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Mesa Mark IV problem, no sound


Tommy Horrible

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So my Mark IVB short head just stopped making sound. I have no idea what is wrong with it. I replaced every tube with brand new mesa tubes and the problem still persists? Any ideas? The damn thing has 1000 knobs and switches and I'm not sure what could be wrong?

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1. Does the fuse still test good on a multimeter?

2. Are you sure that the amp is plugged into the cabinet properly and the guitar into the amp properly? Cables working properly?

3. Do you have the silent recording pulled (Output Level control)?

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Ok...I'm going to have you turn it off, then wait a little bit and turn it back on.


Let me know when you have completed this.

 

1. Yes, the fuse seems fine. But I don't know how to test it with a multi meter.

2. Yes, it's plugged into the cab properly, there is actually some sound comming out, but just the back ground hiss of the amp running if I crank everything to 10.

3. Nope silent recording isn't pulled out, but doing that makes the background hiss of the amp running go away with everything cranked.

IMG_1365.jpg

IMG_1366.jpg

IMG_1362.jpg

 

Tell me if you guys see anything wierd in this picture.

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I assume it does the same thing on each of the three channels? Have you tried plugging your guitar straight into the effects return to see if it produces sound? Have you cleaned the effects loop jacks? I haven't had an issue on any of my MKIVs with the loop, but one of my 5150s needed the loop cleaned.

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Also, when I was just messing around with I for a very brief second was getting some very low level guitar signal comming through the lead chanel that was barely there and sounded clean with the amp cranked way up. Then when I unplugged from my tuner and plugged directly into the amp to make sure nothing else was going wrong with the signal chain the signal was gone.

 

Also, I have my TSL plugged in right next to the Mark IV into a seperate cab and the guitar and chord work perfectly with that amp.

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I assume it does the same thing on each of the three channels? Have you tried plugging your guitar straight into the effects return to see if it produces sound? Have you cleaned the effects loop jacks? I haven't had an issue on any of my MKIVs with the loop, but one of my 5150s needed the loop cleaned.

 

 

Yup, same thing with all 3 channels. I'll check plugging it into the effects return BRB.

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I can't quite tell from the picture (crappy monitor, equally crappy eyes), but is the amp set on External Switching? I accidentally put mine on External Switching (instead of Footswitch) once and all I got was a very quiet clean tone on each and every channel, no matter the volume settings.

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I can't quite tell from the picture (crappy monitor, equally crappy eyes), but is the amp set on External Switching? I accidentally put mine on External Switching (instead of Footswitch) once and all I got was a very quiet clean tone on each and every channel, no matter the volume settings.

 

 

There you go! I think I had that happen before.

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There you go! I think I had that happen before.

 

 

It happened right after I brought it home from the shop for a repair. One of those, "aw man, what now" feelings. I was pleasantly surprised by my stupidity that day.

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I assume it does the same thing on each of the three channels? Have you tried plugging your guitar straight into the effects return to see if it produces sound? Have you cleaned the effects loop jacks? I haven't had an issue on any of my MKIVs with the loop, but one of my 5150s needed the loop cleaned.

 

 

Ok, plugged into the effects return and I got sound out of it, on all three channels, wierd, but the tone didn't sound right, it was really clean on all three channels.

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Ok, plugged into the effects return and I got sound out of it, on all three channels, wierd, but the tone didn't sound right, it was really clean on all three channels.

 

 

Yeah, it should be very clean. I should have mentioned that. When you plug into the return, you are bypassing the preamp and going straight to the power amp. What that tells me is that your power section is fine, so your problem is somewhere in the preamp.

 

The last thing I would try is unplugging the reverb tank RCA cable that connects it to the chassis, turning the reverb control to zero, turning the recording out control to zero, turning the slave out control to zero and trying the amp without EQ. Just try to narrow everything down. You may even want to try it running a cable between the effects loop output and input to see if that does anything.

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I can't quite tell from the picture (crappy monitor, equally crappy eyes), but is the amp set on External Switching? I accidentally put mine on External Switching (instead of Footswitch) once and all I got was a very quiet clean tone on each and every channel, no matter the volume settings.

 

 

Nope, it was set to lead in that picture, just make sure I put every knob on the front of the amp to 10 and rolled around from R1-->R2----> lead, still no sound but background hiss, unless I plug into the effects return.

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Yeah, it should be very clean. I should have mentioned that. When you plug into the return, you are bypassing the preamp and going straight to the power amp. What that tells me is that your power section is fine, so your problem is somewhere in the preamp.


The last thing I would try is unplugging the reverb tank RCA cable that connects it to the chassis, turning the reverb control to zero, turning the recording out control to zero, turning the slave out control to zero and trying the amp without EQ. Just try to narrow everything down. You may even want to try it running a cable between the effects loop output and input to see if that does anything.

 

 

Ok, did all this, still nothing when I plug into the input on the front, all though it did get slightly louder when I had my guitar plugged into the effects return and the effects send plugged into the front instruement jack.

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Ok, did all this, still nothing when I plug into the input on the front, all though it did get slightly louder when I had my guitar plugged into the effects return and the effects send plugged into the
front instruement jack
.

 

 

 

What he meant there was to run a patch cable from the effects send, to the return, and plug your guitar to the normal input of the amp on front.

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