240v Upgrade & Sounds Like It's Under A Blanket - Mesa Boogie DC 2

[@WayneMemphisMojo]

Sent here by Mr. Caldwell & subscribed because amp tech stuff is awesome to watch

[@goodun2974]

At :40, as Brad points out,, a through-hole grounding bolt and terminal with the paint not removed from around the hole on both sides of chassis. Apparently, we're still building tube amps like it's the 1940's, except that 80 years ago they likely would have used a rivet instead of a bolt. I guess at Mesa, this is what passes for "progress"....oh, by the way, here in the States we mostly pronounce it May-sa, especially when referring to flat-topped geological landscapes, but in the world of guitar amplification, Mess-uh is completely appropriate.

[@jbolt247]

I have a dc 3 that was acquired cheap b/c the owner was tired of fighting it. I had a similar issue with the reverb. I now run a 12at7 in the reverb slot which helped to tame it a little from affecting the tone as you change the settings. Also put a 5751 in v4 to get a little more clean headroom on the rhythm channel. Your mileage may vary... Also, I would suggest reading through the original manual. Which is basically one big excuse as to why they can sound so shitty when everything is set to 5. Regardless it does provide some help as to how to get some decent sounds. This excerpt about the treble knob is helpful and hilarious. "TREBLE: As with most guitar amplifiers, the TREBLE Control is the strongest of the three rotary tone controls. Its setting on the Studio Caliber determines the blend and strength of the MIDDLE and BASS Controls. Set high, it is the dominant control, minimizing the amount of MID and BASS that would otherwise be possible in the mix. Set low, the TREBLE becomes the recessive control and a warmer, darker blend is produced. Dial with care. Subtle tweaking of this control tends to produce the best results."

[@PsionicAudio]

Good indictment.

[@simonkormendy849]

Not only does it suck to not have a ground/earth pin on a mains power plug, it means that the mains-wiring for that amp does not comply with Australian 240V AC mains wiring code, if you tested that with an electrical T&T (Test and Tag) machine, that would be an automatic fail.

[@skaboosh]

That's how I felt in the end with boogie... i had the 5050 with the studio pre, but didn't use it in bands, then the dc5, and when i got a bassman after that it was like taking a blanket off it... put me off boogie a bit

[@paul.h.h]

Lyle (Psionic Audio) recommended this channel, so here I am!

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Do you mean Lyle, perhaps? K & L are right next to each other on the keyboard.

[@paul.h.h]

@@BradsGuitarGarage oh no, I cannot believe I did that! I’m so sorry Lyle! I’ve even watched Lyle’s video where he points out that people make that mistake. I am chagrined.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

@@paul.h.h Haha, all good mate. That's why I thought I'd point it out. It happens to the best of us.

[@paul.h.h]

Thanks Brad!

[@simonkormendy849]

The main problem with most of the Mesa/Boogie amp designs is where they choose to put the 3-band tone stack, they usually place it right after at least one 12AX7 Triode gain stage, and before another 12AX7 Triode gain stage, this means that no matter how you adjust the 3-band tone stack, you end-up with a heavily clipped waveform, most Mesa/Boogie amp designs are nothing more than a hot-rodded Fender amp circuit, with some extra 12AX7 triode gain-stages tacked on to the front of the preamp.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

The clipping often takes place after the eq, rendering the eq pretty insignificant. The 500-700hz range is just fatiguing and painful to listen to. But they got it right on a few amps, this one isn't bad compared to the caliber range.

[@halbertking2683]

Life's too short to work on Boogies . They suck .

[@desvega5849]

Love the videos, Brad. (Found you via Lyle.) Good lord Mesas are awful aren't they? Long ago I had a TriAxis and 2:90... never again. Like you said - boxy, useless EQ (especially the stupid buttons and lack of real graphic EQ on the TriAxis), unsafe build practices, absolutely bonkers "engineering" choices, underrated caps, rampant noise, uncomfortable attack feel, and just plain underwhelming tone... WHY ARE THESE HACKS STILL IN BUSINESS?

[@goodun2974]

When does an amplifier truly sound like it's playing from under a blanket? When it is being played with a blanket draped over it! I saw Junior Brown do this at a gig at a casino. The amp was actually sitting near the lip of the stage, and I couldn't see both sides of the amplifier but I suspect that the speaker and control panel might have been facing Junior and the blanket was only covering the rear of the amp (or amps, plural, I think he had two of them), so that the audience wouldn't get creamed with volume or so that the sound wouldn't travel off of the high stage and out of the sunken club-pit and carry out to the casino floor. Actually, you couldn't tell sonically that the amp had a blanket over it, but it must have been getting quite warm under there! I hope they had a fan on it.....

[@omarheavy2009]

I have DC-5 & DC-10, do you think it worth to do the blanket removal mod for both?

[@HiHello-ku1fl]

I do like the sound of some Mesa's I remember a Blue Angel 4x10 combo I had sounded pretty sweet. Had both el84s and 6v6s and you could combine them. I actually like the power sections separately because of the power tubes unique characters. Great sounding amps but I heard later there were problems with them

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

The Blue Angel was a good one. I do like it's sound.

[@Splattle101]

Never met a Mesa I liked.

[@bobbarcus8310]

Good luck on that I’d get a Marshall Mesa is used for metal and not taken care of

[@ralphy6526]

I have the same exact amp and it sounds nothing like this one in the video. Mine has a vintage 30 speaker in it and it sounds great. Mesa's are great amps, American made. I don't care what manufacturer makes them they all have some sort of issue these days.

[@matthewf1979]

So, I see you like Mesa amps.

[@BadToad1963]

I can't help but wonder how much of the blanket effect is caused by the Black Shadow.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

The thing is that the clean channel has clarity. Being the low gain channel, they didn't need to cut the top end everywhere to avoid oscillation caused by the cramped and illogical PCB layout. Also, through the test cabinet here in the shop it has the same tonal character, or close to it.

[@zbaby82]

Do you think Mesas would benefit with a bias potentiometer?

[@paulkielt9301]

Many of the Mesa Boogie amps sound already fat. Why do you want to add some more? However, a Mercury Magnetics transformer is a good choice to me.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

The voicing changes were at the customer's request, and I think we'll be pretty close to what he's going for tone-wise, as well as a much lower noise floor when we get it back together.

[@ColeWheeler4Lyfe]

Yup.. sounds bad.