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Big Problem M Pulse & Powerhouse 1000 cab

#61
As of today, Aug. 17, my current amp and cabinet have now been in the repair center since June 5, 2006.

The Vice President of Mesa Boogie called me yesterday.
When I told him I wanted my money back, due to all the problems with this set up, he very nicely said "their rigs are built to last. Something wrong with this configuration and we are sending you a new head and cabinet within the next couple of days." :hyper:

Since I bought the Mesa Boogie M Pulse 600 head and the Powerhouse 1000 cabinet because I love the sound, that is fine with me.

I'll keep you informed as to the outcome. Thanks for the support.
 
#63
vegasfan said:
As of today, Aug. 17, my current amp and cabinet have now been in the repair center since June 5, 2006.

The Vice President of Mesa Boogie called me yesterday.
When I told him I wanted my money back, due to all the problems with this set up, he very nicely said "their rigs are built to last. Something wrong with this configuration and we are sending you a new head and cabinet within the next couple of days." :hyper:

Since I bought the Mesa Boogie M Pulse 600 head and the Powerhouse 1000 cabinet because I love the sound, that is fine with me.

I'll keep you informed as to the outcome. Thanks for the support.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear...with Mesa I would expect nothing less. Just sucks that you had to go through all that!

Thats a great rig....you should be very pleased when you get a "normal" one that works right.
 
#67
I had a problem with a 400+, so I talked to Guitar Center, who handed it over to their Mesa authorized repair center. Big mistake. The problem came back. It turned into a whole mess with GC. What I ended up doing was calling Mesa directly. They told me that they have a lot of authorized repair centers, but the requirements to be one are very loose, so they also have a list of recommended repair centers. They gave me one local to me, had the amp fixed no problem. Talk to Mesa directly.
 
#68
Sorry to hear about all of the hell you have dealt with. Guitar Center is definitely not a helpful place.

The strangest thing about the M-Pulse 600 is that it runs at 625 watts and can hit peaks over 2000 watts! This is on page 11 of the manual and refers to a 4 ohm load. Maybe this is what really contributed to the problem. I always found this spec a little scary for speakers.

I hope your new rig satisfies your ears and is plenty loud for the band!
 
#69
Gearhead17 said:
The strangest thing about the M-Pulse 600 is that it runs at 625 watts and can hit peaks over 2000 watts!
Click to expand...

And remember, those aren't just regular watts, they're MESA watts! :D

btw, I've always wondered why the M-Pulse 600 does not have a "clip" indicator. I've seen this question in other threads, but no one seems to know the answer. Hmmmm.


Kevin
 
#70
TrooperFarva said:
I had a problem with... Talk to Mesa directly.
Click to expand...
I've been talking directly with Mesa since June '06, after the rig was back in the shop for the second repair in 6 months. Everyone wanted to put the blame on me. As I said before, this rig has not been played in a venue yet and failure of the equipment was not due to settings. ( I have an SWR 15" combo, I've played all over Las Vegas venues and it's only mechanical problem was the screws working their way out of the cabinet by the end of the night.
However, as time went on, I felt I needed to push more air and cut through the mix. So, I bought Mesa because it provided what I wanted.)

Back to the Mesa challenge: The local repair center for Mesa/Guitar Center are one and the same. No others were mentioned. The Mesa HQ rep. told me they were "out of options" after they changed the 10" -100 watt speakers to the 10" -300 watt speakers.

I didn't like the new sound. No highs, mids muddy, not what I bought. On top of that, all the settings had to be pushed just to get it to that poor sounding level.

I imagine it was really hard on entire set up because right away the 15" had intermittent issues.

The problems were continuing and the repair center told me if I went back to the 100 watt 10" they would continue to bottom out.

That's when I told Mesa I wanted my money back. This specific rig was not reliable.

So now Mesa is sending me a new head and cabinet.

