I would never have guessed these pc board circuits to be as flexible as you have shown through finding specs and isolating individual resistors, caps, and other parts, then rebiasing without using much more expensive output tubes to dumb down the amp. Great lesson for the uninitiated like myself! I put off watching this vid for a while, but I’m really glad to have seen it now. Thanks.
Amazing. There is so much love in Brad’s videos. Respect, craft, intelligence, compassion, trust. Nearly a religious experience, he demonstrates the power of man, and perhaps inadvertently becomes a role model for us all. A role model like we used to know. We don’t need fake prophets, lies, NASA...we need more Brads.
I've had this amp for 15 years. It just has always run incredibly hot. I love the sound, but have had the same issues cooking tubes. Thanks for doing the D.C.-3 video!
DAMN, Dude! I've watched enough of your videos to see that your technical skills are unparalleled, but Dear GOD - your guitar chops twist my brain up in knots!!! WHY are you not world famous, fronting every heavy rock band on Earth????
Great job as ever Brad, cannot imagine what the previous users lungs are like... Makes we worry about all those pubs and clubs I played in over the past 25 years yikes!! Really appreciate the fact you are so candid and LOVE SPF. Long live freedom of speech! Paul from the UK.
Ive worked on a few of these over the last 30 yrs and they all seem to run hot, and use a lot of watts compared to other amps. I think this extra wattage does contribute to the tubes getting to hot and burning them out faster while cooking that board. i always used the coolest running tubes i could get at the time, Sovteks are good choice, then adjusting the bias similar to what you've done. Ive used those adjustable resistors in a few just in case they wanted to switch tubes, but then a rebias would be needed which was easy, still needed to do the math to set it right , though some refuse and suffered the consequences. lol its great Mesa still sells parts at a decent price. thanks for sharing, Brad!
As iv said in the past im no electronics guy Brad, but i really like watching you doing things and sorting them out, really enjoyed this one, Thank You, Cheers from England uk, Great Chanel
i can't explain why i'm drawn to watching these amp repair videos like a bug to a porch light but i sure appreciate you going through the trouble of sharing them Brad. i'm sure i'll go into withdrawals if you ever stop. thank you.
Brad. All my best regards to you. I wanted to take some more time to watch this video even deeper to follow your schematic study, visual and test equipment, and the measures you went through to fix this amp. I know I said thanks before for all your demos, but I cannot thank you enough for how you break down and show figuring out problems and analyzing potential causes. To be able to see how you fix the stuff is such a miracle I never had growing up in the 60's/70's.
In the past couple years, my quest to learn amps and electronics on my own, has lead me to priceless and invaluable study in this stuff from guys such as you. Despite childhood fascination, learning electronics was a stumbling block to me since elementary school. Back then, having opened broken transistor radios up and seeing nothing but a zillion little bits and pieces made no sense to me. I gave up hope from this experience of mind blowing visual mess until a fellow guitar player friend in the Catskills encouraged me that I COULD LEARN and do it, when facing a failure to my '72 Marshall 50 watt JMP head.
I own an F-30 and it's an amazing amp, it has 2 EL-84's and it punches way above it's weight class. The overdrive channel is okay but the clean channel is amazing in it's clarity and power. The innards aren't as intimidating now after seeing this video. Thank you for sharing your expertise. You do amazing work.
I went through all this a couple of months ago. It's actually impressive that all these DC-3s can survive with 125% or higher output tube dissipation. I piggybacked the 120K to bring it to 100K to bring dissipation to survivable numbers. Changing that resistor also changes the bias for the phase inverter, and actually uses the phase inverter cathode current to generate the output tube bias... luckily it was close enough. If the PI bias is off, the 15K needs to be changed as well. Later, for some reason there was -45V somehow leaking onto the grids of the EL84s from that ridiculous bias circuit, cutting off the output tubes. Tightening the input jack to fix ground was the only way I could find to fix it. Nice sounding amp when it's 100%!
Little amp turned out great! One could tell it had been used but not abused. Many trouble free miles ahead! man, i worked 2 blocks away from Mesa HQ around the time this amp was made (91-93) on Clegg. I'd taken a break from playing so never stopped by but more than once heard amps 'demo'd'.
I used this EXACT amp for 15 years straight. Same cool/odd color tolex and everything. Vintage 30 speaker that loved for cleans, weirdly, and disliked for grit (probably THAT amp's grit). Toured to nearly every state in the union with that thing. Same cool/odd color tolex and everything. Bought it when I was 20 yrs old, brand new. My first real amp and it paid off to step up to Boogie quality for sure. SO reliable. Sound guys loved it. Easy to throw in the van. Powerful enough for anything I needed it for - mic'd on stage. Before that, my only amps were PV Rockmaster preamp with 50-50 power amp, and before that a tiny PV Rage (my first amp).
It's a trip, this gets 30 watts with four EL84, and the F-30 uses two in their "Dyna-watt" circuit, whatever that is. You never know what those guys are up to. They're mad professors.
Love your Intermission from the Drive In A piece of lost Americana ………..I wish they were still around!!! As usual A tremendous Job!!! It actually sounds much better...…...
First movie I remember watching at the drive-in was E.T. They all had a playground down in front where the kids could play and leave the adults alone, complete with all the dangerous stuff like teeter-totters and merry-go-round. Ah, the good ol' days.
Electrical engineer extraordinaire Mr. Brad Lindsey. Great stuff my mate and the amount I've learnt from you is invaluable, thanks Brad. With a bit of Ravi Shankhr at the end.
My goal is not to dissuade people from Mesa. I hope no one thinks that. I just want to show things as they are. If there are flaws I find, I'll point them out. There is good and bad in almost any design.
@@shekador right lol basically every amp is stolen from fender or vox and sort of marshall but Marshall started ripping off the bassman so it's fender and vox. And Leo fender built his amps based of the old RCA books. Basic radio amplifiers really
Mesa does make complicated amps but they are pretty well made and their customer service is good. They aren't indestructible though. If you leave it in a hot car or cold garage after a gig don't expect it to last.
