Amplifier Blues

I can’t trust my amp. And the uncertainty is unsettling.

Sure, it’s finally been repaired after months of hassle, and it was all done under warranty. But how long can the good times last? And what happens when I hear the first flicker of sound in one of the channels? And what if the low characteristic hum of my Mesa-Boogie starts to rise above the customary level? Maybe I’ll just be imagining things. But it’s crappy having persistent doubts about your gear.

For now, it’s back at the space and performing beautifully. I pray our love can last.

Part 1

Before I tell you any more, here are the specs:

EXPRESS 5:25

Duo-Class™ Power Amp (Patent 7,173,488) allows you to select either:
1 power tube in pure Class A (single-ended) producing 5 Watts or switching to
2 power tubes in Class A/B to produce 25 Watts via a 5/25 Power Switch / 2xEL-84 & 5x12AX7

I bought it last Summer shortly before my Hootenanny II Rod Stewart performance. For the 8 years prior to that my main squeeze had been an Ampeg Reverb Rocket 2-12, which I bought because Justin owned one and seemed to like it. Honestly, I kind of regret selling it now, because my only real motivation for getting a new amp was downsizing. After many years lugging the damn thing up and down the stairs at Rudz, I really wanted something smaller and lighter, and the Express certainly fit the bill.

But it was so much more. It promised a ton of flexibility, with two channels and two “modes” per channel, great sounding reverb, and a sweet 5w / 25w switch that turns it into a nice sounding practice amp without having to fiddle with your settings. It is(was?) the nicest amp I’ve ever had, and it allowed me to grab a similar tone (if somewhat heavier/darker) to the Reverb Rocket, plus a superior palette of clean sounds. And, as if I’d ever need it, I could pull genuine metal sounds out of the amp, which was basically impossible to do with my old Ampeg.

In my head, purchasing a brand-new, hand-made-in-the-USA combo was the last amp purchase I’d need to make for a long time. Maybe forever. It was going to be my settling into Dad-hood amp.

Part 2

Over the spring months we recorded our new record, and I used the Mesa exclusively. I remain really pleased with how it sounds, but I noticed during the sessions that the hum was a little louder than it had been in the practice space. I thought nothing of it until May when the amp began to flicker in and out on both channels. It was static-filled, tortured coughing, and after the initial flare out, things only got worse. The tubes, which were out of warranty anyway, appeared fine, so it had to be something in the amp.

I called Rich at the Mesa factory, and he told me they really didn’t have a warranty guy in Houston right now, aside from a guy in Katy who sometimes did work for them. After I verified for him it wasn’t a tube issue, he gave me a return authorization and suggested I ship the chassis (not the whole amp). This was kind of a weird experience for me, because I don’t usually go spelunking into the electronic hearts of my gear. My friend and Bright Men of Learning guitarist Ben Murphy helped me remove the chassis from the amp, and I shipped it more or less following advice from Tony Hall (a.k.a. Tony Balls), bassist for the much beloved Ka-Nives and all-around gear guru.

Here’s what Tony said:

1. take the tubes out and bubble wrap them individually and either ship them separately or in a way that they’re isolated from the chassis and wont break on shipping.
2. ship it upside down like that
3. tape some thick cardboard or something across the open side so that the board is protected
4. bubble wrap around that, and fill the gaps with styrofoam peanuts
5. INSURE IT.

Part 3

After three or four weeks away from the shop, I got the chassis back. Mesa had packed it even better than I did using dynamic foam packaging that automatically filled in the spaces until the amp was custom-fitted into the box, snug as a bug in a rug. They didn’t remove the tubes, but with the packaging the way it was, they seemed amply protected.

Rich assured me that the amp had been thoroughly tested before they sent it back to me, and that the problem (something they had encountered before, but which I’m totally not remembering) was fixed.

Back at the space, Ben put the amp back together. Unfortunately, when we powered it up, we got the aural equivalent of black smoke. BLERGH. Just wretched noise unrelated to what I was playing. I took the amp back to my house, and it sounded a little better. Still flickering and coughing, but there were bouts of lucidity if I turned the reverb on both channels all the way down.

I called Rich at Mesa again.

He was mystified, because it had sounded great in California. He wondered whether it was the speaker. Ben and I were both pretty sure it wasn’t the speaker, and we confirmed it when we tried it through his Deluxe Reverb.

This time I asked if I could take the amp to their guy in Katy, the only quasi-official Warranty repair service that was really an option in Houston. Rich said they had another guy they were bringing on line, but they obviously didn’t have a track record with him.

So I took it out to Morrow Engineering in Katy, TX., and had what might be the most satisfying repair experience I’ve ever had. I figured my amp would be gone for at least a month and probably up to three or four months. Instead, I took the amp in on Friday, and it was ready freaking Monday afternoon. Bob Morrow was great about communicating with me, except he wasn’t real clear about the problem was. He said it was something with the filament???!! Again, I’ve done a bad job reporting this admittedly crucial part of the story.

I picked it up Tuesday and by the time we had band practice on Thursday, I was able to verify a successful repair. All was in good working order and sounded great. Even better than it had sounded in the studio.

But for how long? That is the question. Sure I’ve got a 5-year-warranty, but I don’t want to spend the next four years using it up.

Epilogue

Since we’re on the interweb, I want to be clear that Mesa-Boogie was awesome and responsive through the entire process. Hell, a few times Rich called me back multiple times in a day, just to be sure he had gotten back to me. They went above and beyond for what I guess was a difficult repair. I’m certainly not mad at Mesa. Just disappointed.

When you spend more than $1,000 for a new amp—and when your last amp lasted 8 years without even once having to replace the tubes—you tend to think you’re starting a long-lasting, trouble-free relationship. I’m not a gear head anymore. I don’t want to own 3 or 4 amps and 5 or 6 guitars and a bunch of pedals. I just want a few solid pieces that work for me. Consistently. Having that workmanlike faith in your gear disrupted is just a bummer.

It probably sounds petty. And I suppose it is, considering our crappy economy and the otherwise numerous blessings I can count for myself. But perspective be damned, I just want to get through the next practice without worrying about my equipment. That’s all I want out of my gear, really.