Mark IV to Mesa a month ago for service .... arriving back to me soon. (Now with Update)

Frehley12

Frehley12

Active member
I sent my almost 30 yr old Mark IVa short head to Mesa around the end of January for Mike to work on it. Here's a list of what was done. I will get it back hopefully by this weekend or early next week. What should I expect to hear after a full cap job?

Mike Bendinelli: Clean up all sockets jacks pot etc as prudent, mostly all looking like new. Remove and replace all the electrolytic caps in the amp, also upgrade the .1/400 org drop caps at V5 to .1/630 volt. Pulled the fan and reverb tank from cab. Fan works well as new. Reverb tank had internal foam beginning to crumble, replaced that and cleaned all rev cabling and contacts. Also added extra soldered ground connections inside and re-installed. Amp’s all working pretty much as new. Tested with bench FTSW set. Labor 2.5 hrs.
 
Nice! I bought a Tremoverb brand new in 1995 and loved that amp. Sold it and regretted it every day for years. Picked up another about 5 years ago and it wasn't the same. Should have sent it in for service to experience the results.
 
I bet it will sound great. Interesting that the vactrols were all good.

I still have mine ripped a part waiting for me to put in the caps. 2021 for me has been a flood of repairs and so my stuff takes the back burner.
 
Frehley12 said:
I sent my almost 30 yr old Mark IVa short head to Mesa around the end of January for Mike to work on it. Here's a list of what was done. I will get it back hopefully by this weekend or early next week. What should I expect to hear after a full cap job?

Mike Bendinelli: Clean up all sockets jacks pot etc as prudent, mostly all looking like new. Remove and replace all the electrolytic caps in the amp, also upgrade the .1/400 org drop caps at V5 to .1/630 volt. Pulled the fan and reverb tank from cab. Fan works well as new. Reverb tank had internal foam beginning to crumble, replaced that and cleaned all rev cabling and contacts. Also added extra soldered ground connections inside and re-installed. Amp’s all working pretty much as new. Tested with bench FTSW set. Labor 2.5 hrs.
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How much for everything plus shipping ?
 
I have a 3 with Mesa as well that needed some sort of repairs. Been there maybe two weeks so far; not sure if anyone's looked at it yet.
 
Chris6870 said:
I had mine IVa done end of last year. He replaced a boat load of stuff. I think it may be a little brighter with the new caps. Mine was about $380 with shipping, which I thought was very reasonable.
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Same price as mine too with return shipping. Shipping to Mesa is on you.
 
fek said:
Nice! I bought a Tremoverb brand new in 1995 and loved that amp. Sold it and regretted it every day for years. Picked up another about 5 years ago and it wasn't the same. Should have sent it in for service to experience the results.
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I bought a trem o verb new around 95 also, it was the best Mesa I have played by a mile. It was a great, great amp and to this day regret letting it go.
 
Update: I received my amp today and my thoughts are the amp is tighter and a little more clarity. I did have 2 broken 12ax7s during shipping on my end to Mesa. I was bummed as they were the Chinese square getters. I should have put crappy pre amp tubes in it before I shipped.

Back to the amp... I remember it being mean as hell. It had this unbelievable angry tone. I hope it's still in there, I just have to find it again as the recaps have changed things slightly. That slightly is a big deal in this amp.
 
Frehley12 said:
Update: I received my amp today and my thoughts are the amp is tighter and a little more clarity. I did have 2 broken 12ax7s during shipping on my end to Mesa. I was bummed as they were the Chinese square getters. I should have put crappy pre amp tubes in it before I shipped.

Back to the amp... I remember it being mean as hell. It had this unbelievable angry tone. I hope it's still in there, I just have to find it again as the recaps have changed things slightly. That slightly is a big deal in this amp.
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I always ship mine tubeless. That way no worries with the 415s that I have. You can't even find them used these days. Never know with shipping what's gonna happen.
 
Racerxrated said:
I always ship mine tubeless. That way no worries with the 415s that I have. You can't even find them used these days. Never know with shipping what's gonna happen.
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This. They’ve long since realized I’m not sending any tubes in with my amps, haha. If your tubes are fine, there’s no point in having them make 2 more trips in the hands of FedEx/UPS just to be tested.
 
I never get an amp worked on unless something is actually wrong. If it sounds great I don’t want to lose that. Had a superlead build cutting out on me. Sent it in as I couldn’t sus it. Tech was a well respected Marshall tech. Replaced all the pots (treble pot was culprit) and redid the grounding on them to another style and the amp never sounded as good again. It just lost a fiery edge it had. Sold it a little while later. I had built it from a kit and it was my baby and maybe if I’d sourced the exact same pots as the build..woulda, shoulda, coulda...yada, yada
 
New caps are stiff, give it a week or so of playing to settle in. Other than that I wouldn't expect much difference with a IV other than you can trust it for the next 25 years now!
 
skoora said:
I never get an amp worked on unless something is actually wrong. If it sounds great I don’t want to lose that. Had a superlead build cutting out on me. Sent it in as I couldn’t sus it. Tech was a well respected Marshall tech. Replaced all the pots (treble pot was culprit) and redid the grounding on them to another style and the amp never sounded as good again. It just lost a fiery edge it had. Sold it a little while later. I had built it from a kit and it was my baby and maybe if I’d sourced the exact same pots as the build..woulda, shoulda, coulda...yada, yada
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Pots have a ton of variation. I mean a 500k pot usually doesn’t measure 500k right on the nose, it can be from 400k to 550k from what I have seen. I always send back the original parts that I replace, but sounds like you didn’t get those back to measure them.
 
no does boogies like boogie. i bought my mark IVa used from mesa hollywood, and it was freshly teched with the factory style tag and everything. the stupid ass brown vertical caps in the power section that burst were replaced, and the heat sink placed on the op amps in that same spot. has been flawless ever since.
 
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