Mesa Mkiii Blue Stripe - Part 1

[@noel3422]

Got to 12:24 of your vid and yea, it's a messy booger, which is what I called my first mesa DC 5 I purchased back in 2010 was supposed to have infinite singing sustain which sounded more like a transistor amp with all the high end hash even clean, distortion would feed back before sustain, pretty much useless as a guitar amp, that amp is what led me to start learning to build my own, pretty much a boat anchor with no boat included as were the other three boutique amps I purchased before the messy booger, won't name them but if I had saved up for a couple years I could have bought something for a couple grand more and Ben happy, oh well.

[@Karvaton_koiranvaatekauppa]

Chassis gets pretty hot in these, so also the heatsink will be at elevated temp. That's aluminium which has good properties for a heat exchanger and the shape has decent area. So it actually does something. How much, I have not determined that, but they still strapped on a fan for a good measure.

[@tbonesullivan]

The Mark amps came in different sizes, so sometimes there’s room on the front for the reverb, and sometimes they have to put it on the back. They use the same back plate for all of them. A popular mod is to install a gain control for the RHY2 in the unused location. But in this case, instead of normal mods, they made a nightmare. Holy hell.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Then you could have a grand total of 5 vol knobs on the front panel! No wonder people find them confusing! I'm about half way through the restoration and I tell you what, it's definitely beer'o'clock for the day!

[@Andy_Yates]

It's amazing it produced sound at all! Looking forward to seeing what you did with it

[@halvach1998]

That heatsink is hilarious!

[@soapboxearth2]

I'm so happy I got rid of my Mesa dc3 and got a vintage handwired traynor. My freinds say I'm crazy, and I am, but.not for that reason

[@Toutvids]

Your loss is someone else's gain. The guy I sold my DC5 head to years ago, sent me an email telling me how awesome the thing was and he couldn't believe the sound he got out of it. I only sold it because I wanted more metal tone. Wish I still had it these days though.

[@Nobody92421]

Most tech's won't work on a Mesa unless you threaten them. Brad not only takes on a Mesa, but a Mesa with the infamous "fuckery mod". Legend!

[@Buzzel-NL]

I have had a mesa amp once, believe it was a .50 or something like it. Amp had dropouts when it was warm. So naturally I opened it up to see If I could find the problem. The PCB on that thing was baked to a crisp pizza crust, warped, etc. Sure some tube malfunctioned and overheated, that can happen, but why are there "ventilation" holes in the chassis above the valve? It was also next to impossible to lift the pcb out of the chassis. I could not figure it out, brought it to a actual tech he could not figure it out (or did not want to). Sold the piece of junk as a malfunctioning amp, never Mesa Again (except for their cabs, those are killer).

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Oh yeah, the caliber series can seriously cook their PCB's, particularly the EL84 models.

[@surge98]

I'm interested in seeing how you get the board out. My red stripe is overdue for new caps and not everything can be replaced from the top. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it with minimal desoldering of the wires.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

I've got nad news for you, then.🤣

[@greblus]

I'm so happy with my JP2C... digital preamp model sitting in my pedalboard 😊. Sounds amazing with eq pedal connected to fx return of my real amp.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Good move, mate! I'm not going to argue that they all sound bad because they don't. I love John's tone and many other Mesa users.

[@kimballormsby9908]

I've learned a lot from you, Lyle and Jason. One thing you've taught me is not to buy Mesa amps along with several others. Why do I have the idea that he could have bought a new amp for what he's going to have in this one before you're done.

[@jasonsomerville2504]

I've repaired a few guitar amps in my time, and agree Mesa amps are awful to work on, I avoid if I can...luckily I only do repairs for fun these days so can inhale deeply and decline the headache 😂 good on ya Brad for the perseverance and professional manner you approach these tech awful amps...

[@joemcgraw5529]

Messy Boogie who knew ? you did thanks for your brilliance ,Patience is a virtue !!!!!

