Members willhaven Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 I've wanted one of these for many years. The coolest thing about the Mesa unit VS most of the others is that the 12 inch 90w speaker actually spins! No rotating baffle fakery. I bought it on eBay a week or so ago. I won by sniping of course. It just arrived last night. Boxed weight was ~95lbs. Getting it up to the 3rd floor was a bitch. I should have left it in the box and slid it up the stairs instead. I plug it in and lo and behold I get no sound. So I'm {censored}ing mortified and I ply the stubborn {censored}ing grille covers off and look at the speaker and what I can see of the speaker connections. It all looks fine. I unscrew the speaker connection panel on the side, it looks fine but I realize that you can't get to the "meat" of the mechanics this way, so the bottom must come off. I flip the cabinet over carefully and I notice a clunking sound. Not good. I run down stairs to get the power drill and I hurriedly unscrew 500,000 screws and lift off the bottom of the cabinet to see what was broken. What do I see? A wire with the rotating electrical connector (that carries the sound to the speaker) floating around in the cabinet. I plug it back into the socket on the rotary wheel (fits VERY loosely) and I put the cabinet back together... 500,000 screws later. I plug it in and I have sound. Glorious chorusy lushness! For... about 30 seconds when it cuts out again. 500,000 screws later and, yep, the damn rotary connector popped off again. This time I inspect the connector and realize it is a 3 piece unit. A metal base (on the rotating part), a black rotating connector with a bearing, and a white end cap. The white cap and the black bearing were stuck together. Why a 3 piece? That seemed odd. After some research I track down the website of the company that makes the connector. Mercotac not Mercolac... you'd be confused too by the crappy logo design that's barely {censored}ing legible. They seem to make the connector still (thank God), and it appears as though the black rotating connector is supposed to be press-fit into the metal receptacle. I assume it isn't supposed to come out and it DEFINITELY shouldn't be a looser connection than the white cap... which it was. So I email Mercotac inquiring about the connector, to make sure which one I have, I ask about the press fitting and how tight it should be, how freely the connector should rotate. Blahdiddy blah blah blah. I ask how much a replacement setup would be. I still haven't gotten a reply, but if it's cheap, I will likely buy a few sets of these connectors and staple a thick manila envelope with them and some information to the inside of the bottom cabinet cover just in case some poor bastard in the future has the same problem. Depending on the tech specs and what model connector was in there to begin with, I may try one of the rotary connectors with the ball bearing option instead. It's usually used in high speed applications (this isn't) but if this model failed, it would probably be good insurance to use a beefier part. So, either the rotary contact is old and worn and that made the press fit connection fail because of the extra friction of a worn bearing, or it simply fell out during shipping and became loose from that. Either way, for the time being I got some pliers and crimped the metal receptacle tighter and plugged it back together. It seemed much tighter this time so hopefully it holds up now. It was almost 1am by the time I was done {censored}ing with it so I played through it for about 5 minutes on low volume with various speed settings and it didn't fall apart. Not yet anyway. *fingers crossed* The sound of this thing is great. I have a Recto 4x12 and I plugged them both in. With a 4x12 and a single rotating 1x12, the effect isn't super deep, but I'm about to get a Road King II, so I should hopefully be able to use a cabinet switch to swap between using the Revolver and one half of the Recto cabinet. So, either 4x12 and no Revolver, or 2x12 (half the Recto cab) and the Revolver. Current plans include trying to modify an Ernie Ball 6168 volume pedal/switch to control the speed and on/off functions of the Revolver. Mesa made such a control pedal for the Revolver, but it was optional and this one did not include it (only the stomp button pictured). I may also get saucy and try to devise a way to make the speaker reliably stop in the same position every time. I'd probably have to consult my father since he's the electrical whiz and I know just enough to get myself into trouble. Pictures of the bane of my existence. Image from the eBay auction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thefyn Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 Lol. I have been there man. 3 am, covered in splinters and dust, that "am i doing more harm than good" feeling in the pit of your stomach. It is worth the hassle when it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lucidstar Posted July 3, 2013 Members Share Posted July 3, 2013 Does anybody have schematics for the Revolver (v.1)? Mine is stuck in fast mode. I believe that the control motor is bad. Mesa has no materials available, so I'm out of luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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