I had a DC 5 that was horrible. Half of the EQ went out on it. It would feedback even at low volumes, Horrible pop when you changed channels. My other Mesa amps were fine, but I had two DCs that were both really bad. The DC2 was an easy fix. The DC 5 I would even sell to anyone. I pulled anything good off of it then dumped it. I feel your pain.
Love how if I pay attention I never Fail to Learn Something New from You, and since I have been looking at some MKIIB's this was very informative and helpful
Nice work, I never would have thought to call Mesa for parts like that. Such a simple solution haha. Awesome they're still stocking parts like that. Definitely some moments that made me want to go play through my Dual Rec Tremoverb. The complexity of the high gain Mesa tone is always something I enjoy. At the same time, I just modified an old hifi amp into a perversion of a 2204 circuit, so I love both Mesa and Marshall high gain flavors
haha I want it all I guess. Also 12 years ago when I got my Mesa, it was my grail amp. It doesn't have sliders, it's just a 2 channel Dual Rec. I shy away from the graphic eq Mesa's, they're just a bit extra for my tastes. These days I still listen to extreme metal, but I pick up a guitar and love playing other stuff.
Great repair. I would use alcohol and a brush to clean off that crusty flux. I would also like to add that I really like the sound of this amp, and your playing sounds great on it. This amp lends itself to a certain style of playing, and you nailed it.
I clean crusty flux too when it bridges two or more solder joints. In this case, it was just cosmetic, but yeah, I shoulda cleaned it anyway, in hindsight.
1:01:55 forward on the rhythm channel was some super tasty playing....that Boogie clean channel sounds really good, fits your style well. Great job resurrecting that old Cali special.
Couldn't agree more . . . hell hath no fury like working on a Mesa Boogie amp. That rep on the phone was pretty awesome, though. Lots of great info, love the mod, great picking and vid, man.
Wow! I did work experience in Australia around 1998 for a company called abbey sound that cloned these. I was tasked with assembling one (albeit, without the eq) and if it worked, I could keep it. Still got it somewhere in storage. Watching this has inspired me to pull it out over the weekend! Thanks Brad!
Repair nightmares notwithstanding (these newer designs raise my blood pressure, just looking at them! LOL) every one of your repair vids is worth sticking around 'til the end...just to catch some of your 'noodling!' You have a unique approach, and style, and some of the progressions you come up with, alone, are worth the price of admission! :-)
You've given ME a ton of song ideas!! So far, I have hesitated to use any of them, since i'm not big on plagiarism, but some of your ideas are so fresh it's tough not to ('borrow' them)! :-) BTW, you are still infinitely more patient than me!! LOL I am getting more adventurous, though....my next project is a Fender 'The Twin' with red knobs.
I worked on a Mesa (MKII I think) for a friend a long time ago. Typical broken solder joints, etc. It had an intermittent problem in one channel that kicked my ass. It would pop and squeal and then mute. I didn't have schematic at first, but kept at it with no luck. Finally got hold of a manual...they used a device called a "fetron" in that channel for the preamp...that was the culprit. The other channel used a 12ax7, I think. It's jenky esoteric weirdness like that, the ridiculous muting and stone-age passive EQ that made me vow to stay away from Mesa. You have massive cajones to keep working on them. Another great video.
Great video (as always!). I have a studio 22+ that has always run hot (I even installed a fan...huge help). It has the same basic configuration and identical bias supply circuit as DC 2 or 3. When I had it apart for service recently I dropped a 1 meg across that 120k resistor...results in approx 107k. This was enough to drop below 70%. Also the 22+ has the PWB in "upside down" so I would just put the 1 meg on the back of the board opposite the 120k. Way easier than pulling the board!
I have always wanted a Mesa-Boogie amp. I really liked your primary check out of the amplifier. I think everything you did to the amp helped (except maybe destroying the 1H inductor, but heck, it was most likely a goner anyway) I was a little concerned as to how close it looked like you were gonna burn your fingers. Your analysis and perseverance to the repair is commendable. Good job Brad, keep up the good work and excellent informative commentary. I have been an industrial electrician mostly concerned with troubleshooting and repairing large motor drives (1000 hp and more). I also have been trying to learn to play guitar since I was 12, I'm 62 now and still quite inept. However, I am well experienced in troubleshooting amplifiers, not guitar amplifiers, but amplifiers just the same. Your techniques are sound, your understanding of the amplifiers is also sound. Have you ever thought of designing and building one of your own, using your knowledge of what works the way you think is right?
Great video, thank you! I still have a sick DSL. I've spent days on it. Brad opens up a foreign amp, "Oh, this should be fixed... and look it here, here's the problem...", solder, Tool, done. Thankfully, my self esteem has a callous on it but oh it stings. Cheers!
Love the part about cleaning the tube socket individual pins with the pointy little proxa brush. Nice handle on those brushes. I think you could have found the broken inductor early with some signal tracing on that fader that didn't appear to do anything. Old faders often contained a heavy grease specifically to lub to sliding parts and not the resistance board itself. I am glad they now have a spray to handle both functions. I used to wash them out with WD40 and then add some silicone or lithium grease to just the sliding mechanism. A dainty little job.
That amp has pretty cleans. I could never get along with Mesa amps. I got so uses to playing old non master British style amps that I could never get used to the feel of the Mesa Boogie.
Great video as always. Generally the DCs are voiced closer to a recto than their Studio ancestors (which are voiced like the Mark series), but you did an amazing job dialing a sweet tone out of it.
Boogies are feature-heavy, complex amps. They should be treated as such. Considering the amp has a factory cover, it at least was possible to take decent care of it. The owner really seems to have kept this amp like it's a frat house futon. A damn shame. Good work, Brad.
I've found that the best thing for cleaning the Tar residue from any surface is Windex with Amonia D. For small controls you could try some amonia on your brushes instead of contact cleaner.
