hard, mate. It's their EL84 amps that love to cook themselves. Headfirst and MI are great, I hope to have some nice 2 channel simple high gain choochers in the new year, but we'll see how I go.
Excellent video Brad..Fab work and explanation of the process..legend at work..! Learning all the time, thanks..Yeah electronics has a smell all right, cool reminiscing of your youth with dad..Keep them memories Brad..Priceless.Ed..uk..😁
When I was a car stereo installer in the 1980s I worked on a Rolls Royce once and the electrical system of that thing was a nightmare. Electrical systems designed by Lucas Electric Works, AKA "the Prince of darkness". Triumphs, MG's, Spitfires and TR7's were no fun for similar reasons, but that Rolls was a particular nightmare.
When desoldering components from double-sided boards that haven't had thermal pads placed around the solder pads, I sometimes have to cut the component out, leaving the stub or nub of the component lead in place, stand the board on its edge, put the desoldering gun tip over the solder joint on one side of the board and apply additional heat to the other side of that same solder connection with with the regular soldering iron. The nub of cut-off component lead that was in the hole will usually get sucked into the tip of the desoldering gun, which can be kind of a pain to clear, but it'll leave a nice clean hole in the board.
Exactly! I used a quickgrip clamp on the edge of the PCB to heat both sides and be careful to not block the desolder gun with the old lead. It's amazing how stuck they can get in the tip of the gun when logic would dictate that they're a much smaller diameter. If you get two or three jammed in there, it's show-over for the $50 desoldering nozzle.
@@BradsGuitarGarage , I've never had a clogged desoldering gun nozzle that I couldn't unclog, whether it was one of the old (80's/90's) Hakko guns that I used to use at work or the cheaper AOYUE desoldering station that we bought when parts became unavailable for the old Hakko stations. If anything, the tips for the AOYUE are a better design and can be unclogged fairly easily (the pistol-shaped guns and heating element aren't the best, but replacements are very cheap, and with a few tweaks I made them work better; the tips, however, are a good design).
Bloody hell, owner must’ve gotten some very sentimental memories in that amp if he/she wants to put that much bench time budget into breathing life into something that dubious.
I had a diy pcb where the designer didn't provide any thermal relief for the ground pin pads on a SOIC16 chip, just used the solder mask over a chunky ground plane. It was the most bonkers thing ever.
Is it even worth it to repair an amp such as this one? With what you described, such as the high plate voltages, it seems like another problem is just around the corner. I'll stick to my silver face Fenders, thank you. 😀
It's not a dry joint. It's a through-plated hole. You don't need to solder the top as well as the bottom of the PCB. In fact if I did there, it'd melt the capacitor's insulation sleeve. You need to be fast and controlled in such situations.
Good lord, I hope you charge Mesa owners a fortune for service! And if they bitch at you, show them this video. Gotta charge that Mesa tax, it's the price of wanting to play through one of these abominations. Great work, Brad...as usual. Thanks.
Dude.. the AC100 /2 and impacts.. both early JMI amps. . pre vox run 450v to the EL34's !! Most of them have burnt up. I still run one.. old tubes were a damn site harder than now. Anyway just a side point!!
Where are you based? Hehe, I know you’re in Australia somewhere. Ok, if I sell my mesa, what impressive Australian amp builders have you come across? I do like simple layout like a single rec. No midi etc
Hey brother! Just a quick question, but is there any Tech's in the USA, or Canada that you'd recommend for working on Mesa's? It probably doesn't sound to crazy I hope, but I just have some fear about sending my Mesa's to just anybody, and struggling a bit to find anyone. So just curious if you, or anyone have any good recommendations. Cheers.
@@BradsGuitarGarage, Mesa: A tall flat-topped stone outcropping in the desert where aliens dump their tried-and-failed older technology, hoping that humans won't find it, but forgetting that naked apes can climb.....
Running el34 as pentodes with reduced screen grids interesting . Not low power triode sweet or tetrode ul and high power. Say an 807 would work in that setup and give a lot more power . Having said that 807 are not common enough to do in a amp used to gig with . Clearly not a properly designed amp for it intended use. Leo clearly showed that tube amp will need service and built ones that could be worked on . One can disagree with the sound but not the clear understanding that a gig amps will need to be serviced so build it for easier service. To be great you may need to be smart . To be second you only need to see what works and what is to be copied and what not. Clearly looks to me that the board was manually cut out the edges of the ground plain in places look off to have used a program strange traces in a non parallel lines.
