Mesa Cali Tweed?

Dan0h

Dan0h

Well-known member
I know some of you guys are Mesa users. Any thoughts on the California Tweed? Sorta obsessed with this as a potential next amp. Little on the $$$ side but could be a good goal to save toward. I’ve only really ever had Fender Amps, outside of my WEST. But this Cali tweed is ticking all my boxes so far. This came out before the Gibson take over so does it still qualify as pre-gib? Damn you internet, fueling my GAS.
 
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Then...I looked at a Dr Z Z-wreck Jr.

www.humbuckermusic.com

Dr. Z Z-Wreck Jr 1x12 Combo Amp

The Dr. Z Z-Wreck Jr is shipping now. The long awaited lower wattage Z-Wreck is now here! Looks like the word is out that Dr. Z has a new amp on the way. The little brother to the venerable Z-Wreck, the Z-Wreck Jr sports a stout 15 watt power section as opposed to the 30 watt output of the...
www.humbuckermusic.com www.humbuckermusic.com


...but kept going back to the Magnatone.
 
I love Mesa stuff but I wouldn’t buy anything post Gibson sell out... I imagine the pre Gibson gear has probably jumped in price just because the nature of the situation. Mesa made a great product they do high gain really well But I don’t know if the tweed sound is really their wheel house.... I’m sure it’s a nice amp but you might find another that does the tweed thing better for the price point... maybe something to explore.
 
Dan0h said:
I know some of you guys are Mesa users. Any thoughts on the California Tweed? Sorta obsessed with this as a potential next amp. Little on the $$$ side but could be a good goal to save toward. I’ve only really ever had Fender Amps, outside of my WEST. But this Cali tweed is ticking all my boxes so far. This came out before the Gibson take over so does it still qualify as pre-gib? Damn you internet, fueling my GAS.
Click to expand...
That Pedal Show have featured the Cali Tweed in a bunch of videos. Might be worth checking out their channel of you haven't seen any of them yet.

 
Paradox916 said:
I love Mesa stuff but I wouldn’t buy anything post Gibson sell out... I imagine the pre Gibson gear has probably jumped in price just because the nature of the situation. Mesa made a great product they do high gain really well But I don’t know if the tweed sound is really their wheel house.... I’m sure it’s a nice amp but you might find another that does the tweed thing better for the price point... maybe something to explore.
Click to expand...
I’m not really after the Tweed sound, but the Fillmore is too gainy for me. I love the amp to have the smooth glassy tube sound and my pedal board to supply any gain I need. I like the Fillmore because it supposed to be the blackface amp but from YouTube videos it looks like the tweed actually ticks the clean boxes better.
 
SillyOctpuss said:
That Pedal Show have featured the Cali Tweed in a bunch of videos. Might be worth checking out their channel of you haven't seen any of them yet.

Click to expand...
Watched several times already. lol. Dan and Mic cause a lot of my purchases indirectly…
 
Just looked them up... they definitely want Mesa Money for it....lol. Seem like a nice single channel amp. They make really sold stuff. I have had zero issues with my rectoverb head and I have had it for almost 20years as my go to amp.
 
fig said:
Then...I looked at a Dr Z Z-wreck Jr.

www.humbuckermusic.com

Dr. Z Z-Wreck Jr 1x12 Combo Amp

The Dr. Z Z-Wreck Jr is shipping now. The long awaited lower wattage Z-Wreck is now here! Looks like the word is out that Dr. Z has a new amp on the way. The little brother to the venerable Z-Wreck, the Z-Wreck Jr sports a stout 15 watt power section as opposed to the 30 watt output of the...
www.humbuckermusic.com www.humbuckermusic.com


...but kept going back to the Magnatone.
Click to expand...
The magnatone super fifteen always gets me like 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 but I have no idea what it even sounds like
 
Dan0h said:
I’m not really after the Tweed sound, but the Fillmore is too gainy for me. I love the amp to have the smooth glassy tube sound and my pedal board to supply any gain I need. I like the Fillmore because it supposed to be the blackface amp but from YouTube videos it looks like the tweed actually ticks the clean boxes better.
Click to expand...
I played a Filmore a while back at a music store and really liked it. I was trying guitars and it just happened to be the amp that was there. I'm generally not interested in Mesa amps but I think about it all the time how great it sounded and I was playing it clean
 
After going through the posts here, it seems to me that many here think gibson Mesa products will suck. Let me let y'all in on a little secret... Mesa products have ALWAYS sucked.
Lol!
Ok, how many did I just piss off here???
To be honest, my opinion is coming from the view of an amp tech. Mesa's are some of the worst to work on. Not a fun experience. And when I was working as a Mesa warranty repair center they ALWAYS lowballed on repair times and costs.
Good riddance!
Ok, carry on...
 
danfrank said:
After going through the posts here, it seems to me that many here think gibson Mesa products will suck. Let me let y'all in on a little secret... Mesa products have ALWAYS sucked.
Lol!
Ok, how many did I just piss off here???
To be honest, my opinion is coming from the view of an amp tech. Mesa's are some of the worst to work on. Not a fun experience. And when I was working as a Mesa warranty repair center they ALWAYS lowballed on repair times and costs.
Good riddance!
Ok, carry on...
Click to expand...
What are some of the common repairs you saw coming in?
 
Screen resistors blown, that was probably the biggest one. Mesa for a long time used under-rated carbon composition resistors and CC resistors make a mess when they blow. This was usually caused by a power tube developing a short.
1N4007 diodes blowing was also another comon problem.
After those, I guess solder connections going bad on the power tube board because of the heat affecting the PCB solder joints.
Mesa are beautiful to look at when you open one up, they are just a nightmare though when something goes wrong with them.

Edit:
Also switched volume pots going bad and input jacks.
 
danfrank said:
After going through the posts here, it seems to me that many here think gibson Mesa products will suck. Let me let y'all in on a little secret... Mesa products have ALWAYS sucked.
Lol!
Ok, how many did I just piss off here???
To be honest, my opinion is coming from the view of an amp tech. Mesa's are some of the worst to work on. Not a fun experience. And when I was working as a Mesa warranty repair center they ALWAYS lowballed on repair times and costs.
Good riddance!
Ok, carry on...
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity was it reliability issues or just a pain to work on? In your opinion who is getting it right?
 
My favorite guitar tech on YouTube is Psionic Audio. The quality of his work is insane and he provides great comentsrry on the quality and serviceability of different amps and brands.

Based on what I’ve seen on his channel and many other places, and as much as it pains me to say it, Mesa amps aren’t built to the highest standard, and more importantly they are among the worst products to service.




They are very complicated circuits, made with large PCB’s and built in ways that increase service time and cost, and Mesa is infamous for not providing schematics and being a pain to work with for parts. I mean look at the ungodly amount of vactrols in these things.

That said, I really want a rectifier one day…
 
Well with the input jacks and volume controls, it was usually abuse from the operator or some mishap.
And the other components going bad, usually because of an output tube going bad. These are common things that happen and it's my belief that the manufacturer should take this into account when making a product.
With Mesas, it was a combination of the two... Bad design on the part of Mesa and also not easy to work on.
The single biggest safety feature in an amp is that the amp incorporates a HV fuse.

Yes, Psionic gets many thumbs up!! He's VERY good at what he does. Uncle Doug is another good one, especially for the restoration aspect of amp repairs.
 
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