Me too, awesome amp! I had a Dual Rec for 15 years but I like the DC-5 so much better. It just has a sweeter sound to the Dual Rec. I picked mine up from a studio sale so it'd never been gigged, only ever sat in the live room for 20+ years. I need to get to the pots as they're all crackling badly but it's a beaut!
Yea, I got mine for $400! I couldn't believe getting a Boogie amp for that price. I've heard the lead channel is based on the early recto with a mark EQ. Sounds less muddy in the low end to me. I have a 3 channel dual rec and I find myself playing the DC-5 way more nowadays. Plenty of gain for everything.
@@KnotTime I have one of the earliest DC-5's I've seen. Red shade grill cloth with the plastic rocker switches and no headphone jack. Play it almost daily. Close to Fender cleans and headroom to level a small town! :) Keep rockin!
Brad, the Dual Caliber range is actually an upgrade to the Studio/Caliber series, which housed a single EQ section shared between two channels (almost unimaginable simplicity by Mesa standards)! The DC-2 & DC-3 upgrade from the 22W, dual EL84 Studio .22+ (of which I own a mint 1992 example). The DC-5 & DC-10 upgrade from the 50W, dual 6L6 .50 Caliber+.
I'm confused a little. I have a Studio Caliber DC-2 (No parametric EQ). Is there a DC-2 that's a Dual Caliber? You're saying the DC-2 is an upgrade? Did the lineage go Studio .22>Studio Caliber>Dual Caliber?
Great little 'pre-amp'. Had one when new, but it was so quiet I killed the speaker output (or ran it out front for a monitor) and put it into a rack mount, feeding an M-180 (180 watt) amp, into a Mitchell 2x12 bass reflex 'sand cab' w/EVM12L's. It would MOVE a full stack of Marshalls if I pointed it at it. Messed my back up trying to carry it. Also had a power strip, tuner and effect in the rack. I could not put it in the car alone. Loudest thing I ever heard. Got tinnitus now. I like little tube amps today.
Fantastic Job🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 You EXXXcellent Work, sounds so much fresh out the box. When I have electronic issues, I know who to ask first for service. Thank You.
I've got this ones smaller brother, the Studio Caliber 22. It had no output when I bought it so I took a bit of punt and got it for less than the Black Widow speakers sell for on fleabay :) Two previous tech's had looked at it and failed to fix it. Took me quite some time to find the problem! After fixing all the same things as you with regard to overheating and bias and it was still dead. The schematic bore little resemblance to the revision I have so I was signal tracing. Pre-amp side was working but nothing was getting out of the opto-switch to the send/return loop or main circuit. Track disappeared between and under two large power caps - signal going in one side, zilch from other side on way out. Cut the leads and lifted the power caps and hidden underneath was three signal diodes in series, middle one was dead. Replaced them and woopee - sound. Needless to say - they are not on the schematic but look like original equipment. It's a little beast of amp, very loud and very heavy for it's size! Fitted some vintage NOS Soviet military EL84's made in Reflektor factory and biased it back up a little - it's a great little amp and gathering value nicely over time.
I would have pulled that power board out, mounted the tube sockets to the chassis and point to point wire it, that set up is a fire hazard. I had my Carvin X50B literally catch fire because of that set up with EL34s. My amp guy (Randy ) mounted the sockets to chassis and point to point the whole back of the amp because the damage was so extensive. The amp works amazing now and we switched out the tubes to 6L6 GCs and the amp is so much more reliable now. I really wish amp manufacturers would stop mounting power tubes to pc boards. Great video as always, cheers!
I doubt the client would have liked to foot that sort of a bill. As cool as these amps are (I have a similar Rocket 84), they aren't worth very much right now. The PCBs are pretty good quality. The sockets could probably be a bit better. They are biased very high. My EL84s sure cook too, and it is punishing on the tubes, for sure. I have just been inspired to rebias mine. Thanks Brad.
@@stupidjubei I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of that board being heated that bad, it looks compromised. I've been doing electronics repair for 20 years I just tent to stay away from tubes and let my buddy who is a tech handle it. My amp actually caught fire and it sucks lol. For me tubes and pc boards don't mix. It looks like some of those traces on the board are separating from the board is my only concern. Cost wise my buddy didn't change me anything crazy at all. It was more parts were the cost over the labor. He had to actually cut the whole back section off the pc board was burned so bad and point to point wired all the back half of that board. If you ever get to see a Carvin X50B or 100B board it's one piece . Unfortunately it's not a smaller separate board like the Mesa would be so much easier to do. I'm just saying how the board looks to me through the magic of internet, maybe it's not as bad as it looks or maybe it is? I know alot of guys around here were wiring in extra fans on some Mesa amps because of how hot they run. I changed over to 6L6s and asked to run the bias a little bit on the cooler side. I go very long times between tube changes and have zero issues with my Carvin now. I bought it back in the mid 90s and still have it. Hope this helps you understand where I'm coming from is all. If you seen the price of amps up here in Canada the price of preventive maintenance or a repair is cheaper than a new amp. Cheers bud!
It's stupid they didn't like comments about their amps being hard to service. Their amps are complicated so they are going to be harder for non familiar people to troubleshoot. I'd imagine their own techs would struggle sometimes. Complex circuits can be hard to debug. A friend has a Nomad 100 the successor to the DC3. Man that things had a hard life. I've had to fix so many stupid things. Including a fuse holder of all things. I've got the same amp and it hasn't missed a beat because it's been looked after. Great video.
I wouldn't think they would be harder to service than anything else out there. I own a Road King, Mesa Express 5:50 and a Lonestar and there is alot more parts than on a DC-3. When I got my Lonestar there was an issue with the power transformer vibrating and I called them and they weren't trying to hide anything about the info.
I had one of these in the mid 90's in the same color. Came with an EV Black Shadow. The midrange was obnoxious and I never figured out how to tame it. It's no wonder they weren't popular.