I hate those tant caps. They might be ok on a low voltage low heat amp,but in a guitar amp. They were popular in rf circuits in years gone by but not as much lately. I talked to some auseys last week on the ham band. Alll yall seem to have good humore.
Me too, I replaced so many tant caps when I worked as a service tech before getting my ee degree that I have tried to avoid using them, and if I do use choose use double or higher voltage rating (and have plenty of temp margin). Some of the newer polymer caps get the same density with better life these days.
Ok, now it's official. Won't take in any Boogies for service. Only few people will spend the money to get these amps into a healthy shape. At least as long you are actually charging for the whole time you spend with it...
Just look at that cheap construction. These boards are use'em and lose'em. It was a tough market for Smith. He was finally forced to make $300 amps and sell them for $3000.
The PCB for the EQ faders looks to be several generations older than the other board, and that is the stupidest mounting arrangement of slide faders I've ever seen!
Thanks for confirming that MB Amps are just an overpriced POC with cheap and underrated parts, horrible PCB and disregarding common sense of circuit design. I stopped accepting them for repair because the work required to make them reliable and road worthy exceeds any reasonable charges and getting fiting spare parts (especially pots and LNDs) is getting a nightmare here....
I reckon Boogies are overrated, overpriced and poorly engineered/ laid out. I wouldn’t waste my money on one. I don’t understand the hype.I have no reason or practical evidence to make that claim, just from what I have read and seen. Circuit Board mounted valve sockets error number one. Carbon Comp Resistors big error number Two’s. Assembly/Disassembly issues number three. Mind you if someone gave my one I wouldn’t complain!
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
What a job! The transformation of the whole thing is remarkable, but you deserve a medal for giving a new lease of life to those fader/sliders. Awesome!
Man, I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know how much I enjoy the videos. You have some outstanding knowledge and skills there Brad and I appreciate the amount of effort it takes to put these out. Great job mate.
Yeoman work my Aussie brother. I hope this person LOVES this thing!
Yeah!! Well Done! You've sufficiently scared the bejebus out of me. I've got 3 Mesa's, but after watching you and Lyle at work, there won't be another.😅
Thank you, Brad. Your "Black colored Mesa Slime" story made me smile 🙂
I own this exact amp. I bought it used around 1991 or 92. It has sat unused for about 10 years collecting dust. It's currently on my work bench for a refresh. And you are correct, it is major pain to work on. The PCB has the same sort of damage were the resistor failed and burned the board at R131 and C9. I replaced R131 with a 1k ohm/2w resistor and C9 from 470uf x16vdc to 3300uf x16vdc. This seems to be a major failure point on this particular amp design.
Thanks for the heads uup on Mesa's use of 400 volt rated capacitors in the power amp section of Mark V units that routinely expose them to 450 volts. Wish I had seen more of these prior to 2009 when I bought my Mark V. I guess the bright side is I haven't had reliability issues. Of course, there's a good reason for that. It only has about 100 hours of use in 14 years. It's so hard to get decent sounds, I quickly reverted to other amps in the stable.
I have one of these. Bought it some years back and had it for quite some time with the tubes it came with, but those gradually died and lost volume. Now I've had pair of JJs for maybe 2 years and though I don't use it daily, there's some hundreds of hours on them. I'll have to open it and measure the voltages, maybe it's somehow different being a very early '86 model as those tubes seem to last like reasonable time. No way near how tubes last in my other amps, for example my silver jubilee hasn't had tube change in over 10 years and it's still loud and ballsy.
"think" that's the critical word..... they don't.... Another BGG wins the internet for today (but there were so many winning comments in this Ep. that I couldn't stop myself chuckling.. Thanks for the entertainment mate. 💯 gold.
You're going to love the Lazy-J videos then, mate. I was feeling particularly humorous that day!
Love your work Brad, it's mostly over my head but you obviously know your stuff.
great work as usual, de-messing the Mesa!
i had one of those from the 90’s…never had a single issue other than the hiss…but not on the clean channel.
wish i hadnt sold it. played it everyday for years. 🤷♂️
Back in the 90s I used to try the Boogie stuff thinking it would be cool. Nope! Peavy was actually the same way back then. At least I’m pretty sure James Brown at Peavey knew better than to go along with some of the folded PCB designs, but had to do it at Peavey’s cost saving insistence. I would love to hear from someone who worked at Mesa WTF they were thinking and the amps weren’t cheap.
some Lyle style production. nice man, good work as usual. Almost a board you'd be able to reproduce like that fender pcb you made
You, my friend are a champion for taking this job on. Mesa’s are the absolute worst in the industry.
