hi lyle those little tung sol 5881 are not rated for 500v, they should produce 23 watt (old 6l6 version) you can take a look on the data sheet, not surprising that they are failling. best option would be the sovtek 5881 wgc if the retainer clip allows it. www.tungsol.com/specs/5881-tung-sol.pdf
@@thisperfectworld he went to the right guy. Billy has a new tech. The tech is good; smart to know what you can and cannot do on the road ; and be smart enough to bring in a expert.
@@rw80 this is true. But Siamese dream was their debut. An album released at the peak of their popularity sold 50% more than their debut. Not exactly overwhelming. Lol. I feel like Mellon collie had a lot more potential than it realized. I also feel like Billy Corgan being an asshole and acting crazy really hurt them at the time. Who knows. I surely don't recall as well as I would like. It's been almost thirty years, after all.
"literally 100,000" *Spoken by yet another moron in 2022 who doesn't know the literal definition of the word, but thinks it sounds sokewl to sound like a 10-year-old girl.*
letting two amps fail causeing an acustic set would be kind of lame imo. concidering their are so many working amps in the world. the one time you need one, or two they fail. pretty weird.id have a few more amps if i were them,or better ones
@@kosycat1 Amps, doubly so tube amps, are quite living creatures. As half of the instrument/amp combination, they account for 50% of an artist's sound and there really aren't "swap-in-ready" substitutes, not even within the same manufacturer. This is why artists stick with a specific model of an amp. Between the circuit design and the components, everything that goes into it makes it have a unique voice.
@@TheMrMused I get it. i just dont think it makes sense.They all have one job though right? i'm sure they could have found a subsitution,or somthing better. Theirs not all that much that makes amps diffrent they amplify the sound. Point to point wiring sounds no diffrent than PCB. not sure of the band but they could have used any clean tube amp to plug their pedals into and got a acceptable sound. Hendrix was still Hendrix when he played a Les paul
Toured for 14 years teching for some A-listers and learned more in 23 odd minutes than in that whole time! Epic first watch and so happy I chanced upon your channel! Colour me a new fan!
This is better than any crime thriller. This popped up in my YT feed at 7:29 Sunday May 1st and I watched it start to finish. I am forwarding this to my 21 year old Son. I am telling him all that time that true trades/craftsmen are a declining breed. You are a artisan. 100,000 people owe you a drink, a handshake and a thank you. Thanks for posting. I liked, subbed and shared.
Wow, what a small world! I had gotten a call yesterday from a network of friends who were all looking for two of these exact models to help give this particular person some backline. Next thing I know, I wake up and you’re here working on his stuff! Keep up the great work!
Dude.......one of the folks running the fest (Mike) called me asking if anyone had one of these. I was able to find someone with a Mesa poweramp but it wasn't a Strategy. He was put on standby just incase these fried again. You saved the day man!!
Nice job on a very quick repair. I love the sound of Mesa amps right up until they quit working. Nice that this was only tubes and fuses and nobody let the smoke out of the capacitors.
You are THE MAN! I just did a dead Mesa Studio PreAmp that spent 13 yrs in a studio rack and NEVER WORKED Appears it had a bad .1 400V cap on the 1st stage. Watching you advance thru the amp checking voltages - was really what the guitarist should have watched cause it all came down to a bad tube . Cheers!
This was fun to see. I worked as a gtr tech for SP in 2014-2016. Not for BC but sometimes I helped his techs with amp stuff. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if those were the same 5881s I put in back in 2014 haha.
While watching this , you can really feel the sense of urgency.. and you're more calm than I am when I'm buzzing out issues with my own personal builds ... Great video
Wow, pretty impressive. This is where vast experience and vast troubleshooting chops comes into play. hat is not a simple amp to diagnose, but you did it anyway. Well done.
Love the video. I own a 500 and a 395. I've played the 500 continuously since '92, thousands of shows, it's only been in the shop 2-3 times for actual issues that were all very minor, and actually never left me high and dry at a show ever. I'll never part with them, they are absolute workhorses. Mesa gets a lot of flack on some stuff, but IMHO from first hand experience these amps deliver. I know Billy has toured with these since the early 90's - thousands of shows, I'd say they're holding up pretty well too all things considered!
This is one of those stories that you have to remember: a backup is only any good if you maintain it as well as you do the primary. Or better yet: just use the damn thing as a primary. There is a video about the equipment of AC/DC and their amp guy has a dedicated station for fixing the heads because the artist keeps blowing them up because he things the best sound is made when the amp is driven past it's technical specs. The artist is wrong, but most good artists are not all there in the head anyway. The way that their map-guy solved the problem was to have all his amps in rotation. There are no spares sitting on shelves, they are all used every x gigs. Not just because they break but very much because using them bwill highlight any problem *before* it becomes a problem and *while* you still have other amps ready to use. In IT they use this same principle; there are no primary and backup servers, there is a pool of servers that all share the work so if one develops a problem it can be fixed while the rest of the pool continues to work. Some setups really require a single primary computer but even then they force a failover to the secondary computer during maintenance ours, just to see if that procedure works and if the secondary is till ok. TL;DR: *use your backups as primaries* and do it often.