Hello, I am really enjoying your channel! I recently purchased a used Mesa DC-5 head and am really enjoying it! Overall it's in good condition, and everything works perfectly *except* the graphic EQ, which stubbornly refuses to activate. I have the older (original) spec DC-5 head, with the multi-position rotary switch on the back panel for assigning the graphic EQ. I tested the switch and it seems to be electrically fine. However, no matter what position the switch is set to, the graphic EQ will not engage. I also tried plugging in a footswitch to control it that way, and no dice. So I am suspicious that it's a failed relay or other switching component on the PC board. Would have have any specific advice about where to look, or which specific component to replace?
Hi from England. I think it was my 70th birthday and I'd always wanted a boogie so I bought the king snake. Looking at the inside it seems to have less going on inside it. Hope it doesn't pack up before I die. It cost a load of money over here.
I'd have probably used a pot in the bias but oh well, you got it sounding killer. Thanks, I may buy one of these. There's some great stuff to know here.
Mesa does things differently than essentially everyone else. They set these up to match a set of known bias tubes to the existing Mesa circuit rather than biasing the circuit to a set of unknown tubes. Quirky but effective once you know the drill. The problem comes when a player has tube failure and instead of going to a skilled tech, or sourcing Mesa tubes or tubes tested and matched to specific Mesa amp bias, they buy any tube set from GC and install. They turn the amp on and if it fires up... good to go or so it seems. Often these unknown bias tubes will run super hot shortening their life, damaging the output tube board and sometimes the transformer. Then the amp dies and Brad gets the call...
Great video. It was nice that Mesa stocks parts and just just boards. That part about moding the bias circuit could come in very handy for more than just this amp I assume.
In 2018 those tubes, which are clearly stock would be old as hell. And also only two were replaced. At first glance it seems the amp has never been properly maintained, I don't care who his tech is. People just need to take care of their gear or they're asking for problems. All that trim, shielding or whatever always gets in the way no matter what amp I've worked on.
55:50 - I noticed something similar with my Orange Rocker 32 (which uses EL84 tubes) - the plate dissipation was above 12 watts. The Orange Rocker has a half power switch and when switched to half power mode the plate voltage drops to about 70% of the max power setting - bringing the plate dissipation under 12 watts. These were new amps too. It seems very odd to purposely design an amplifier to exceed the data sheet maximum plate dissipation. Is it common practice to exceed the tube plate dissipation on guitar amps? I don't know - that goes against my training/schooling. I'm an electrical engineer BSEE from Cal Poly SLO and MSEE from SCU + 25 years of experience as a design engineer in Silicon Valley. Maybe I just know too much.
I've got a Studio .22 which is the predecessor to the DC series. The Calibre series are fantastic amps. They lost their mojo a little when they became the F series but they're great amps. I'm still on the lookout for a .50 head if I can get one! :)
Nice. I learned something today. Thanks brother. You gonna be around about Nov. 22? I'm gonna be in the area visitin my sis. I had a Studio 22 here a while ago that was noisy and those little EQ tombstones with holes in them were just a little loose. The fix was to preload them with some hand pressure and reflow the solder joints while preloading them. The amp had been owned by three or four local people and got passed around because the people who worked on it were unable to locate the problem or develop a fix. Lotsa board tapping before it would pass the hammer handle test.
The call to Mesa and the displayed level of technical knowledge on the call agent is just stunning.
I would never have guessed these pc board circuits to be as flexible as you have shown through finding specs and isolating individual resistors, caps, and other parts, then rebiasing without using much more expensive output tubes to dumb down the amp. Great lesson for the uninitiated like myself! I put off watching this vid for a while, but I’m really glad to have seen it now. Thanks.
Amazing. There is so much love in Brad’s videos. Respect, craft, intelligence, compassion, trust.
Nearly a religious experience, he demonstrates the power of man, and perhaps inadvertently becomes a role model for us all. A role model like we used to know.
We don’t need fake prophets, lies, NASA...we need more Brads.
I've had this amp for 15 years. It just has always run incredibly hot. I love the sound, but have had the same issues cooking tubes. Thanks for doing the D.C.-3 video!
I have one too. Yeah, sound beautiful and run hot! Seems to be EaL 84s run hot
DAMN, Dude! I've watched enough of your videos to see that your technical skills are unparalleled, but Dear GOD - your guitar chops twist my brain up in knots!!! WHY are you not world famous, fronting every heavy rock band on Earth????
Great job as ever Brad, cannot imagine what the previous users lungs are like... Makes we worry about all those pubs and clubs I played in over the past 25 years yikes!! Really appreciate the fact you are so candid and LOVE SPF. Long live freedom of speech! Paul from the UK.
Ive worked on a few of these over the last 30 yrs and they all seem to run hot, and use a lot of watts compared to other amps. I think this extra wattage does contribute to the tubes getting to hot and burning them out faster while cooking that board. i always used the coolest running tubes i could get at the time, Sovteks are good choice, then adjusting the bias similar to what you've done. Ive used those adjustable resistors in a few just in case they wanted to switch tubes, but then a rebias would be needed which was easy, still needed to do the math to set it right , though some refuse and suffered the consequences. lol
its great Mesa still sells parts at a decent price. thanks for sharing, Brad!
Ya, cooling fans are a common add on for Boogie amps. Lots of other amps, too. Buys some tube life in a cramped combo.
As iv said in the past im no electronics guy Brad, but i really like watching you doing things and sorting them out, really enjoyed this one, Thank You, Cheers from England uk, Great Chanel
Thanks for watching. Really appreciate it.
The dc 3 was my first expensive amp, it's the amp that made me realize if i want a decent amp i have to build it myself.
Geez watching this is an adventure to how you invest your knowledge, time, and patience into tube amp repair. Amazing work! and playing too!
i can't explain why i'm drawn to watching these amp repair videos like a bug to a porch light but i sure appreciate you going through the trouble of sharing them Brad. i'm sure i'll go into withdrawals if you ever stop. thank you.
