I know that the Mesa Walkabout is stable at 4ohms and unofficially at 2ohms but when i connect my two Aguilar GS112s (8ohms each) the head gets hot. Theres plenty of space for heat to disapate but after a show or practice when i pick it up its hot as hell! The gain is usually between 1 and 3 oclock, the master is between 8 and 10 and the eqs are not at extremes(all set pretty much in the middle) I took it apart when i first got it (used) to see if there was any dust and i blew it away. So Im at a point where i dont know what to do.
Check to see if the fan is running... it should be on all the time as it's not thermostatically switched. If not, get that fixed right away.
That seems unusual to me. The only time that mine has ever gotten hot was when I had to crank the gain quite high to get enough volume out of a single 8 ohm cab in order to compete with my guitar players. Maybe you should turn the gain up a bit and the master down some. I know that this won't be quite as clean of a sound, but it might take some of the load off the power amp section.
nope the fan is running....when i stop playing i hear it whirring around. the master is only at 9 oclock. anymore and they tell me to turn down.
You may want to give tech support a call, or perhaps PM Benjamin Strange here on TB. Something does not sound right. Even with a 2 ohm load, my Walkabout does not run at all hot with those gain settings.
Just for kicks, try a lower Gain setting and a higher Master setting. I know that this is opposite to what I just said, but I initially was thinking of your numerical values on the "scale of 1-10" thing, and not as relative locations on a clock. Duh!
Did you get a manual with it? Flat settings are always a good starting point and are as follows: Gain: 12 o'clock Bass: 12 o'clock Mid: 7 o'clock (full counter clockwise) Parametrics (the top row of knobs): 12 o'clock (0db) Treble: 12 o'clock DI Level: 7 o'clock (full counter clockwise) Master: Somewhere between 9 & 12 o'clock If this doesn't help, take it to the Mesa doctor... good luck.
Be SURE you're using speaker cables to connect to your speaker cabs. Once someone "helped" me set up our PA, and used a guitar cord to connect one of the floor wedges, and that almost cooked my power amp (good thing it was a QSC!).
my eq's are set pretty much flat and Im using monstercable speaker cables. Im gonna call Mesa somtime this week.
Sounds like your amp may need to go to the shop for a bias adjustment. The symptons that you're describing seem to indicate that. I had a SWR that exhibited the same symptoms and adjusting the bias corrected the problem. With the SWR pro-line amps you can perform any easy check by turning the amp on (with no input or speaker connected) and if the amp chassis gets fairly warm, the amp needs a bias adjustment. Mesa can confirm if this test will work on their amps.
ill most likely be calling Mesa tomorrow and/or my repair guy who is an official Mesa repair shop. but that'll be after my show Friday.....if i bring it in i more than likely wont have an amp for the show.