Let's see your rig!

[Aussie Mark]

I now have a Neo 115 to go with my Neo 610 and Bassman 500 ....

[Govan]

Classic rig w/ that Gibson bass...just awesome!!

[Granny Gremlin]

Well, I got me that Sunn 1200s; think I did OK pricewise.  Cosmetically it doesn't get much better than this (the bit of shmutz on the grille is the worst thing).  Operationally everything works, but the usual minor issues apply (reverb is noisey - probably needs a new driver tube; preamp seems to dirty up too early and fart out hard on transients with the mid boost on - didn't take it past 4 - again looking at an old 12AX7 here or maybe someone tried to hot rod it for hi gain so they wouldn't have to crank it so much.... or maybe power tubes - looks like maybe the original 6550s in there; no labeling).  There was some weird intermittent noise but think it was mostly due to the mid boost switch being dirty - working that back and forth seems to have got rid of it for the moment.  The trem is nice and tight (solid state) and might actually be useful for bass; nice wob wob thing to it, without muddying things up.  This amp is considerably darker than my Garnet.  The mid boost is actually in a really cool spot for bass use (and must make geetars sound really muddy - especially Les Pauls and the like).  Can't quite get a feel for what the contour knob does.





I`m dissabpointed that it`s that touch longer then my Musicman 115RH cab, but tickled that the grille cloth matches as well as it does.

[Rob]

Granny that's a good score!
When you look in the back see if the trans are riveted and confirm that they are tight.
On the early Sunn stuff (not sure about the 1200's) they were prone to working loose and causing a mess.

[Granny Gremlin]

This is a transitionary period one - still has sockets for 2 rectifier tubes but there's a solid state module plugged in (to one of them; othjer unused) and the output transformer has 8 and 4 ohm taps vs the earlier 16 and 8.  Quite sure that I saw the Txs were bolted on, but I will double-check that; thanks.

Considering some mods: half power switch to kill 2 of 4 power tubes (for guitar use or quieter practice) and ss vs tube rectifier switch (the ss rectifier module will have to go; mount a diode bridge inside the chassis using the unused pins of the rectifier sockets as turretboard). But we'll see how I feel once she's in proper functional shape.

Actually starting to worry that I need a new set of power tubes - a quad of KT88s aint cheap.

[Rob]

Like the idea of a power dropper on this head.
Maybe just because.....but it's a good idea.

[Granny Gremlin]

Yeah, especially since thing thing is f***loud even with 1 bad power tube - I took them in to a local Hippie hifi repair guy who has a Mercury  tube tester.  All of them test surprisingly strong but 1 lit up both the gas and short lights.  .... off to the classifieds I go.

Also didn't realise before purchase that the phase splitter is a 6AN8 - dammit, those things cost 2x whatr a 12A_7 does just because they're out of prod.  Ah well. 

[Droombolus]

This is the one most fondly remembered. Had to sell it off some 25 years ago .......

[Droombolus]

Sold the amp to a good buddy of mine so sometimes I can still use it when I play in one of his projects ....

[Happy Face]

So, I rolled out my new lightweight rig today. A Mesa Prodigy sitting on top of two custom-built 1x12" speakers. (Using those Genz-Benz Faitals that Avatar was selling a while back.) Played a Fender Performer bass, an instrument I, once again, thank you guys for calling to my attention.

It sounded righteous to my ears and to a few others who commented.

But between song four and five, there was a big noise, like an explosion. I thought the lead guitarist was fooling around. Nope, is was the Mesa.

Bought used, but still under warranty, though I'll pop the lid tonight and see if I can figure out what happened.

Thankfully, like many of you, I bring a backup amp. A wise decision. Back in action after a one minute delay.

[Pilgrim]

Dang. Glad you had a backup!

I hope the Mesa is repairable.

[Dave W]

Oof. Hope it's not an expensive repair.

[Highlander]

My nastiest meltdown was mid 70's on my only Sound City... the transformer went up in a shower of sparks, and that was that...

[Granny Gremlin]

Sorry about the Mesa.

[Happy Face]

Thanks guys.  With that warranty I'm not really concerned.  But, thanks to "scheduling issues" with my wife, I never popped off the cover before hailing it down to the local Mesa dealer today.

I'm sitting here thinking "I've got a pile of tubes in my music room. Why didn't I swap 'em all out first?" Am I that friggin old? Ay Caramba!!

But I will say, that Mesa sounded really nice, while it worked. I paid just over $1000 for a compact tube amp. NIce form, nice sound. Not bad. I was surprised. Until the explosion!