I’ve run with mesa for the last 22 years. Mark 1V and single recs. These tech videos make me nervous. I have had failures, but I love their tone. But also have been looking into more local amps like headfirst and MI audio.
Seems mesa is a ticking time bomb, and very few interested techs to fix them.
I’m definitely feeling nervous with my current amp.
You’re very interesting to watch and listen to.
Great video
Don't stress too hard, mate.
It's their EL84 amps that love to cook themselves.
Headfirst and MI are great, I hope to have some nice 2 channel simple high gain choochers in the new year, but we'll see how I go.
Excellent video Brad..Fab work and explanation of the process..legend at work..! Learning all the time, thanks..Yeah electronics has a smell all right, cool reminiscing of your youth with dad..Keep them memories Brad..Priceless.Ed..uk..😁
You have a great Dad!!
Nice job so far. I'm sure most motor mechanics hate working on Lamborghinis or Ferraris too.
When I was a car stereo installer in the 1980s I worked on a Rolls Royce once and the electrical system of that thing was a nightmare. Electrical systems designed by Lucas Electric Works, AKA "the Prince of darkness". Triumphs, MG's, Spitfires and TR7's were no fun for similar reasons, but that Rolls was a particular nightmare.
When desoldering components from double-sided boards that haven't had thermal pads placed around the solder pads, I sometimes have to cut the component out, leaving the stub or nub of the component lead in place, stand the board on its edge, put the desoldering gun tip over the solder joint on one side of the board and apply additional heat to the other side of that same solder connection with with the regular soldering iron. The nub of cut-off component lead that was in the hole will usually get sucked into the tip of the desoldering gun, which can be kind of a pain to clear, but it'll leave a nice clean hole in the board.
Exactly!
I used a quickgrip clamp on the edge of the PCB to heat both sides and be careful to not block the desolder gun with the old lead. It's amazing how stuck they can get in the tip of the gun when logic would dictate that they're a much smaller diameter. If you get two or three jammed in there, it's show-over for the $50 desoldering nozzle.
@@BradsGuitarGarage , I've never had a clogged desoldering gun nozzle that I couldn't unclog, whether it was one of the old (80's/90's) Hakko guns that I used to use at work or the cheaper AOYUE desoldering station that we bought when parts became unavailable for the old Hakko stations. If anything, the tips for the AOYUE are a better design and can be unclogged fairly easily (the pistol-shaped guns and heating element aren't the best, but replacements are very cheap, and with a few tweaks I made them work better; the tips, however, are a good design).
The PCB has seen some heat 🔥🔥
one of your best vids man. cheers
I wonder if the new mesa amps are better quality now that they are under the Gibson banner,probably not.
Bloody hell, owner must’ve gotten some very sentimental memories in that amp if he/she wants to put that much bench time budget into breathing life into something that dubious.
I really enjoy how much you dislike Mesas! It adds more flavor to the mix!
I'd really like to like them.
They'd need to radically change their philosophy to achieve that, though!
I had a diy pcb where the designer didn't provide any thermal relief for the ground pin pads on a SOIC16 chip, just used the solder mask over a chunky ground plane. It was the most bonkers thing ever.
Is it even worth it to repair an amp such as this one? With what you described, such as the high plate voltages, it seems like another problem is just around the corner. I'll stick to my silver face Fenders, thank you. 😀
Now I get the name "Mesa Engineering" ... they design processes to cause technical problems.
I'm guessing you caught the dry solder connection on the 3300µF@10V cap.
It's not a dry joint. It's a through-plated hole. You don't need to solder the top as well as the bottom of the PCB. In fact if I did there, it'd melt the capacitor's insulation sleeve. You need to be fast and controlled in such situations.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Ah, gotcha.
But well spotted, regardless!
Good lord, I hope you charge Mesa owners a fortune for service! And if they bitch at you, show them this video. Gotta charge that Mesa tax, it's the price of wanting to play through one of these abominations. Great work, Brad...as usual. Thanks.
