Favorite Guitar Amps To Service

[Jazz P Bass]

Wow. I didn't know that picture was on line! Thanks.

There was a 2x12 50W, the "Stallion", as well.

Nice writeup.

Way to go RG.

Pockets on the amp cover.
Now that is forward thinking!

[Enzo]

So what was Mesa thinking when they designed this?

They don't build them with people opening them up and analyzing the appearance in mind. They are going for a certain tone and performance. They also have a cabinet/chassis dimension factor. Those Maark series cabinets are just large enough for a single 12" speaker. They didn't want a chassis as long as a Fender Twin reverb or as deep as an SVT. SO they crammed it. So the circuit board is dense and stuffed. COuld they have been more efficient? Maybe so.

[Chuck H]

They don't build them with people opening them up and analyzing the appearance in mind. They are going for a certain tone and performance. They also have a cabinet/chassis dimension factor. Those Maark series cabinets are just large enough for a single 12" speaker. They didn't want a chassis as long as a Fender Twin reverb or as deep as an SVT. SO they crammed it. So the circuit board is dense and stuffed. COuld they have been more efficient? Maybe so.

I would agree 100% were it not for Mesa propensity toward unnecessary peripheral circuits. Bleeders, feedback loops, divider stacked on dividers in series and multiple low wattage resistors in series rather than one higher wattage, etc. IME with a couple of their amps you can Muntz about 1/3 of the circuit clutter and the amp will work as good or better! On the other hand... There is something commendable about sticking to a "known working" schematic. Which is obviously the case in some of their circuits. Like where dividers are followed by dividers with no caps involved. Sure there's a small effect on frequency due to the specifics of the values. Most designers would just figure the net voltage division and pare down to one divider. But Mesa seems to approach it with "Nope! We know it works with the bench test circuit. Build it like that!" Sort of cool and I don't think that get's recognized. Even if they do get a little lost in clutter along the way

[tedmich]

MESA was thinking
1) compact
2) lots of features
3) built in "copy protection" system

I imagine.

[Chuck H]

3) built in "copy protection" system

I laughed at that one. Confounded enough to discourage OR "Why would I do THAT?" Either or both seem to have worked over the years