Having spare amps would have been nice in this scenario... but as far as the internal redundancy of the amp is concerned, this was a poor design which used a singular 8 amp power fuse for both sides, therefore it had one point of failure for both the primary and backup. I do not know if they have produced a better design since, but I would hope so. In any case, neither maintaining the backup like the primary, nor using the backup within this amp as a primary periodically would have prevented this from occurring.
Stores are all closed but, ..... 1 slice of cold pizza, a 8 amp fuse, and few new tubes all handy and in stock and presto, two amps in and out the door in less time than it takes for some of us to write a comment or re-string a couple of guitars and get a whole new hot pizza. You have once again restored our faith in Humanity during these trying times.There's enough of a story for a legendary epic rock & roll song here. Keep up the good work.
My favorite band for 30 years. Amazing video. I don’t know much about the SP gear, but from what I understand from the other comments I must have heard this amp when I’ve seen them live over the years.
@@PsionicAudio I saw them in 93 on the Siamese Dream tour & they were indeed using them. Switched back & forth between a Marshall JMP-1 & ADA MP-1 for preamps.
@@donewithmodernlife the pair of JMP-1's used on Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie were sold on Reverb 6 years ago for $30k. Kind of low if you ask me. He also sold a JCM800 that was a big part of his rack and it sold for $3,600, also seemed low for me. Google "billy corgan reverb marshall"
Awesome video man!! Just hearing the change in your vocal tone, compared to your other videos, made it interesting. Then add the ability to work fast and efficiently, made it great.
This brings me back to my retail guitar shop days. Something's broken, they're on at 8, it's 3 o'clock, and I don't have a direct replacement for what they're using, aaaand GO.
You're a huge inspiration to me. I hope to be a competent tech with half of your knowledge one day. There are very few guys these days that have your level of knowledge and experience
Amazing. “Flight of the Bumblebee” in my head. (Edit: “Powerhouse” by Carl Stalling as rendered by Rush just as frenetic.) You’re an example of dedication to one’s trade and an inspiration. Thank you for sharing this mission with us.
Unreal that you’re working on their Strategy amps..that’s what they switched over to during Mellon Collie and they’re still using them to this day. So cool.
Smashing Pumpkins?! Nice! That album was released in the mid 90s, IIRC. Wow! They really like those Mesas! Edit: yep. October of '95. Jeez. I remember that. This album was all the rage back then. I didn't have it but my best friend did so I still heard it daily 🤣
They were using these on the Siamese Dream touring cycle as well. I saw them in 93 at Bartow Arena in Birmingham Alabama & Billy & James both had them powering their rack systems.
This is my second video of yours. I am watching them back to back. I just found your site and I am enamored by your knowledge and ability. I watched the under $500 amp video. I’m not a guitarist, but I need to learn about equipment so I may help my Grandson with his journey to become a guitarist. Thank you so much.
As always thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! I'm a life long learner, this is gold for me! I fix my own electronics or anything else that breaks!
Thank you for sharing this. You remind me of my dad in many ways. While I am sure you charged accordingly I know some might be tempted to overcharge. Of course you and I know the next time someone needs a referral the local guy that gave your number and name would think differently plus it easier to sleep at night. Bravo
Figured out whose amps these are before you gave it away. Very cool. Also ledgendary amps in their own right, purported to be a favorite of the late Prince, used on purple rain.
I just had mine repaired a couple months ago. There’s no official schematics on the Strategy 500, so we had to speak with one of the original designers who still works at Mesa. He was able to walk us through the circuitry and track down the issues. The orange resisters needed to be replaced, the CAPs were fine. He also said the old Mesa Boogie 6l6 STR 420 tubes are not a good tube for these amps, but it was all they had at that time that would work in a 3U form factor. There’s also no headroom with 450w the amp spits out per channel, you run the risk of blowing a tube when there’s no speaker cab plugged in if you take it out of standby. The Tube Amp Doctor TAD - 6L6GCM-STR REDBASE have a 550v plate voltage rating, and they’ll fit in the 3U hight like the STR 420’s do. I spoke with Billy’s tech on May 15th in Tucson and he said they’re still having issues with the amps, and they’re going to send them to Mesa directly to have them repaired. Thanks for showing these amps up close! 🙏🏼
I would never send amps out on tour without a long test period. But I had just a few hours. They were working well when they left me, but I told the tech to schedule a full service when they had time in a major city.
