where are the blue mesa's? (taurus)

D

dr teeth

Active member
In the 90's mesa offered red, gray, blue and green taurus. I've got a pic of a brochure around somewhere. Idr if the red was called wine at the time but all these colors were marbled like the wine taurus of today. Wine is the only one that survived.

The DC series are the only cabs I've seen with it which is a little odd if you ask me. No recti? No blue and green wrapped blue and green stripes? That is for all the blue stripes produced in the green stripe age that didn't conform to the D standard (S, H, K). Did everyone see a red door and want to paint it black? I've speculated the gray DC-5 (head and combo) was stocked at stores since there is an abundance of them. The others not so. I'm still hunting the elusive green just to cast vision on it.

I was lucky enough to find a DC-3 "full stack" blue from a seller and former gc worker in the Chicago area back in the day when you could find mesa's in the store. Yeah, yeah, I know but it's gibson that put them back in. I was unlucky enough that the head cab was treated just as you would expect a shipper to treat it and it came down with "top left crack thru the dove tail" syndrome. I later picked up a DC-5 blue head locally but it too is cracked.. If anyone has some blue head shells in a closet please let me know. Or if anyone runs a tolex business I'll take a custom roll!

Figured I'd share since this isn't common.
 

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The blue seems more rare than a revolver cab (which by the way would someone give me?)
 

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the stack:
 

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I picked up a non-working blue angel combo a few years back and never got around to fixing it so it's been stashed away. I thought back on it after posting and was going to look at it as I was pretty sure it was also blue (with wicker grill iirc) but I couldn't remember if it was the same marbled mix.

Thank you for posting and confirming. Cheers! My DC pics show the blue really well but just looking at it in person the tolex is darker/more subtle as you say. It reminds me of the Sabbath and BOC tour I still wish I went to.

Unless you beat me to it I'll pull that BA cab out and take a pic.
 
if your blue angel has issues, contact mesa. i had one in the late 00's/early 10's that was having weird issues crackling and sounding like shit, not under warranty or anything. i called mesa, and they told me they had an issue with that black rectangular, epoxied over circuit, on the main pcb. i sent it to them, and they replaced the whole board for free, with that rectangular spot uncovered. must have been a revised board or something. i just paid both shippings, which at the time was like 60 bucks total cuz it was just the chassis, and it was great after that.
maybe they'll fix yours. worth a call... still pull the chassis and take pics!!!!
 
Hey Jim, yeah iirc the "dumble" EQ section or something right?! It's been a few years but when I contacted mesa they were kind enough to send me the circuit but I think they were out of boards. I wish they had one. The chassis is already pulled and I'll get some pics.

There was another besides the blue angel with that mess of a board (rocket?)
 
That pre board has a nice and clean layout. It's like a sexy woman and then mesa done and gone covered the naked body with tar and feathers.
 
mike b said it was some kind of "compressor circuit", but he might have just been kinda saying words to pacify my curiosity. there is a little mini trim pot on there, that might be the dumble thingy, since dumble was known to have shit like that inside his amps to "customize them" to players styles or whatever. take all that with a grain of salt, not sure how true any of that is. just stuff i've read on these forums over the years.
 
Any one know if the blue angel was stocked in any stores with that blue tolex? It's fellow class A rectifier maverick is typically blonde (tan, cream, whatever) but most blue angels I've seen are black.
 
The only thing blue about my BA are the filter caps which suggest this amp was made at the end of 2003.. I must have been thinking I'd like to redo the cab in the blue taurus but the tolex is long gone from dealers.
 

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The good news is the pre is free of the mesa blob! I don't know if mine escaped the blob or was swapped later. Forensics show sloppy flux on the 12ax7 sockets but many wires are connected without flux mess. The jury is out deliberating over a graffix (actually just a jar with the proper holes cut out atm...).

But I see no overheated sockets, no bulging caps, and the only visual issue is it needs a new slave knob that I think I already got. I got this from the big international website that has this retarded lack of insurance. They ended up owning this amp and sold as non-working but what that means is anyone's guess from a bad v1 tube to shot OT if someone ran it without a load to someone not knowing you had to turn the power switch to on. I guess I should throw some tubes in it, check the fuse and see if I get plate volts.

The mesa blob (do I need to say trademarked blob?) can be seen on searches of blue angels and it's over the area circled on the PCB at the lower left of the 2nd pic. It has 7 transistors (BJT's?), 21 R's, 4 axial caps and a few radial disc caps. But don't tell anyone.
 

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Not blue, but I had a 2C+ Combo that I bought a red/wine head shell for. It had a tan front. Sold and tried and tried to track it down with no luck…

Someone surely has a Blue Angel on here….
 
To continue the off topic blue angel my non-working one came with JJ tubes. Not my go to but I hear nothing but good things about the EL84's. Misplaced 2 12ax7's and a 84 so I put an obviously not matched by the glow mesa labeled 84 and new mesa labeled 12ax7 in v1, and a GT I had handy in V5. Crackle pop snap and a faint signal. Mostly on the volume as it tried to regulate power but the mid pot was both scratchy and a little suspect with pop. Pop just isn't my genre. I pulled out the v3 tube, put a new mesa in V1 and moved the next 2 down.
Walla! And NAD! Add an angel to my stable. One bad JJ ax7 was enough for the amp to be non-working. The mid pot was really scratchy so I'll de-oxit the pots tomorrow and see if I have that duck bill knob for the slave. I pulled the speaker and don't remember why but I can only guess it came with a MC-90 and i pulled it to put in one of my blue stripe DRG combos I sold snagging the 12L.
Right now it's going into a loose pristine 12L I pulled from a purple stripe. The rectifier OT leaves driver ohm options wide open so I'll have to think on it while I crank it thru the 12l tomorrow. I might set the Maverick up and have a class A rectifest!
Makes me wonder if I should try the blue dog I picked up long ago in it. Anyone try a Fane in a blue angel?
 
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