Mesa Amps:

Mesa MK-I 1977-1978. The Mesa MK-3 blue stripe I have 1988 I got one for $150.00 for the EVM12L speaker will restore it when I have the time.
I had a Mesa MK2C+ head sold it still have the 2 x 12 cabinet with EVM12L speakers.
I have no love for Mesa Randall Smith was cool if I moved out of stare my town does not have the population base for the franchises
The cruse lines gave me a few to fix out the door the next day but to get paid 120 days after the amp was returned
before I know it had $500k accounts receivable and Mesa would not send board sets so I had to make them just add $200.00 per amp
Long story they also had 1300 fried Fenders I contacted Fender no help on the quantity of parts I needed.
What I did learn was to charge $50.00 to check out the amp fix it or not. The bright side of things when Gibson got Mesa I can get any part now.

LPS 001.JPG

Mesa MK3 001.JPG
Mesa MK3 002.JPG
Mesa MK3 003.JPG
 
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Some of these came with EV's, for a 600 watt cab. Mine came with David Eden 135 watt 8 ohm speakers. 540 watts
 
Robert Herndon said:
Listen to Don Felder's live tone in 1977. Solo starts at 2:10. Note the Mesa Mk I behind Felder.

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The clean sound of mesa I think is alright, pretty much "Fender."
But I don't like the board design because it's too time consuming to work on.
The parts and circuit tracks are too close together creating issues.
Too many solid state parts that need repeated replacements...

Good sounding but ongoing maintenance headache.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
The clean sound of mesa I think is alright, pretty much "Fender."
But I don't like the board design because it's too time consuming to work on.
The parts and circuit tracks are too close together creating issues.
Too many solid state parts that need repeated replacements...

Good sounding but ongoing maintenance headache.
Click to expand...
Even old ones like in the Felder post?
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
The clean sound of mesa I think is alright, pretty much "Fender."
But I don't like the board design because it's too time consuming to work on.
The parts and circuit tracks are too close together creating issues.
Too many solid state parts that need repeated replacements...

Good sounding but ongoing maintenance headache.
Click to expand...

I dunno bout that cos I don't repair 'em, but I've been playing Mesa's for 25+ years and never had to "fix" anything more than a fried tube. Like any builder there are going to be some that go tits up but from my experience and that of many people I know they have proven to be among the most reliable amps on the market, especially compared to some the more mainstream brands that we all know, love and seem to give a pass to when they are junk.

They have great cleans, unbeatable dirties, singular feature sets and are an outright bargain for what you get. Again, all in my experience.
 
gball said:
I dunno bout that cos I don't repair 'em, but I've been playing Mesa's for 25+ years and never had to "fix" anything more than a fried tube. Like any builder there are going to be some that go tits up but from my experience and that of many people I know they have proven to be among the most reliable amps on the market, especially compared to some the more mainstream brands that we all know, love and seem to give a pass to when they are junk.

They have great cleans, unbeatable dirties, singular feature sets and are an outright bargain for what you get. Again, all in my experience.
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I just got into Mesa. I have a Mark V 35 combo and a TC100 head. Can't speak for reliability, I just want to play them. The 35 is such a versatile little bugger, grab n go to anywhere. While one can easily put an EQ in the loop having it built in is one less pedal, set of cables and power supply if one is not playing with their full board but just grab n go jamming.
The TC sounds wonderful to me and is fully featured enough. I didn't jive with channel 2 of the big MarkV so I went with the TC.
Seems like really cool product to me. I don't repair them so I don't care about how hard they might be to work on.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
AMPMAD, were all Mesa amps from the first to now, PCB type?
And are you saying, just about most Mesa amp will be in the " expected condition" of having the same multiple failure prone areas, across the board so to speak?
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All amps require maintenance but those amps are much more labor time intensive to maintain.
Like removing / replacing a circuit board to change 1 bad relay may take several hours.
(instead of building it with a relay socket to start with) making a relay replacement 15 minutes instead of 4 hours.

The updates is secret...
The update is performed if / when you bring the amp to a service center.
The update will address problems that we don't know about.

If you want to make sure the amp is all up to spec then take it to the service center and get all the updates.
 
Don O said:
‘Don’t fear the truss rod”; just add more cowbell :pound-hand:
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Amp Mad Scientist said:
The updates is secret...
The update is performed if / when you bring the amp to a service center.
The update will address problems that we don't know about.

If you want to make sure the amp is all up to spec then take it to the service center and get all the updates.
Click to expand...

This, I knew or pretty much know. This seems to be the way the world is going. Sell stuff to people that is impossible for the common man to fix or keep going without spending 10x as much on maintenance as the product initially cost. Look at our car guru thread.
 
Robert Herndon said:
What about the Mesa Fillmores???
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To me, spec-wise, the Fillmore looks like a decent amp. I like the 25 watt version with the 6V6 tubes. In many ways, it has similar specs to my Rivera 25 watt Clubster, though I don’t know what it sounds like. I realize there are Youtube videos, but I find that they often don’t really capture the real sound very well.
 
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