[@greghowarth7879]

What an adventure……Fantastic video, thanks for sharing this video, if you’re able and time allows please post a video of the inspection on my favourite tannoy monitors that couldn’t last more than 20 years of faithful service 👍🙏🔥fantastic job.

[@soapboxearth2]

You could gut it and build a plexi or something in it !

[@geofffullgrabe9070]

I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how fucked Mesas are, but then this video showed me the way they implement the ground lift. I honestly can't believe that a company as big and renowned as Mesa Boogie could be so fucking negligent.

[@maxvockner]

All these amp channels have led me to the same conclusion. I won’t work on Mesa’s. Thanks for doing the lords work😂

[@tbonesullivan]

They aren't THAT bad... if you work on Electronics usually. The problem is that so many of them get mangled, though not as bad as this one. Jeeez.

[@surge98]

The Mark III was the last model that is still somewhat serviceable. If you think this is bad, go watch the Psionic Audio video on the Mark IV.

[@tedmich]

Bravo Brad for such bravery, the vacay may have recharged your batteries! Reverse engineering this is like having to mind-meld a cabbage! Commander Kurtz: the horror, the horror...

[@ryanmortenson9445]

Godspeed! You are brave!

[@shane011471]

By the time you go through all this utter fuckery is it even worth it? What an absolute shitstorm in every respect.

[@samuel_towle]

I'm at 12:40 thinking the same thing. I'm also thinking that by "A good price" should have been free, or I'll pay you to take it away. Whatever the customer "saved" is going to be spent de-modding.

[@BenState]

@@samuel_towle true, but with brad's work, the upgraded components, it should at least be a solid version of what it was meant to be, which is probably better than when it was new.

[@Relayer6a]

This amp is nearly 40 years old. If these components are so under valued how did they last this long?

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Maybe luck, maybe the amp was not heavily used. The bigger question here is if capacitors are rated for 400v, why would you give them 415v?

[@Relayer6a]

@@BradsGuitarGarage I don't know. I just hear all the time, not just from you, that the components are underrated but it's usually a very old amp that still has the original components. I appreciate that they're a mess to repair. Everywhere they look overpopulated and crowded with boards stacked on boards. I was just curious about the longevity of the components. Seems like they'd die a premature death.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

They often do, the diodes in the DC heater supplies for example. There are many examples, more-so on the USA KZbin channels where there are more Mesas. Mesas tend to use reasonably high quality components, it's primarily the design that is to blame for most failures. Thanks for checking the vids out by the way, mate.

[@bambule5268]

I'm sorry to say but your forever nightmare seems like long time entertainment for me. So looking forward to this! I'm sure you are going to make it sound awesome!

[@NitroModelsAndComics]

These amps are Always worth fixing. Never mod them. They have a really great thing going as they were originally designed. These are before all the power switching rubbish with all the relays so it is truly worth owning and the guy who bought it was smart. Put it back to stock and ot should rip just fine. Thos is one of the amps that helped wrrote Thrash Metal history. Getting it right is important. And all that schematic Tomfoolery was deliberate and we all know it. Blobs of silicone and poorly drawn boards were all part of Smith's intention of guarding his designs. These are great amps that deserve to be loved and played by future generations as part of the evolution of amp design and Metal guitar history. My Mark IV has been down only once in 35 years and countless gigs. Always gives great Metal tone and has always crushed.

[@Toutvids]

Exactly, I've got a stock (unmodded) Mark III red stripe and once you dial it in, you can play pretty much anything you could ever think of... blues, rock, metal, grunge even country twang if you want. The sound contouring of these amps are legendary. Problem is you need to read the manual and actually experiment to find the tone you want. The manual has some basic examples of sounds and where to set the dials. Eventually you understand what does what.

[@mattchase3153]

I know you guys hate them, I know they make no sense whatsoever, I know they’re a pain to work on, they weigh as much as a neutron star etc but the sound my Mark III makes when it lets fly is a thing of beauty and that makes it all worth it.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

I'm right behind you, mate. I'm 100% enthusiastic with anyone who has found a rig that works for them. I'm just here to present as much info as I can and hold the manufacturers to account and everyone can make their own decisions.

