Something a bit different for Mesa fans

DJH83004

A customer recently brought me his Mk V in with an intermittent fault on channel 2, which he described as sounding like it occasionally clips like an over adjusted noise gate, Not a lot to go on! Anyway to cut a long story short I eventually traced the fault to a bad joint on the channel 2 gain pot (see images), I guess even Mesa have their Friday afternoon amps 

 

ICBM

Well done, that must have been a pig to track down. I had a similar one on a Rectoverb 25 recently - cold joint on the input cable from the jack to the PCB. Luckily that was quite easy - you could still hear the hiss change when adjusting the gain on either channel so I knew it had to be right at the start somewhere.

Overall I've found more problems with the jumper cables than the soldering though.

prlgmnr

I see inside one of those and can't believe they've ever put one together right, rather than being surprised there's the odd fuck up.

ICBM

prlgmnr said:

I see inside one of those and can't believe they've ever put one together right, rather than being surprised there's the odd fuck up.

It's even more incredible when you see old true point-to-point wiring for something fairly complex like a TV set...

p90fool

ICBM said:

prlgmnr said:

I see inside one of those and can't believe they've ever put one together right, rather than being surprised there's the odd fuck up.

It's even more incredible when you see old true point-to-point wiring for something fairly complex like a TV set...

That's why most of us used to rent televisions, I didn't know anyone who could afford to buy one when I was a kid - the labour involved in building them was huge. 

57Deluxe

/\ and why did the TV repair men (usually from Rumbellows or Ketts) always turn up to take the TV in for repair on a Friday afternoon when you had already been without the telly working most of the week??

++

"Jeesu H C not again - go on, is your turn to get up and give it a bang...!  - Oh Dad - do I have too???"

Haych

57Deluxe said:

/\ and why did the TV repair men (usually from Rumbellows or Ketts) always turn up to take the TV in for repair on a Friday afternoon when you had already been without the telly working most of the week??

++

"Jeesu H C not again - go on, is your turn to get up and give it a bang...!  - Oh Dad - do I have too???"

Haha, my uncle used to be a TV engineer - I forget for which firm he used to work, Wigfords or something like that????  As a schoolboy in the holidays I'd accomany him on his rounds visiting customer homes with duff TV sets and sometimes VCRs and the like.  This was way before 16:9 picture ratios, Sky or even Channel 5!

All credit to him, he used to more often than not fix the fault on site and only rarely had to take it back to the shop for more in depth diagnosis and repair.  Fond memories, those were the days.

I doubt you'd find a domestic service engineer who even has a soldering iron on them these days.

Anyway, I've digressed off topic a bit, sorry about that!

DJH83004

IHaych said:

57Deluxe said:

/\ and why did the TV repair men (usually from Rumbellows or Ketts) always turn up to take the TV in for repair on a Friday afternoon when you had already been without the telly working most of the week??

++

"Jeesu H C not again - go on, is your turn to get up and give it a bang...!  - Oh Dad - do I have too???"

Haha, my uncle used to be a TV engineer - I forget for which firm he used to work, Wigfords or something like that????  As a schoolboy in the holidays I'd accomany him on his rounds visiting customer homes with duff TV sets and sometimes VCRs and the like.  This was way before 16:9 picture ratios, Sky or even Channel 5!

All credit to him, he used to more often than not fix the fault on site and only rarely had to take it back to the shop for more in depth diagnosis and repair.  Fond memories, those were the days.

I doubt you'd find a domestic service engineer who even has a soldering iron on them these days.

Anyway, I've digressed off topic a bit, sorry about that!

I'm sure it will have been Wigfalls, their head office was in Sheffield I believe. Wigfalls and Rediffusion were the big TV players where I came from in South Yorkshire, in fact had apprenticeship offers from both companies back in the day. Not really off topic, you had to know your stuff to repair them (and they were dangerous things!), in much the same way as you do with Mesas and the like,   

Haych

Wigfalls! That was it! Thank you mate. 

I recall the danger element quite vividly. As well as repairing TVs for a living he also had his own thing on the side going. He’d literally come home from work, go to the pub, come home and then tinker about in his garage, or the kitchen, doing TV repairs for friends and family. 

Anyway, one Sunday morning we’re all in his kitchen and he’s fiddling with a massive set in a teak cabinet on the counter top. All of a sudden there’s a massive crack and a big pink spark flew across the room towards yours truly - I was about 8 at the time. 

I ran out the room and refused to go back in while my uncle was cackling like a witch. I later learned that he’d deliberately shorted a large capacitor with a screwdriver in order to discharge it. 

He still remembers it to this day and still cackles like a witch at recalling my reaction. I smile too as I write this. Fond memories even if they were terrifying at the time.