Brad. All my best regards to you. I wanted to take some more time to watch this video even deeper to follow your schematic study, visual and test equipment, and the measures you went through to fix this amp. I know I said thanks before for all your demos, but I cannot thank you enough for how you break down and show figuring out problems and analyzing potential causes. To be able to see how you fix the stuff is such a miracle I never had growing up in the 60's/70's.
In the past couple years, my quest to learn amps and electronics on my own, has lead me to priceless and invaluable study in this stuff from guys such as you. Despite childhood fascination, learning electronics was a stumbling block to me since elementary school. Back then, having opened broken transistor radios up and seeing nothing but a zillion little bits and pieces made no sense to me. I gave up hope from this experience of mind blowing visual mess until a fellow guitar player friend in the Catskills encouraged me that I COULD LEARN and do it, when facing a failure to my '72 Marshall 50 watt JMP head.
I own an F-30 and it's an amazing amp, it has 2 EL-84's and it punches way above it's weight class. The overdrive channel is okay but the clean channel is amazing in it's clarity and power. The innards aren't as intimidating now after seeing this video. Thank you for sharing your expertise. You do amazing work.
i had an F Series once. F-100 I think, maybe? Anyway, it had a similar thing - 2 channel. Clean channel 1 and a Boogied out Channel 2.
I went through all this a couple of months ago. It's actually impressive that all these DC-3s can survive with 125% or higher output tube dissipation. I piggybacked the 120K to bring it to 100K to bring dissipation to survivable numbers. Changing that resistor also changes the bias for the phase inverter, and actually uses the phase inverter cathode current to generate the output tube bias... luckily it was close enough. If the PI bias is off, the 15K needs to be changed as well. Later, for some reason there was -45V somehow leaking onto the grids of the EL84s from that ridiculous bias circuit, cutting off the output tubes. Tightening the input jack to fix ground was the only way I could find to fix it. Nice sounding amp when it's 100%!
even knowing all the problems you had with this thing in the other parts, I gotta say the cleans on it are absolutely buetiful!
Over the last 30 years I've fixed a dozen or so Mesa's and not one was an easy fix. Nice video.
Little amp turned out great! One could tell it had been used but not abused. Many trouble free miles ahead! man, i worked 2 blocks away from Mesa HQ around the time this amp was made (91-93) on Clegg. I'd taken a break from playing so never stopped by but more than once heard amps 'demo'd'.
I used this EXACT amp for 15 years straight. Same cool/odd color tolex and everything. Vintage 30 speaker that loved for cleans, weirdly, and disliked for grit (probably THAT amp's grit). Toured to nearly every state in the union with that thing. Same cool/odd color tolex and everything. Bought it when I was 20 yrs old, brand new. My first real amp and it paid off to step up to Boogie quality for sure. SO reliable. Sound guys loved it. Easy to throw in the van. Powerful enough for anything I needed it for - mic'd on stage. Before that, my only amps were PV Rockmaster preamp with 50-50 power amp, and before that a tiny PV Rage (my first amp).
It's a trip, this gets 30 watts with four EL84, and the F-30 uses two in their "Dyna-watt" circuit, whatever that is. You never know what those guys are up to. They're mad professors.
Love your Intermission from the Drive In A piece of lost Americana ………..I wish they were still around!!! As usual A tremendous Job!!! It actually sounds much better...…...
First movie I remember watching at the drive-in was E.T. They all had a playground down in front where the kids could play and leave the adults alone, complete with all the dangerous stuff like teeter-totters and merry-go-round. Ah, the good ol' days.
Electrical engineer extraordinaire Mr. Brad Lindsey. Great stuff my mate and the amount I've learnt from you is invaluable, thanks Brad. With a bit of Ravi Shankhr at the end.
I love these videos and they've not deterred me from purchasing Mesa-Boogie amps in any way. Complex is not bad, just different. :)
My goal is not to dissuade people from Mesa. I hope no one thinks that. I just want to show things as they are. If there are flaws I find, I'll point them out. There is good and bad in almost any design.
Mesa stuff is rock solid (with all the bells and whistles)...as long as you treat it right.
Good. Less copycats.
@@Twobarpsi that's funny because Mesa's most popular guitar amps were someone else's designs that they STOLE
@@shekador right lol basically every amp is stolen from fender or vox and sort of marshall but Marshall started ripping off the bassman so it's fender and vox. And Leo fender built his amps based of the old RCA books. Basic radio amplifiers really
Mesa does make complicated amps but they are pretty well made and their customer service is good. They aren't indestructible though. If you leave it in a hot car or cold garage after a gig don't expect it to last.
Excellent job Brad. I love watching your videos very educational and you did an excellent job servicing this Boogie!
I had a DC 5 that was horrible. Half of the EQ went out on it. It would feedback even at low volumes, Horrible pop when you changed channels. My other Mesa amps were fine, but I had two DCs that were both really bad. The DC2 was an easy fix. The DC 5 I would even sell to anyone. I pulled anything good off of it then dumped it. I feel your pain.
Thanks for the free knowledge man, you are really helping me!
Love how if I pay attention I never Fail to Learn Something New from You, and since I have been looking at some MKIIB's this was very informative and helpful
Nice work, I never would have thought to call Mesa for parts like that. Such a simple solution haha. Awesome they're still stocking parts like that. Definitely some moments that made me want to go play through my Dual Rec Tremoverb. The complexity of the high gain Mesa tone is always something I enjoy. At the same time, I just modified an old hifi amp into a perversion of a 2204 circuit, so I love both Mesa and Marshall high gain flavors
haha I want it all I guess. Also 12 years ago when I got my Mesa, it was my grail amp. It doesn't have sliders, it's just a 2 channel Dual Rec. I shy away from the graphic eq Mesa's, they're just a bit extra for my tastes. These days I still listen to extreme metal, but I pick up a guitar and love playing other stuff.
Awesome Brad... That was one of your best repair vids.
Thanks. I appreciate that. Look like few will see it, probably due to the length.
The Guitologist
loved the soldering scenes and the 1 hr. length .
Great sleuthing and repair Brad! You really made that Mesa sing!