I understand in the beginning they were trying to fix a problem. But when they tell a customer who's forked out over $3100.00 for a rig, that's all they can do, it's unacceptable. They should have sent me a new head & cabinet back in June.

I'm confident this new set up will be the reason I paid top dollar for Mesa.
 
#72
I had the same exact rig two years ago for about six months, and was completely satisfied with it. The head and cabinet were both very solid for me, durability and tone-wise. The cabinet is with a friend of mine and still going strong, the head was shipped to germany and is still working fine AFAIK.

I don't think that setup should have a problem with any venue smaller than a gymnasium... with the pre-amp gain properly adjusted I rarely had to exceed 50% on the master to keep up with my old guitarist playing a crunched out Gibson Les Paul through a Mesa Triple rec/4x12 cab setup, which was LOUD.

Once you get your new setup you should be good to go.
 
#73
StoutXXX said:
When anyone has a problem with their car after a return policy do they take the car back to the sales lot to get it fixed? No. They take it to a mechanic. Same with gear. When I have problems I call the dudes who made it, not the ones who sold it. Only makes sense.
Click to expand...

I originally went back to the dealer for 2 reasons:
(1) because GC had to tell me where to send it for repairs. (2) It was a "new" floor model. When I was finalizing the sale, I was under the impression I was getting a new one in a box. I was then told I'd have to wait 3 months to get another "new one" out of the box, because Mesa was changing head configurations. I had an audition that weekend and GC said this set up was covered by an extensive warranty. They stood behind their product and they wanted to be kept in the loop if any repairs were to be done to something they sold with such a high price tag. After all their reputation is tied to whatever they sell, is it not?

As with auto manufacturers, if there is a massive recall the dealership is notified as well as the customer. In this case, I was the one with the lemon and had to go through proper channels to make sure my warranty wasn't voided.

It's been a week, and I'm waiting for my new replacement equipment.
 
#75
Ian Hall said:
I had the same exact rig two years ago for about six months, and was completely satisfied with it. The head and cabinet were both very solid for me, durability and tone-wise. The cabinet is with a friend of mine and still going strong, the head was shipped to germany and is still working fine AFAIK.

I don't think that setup should have a problem with any venue smaller than a gymnasium... with the pre-amp gain properly adjusted I rarely had to exceed 50% on the master to keep up with my old guitarist playing a crunched out Gibson Les Paul through a Mesa Triple rec/4x12 cab setup, which was LOUD.

Once you get your new setup you should be good to go.
Click to expand...

Your info. is encouraging. This particular setup was not played out in a venue, only rehearsals in a residential home. I left the band, they only wanted to practice once a week, not my idea of a serious approach to music. So it was never played that loudly. Just out of curosity, how did you set you EQ?
 
#76
bassinstincts said:
I have read a few times that Mesa customer service is good. My experience has been quite the opposite. I have found them to be aloof and condescending and not very helpful. The local factory-authorized repair center (a guy working from his home) is great, however.
Click to expand...

I heard Mesa was top drawer in service, probably because according to others they rarely needed repair. But you were right, in the beginning the Mesa HQ rep. acted like the entire problem was me and my settings. As if I was 12 years old and with my first rig not knowing what the heck I was doing. Finally, after all explanations and everyone involved having the understanding it wasn't the settings, and furthermore when the cabinet produced the same bottoming out of the 100 watt-10"s before it left the repair shop, then people started taking a deeper look.
Our local repair people are great guys. They tried. But in the end, when I threw in the towel and told everyone I was done, Mesa HQ finally agreed my rig needs to take a trip to Petaluma, CA for a replacement.

I'm anxious to make some music again and not worry about my rig.

Again, thanks to all who read this thread and had input of all kinds.
 
#77
vegasfan said:
As of today, Aug. 17, my current amp and cabinet have now been in the repair center since June 5, 2006.

