My new amp is on its way!

Karl Hungus

That very amp is now mine, fully payed for and on its way to me from America thanks to www.chrisguitars.com - a Mesa Boogie Nomad 45 1x12 Combo.

I'm very excited right now, as I payed €565 for it and had the chance to see one in person yesterday while visiting Dublin. To buy it new, it would cost me a glomping €2300 from Musician inc, something I simply couldn't have afforded. But my one looks to be an older model which has the Black Shadow C90 speaker - a far superior speaker to the V30's that new Nomad models combos come with.

For those to whom Mesa Boogie are unknown, they're quite simply the amp for rock or metal - if you're a fan, pick up any album in your collection and chances are you'll hear Mesa Boogie amps. Metallica, Exodus, Smashing Pumpkins, Dream Theater, Sepultura, Tool... It's all Mesa baby! If you want an idea of what the Nomad is going to sound like, then give a listen to Dream Theater's "Falling Into Infinity" and you'll hear John Petrucci playing through the Nomad 100 head:

John

Nice! Make sure you turn it up load so I can hear it in Dublin when it arrives

trippertds

I'm having some serious thoughts about some of the small wattage laneys he has up there.

You got that for lower than he had listed right? Is he easy to bargain with?

Karl Hungus

trippertds wrote:

You got that for lower than he had listed right? Is he easy to bargain with?

No. It was an awesome find, so I wasn't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. The nomad 100 head he had on the site was purchased the day after I payed the deposit on my nomad, so I think I was right in doing so. But he is cool to deal with.

D!ve^Bomb!

good stuff man, good stuff!!!

Ancient1

Wow man, that must be the bargain of the decade. I bet when you get that baby you wont leave the house for 6 months!

Btw, it was great to meet you on Friday - maybe next time we'll both be a bit more sober

disgruntled

Very nice indeed. I was always curious about getting stuff like amps from Chris, is shipping expensive and how are you sorting out the voltage difference?

Karl Hungus

Ancient1 wrote:

Wow man, that must be the bargain of the decade. I bet when you get that baby you wont leave the house for 6 months!

Btw, it was great to meet you on Friday - maybe next time we'll both be a bit more sober

Yeah, great to meet yourself too. It was a fun night, but my brain was floating in ether, and I didn't get to talk to everyone half as much as I'd have liked. But yeah, it is a bargain, so I'm well happy.

disgruntled wrote:

Very nice indeed. I was always curious about getting stuff like amps from Chris, is shipping expensive and how are you sorting out the voltage difference?

Shipping was around the €150 mark, and a lot of times the Mesa amps are multivoltage, but in the event that it's not, I'm going to get a replacement mains transformer from www.westsidedistribution.com and all will be well. That's probably going to be another €150 then though, but it'll be well worth it once everything is sorted out.

david

I've seen lots of amps with a 110-240 switch like on a PC Power Supply you might be lucky. My dad has a stepdown transformer for tools and such and it weighs a funking ton!

byte

Good luck with that. As long as ya get it delivered safe and sound, the voltage will be easily sorted out.

Karl Hungus

freakonaleashx wrote:

I've seen lots of amps with a 110-240 switch like on a PC Power Supply you might be lucky. My dad has a stepdown transformer for tools and such and it weighs a funking ton!

Yeah, I did ask around a bit, and in all likelyhood it should work straight out of the box, but I'm still factoring in the need for a replacement tranny. Better to have all the bases covered, you know? I looked into the stepdown transformer, but I think it's a little too much hassle for it to be lugged around with the amp.

eoin5

So thats the secret of John Petrucci, he locks himself in a cage with his axe and a mesa half stack.

It wasn't me!

In all fairness now...

Karl Hungus

eoin5 wrote:

So thats the secret of John Petrucci, he locks himself in a cage with his axe and a mesa half stack.

Indeed!

dabhoys

Congrats on the mesa man. There a fine amp. Are you going to buy the proper transformer for it? I wouldn't recomend the ones you buy in shops etc..

Petrucci has a really nice rig. It consists of Lone Stars for clean and Road Kings for everythin else. He's rig is huge. Gotta love it

Ancient1

eoin5 wrote:

So thats the secret of John Petrucci, he locks himself in a cage with his axe and a mesa half stack.

Lol, that's it man. Wouldnt you?

Karl Hungus

dabhoys wrote:

Congrats on the mesa man. There a fine amp. Are you going to buy the proper transformer for it? I wouldn't recomend the ones you buy in shops etc..

Petrucci has a really nice rig. It consists of Lone Stars for clean and Road Kings for everythin else. He's rig is huge. Gotta love it

Yeah, if need be, I'm getting the proper nomad 45 tranny from westside distrobution.

And indeed, Petrucci's rig is phenominal. Can't say I'd ever want anything of that magnitude. I think if I ever get around to getting that Mark IV, I'll be sorted for life.

dabhoys

The nomad 45 is still a class amp you'll be laughing. Mesa make lovely amps. I love mine to bits. I spent my summer working for it and it's worth every bit of blood sweat and tears I put into it. I hope to have it for a very long time....

Karl Hungus

Well that's encouraging, as there's some rather lude fellow on a particular irc channel who never passes up an opportunity to tell me how crap the nomad is since I mentioned I was buying one. Of course, I'm sure it shall be great indeed, but I am hoping that it comes ready to play straight out of the box with a multivoltage transformer.

dabhoys

Mesa don't make **** stuff. Even there cheapest models are class.

