Beedster

I have a very long 4/4 DB and a rather nice set of strings I'm dying to use on it, but they are about a centimetre too short at the nut, that is the silks on the D and A strings run around 1cm across the nut. I've had this same situation on electric bass before and it made very little difference, but I have three questions re doing it on DB 1. Apart from the open strings (which I rarely play anyway) will this adversely affect tone/sustain on fingered notes on those two strings 2. Might I run into problems associated with too short a winding on the tuning peg? 3. Is there any chance I could damage the strings? Thanks in advance folks Chris

Many thanks @agedhorse, I hope so! While you're here, as I mentioned above @Steve Browning was kind enough to send me - and at no cost - a foot-switch for an M-Pulse 600. Sadly the pin number of the cable differed to that on the rear of the amp itself so I was unable to use it. Is there a workaround for this or is it simply a case of that foot-switch will not work with that model of the M-Pulse? Chris

Thanks @sandy_r, luckily I have a rather substantial collection of pre-amp (and power) tubes here so will have some fun experimenting. I'll update once done 👍

That really made me smile Greg, so while it may not solve this particular problem, it still helped I'm generally pretty good with these things so even if not the tube there's a 50/50 chance I'll get it sorted, if not there's a nice guy down the road who exerts magical powers over amplification. In both our cases powerful fiorces appear to be ensuring that we keep hold of our respective Mesa gear

Great help above all thank you so much, I’ll update once I’ve run the tests, swaps etc 👍

Agreed Russ, I’ll sort the fix, looks pretty straight forward 👍

Thanks @spyder that’s much appreciated and helpful. I’ve a lot of tubes here that will be my first port of call for sure, Russ do you have any spares?

A fine observation Steve, I get the funny feeling that by the time it gets back to mine, like the Carbine, it will have resolved and we’ll never know what was going on. Upside, I will have a Mesa rig again (although Russ if we do resolve this in the meantime you can of course choose to retain ownership should you wish) 👍

Rabbit seeks solution to Mesa problem 😆

Nicely put mate and I agree 100%, as we said when we met, it felt like two old friends meeting up despite having never actually met in the first place 👍

Thanks for your help @sandy_r and @Downunderwonder. Quick answer to some of the above; as far as I know I haven't used monster cables, and despite @Steve Browning very very kindly sending me a Mesa footswitch a while back I was never able to use it as apparently there were two version of the M-Pulse (I meant to open a thread here asking whether the cables could be switched but for some reason never got around to it). I think examining toggle positions might be helpful if Russ has the time and patience to do so, if not I'll continue this once I've collected the rig 👍 I have a strong sense that something I was doing here has led to these problems with the two previously trouble-free units, although much like the final scene of Burn After Reading (which if you've not see you really should), I'm damned if I know what the hell it was 🤔 Thanks again folks 👍

Thanks Russ, likewise you've been a real gent about all this also. It's all a but strange. I messaged thew buyer of the Carbine last night and his is still running trouble-free despite a similarly shaky start, the plot thickens. I hope this thread provides some clues and potential solutions 👍

i think both were sufficiently experienced to exclude such factors pretty early in the process 👍

Ha ha, I was at a gig last week and a punter said "It looks really light". My bandmates all looked away and busied themselves with cables and stands as I considered my response....

Thanks Michael we've done that one sadly (the buyer had a similar issue with his BB750 which was resolved in similar fashion at @agedhorse suggestion). As I just said to the buyer, I kinda regretted selling it anyway despite no longer gigging electric bass (I did tun a mag PUP from my DB through it a while back and it was rather massive), so this could simply be fate's way of telling me I must always own at least one Mesa rig, and who am I to disagree with fate (I'm sure many here would concur it's a reasonable hypothesis)

Agreed, interestingly it was discussing your Bryant that sealed the deal for me, forcing a decision and realisation that I always felt better with a 4/4, and that buying a top-end 3/4 was likely to end in tears for me. Anyway, looks like the lovely old thing is on its way to a new home in the next couple of days And @Happy Jack, point taken, so if you ever see a 4/4 Ali, please do let me know, there is a magic to them ❤️

Folks I've recently sold two pretty nice Mesa Boogie amps to two highly trusted members on here. On being played by the respective buyers both have been faulty. The first, an M6 Carbine had very low output volume for a few hours that seemed to resolve and I'm assuming all is fine now although it was a worrying few hours for the buyer and me! The other an M-Pulse 600 appears to have started life in its new home with the same symptoms! Worryingly 24 hours later it is not playing ball and continues to produce low volume and distorted tone into multiple cabs. The M6 was collected in person and the M-Pulse was delivered by me, so there's no courier abuse involved, and both units were working fine at my place before they left. OK, these two things could be completely random, unconnected and just bad luck/bad timing, but in almost 40 years of playing I've not had anything like this. I'm wondering whether there could be an issue with the power supply here. Both amps were played (and tested before sale) in my rehearsal room that runs from a separate power supply to my house. This is because the house is very small and there siomply is no room for large bass amps/speakers. I had a decent sparky over when we first started using the room a couple of months after we moved in to the house, he thouroughly checked the power supply and wiring in the room, replaced some sockets and switches, and gave it the all clear. Even so a few weeks later an all-tube guitar amp that had previously worked fine ran very noisily and oddly on that separate power supply. It didn't worry me too much as the time but has me wondering now. The amps have been stored cold but dry, in much the same conditions as I imagine a lot of audio gear is kept when warehoused, so I doubt that damp could be a problem, and either way they worked fine before they left. The M-Pulse which seems to be the bigger of the problems was also stored in an SKB airtight shock-mount case so pretty well protected. I'm at a bit of a loss, thoughts most welcome?

Ah, c'est la via, nothing more than the cycle of life Jack 👍

Pourquoi...?

I've gigged the Pfretzschner a few times since the above post and think that I'm going back to my 4/4 on which I just feel more at home (and which for a number of reasons I'd never sell, it's been with me longer than any of my other instruments for a reason). I'll be gutted to let the Ali Beast go, but given the work I still have to do on my rehearsal space and ever increasing costs of living it seems a but daft to have it lying around unused There's a couple of people have enquired but if you're interested please drop me a PM, I'll probably list it properly at the weekend 👍

Had the pleasure of meeting up with fellow Mesa Boogie Junkie forum member Russ today it reminded me of the good old days when you actually met the people you were buying and selling gear to. Anyway, not unexpectedly a bloody lovely bloke with whom, had there been more time, lengthy bass/gear/life discourse would have developed! 100% top bloke who knows his gear and is a pleasure to do business with 👍