The Vice President of Mesa Boogie called me yesterday.
When I told him I wanted my money back, due to all the problems with this set up, he very nicely said "their rigs are built to last. Something wrong with this configuration and we are sending you a new head and cabinet within the next couple of days." :hyper:

Since I bought the Mesa Boogie M Pulse 600 head and the Powerhouse 1000 cabinet because I love the sound, that is fine with me.

I'll keep you informed as to the outcome. Thanks for the support.
Click to expand...


Very cool. Hope it all works out for you :)
 
#78
Good to hear that mesa are replacing the rig. But if the customer service is as good as people say it is. This would of been done from day one. Without persistant complaints and contact. For a company like mesa replacing the rig shouldn't be a problem at all. It's not going to bankrupt them or anything. What they did was the right thing, but it took along time and a lot of prodding to do so. Surley this couldn't be considerd good customer service?

The one thing I was thinking as soon as I read post one is to be sure to know your consumer rights. You as a customer and the rest of us for that matter have rights and they should be used if needed. Heres our ones

of merchantable quality
fit for its normal purpose, and reasonably durable
as described, whether the description is part of the advertising or wrapping, on a label, or something said by the salesperson.
Click to expand...
Your entitled to a refund replcement or reapir if the product goes against any of the above.

I know it varies from state to state there but when you go into a place armed with what exactly your entitled to by law they simply can't say no.
 
#79
vegasfan said:
I originally went back to the dealer for 2 reasons:
(1) because GC had to tell me where to send it for repairs. (2) It was a "new" floor model. When I was finalizing the sale, I was under the impression I was getting a new one in a box. I was then told I'd have to wait 3 months to get another "new one" out of the box, because Mesa was changing head configurations. I had an audition that weekend and GC said this set up was covered by an extensive warranty. They stood behind their product and they wanted to be kept in the loop if any repairs were to be done to something they sold with such a high price tag. After all their reputation is tied to whatever they sell, is it not?

As with auto manufacturers, if there is a massive recall the dealership is notified as well as the customer. In this case, I was the one with the lemon and had to go through proper channels to make sure my warranty wasn't voided.

It's been a week, and I'm waiting for my new replacement equipment.
Click to expand...

All GC had to do was ship one from another store to you. Recall and everything aside you got fixed. It took way to long but after the first failed fix attempt You had to options. Bring to to GC and sit it in the middle of the floor and waited till someone got you one in a box...with 160 something stores it can be done or the Mesa pres. finally comes thru. Either way Im glad you got what you needed done but I cant believe you had that sort of patience. Kudo's for that. Customers always get what they want in the end...its jsut a matter of time and talking to the right person. I had GC swap out a mackie powered sub that was 3 years old...Bought an extended warranty for 2 years and the thing broke after three years. I should have just waited on the manufacter's warranty but I had a gig. So they pulled the trigger for me. Managers...those are the guys to talk to.
 
#80
StoutXXX said:
All GC had to do was ship one from another store to you. Managers...those are the guys to talk to.
Click to expand...

All retail stores want to clear out their current inventory to make room for the new stuff.
However, I've seen the way some customers handle equipment at Guitar Center and I was concerned about this floor model. I thought GC would have shipped me a new one, but instead they kept pushing the warranty and the reliability of Mesa's product.

I've purchased many thousands of dollars of gear from GC over the years. The managers stick to the 30 day rule, and did replace one item I had a problem with, right away. In this case however, because the tweeter blew right at 90 days, GC management pushed responsibility to Mesa to make the purchase road worthy. They sold it, and expected the manufacturer to stand behind the product.

The problem was when Mesa HQ said changing the speakers was "all they could do." That's when I let everyone know that was not acceptable.
If I didn't get my money back or new equipment, the only alternative was to file a lawsuit. I didn't want to do that, but $3,100. is a lot of money to throw away. Additionally, if Guitar Center knowingly sold product a manufacturer would not stand behind, they would be co-conspirators in duping the public.

Hopefully this will all be straightened out soon.
 

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