1st gear purchase of 2023: Mesa Boogie 1x10 combo Subway Rocket

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honyock
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My idea to downsize to a desktop amp modeler has gone by the wayside. I should avoid Craigslist at night... Contacted the guy about this one today, picked it up on the way home from work.

In outstanding condition, a little musty/dusty, but otherwise gorgeous.

Thought I got screwed at first because the guy's power supply wouldn't work, but it was damn clean and the guy said the treble was wonky. I tried it out and home and it was super low output, like a mini Marshall toy amp or something.

Started fiddling with the knobs and it appears the treble pot is indeed messed up, HOLY MOTHER OF EAR DRUM DAMAGE, how does a little 10" speaker put out that much volume...20w of tube power is no joke.

For now I just put a piece of paper folded up to hold the treble shaft slightly under tension. I found a post on TDPRI or something like that and it appears the pots they used are prone to the case loosening up and losing contact. Should be a simple fix.

The footswitch from my Fender SCX2 controls it. All 3 modes work (apparently not a 3 channel amp with just the single tone stack) and everything functions properly other than the treble pot when not shimmed. The rest of the pots work correctly.

I need to test out the headphone jack to see how it sounds, but one doesn't play a Mesa Boogie for the sound through headphones...has a silent recording feature too, again no idea if it is any good.

These were only made a few years in the mid to late 90s from what I have found.

Baltic Birch cabinet is nice and light (~30lb) given the size of the iron and overall size.

Hand made in Petaluma, kind of cool to have the build tag.





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10 years, 2 months, and 8 days of blissful ignorance ruined by that snake in the grass Major Tom.
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tlarson58
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Gearlist: A tele, a bass and a bunch of other stuff.

honyock wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 10:26 pm My idea to downsize to a desktop amp modeler has gone by the wayside.
You had me here.
Tommy Larson
Steamboat Springs, CO
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honyock
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Opened it up today, found the culprit on the treble pot, the case has loosened itself. Going to remove and tighten the prongs, but I found I can get the pot direct from Mesa for $1.75 plus shipping, so may get a spare for the heck of it.

Found that the V3 and V4 tubes have been swapped for cheap Chinese ones, but V1 and V2 are original Mesas. The EL84 power tubes are also original it appears.

It was likely made in 1996 judging by the serial.

It appears the grill cloth was swapped and the Mesa Boogie emblem lost looking at the info on the Mesa Boogie Legacy site. ImageImageImage

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10 years, 2 months, and 8 days of blissful ignorance ruined by that snake in the grass Major Tom.
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honyock
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Just used one of my Jet City RetroValves to troubleshoot the preamp tubes, V3 was the cheap Chineseshort plate 12AX7 and was a bit noisy, V4 is the PI and was a long plate Chinese 12AX7 that looked identical in construction to the OE Mesa Boogies.

I bought a 12AT7 and a 12AX7 to see if there is any difference in the PI.

Forgot I had bought 6 of the Retrovalves at $4/ea back in 2016, so I posted 4 of them up on Reverb, sold them all in a matter of hours. Guess I asked too little for them...

Going to sell the last couple I was keeping for a rainy day since I hadn't even thought about them in such a long time.

It will pay for the new tubes I bought, and I'll have a little left over to start an EL84 Duet fund...

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10 years, 2 months, and 8 days of blissful ignorance ruined by that snake in the grass Major Tom.
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tonebender
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Gearlist: Fav: Gibson LP and Gibson Goldtone Amp. Other gear: Gretsch, Peavey, Taylor and more.

I just looked at a new small Mesa tube amp the other day at Guitar Center. it looked like a small beast. I think it was 1x10 combo. Little rascal with a big price tag! I did not try it out because it was ridiculously pricey. I had a Mesa 1x12 combo back in the day for a short while. I gigged with it some and then moved it on. Congrats on the new amp and enjoy!
"Will follow through with a transaction when the terms are agreed upon" almightybunghole
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honyock
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tonebender wrote:I just looked at a new small Mesa tube amp the other day at Guitar Center. it looked like a small beast. I think it was 1x10 combo. Little rascal with a big price tag! I did not try it out because it was ridiculously pricey. I had a Mesa 1x12 combo back in the day for a short while. I gigged with it some and then moved it on. Congrats on the new amp and enjoy!
This one was pretty inexpensive compared to average sale price the past 2 years.

The simple fix of the treble pot and swapping out the one tube has made it play good as new and got rid of the slight bit of noise I was hearing on the rhythm and lead, since it was in the final gain stage of each mode, and on the FX loop when I tried my Mini HoF Reverb through it.

Still looking for a proper Mesa Boogie footswitch. Found one on eBay, but need to confirm the footswitch circuit is shared across a fewmodels, or if I should just build one using the schematic.



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10 years, 2 months, and 8 days of blissful ignorance ruined by that snake in the grass Major Tom.
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