Dude.. the AC100 /2 and impacts.. both early JMI amps. . pre vox run 450v to the EL34's !! Most of them have burnt up. I still run one.. old tubes were a damn site harder than now. Anyway just a side point!!
Same thing drop the screen!! 😊 Crazy designers huh?
DUDE.
This video needs a trigger warning.
I’m having bad flashbacks…
I've seen you work on stereo components yeah?
Any experience with Revox A700 series? Early 70's models.
Never worked on that model, no.
Oh well, it was worth a shot. Have a great day, and thank you very much for replying promptly. 👍🇨🇦
@@khillsy4489 There are a few people in Sydney servicing tape machines, myself included. MRL tapes are a necessity.
Where are you based? Hehe, I know you’re in Australia somewhere.
Ok, if I sell my mesa, what impressive Australian amp builders have you come across? I do like simple layout like a single rec. No midi etc
Google the business name, mate. It's all online.
@@BradsGuitarGarage kinda joking, as mesa users get knocked back by so many tech's. you seem to be one who'll accept them.
Hey brother! Just a quick question, but is there any Tech's in the USA, or Canada that you'd recommend for working on Mesa's? It probably doesn't sound to crazy I hope, but I just have some fear about sending my Mesa's to just anybody, and struggling a bit to find anyone. So just curious if you, or anyone have any good recommendations. Cheers.
Where are you roughly, mate?
@@BradsGuitarGarage Hey Brad! I'm in Vancouver, Canada!
Dude, may-sah. It’s a place in Arizona
It’s just a table.
I mispronounce "mesa" out of disrespect.
@@BradsGuitarGarage ha! You refuse on principal! 😑.
And it sounds closer to "mess" which is what most of them are. LOL!
@@BradsGuitarGarage, Mesa: A tall flat-topped stone outcropping in the desert where aliens dump their tried-and-failed older technology, hoping that humans won't find it, but forgetting that naked apes can climb.....
Running el34 as pentodes with reduced screen grids interesting . Not low power triode sweet or tetrode ul and high power. Say an 807 would work in that setup and give a lot more power . Having said that 807 are not common enough to do in a amp used to gig with . Clearly not a properly designed amp for it intended use. Leo clearly showed that tube amp will need service and built ones that could be worked on . One can disagree with the sound but not the clear understanding that a gig amps will need to be serviced so build it for easier service. To be great you may need to be smart . To be second you only need to see what works and what is to be copied and what not. Clearly looks to me that the board was manually cut out the edges of the ground plain in places look off to have used a program strange traces in a non parallel lines.
I hate those tant caps. They might be ok on a low voltage low heat amp,but in a guitar amp. They were popular in rf circuits in years gone by but not as much lately. I talked to some auseys last week on the ham band. Alll yall seem to have good humore.
We have to have a sense of humour if people call us auseys. (Aussies). ;>)
oooops sorry@@mattchase3153
Me too, I replaced so many tant caps when I worked as a service tech before getting my ee degree that I have tried to avoid using them, and if I do use choose use double or higher voltage rating (and have plenty of temp margin). Some of the newer polymer caps get the same density with better life these days.
Ok, now it's official. Won't take in any Boogies for service. Only few people will spend the money to get these amps into a healthy shape. At least as long you are actually charging for the whole time you spend with it...
Just look at that cheap construction. These boards are use'em and lose'em. It was a tough market for Smith. He was finally forced to make $300 amps and sell them for $3000.
Seeing the schematic and realizing that there is an export version of this amp that runs from 100 VAC, I feel sorry for Japanese guitarists!
Nov.-12-2023✝️
The PCB for the EQ faders looks to be several generations older than the other board, and that is the stupidest mounting arrangement of slide faders I've ever seen!
Thanks for confirming that MB Amps are just an overpriced POC with cheap and underrated parts, horrible PCB and disregarding common sense of circuit design.
I stopped accepting them for repair because the work required to make them reliable and road worthy exceeds any reasonable charges and getting fiting spare parts (especially pots and LNDs) is getting a nightmare here....
"...soften up the crunchy bits..." Ew.
I reckon Boogies are overrated, overpriced and poorly engineered/ laid out. I wouldn’t waste my money on one. I don’t understand the hype.I have no reason or practical evidence to make that claim, just from what I have read and seen. Circuit Board mounted valve sockets error number one. Carbon Comp Resistors big error number Two’s. Assembly/Disassembly issues number three. Mind you if someone gave my one I wouldn’t complain!