[@mattchase3153]

@@BradsGuitarGarage And we love you for doing that! Btw, common mods on these things include the reverb mod (to remove hum), the R2 volume mod (replacing the line out mod with a channel volume for R2. It was fixed in the originals, for some incomprehensible reason). And the 3+ and ++ mods to try and make it closer to the Mark iic+. Not sure if any of those were attempted when the last tech sprayed his musk in this amp, but it may explain the intent behind the madness.

[@TrevorSachko]

Best stick to underarm bowling....

[@ferdberfle5069]

Damn Brad, don't beat around the bush. Say what you really think! ;D

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

I try to.

[@Splattle101]

Do MESA do drop-in replacement boards for this kind of fuckery? It'd almost be worth it, except it'd still be a MESA.

[@Splattle101]

"The only way a ground switch should be implemented [is on somebody else's amp]." Fixed it.

[@tbonesullivan]

I'm not sure that it "lifts" the ground. The ground from the power cord "should" be going to chassis. The switch is an additional ground after the MOV and Fuse that puts a grounded capacitor on either the hot or ground side. I could be totally wrong on this.

[@PsionicAudio]

You just don’t know how to dial it in. 😂

[@peterstephen1562]

That is dial 999 that's 111 for antipodians

[@siriusamplification]

remove the death cap and rewire the switch and fuse?

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

It's not a cap, it's a MOV. And someone has swapped the wires on the IEC so the active is fused and neutral is switched. The white wires are now active. But don't jump the gun, mate. All will be revealed on future episodes.

[@siriusamplification]

@@BradsGuitarGarage it's still early in the morning lol

[@siriusamplification]

@@BradsGuitarGarage ahh you explain the ground switching at the end of the video lol well said!

[@surge98]

Someone over at the Mesa Boogie forum traced all the different stripes and put together schematics and layouts for each of them. I have no idea how accurate they are, but probably more accurate than Mesa's official documentation. Might be worth a look. If I were you, I would've given the guy whatever the Australian equivalent of $100 is and just thrown the whole thing off a roof.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

I did find that thread and it was a great help. The bloke that documented all of that is a saint.

[@fletches4084]

And the moral of this story is, "Do not pick up a soldering iron after washing down a ton of LSD with 3 liters of Mescal.".

[@michaelknight4041]

"Than reparing a professionally designed amplifier" 😅 burn!🔥

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

HAHA! I wondered if anyone would pick that one up. Just 'aving a bit of fun with it, mate!

[@MarkFixesHiFi]

"A dendrite of solder" , gonna use that. :)

[@halvach1998]

Consipracy theory for the seppos: Mesas are a gummint job creation scheme

[@mickfryar6120]

That mesa looks like it arrived modded with cocktail frankfurts

[@bebop502]

I have an original Mrk IIC+ that I just re-caped not fun at all, your spot on about the schematics my grand son could do a better job documenting the internals.

[@desvega5849]

I'm just.... so confused. I was horrified with the Mk4 in one of Lyle's videos but holy jumping lizard tits the MarkIII Coliseum is even worse. The same guys at this company, RS and MB and DW, have been making expensive fraud machines for far too long. I don't think this amp made sense to begin with, but whomever actually did all these mods might as well have said, "Alright lets just use a Mesa to randomly solder stuff together and experiment in tacking shit onto shit with no regard to future use and performance. No one's ever gonna use this thing anyway, right?"

[@jeffallen3382]

😮

[@6-V-6s]

Nah mate, those are the patented mesa speed fins. Makes it go faster when you throw it from a bridge!

[@BenState]

"Messy Boogie"

[@jamesridener3573]

Between this and Psionic Audio’s vids, I will NEVER buy a Mesa. Which is a bummer since I really like the sound of the Cali Tweeds.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Get yourself a Suhr and never look back, mate!