Great repair. I would use alcohol and a brush to clean off that crusty flux. I would also like to add that I really like the sound of this amp, and your playing sounds great on it. This amp lends itself to a certain style of playing, and you nailed it.
I clean crusty flux too when it bridges two or more solder joints. In this case, it was just cosmetic, but yeah, I shoulda cleaned it anyway, in hindsight.
Inspirational video. I’ve been thinking a lot of becoming an electrician by trade. U rock
1:01:55 forward on the rhythm channel was some super tasty playing....that Boogie clean channel sounds really good, fits your style well. Great job resurrecting that old Cali special.
Couldn't agree more . . . hell hath no fury like working on a Mesa Boogie amp. That rep on the phone was pretty awesome, though. Lots of great info, love the mod, great picking and vid, man.
Great video! You get an Uncle Doug award.
man, I admire your patience and dedication
Wow! I did work experience in Australia around 1998 for a company called abbey sound that cloned these. I was tasked with assembling one (albeit, without the eq) and if it worked, I could keep it. Still got it somewhere in storage. Watching this has inspired me to pull it out over the weekend! Thanks Brad!
You should make a video and upload it to youtube, or maybe send it to Brad so we can see it.
I think they're still going. They were about 5 years ago.
Yes James I say if you can make a small video or any video for us then do it!
I second sending me a video.
I'd really like to see what brad would do with a 'Woogie' amp from Custom Music Adelaide. I'd pay money for that.
Repair nightmares notwithstanding (these newer designs raise my blood pressure, just looking at them! LOL) every one of your repair vids is worth sticking around 'til the end...just to catch some of your 'noodling!' You have a unique approach, and style, and some of the progressions you come up with, alone, are worth the price of admission! :-)
Thanks Norm. My noodling is pretty aimless, but I could probably listen back to a lot of it and get a tone of song ideas.
You've given ME a ton of song ideas!! So far, I have hesitated to use any of them, since i'm not big on plagiarism, but some of your ideas are so fresh it's tough not to ('borrow' them)! :-) BTW, you are still infinitely more patient than me!! LOL I am getting more adventurous, though....my next project is a Fender 'The Twin' with red knobs.
I worked on a Mesa (MKII I think) for a friend a long time ago. Typical broken solder joints, etc. It had an intermittent problem in one channel that kicked my ass. It would pop and squeal and then mute. I didn't have schematic at first, but kept at it with no luck. Finally got hold of a manual...they used a device called a "fetron" in that channel for the preamp...that was the culprit. The other channel used a 12ax7, I think. It's jenky esoteric weirdness like that, the ridiculous muting and stone-age passive EQ that made me vow to stay away from Mesa. You have massive cajones to keep working on them. Another great video.
I have a boogie DC Caliber 50 + and it has one best clean tones ever
Right at where the close up is "Mesa Engineering" It should say "Brad Engineering"
I had a DC-2 combo. It was amazing at 6-7 on volume, but was CrAzY LOUD!!!
Great video (as always!). I have a studio 22+ that has always run hot (I even installed a fan...huge help). It has the same basic configuration and identical bias supply circuit as DC 2 or 3. When I had it apart for service recently I dropped a 1 meg across that 120k resistor...results in approx 107k. This was enough to drop below 70%. Also the 22+ has the PWB in "upside down" so I would just put the 1 meg on the back of the board opposite the 120k. Way easier than pulling the board!
I have always wanted a Mesa-Boogie amp. I really liked your primary check out of the amplifier. I think everything you did to the amp helped (except maybe destroying the 1H inductor, but heck, it was most likely a goner anyway) I was a little concerned as to how close it looked like you were gonna burn your fingers. Your analysis and perseverance to the repair is commendable. Good job Brad, keep up the good work and excellent informative commentary. I have been an industrial electrician mostly concerned with troubleshooting and repairing large motor drives (1000 hp and more). I also have been trying to learn to play guitar since I was 12, I'm 62 now and still quite inept. However, I am well experienced in troubleshooting amplifiers, not guitar amplifiers, but amplifiers just the same. Your techniques are sound, your understanding of the amplifiers is also sound. Have you ever thought of designing and building one of your own, using your knowledge of what works the way you think is right?
Nice playin' at the end of your video here too!
Great video, thank you! I still have a sick DSL. I've spent days on it. Brad opens up a foreign amp, "Oh, this should be fixed... and look it here, here's the problem...", solder, Tool, done. Thankfully, my self esteem has a callous on it but oh it stings. Cheers!
You got to say tho that mesa service is top notch.
Love the part about cleaning the tube socket individual pins with the pointy little proxa brush. Nice handle on those brushes. I think you could have found the broken inductor early with some signal tracing on that fader that didn't appear to do anything. Old faders often contained a heavy grease specifically to lub to sliding parts and not the resistance board itself. I am glad they now have a spray to handle both functions. I used to wash them out with WD40 and then add some silicone or lithium grease to just the sliding mechanism. A dainty little job.
That amp has pretty cleans. I could never get along with Mesa amps. I got so uses to playing old non master British style amps that I could never get used to the feel of the Mesa Boogie.
Good old times! I had one of these back then. And I loved it! 😍
I enjoyed this vid alot ...That amp was in terrible working order and you got it back to being some dudes pride and joy... dig the TOOL riff
I've used mesa along with my twin reverb. Love the dc3
Great video as always. Generally the DCs are voiced closer to a recto than their Studio ancestors (which are voiced like the Mark series), but you did an amazing job dialing a sweet tone out of it.
Well shot video - Lots of different angles/perspectives - Informative and entertaining as always.
Thanks for sharing! I like your guitar work at the end. Sounded amazing.
Boogies are feature-heavy, complex amps. They should be treated as such.
Considering the amp has a factory cover, it at least was possible to take decent care of it.
The owner really seems to have kept this amp like it's a frat house futon.
A damn shame.
Good work, Brad.
Damn Brad you got that thing sounding better then any Mesa Boogie I’ve ever heard .....!
I've found that the best thing for cleaning the Tar residue from any surface is Windex with Amonia D.
