User manual MESA BOOGIE DUAL CALIBRER DC-5

[. . . ] MESA BOOGIE DUALCALIBER DC - 5 Owner's Manual The Spirit of Art in Technology 1317 Ross Street, Petaluma, CA 94954 USA Hello from the Tone Farm. . . YOU, the smart player and all around intuitive human, have put your trust in us to be your amplifier company. This is something we do not take lightly. Our reward is that we've made a classic amplifier and by choosing this amplifier, you have become part of the MESA family. . . Welcome!Your reward is that you are now the owner of an archetypical guitar amp bred of fine all tube amp heritage. . . benefiting from the many patented pioneering MESA/Boogie circuits that led to the refinement of your new instrument. [. . . ] Much like holding a microphone into the PA system's cabinets. . . a loud high pitched squeal will occur. SPEAKER: One 8 ohm and two 4 ohm speaker jacks are provided. The DC-5 is not very sensitive to speaker mismatches and will not be damaged by them, except that very low ohmage loads will cause the power tubes to wear faster. A single twelve-inch 8 ohm speaker should generally be connected to the 8 ohm output. When using two 8 ohm speakers, connect them both to the 4 ohm outputs provided (because the total load is 4 ohms in that case. ) 4X12 cabinets may be 4, 8 or 16 ohms; if you are not sure of the impedance of your cabinet, you may need to remove the rear panel to see what the ohmage of the individual speakers are. MESA/Boogie 4X12 cabinets come standard wired to 8 ohms. They have four 8 ohm speakers wired in series-parallel. Some Non-Mesa 4X12 cabinets are wired 16 ohms using four 16 ohm speakers. By wiring all four speakers in parallel, you can reduce the cabinet to an impedance load of 4 ohms (assuming the speakers are 16 ohms each. ) No matter how unusual your speaker setup, it is always possible to get good performance. If you need two 8 ohm speaker jacks (in order to run two 16 ohm cabinets at the same time), you can use a Y-box and daisy-chain the cabinets together. SLAVE SPEAKERS 8 OHM 4 OHM 4 OHM Feel free to experiment with the speaker jacks, trying different loads. Many great sounds and feels may be achieved by experimenting with different combinations of speaker impedance. Keep in mind the greatest clean headroom is always achieved with proper impedance loads. . . i. e. an 8 ohm speaker connected to an 8 ohm jack. NOTE: Always use a load on the DC-5 when playing, unless you are recording direct and have the silent recording switch set to the Mute position. PAGE 9 SUGGESTED SAMPLE SETTINGS SAMPLE 1 INPUT PULL Sparkling Clean BOOST CHANNEL Rhythm 4 2 2 4 RHYTHM ON ON 5 5 1 3 FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 SAMPLE 2 Pushed Bluesy Rhythm/Solo INPUT PULL CHANNEL Rhythm 3 4 RHYTHM ON ON 8 BOOST 7 7 2 0 2 FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 SAMPLE 3 Crunch Rhythm (activate pull/boost) INPUT PULL EQ Optional 0 3 CHANNEL Rhythm RHYTHM ON ON 9 BOOST 7 6 3 0 2 FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 SAMPLE 4 High Gain Lead/Crunch INPUT PULL BOOST EQ Optional CHANNEL Lead RHYTHM ON ON 3 FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER 6 5 5 5 3 3 3 OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 PAGE 10 PERSONAL SETTINGS PAGE SAMPLE 1 INPUT PULL CHANNEL BOOST 5 5 1 4 2 2 4 RHYTHM ON ON FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 SAMPLE 2 INPUT PULL CHANNEL BOOST 5 5 1 4 2 2 4 RHYTHM ON ON FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 SAMPLE 3 INPUT PULL CHANNEL BOOST 5 5 1 4 2 2 4 RHYTHM ON ON FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 SAMPLE 4 INPUT PULL CHANNEL BOOST 5 5 1 4 2 2 4 RHYTHM ON ON FOOT SWITCH GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE REVERB MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL 80 240 750 2200 6600 LEAD STANDBY POWER DUAL CALIBER DC-5 PAGE 11 TUBE NOISE & MICROPHONICS You may occasionally experience some form of tube noise or microphonics. Certainly no cause for alarm, this quirky behavior comes with the territory and the Tone. Much like changing a light bulb, you don't need a technician to cure these types of minor user serviceable annoyances and in fact, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to cure tube problems. . . by simply swapping out a pre-amp or power tube! First may we suggest that you set the amplifier up on something so that you can get to the tubes comfortably without having to bend down. It also helps to have adequate lighting as you will need to see the tube sockets clearly to swap tubes. Use caution and common sense when touching the tubes after the amplifier has been on as they may be extremely hot!If they are hot and you don't want to wait for them to cool off, try grasping them with a rag and also note that the glass down around the bulbous silvery tip is considerably less hot which makes it easier to handle. Gently rock the tube back and forth as you pull it away from its socket. DIAGNOSING POWER TUBE FAILURES: There are two main types of tube faults: shorts and noise. Both large and small tubes may fall prey to either of these problems but diagnosis and remedy is usually simple. If a fuse blows, the problem is most likely a shorted power tube and shorts can either be mild or severe. In a mildly shorted tube the electron flow has overcome the control grid and excess current flows to the plate. You will usually hear the amp become distorted and begin to hum slightly. [. . . ] But often it is the mere novelty of change that they're really responding to and when the amp goes back to the proper original way, we've seen them be far happier still!Because every part in every one of our designs has been meticulously evaluated, compared and stressed over -- no matter how seemingly insignificant it might be. And with every design we look for a "sweet spot" where all the parameters -- including the bias -- come together to give the best sonic performance, consistently and reliably. Every part and voltage is important -- yet no one complains that these other parameters aren't available for tinkering. [. . . ]