I got a Mesa.....

Chicago Mike · Post by **Chicago Mike** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:00 pm

I went down to the local used shop (Midwest Buy & Sell) where you can find a ton of awesome used shit at very affordable prices and picked up a Mesa MK IIB combo. It's a stripped down version without all the bells and whistles, but it had been in there for awhile and the owner was cool to let me trade my Deluxe Reverb for it......done a bit of business in there to warrant it over the years.

This thing looks like Keef borrowed it for a world tour, but it sounds amazing. It's sooooo damn loud though. I've never been afraid of cranking amps but this blew away anything I've ever owned or tried out and it's onl 60w.

It's got some rock'n'roll in it...but anyway I had a question as I'm pretty new to mesa boogies.

I didn't see a bias pot when I opened her up....does this mean it's a fixed bias and just plop in new 6L6's? JJ's in there now and just thought it would be nice as I've got a set left over I bought awhile back for a different amp that I no longer have.

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:03 pm

Yep - that means it's either fixed or cathode biased, so you can just put in some new (matched) 6L6s. 6L6s are pretty forgiving as well.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:03 pm

I'm pretty sure Mesa's are fixed bias. That's a classic you have there. Cool stuff.

Chicago Mike · Post by **Chicago Mike** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:06 pm

Awesome, I thought it was but I could have missed the bias pot so thought I'd pull from the SS'ers for info.

Thanks Mike...it's pretty awesome. Got Weezer in spades, so I'm satisifed! It was a good deal to swap as I didn't play the DR much since the band broke up and at home I used my Princeton more.

It just worries me it'll go up in flames....looks pretty rough on the outside.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:18 pm

Chicago Mike wrote:Awesome, I thought it was but I could have missed the bias pot so thought I'd pull from the SS'ers for info.

Thanks Mike...it's pretty awesome. Got Weezer in spades, so I'm satisifed! It was a good deal to swap as I didn't play the DR much since the band broke up and at home I used my Princeton more.

It just worries me it'll go up in flames....looks pretty rough on the outside.

That's cool, Mike. How does the new Germanium OD sound through it?

Chicago Mike · Post by **Chicago Mike** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:25 pm

I haven't tried any pedals yet....just going through the knobs and push/pull pots. There are quite a few but they're all super interactive.

The Treble and channel one volume work togehter to increase gain, which I'm used to rolling off treble a lot on my amps so this was an interesting change of pace.

I'm going to give it a couple of days dialing in a good base before adding stompers in the chain. I'm sure it'll sound good, I've had a lot of fun using it with the Princeton.

the isaac eaton · Post by **the isaac eaton** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:25 pm

Awesome. My friend has one of their stiletto combos, they are really great amps. Im a big fan of the mesa clean tones.

Chicago Mike · Post by **Chicago Mike** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:26 pm

I was suprised at how much I dug the clean channel given I mostly thought of them for crunch. It's definatley different from a Fender Clean but I like it a lot.

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:49 pm

(Merely to be obnoxious -- Actually "fixed-bias" refers to how the power tubes are wired up, not whether you can adjust the bias -- which you often can on a fixed-bias amp. You could add a bias control to Mesa, but it would still be a fixed-bias amp because the power tube cathodes are grounded and kept "fixed" at 0 volts.

If an amp doesn't have a bias control, the assumption is that they've designed it to operate the power tubes in some safe part of their range without adjustment, so as long as you put in a healthy tube of the right type, you should be OK.)

Chicago Mike · Post by **Chicago Mike** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:01 am

Thanks filtercap, that makes sense.