As far as I know the mesa aren't multi tap transformers due to the variac control on alot of them. Just hope it's not a hard wired mains plug either. You want the 3 pin 'kettle' lead. If its hard wired it more heartache for the tech who's going to do the work for ya.

No matter how tempted you are don't use a step down converter unless you 100% sure that the transformer can handle the current. Also there is a circuit fuse in the amp that needs to be changed too for 240v. There not your normal house fuses and it's easy to do. You'll just have to wait and see.

One word of advice. Take your time and do thing write with the amp. You'll only get one chance and if you **** it up you'll have an expensive dust collector. Amps are very timid indeed.

keep us posted on it....

Karl Hungus

Well, I've already decided that I won't be using a step down converter for it, but I have talked to a few people, and supposedly a lot of them do come with multivoltage tranformers.

I'll certainly keep you posted though.

Karl Hungus

Yay! That fixer up guitar I ordered from Chris came today! The nomad shouldn't be far behind, all going well!

Doctor J

What shape is the guitar in?

Karl Hungus

Seems fine, nothing broken.

D!ve^Bomb!

what the **** is everyone doin up at 6.30 in the morning!!@??

Karl Hungus

I'm an insomniac. What's your excuse?

D!ve^Bomb!

i have a job:(

Karl Hungus

You have my sympathies.

D!ve^Bomb!

thank you.. i need em

Karl Hungus

You know what you have to do? Trade office supplies for sick days, untill you have enough to call in sick untill you retire.

Karl Hungus

Well, it arrived today! Yes, THAT ****ing fast!
I'm shocked!

I have to say, chris did a fantastic job just packing it! He had all the tubes taken out and bubble wrapped. He certainly wasn't taking any chances there. It's in absolute pristine condition. I have to say, I am utterly and unreservedly impressed.

It's not multi-voltage unfortunately, it seems only the export models have that function, so it'll be a while before it's workable, but damned am I glad it arrived! It really looks the business altogether, that picture does it absolutely no justice, and going over all the different channel fuctions, voicing and the possibilities of each in the manual... I'm getting very excited, there's so many options, clean, vintage, modern, pushed, extreme, and of course seperate EQ, gain, prescence, master and reverb controls for each individual channel! There's also the FX loop that I'll probably never use, and a 5-way footswitch. I can also use extention cabs if I ever feel the need. So I think this baby will keep me happy for a long, long time, and judging by the wealth of tone options, I mightn't even need the Mark IV. I still want one though.

It'll be handy when I get the transformer replaced though, seeing as they're supposedly multivoltage. Even more versatility.

Christ, I'm beyond excited.

D!ve^Bomb!

fair play man!! was there no cutoms charges?

Karl Hungus

Nope, didn't get stung at all!

Doctor J

Don't count on it. They only came for the tax on my bass from Ishibashi after a month

Ancient1

Congrats, dude! Does she have a nickname yet?

Well, that's the last we'll be hearing from Karl in a long time

Karl Hungus

No nickname I'm afraid, Ancient. I usually don't nickname my gear, call me strange, but I just refer to them as whatever they happen to be. So my Microcube just gets called 'The Cube' so I think this'll just be refered to as The Nomad. Although that's a pretty damned boss name, so in that respect its just as cool as any nickname, eh?

Doctor J wrote:

Don't count on it. They only came for the tax on my bass from Ishibashi after a month

Ah, ok so.

Karl Hungus

Check the attatchment for my new baby
It still doesn't do the amp any justice at all, you really have to see it in person.

No carpet like DoctorJ's I'm afraid, but a lovely wood finish instead.

Doctor J

It don't mean **** without carpet

Karl Hungus

Don't rag on my floorboards, man!

Doctor J

I don't need to, they do it perfectly well themselves!

So there

Karl Hungus

Well, that derserves a candle in the eye next time we cross paths...

Anyway, I've been talking to a fellow in Galway about my amp, and he assures me that I won't need to get a whole new transformer to make it workable over this side of the world, that I just need to get the voltage changed. I'm going to be talking to him again during the week so I'll get more details on this from him, but does anyone know how exactly this would work?

Zoton

Slightly off topic, but did you have any problems using Paypal to pay chris? Assuming of course that you used paypal.

It wasn't me!

Yeah. I'm looking to get a JB off him and I'm wondering how to go about paying for it.

D!ve^Bomb!

paypal would be the easiest by far to pay

It wasn't me!

Thankee. Are there any surcharges for using Paypal?

Karl Hungus

Nope, no problems using paypal.

D!ve^Bomb!

It wasn't me! wrote:

Thankee. Are there any surcharges for using Paypal?

only for the seller

feylya

Karl Hungus wrote:

Don't rag on my floorboards, man!

Never mind the floor boards, look at the mans bed spread. It's a new level of RAWK!

Karl Hungus

feylya wrote:

Never mind the floor boards, look at the mans bed spread. It's a new level of RAWK!

Yeah, my bed sheet is None More Black!

John

Doctor J wrote:

It don't mean **** without carpet

Damn straight. Even with that bedspread you'll only be pretender without carpet.

Oeneus

Any charge on import tax when it arrived?