For small controls you could try some amonia on your brushes instead of contact cleaner.
I have a DC-5, one of my favorite Boogie amps.
Me too, awesome amp! I had a Dual Rec for 15 years but I like the DC-5 so much better. It just has a sweeter sound to the Dual Rec. I picked mine up from a studio sale so it'd never been gigged, only ever sat in the live room for 20+ years. I need to get to the pots as they're all crackling badly but it's a beaut!
Yea, I got mine for $400! I couldn't believe getting a Boogie amp for that price. I've heard the lead channel is based on the early recto with a mark EQ. Sounds less muddy in the low end to me. I have a 3 channel dual rec and I find myself playing the DC-5 way more nowadays. Plenty of gain for everything.
@@KnotTime I have one of the earliest DC-5's I've seen. Red shade grill cloth with the plastic rocker switches and no headphone jack. Play it almost daily. Close to Fender cleans and headroom to level a small town! :) Keep rockin!
I bought my DC-5 combo new in 1997, and still use it. It’s been rock solid and puts out.
Great video. I understand less than half of the stuff you explain, but it's super insteresting to watch. Greetings from Brazil!
Brad, the Dual Caliber range is actually an upgrade to the Studio/Caliber series, which housed a single EQ section shared between two channels (almost unimaginable simplicity by Mesa standards)! The DC-2 & DC-3 upgrade from the 22W, dual EL84 Studio .22+ (of which I own a mint 1992 example). The DC-5 & DC-10 upgrade from the 50W, dual 6L6 .50 Caliber+.
I'm confused a little. I have a Studio Caliber DC-2 (No parametric EQ). Is there a DC-2 that's a Dual Caliber? You're saying the DC-2 is an upgrade? Did the lineage go Studio .22>Studio Caliber>Dual Caliber?
Great little 'pre-amp'. Had one when new, but it was so quiet I killed the speaker output (or ran it out front for a monitor) and put it into a rack mount, feeding an M-180 (180 watt) amp, into a Mitchell 2x12 bass reflex 'sand cab' w/EVM12L's. It would MOVE a full stack of Marshalls if I pointed it at it. Messed my back up trying to carry it. Also had a power strip, tuner and effect in the rack. I could not put it in the car alone. Loudest thing I ever heard. Got tinnitus now. I like little tube amps today.
Fantastic Job🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 You EXXXcellent Work, sounds so much fresh out the box. When I have electronic issues, I know who to ask first for service. Thank You.
I've got this ones smaller brother, the Studio Caliber 22. It had no output when I bought it so I took a bit of punt and got it for less than the Black Widow speakers sell for on fleabay :) Two previous tech's had looked at it and failed to fix it. Took me quite some time to find the problem! After fixing all the same things as you with regard to overheating and bias and it was still dead. The schematic bore little resemblance to the revision I have so I was signal tracing. Pre-amp side was working but nothing was getting out of the opto-switch to the send/return loop or main circuit. Track disappeared between and under two large power caps - signal going in one side, zilch from other side on way out. Cut the leads and lifted the power caps and hidden underneath was three signal diodes in series, middle one was dead. Replaced them and woopee - sound. Needless to say - they are not on the schematic but look like original equipment. It's a little beast of amp, very loud and very heavy for it's size! Fitted some vintage NOS Soviet military EL84's made in Reflektor factory and biased it back up a little - it's a great little amp and gathering value nicely over time.
Always good to see a other man stabbing different holes with various tools!!!
:P
Friggin' amazing company. Just WOW. Looks like I will hunt for a Mesa-Boogie to play with.
I had one and traded it for a 1976 Traynor Reverb Master. I'm happy I did. That thing looks like junk and so fragile.
Sooo many Mesa haters chiming in Aunt Cunty-like. Again great work and edit on your offerings!
These are the nicest boogies around. Miss my dc3 head.
Great video! That will help me a lot to fix an old dc3 I've found here.
I would have pulled that power board out, mounted the tube sockets to the chassis and point to point wire it, that set up is a fire hazard. I had my Carvin X50B literally catch fire because of that set up with EL34s. My amp guy (Randy ) mounted the sockets to chassis and point to point the whole back of the amp because the damage was so extensive. The amp works amazing now and we switched out the tubes to 6L6 GCs and the amp is so much more reliable now. I really wish amp manufacturers would stop mounting power tubes to pc boards.
Great video as always, cheers!
I doubt the client would have liked to foot that sort of a bill. As cool as these amps are (I have a similar Rocket 84), they aren't worth very much right now. The PCBs are pretty good quality. The sockets could probably be a bit better. They are biased very high. My EL84s sure cook too, and it is punishing on the tubes, for sure. I have just been inspired to rebias mine. Thanks Brad.
@@stupidjubei I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of that board being heated that bad, it looks compromised. I've been doing electronics repair for 20 years I just tent to stay away from tubes and let my buddy who is a tech handle it. My amp actually caught fire and it sucks lol. For me tubes and pc boards don't mix. It looks like some of those traces on the board are separating from the board is my only concern.
Cost wise my buddy didn't change me anything crazy at all. It was more parts were the cost over the labor. He had to actually cut the whole back section off the pc board was burned so bad and point to point wired all the back half of that board. If you ever get to see a Carvin X50B or 100B board it's one piece . Unfortunately it's not a smaller separate board like the Mesa would be so much easier to do. I'm just saying how the board looks to me through the magic of internet, maybe it's not as bad as it looks or maybe it is?
I know alot of guys around here were wiring in extra fans on some Mesa amps because of how hot they run.
I changed over to 6L6s and asked to run the bias a little bit on the cooler side. I go very long times between tube changes and have zero issues with my Carvin now. I bought it back in the mid 90s and still have it. Hope this helps you understand where I'm coming from is all. If you seen the price of amps up here in Canada the price of preventive maintenance or a repair is cheaper than a new amp.
Cheers bud!
my DC-10 is my go to favorite. i love it.
