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Mesa M6 Carbine Mega-Thread Pt Deux

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I'm finding that it is almost impossible to coax a bad sound out of this amp. It just delivers the goods all across the board. The tonal changes you get from the gain settings and the postion of the bass knob (since that seems to change the overall tonal character, and not just the bass level) do add some complexity to finding "the" sound, but I'm not so worried since there are so many good sounds.

That's not surprising to hear about the Carbine, it has been my experience with most Mesa heads that I have played through. Although their EQ did take me a little time to get the feel of it.
 
I was way down the the low frequecies and the other band members didn't seem to notice just how loud I was until I found the resonant frequency of the room was "B" when I hit it for a long sustain, at which time the walls started to move as did people's clothing. My keyboardist said she could feel her pants shaking; I almost asked her if she wanted me to go back and hold the note a bit longer, but that would have been in poor taste :D
Well, if you didn't go there, I would have, so if that makes you feel any better anyway... :D :D
 
Smallequestrian - I must have missed your post about the custom 3 button switch. I went back a few pages and didn't see it. Can you point me to your last post on it or just tell me the 3 buttons are/do?

That's because I haven't posted about it yet!

The three buttons are unlabled so that I can decide which functions I want them to control. For instance, I am pretty sure I will never need the position one switch, so I saw no need to have all four positions covered. I'll post pictures when it comes in.
 
A bit of a derail, but I spent about 45 minutes with an M9 today through a PH410. Honestly, it sounded just like the M6... which is a good thing :) IMO it pretty much comes down to your interest in having an onboard compressor and 9-band graphic EQ. I found the graphic to be better than I expected; it was very smooth and matches the amp very well (to my ears, some graphics are WAY too extreme for the amp voicing) and I was able to tweak it nicely. I don't really care for compressors, but it did it's job and sounded a lot like the compressor in the M-Pulse 600. One thing I didn't like was the tiny knobs. In order to fit that extra stuff on there Mesa really shrunk the knobs, and for whatever reason it kind of bothered me.

It is 900 watts vs. 600, but I never turn my M6 past 9 o'clock, so the extra wattage doesn't really do anything for me. Either way, it's a good problem to have, no? :smug:
 
Anybody have much expierience with one of these and a Berg NV425 ....... or 610?



Aj

I've played the M6 through the NV215 (which is OMFG good!), NV610 and the NV412, but not the NV425. It's just freakin' great with the 215, and very very good with either the 610 or 412.

IME/IMHO, and all that stuff. YMMV. :cool:

Tom.
 
OK; taming the boom: getting cabs away from walls behind them on stage definately helps.

DI: I've used it several times now, always starting with the post setting-but telling the sound guy that's what I was doing; and to ask me to go to pre if he felt that would be better. So far; they've all liked the post setting. No noise outta my DI; just great tone.

"POP goes the M6."
I'd noticed this once at home, and considered it some weird anomoly. But, last night and at a couple of rehearsals, the M6 has made a loud, big speaker excursion pop when standby off or on...or, just turning down the volume. At first I thought this might have been some "SWR-like" deal, but as it did it inconsistently, perhaps not. By starting at the input jack, trying different cords, no cord, and with input off, I narrowed it down to the master volume/standby pot. Standby didn't do it, but cranking the volume all the way down found the trouble spot at the zero'd end of it's sweep. Popped her out of the case, removed the many top cover screws, cleaned the pot, and now all seems to be well.
 
"POP goes the M6."
I'd noticed this once at home, and considered it some weird anomoly. But, last night and at a couple of rehearsals, the M6 has made a loud, big speaker excursion pop when standby off or on...or, just turning down the volume. At first I thought this might have been some "SWR-like" deal, but as it did it inconsistently, perhaps not. By starting at the input jack, trying different cords, no cord, and with input off, I narrowed it down to the master volume/standby pot. Standby didn't do it, but cranking the volume all the way down found the trouble spot at the zero'd end of it's sweep. Popped her out of the case, removed the many top cover screws, cleaned the pot, and now all seems to be well.

I have the same issue. Only between zero'd and about 8 o'clock on the master vol. Mine has never popped unless I move the volume pot down below 8 o'clock. Looks like I need to pop 'er open tonight.

Thanks for posting that. :cool:
 
No pop here. I just dial my master to 0 then pull the bypass if i need to unplug while leaving the amp on. I've found I can generally get back to about the same setting without too much trouble.

The pop is happening when the master is dialed down to 0. I can pull the mute out and it takes care of the problem, but it seems like an easy fix.
 
I'd have thought the grounds were common(not sure though), in which case you'd only need 6 conductor wire. Easy enough to test. Mesa makes a 5 button pedal you could use as a basis:
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DrMusic, thanks for the Housing idea. I went and bought an old car amplifier and gutted it. As far as the cable goes, If you look at the back of the amp, there are grouped 5 - 1/4" jacks for this part of it. Each supplies one of the functions - mute, voice1, voice2, voice4, voice5. I believe that I must supply each of these jacks, and each of the switches, with a ground as a discrete run. Or am I stooped?
 
I don't think you do. I think if you connect any voice+ to any voice- the '+' voice will activate. Easy to test: plug two patch cables into any two voice ports and, with a meter, see if the sleeves of the two cables are connected. I think you will find that they are, this makes them 'common'.
 
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