[@jamesridener3573]

@@BradsGuitarGarage A Bella Reverb happens to be my dream amp. Good call :)

[@JEmilioJNava]

Bob Ross style mods 😂

[@kimballormsby9908]

I've learned you must be a masochist because you keep working on these pieces of shot. LOL

[@FrankDux-rq7go]

this looks more like an IED than an amp.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

I have no words...l

[@firemanmick]

I've owned 2 Mesa amps over the years, a Studio .22 and a MkV-35 - both sounded great but after seeing the crappy build quality first hand and watching techs avoiding these things like the plague, I happily sold them off. Both failed on me, the Studio after 2 years (the day I sold it) and the Mk V after 6 months. The "user manual" for the Studio was a crappy photocopy of a typed bunch of pages and its foot switch was just laughably bad - soldering so bad the lead came off internally. Considering now how much these amps are in Australia, they literally make every other brand look much better value. Such a pity, they can sound awesome.... when they work.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Sorry to hear about your experience with them, mate. Believe me, I get no joy from people having bad experiences with them. I am glad to hear you've moved them on and going on to better things, though!

[@jutukka]

Send it to some hydraulic press KZbinr.

[@siriusamplification]

weird though, there should be 2 caps underneath the power board

[@jasontaylor8425]

The question is what amp do you buy that’s reliable well designed and hasn’t been raped by a repair tech?

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

It's always a risk on any 2nd hand amp. If you want a new one that's well designed, go for a Friedman, Suhr, Fuchs, Victoria, Victory, Revv, Rivera, Bartel, Soldano, Most Vox's, Orange, Metropoulos, Headfirst, Fryette etc. That's just off the top of my head. There are many other higher quality options than the Fender / Marshall / Mesa status quo.

[@joepeezy4sheezy]

Love that heat sink. Next to nothing that produces heat. Wtf?

[@maxegarots1507]

Probably modded by MESA.

[@Catharticscrapper]

So, basically, owning my Mesa is similar in costs when compared to & owning a Mercedes....multiply repair prices 3-4x.

[@coalfacechris1336]

My Mkiii GS was easily the worst amp I have ever worked on.

[@krauz111]

thrash he should just pay you to build him a decent amp

[@journeymanAmp]

I'm surprised you took on this amp at all. It's such a mess! A badly-built amp with horrendous mod work layered on top. I'd be tempted to strip that chassis down to the tube sockets and transformers, install a new turret board, and build a new amp (SLO?, JTM45?) in its place. Probably not what the customer wants though. Good luck!

[@Mr_Bio_Hazard]

Mesa Boogie are a Gibson company. That explains everything. Over priced guitars over priced amps.

[@kimballormsby9908]

Shit

[@ScottyBrockway]

Shitty amp with shitty mods, a perfect storm.

[@Mark70609]

I’m not a fan of MK 3 Mesa Boogie amps. I don’t like the sound of them.

[@ClavAnother]

that's not a Colosseum

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Really, I was reading that the half power switch makes it one? It'd be good if they just printed what was what on the back panel back in the day!

[@ClavAnother]

@@BradsGuitarGarage the non simulclass ones with four 6L6 have a 60w/100w switch, the simulclass models are 15w/75w (except the final revision which was 25w/85w). But anyway the Colosseum versions are 300w monsters with six 6L6. I thought perhaps you were confused by the "long head". Many of them were shorter and could be rack mounted, or were in a 1x12 combo cab, or the short headshell. FWIW, the short heads had the reverb knob on the back (if the reverb option was present).

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Gotcha, thanks for the info, mate. I never have time to research the generations and variations over the years. Particularly when there's so much to resolve like there was on this one!

[@fiddlix]

Wow, what a shit show. The MK3 has problems stock like under rated components, relays under rated vim caps etc. if I recall the MK3 Schematic is better but still a crap shoot at best. I’m sure any mode you come up with will be well executed and will make it the best a p it can be, considering the build and the architecture. I wait in anticipation for the next video. Good luck.

[@nikolasmatviko4700]

Wow this is disgusting 🤢