It's stupid they didn't like comments about their amps being hard to service. Their amps are complicated so they are going to be harder for non familiar people to troubleshoot. I'd imagine their own techs would struggle sometimes. Complex circuits can be hard to debug. A friend has a Nomad 100 the successor to the DC3. Man that things had a hard life. I've had to fix so many stupid things. Including a fuse holder of all things. I've got the same amp and it hasn't missed a beat because it's been looked after. Great video.
I wouldn't think they would be harder to service than anything else out there. I own a Road King, Mesa Express 5:50 and a Lonestar and there is alot more parts than on a DC-3. When I got my Lonestar there was an issue with the power transformer vibrating and I called them and they weren't trying to hide anything about the info.
Fwwwken amazing video! Such good detail man. I just bought one of these and you helped me trouble shoot it so much! And your playing is phenomenal! 👍🙏
You certainly fixed that. I'd post you my Roland W30 if I weren't boracic. Bloody well done.
Thanks, Tony!
Great job. I have now technical knowledge, but I couldn't stop watching 🙃 also, the Mesa technician was really nice. I still play my Roadking II.
Boy when you get a Mesa in, it test you in ways one could never dream! LOL!
Good video, Brad. Sounds great clean with a Tele. I wish you were in Pittsburgh. I'd send my Genz Benz amp.
Yep, surprisingly good clean sound. The EQ makes it pretty flexible too. I could even rock up that channel into a sort of AC/DC overdrive if I wanted.
That internal power connector gives me the heebie jeebies. Too many bad experiences with bad connections with that style.
I had one of these in the mid 90's in the same color. Came with an EV Black Shadow. The midrange was obnoxious and I never figured out how to tame it. It's no wonder they weren't popular.
Hello, I am really enjoying your channel! I recently purchased a used Mesa DC-5 head and am really enjoying it! Overall it's in good condition, and everything works perfectly *except* the graphic EQ, which stubbornly refuses to activate. I have the older (original) spec DC-5 head, with the multi-position rotary switch on the back panel for assigning the graphic EQ. I tested the switch and it seems to be electrically fine. However, no matter what position the switch is set to, the graphic EQ will not engage. I also tried plugging in a footswitch to control it that way, and no dice. So I am suspicious that it's a failed relay or other switching component on the PC board. Would have have any specific advice about where to look, or which specific component to replace?
I loved playing the Mesa Boogie triple recs back in my 90ś bands!
Hi from England. I think it was my 70th birthday and I'd always wanted a boogie so I bought the king snake. Looking at the inside it seems to have less going on inside it. Hope it doesn't pack up before I die. It cost a load of money over here.
I'd have probably used a pot in the bias but oh well, you got it sounding killer. Thanks, I may buy one of these. There's some great stuff to know here.
That noise was exactly what the TV sounds like when too close to the amp.
Mesa does things differently than essentially everyone else. They set these up to match a set of known bias tubes to the existing Mesa circuit rather than biasing the circuit to a set of unknown tubes. Quirky but effective once you know the drill.
The problem comes when a player has tube failure and instead of going to a skilled tech, or sourcing Mesa tubes or tubes tested and matched to specific Mesa amp bias, they buy any tube set from GC and install. They turn the amp on and if it fires up... good to go or so it seems. Often these unknown bias tubes will run super hot shortening their life, damaging the output tube board and sometimes the transformer. Then the amp dies and Brad gets the call...
Nice work,Brad! Sounding great. I really dig the cleans on it ,actually.
Great video. It was nice that Mesa stocks parts and just just boards. That part about moding the bias circuit could come in very handy for more than just this amp I assume.
Yeah, I've always said their customer service it great. They've always been good to me, anyway.
Glad to see you getting some use out of the antler pick! Cheers!
Yeah, I love it. Thought I'd whip it out on this one.
The Mk I and II, lonestar and the DC are my favorite boogie.
Those DCs are great amps. I wanted one just to emulate Allan Holdsworth's lead tone. I think the DC-5 was his main lead amp in the early 1990s.
Good fingerwork Brad ... and the playing was good too. :) Thx.
In 2018 those tubes, which are clearly stock would be old as hell. And also only two were replaced. At first glance it seems the amp has never been properly maintained, I don't care who his tech is. People just need to take care of their gear or they're asking for problems. All that trim, shielding or whatever always gets in the way no matter what amp I've worked on.
55:50 - I noticed something similar with my Orange Rocker 32 (which uses EL84 tubes) - the plate dissipation was above 12 watts. The Orange Rocker has a half power switch and when switched to half power mode the plate voltage drops to about 70% of the max power setting - bringing the plate dissipation under 12 watts. These were new amps too. It seems very odd to purposely design an amplifier to exceed the data sheet maximum plate dissipation. Is it common practice to exceed the tube plate dissipation on guitar amps? I don't know - that goes against my training/schooling. I'm an electrical engineer BSEE from Cal Poly SLO and MSEE from SCU + 25 years of experience as a design engineer in Silicon Valley. Maybe I just know too much.
I'm sending all Boogie repairs to your house.
Amazing video. Thank you for your knowledge. Helpful. I love my DC3 , one of my best mesa amp. Blessings.
I've got a Studio .22 which is the predecessor to the DC series. The Calibre series are fantastic amps. They lost their mojo a little when they became the F series but they're great amps. I'm still on the lookout for a .50 head if I can get one! :)
I just got to the Mesa phone conversation and remember seeing that stuff about Mesa proprietary tubes of varying temps.
It seems the proof is in the pudding. You do great work man. You make it seem so easy. I’m learning shit.
Nice. I learned something today. Thanks brother. You gonna be around about Nov. 22? I'm gonna be in the area visitin my sis. I had a Studio 22 here a while ago that was noisy and those little EQ tombstones with holes in them were just a little loose. The fix was to preload them with some hand pressure and reflow the solder joints while preloading them. The amp had been owned by three or four local people and got passed around because the people who worked on it were unable to locate the problem or develop a fix. Lotsa board tapping before it would pass the hammer handle test.