Mr. Corgan has been flogging those amps HARD for years. No surprise that they took a dump. Kind of surprised that his crew hadn’t made them more road-ready. Those orange caps gotta go!
I can't help it if my subscribers are too clever for my attempts at obfuscation. I dealt with Tom (guitar tech) and Pat (amp tech). Both very nice pros, easy process. Didn't blink when I asked if I could take them to my shop instead of attempting field repair.
@@PsionicAudio looks like to me,these poweramps weren't serviced,before this tour had started.Normally it should be like that,all equipement should have been checked: you showed the cleaning of the board/inside of the amp,but for lot of acts/artists,after the 2 years of Covid,their budget for service,had shrunk like snow for the sun. You made a terrific job,to serve these amps and get them back in running order in time.Hopefully Billy mentioned this,during this concert in Memphis.
Have no fear - I've employed the services of Scooby Doo and his intrepid team of specialists to investigate the clues.. What's that Scoob? It's the mild mannered janitor?
Probably an unpopular opinion here- but an axe fx fm3 is well worth the $900 to carry as a back up that never fails. Anyway - great job under pressure!
Word. I was thinking or I could just pull the cab sim and direct box out of my backpack in 30 seconds, and tell them to get their shit together cause ain't nobody got time for that.
This is my first time watching your channel and actually. I like this kind of video. It's exciting it's using your wits and knowledge all at once.. Subscribing because I like this one.
30 years ago I had a chance to train and later take over an amp repair shop in Houston tx...the gentleman was getting on in years...and wanted to retire....anyways I had 2 kids and wife...plus a new house and a couple of cars to pay for....I just could not walk away from a 100,000 dollar a year job...in 1995....I really wanted to ...but I just could not do it....anyways....if I need an amp repair I hope I can get you to do it for me....luckily all.my amps are new...and I only play an hour a day....we will see how long my luck holds out...cause they do not make them like they used to....great job sir !
In the 90's I had a similar one, the Simul Class 295, massive beast, lovely sound and super LOUD, I was thinking that for a "huge touring band" their guitar tech should know how to do these repairs
@@PsionicAudio Ah ok, makes sense, also nowadays the touring schedules are really tight and sometimes techs have different duties during the day so no time for proper maintenance, Great channel yours, I just subscribed and been watching several of your videos all afternoon
Great job and great video! I have to say I am surprised their guitar tech did not carry spare tubes and fuses. Sure, you can't expect a guitar tech to be an amp tech and go into the insides of an amp, but this could have been fixed by simply swapping all tubes and checking the fuses... They must have been really glad to have you around ! 🙂
@@PsionicAudio there was a video of Corgan having a tantrum on stage and screaming at, presumably, the guitar tech off stage about a week ago. I'm assuming that guy got fired, hence the new tech you mentioned.
original Line 6 Pod to rescue, you have no idea how many times it has saved a night at a Pro act stadium show, no one notices when it goes through the board through a tour power system. You couldn't tell the difference if you were Eric Johnson. The little red bean Pod or the rack Pod Pro. I have two of each with me ALWAYS. AND, I owned the Strategy 400 for over 20 years. Great amp, sold it. I use Carvin FET 400's now.
I bought a "red bean" a month after they came out and still use it every single day. It lives on my desk next to my Pro Tools rig and while I've got a dozen or so amps, unless I need something really specific, the POD does the job nicely and conveniently. I replaced a few pots that went bad (sent absolutely free by Line 6, BTW!) and upgraded the firmware once, otherwise it's as it was first sold. Great product, a modern classic.
@@socallars3748 Very cool. yes I have a dozen plus amps and rack preamps and gear, but the Line 6 gets heavy use. One of my Pod PRO's needs a switch, and last time I tried contacting them I couldn't get any parts. How do yo get parts?
@@b.scottfarthingsworth This was years ago...a friend borrowed the POD and dropped it from about 4 feet, bending several pot shafts. I emailed Line 6 about purchasing replacements and they asked me for my address. Next thing I knew, a box of pots arrived in the mail! Again, this was over 15 years ago so a lot has probably changed there.
I'm trying to think how'd I deal with this issue as a guitar tech if both power amps were unfixable. I'd probably rent a couple 100w+ tube heads with effects loops. what else could you do on a Saturday outside of Nashville, NYC, LA, etc....? In LA you'd just rent a couple more power amps.
They had a not-great-but-it-would-kinda-do option in the works. But I called them one hour into the work to let them know at least one of these would be ready for show time. So the panic ceased. And turns out I got both turned around with time to spare. #blacktshirtsolidarity
