Mesa boogie KILLING my wah

[YouAre]

I recently acquired a mesa boogie nomad 55 head. Distortion sounds terrific, and its got me into this phase of amp distortion. But whenever i use wah, the mesa makes it sound like shite.

For example: The wah (dunlop 535q) sounds like its after distortion, and acts like a volume pedal at the same time it seems like. on clean with wah i get distortion at the toe down range. But then when i raise the output, the wah seems to work normally. is there any kinda buffer/noisegate i can build/buy to fix this problem? If its somethign i can build into a simpler wah like clyde or a GGG wah, i'd be more than happy to build that and add a buffer or something

Thanks,
Murad

[jimbob]

I can relate. I have problems w my 535q w my amp as well. From what ive learned- some amps are just picky about what sounds good with them. This is esp true with high gain amps. I have a lot of effects that work well my my solid state and just a few with my tube amp..

Mesa Boogie hu? Nice amp! Must be nice Man.

anyway, thats all i got after lots threads bout the same topic.

[ESPm2M]

I'm a Mesa owner and I don't have this issue.  I have a triple recto. with 6L6s. What power tubes are you running?

[jimbob]

Whats with these amps? I know tons of people with one --but me.. Are they geared more toward the serious musician? Cause I hear there expensive..But also high quality

[ESPm2M]

Whats with these amps? I know tons of people with one --but me.. Are they geared more toward the serious musician? Cause I hear there expensive..But also high quality

Mesa Boogie amps in general, or Mesa Boogie Rectifier amps?

[bwanasonic]

on clean with wah i get distortion at the toe down range. But then when i raise the output, the wah seems to work normally. is there any kinda buffer/noisegate i can build/buy to fix this problem?

How do you have the wah boost set? Do you get the distortion (on clean) with the boost off? I've found I can easily overload some amp inputs with the boost on my 535q is on. Though my understanding is that the boost can also function as a buffer, solving mismatch problems in some setups. And last but not least: battery OK ?  

Kerry M

[YouAre]

Jimbob: thanks, it is a great amp, got the head for 700, and its a workhorse, it does everything i want

Espm2m: i'm running 6l6's as well, i just put new ones in, i'm noticing the problem at lower volumes usually

bwanasonic: the wah boost is off, and i'm using the godlyke power supply

so i think that its pretty much a low volume issue, do you think that somehow lowering the volume of the wah will help?

[Mark Hammer]

It's not just that amp.  Some distortion pedals sound great after a wah, and some sound terrible.  I just wish I knew what distinguished them in terms of design so that it could be compensated for in some manner to assure a great wah+dist tone every single time.

[Kleber AG]

well just a guess

Wah works with the mid frequencies of the guitar, and all of mesa amps I've played usually have that scooped sound(almost without mids)

try to boost more mids at the amp just to check if that could be the problem.

BTW: Mesa amps sounds great IMO.

Regards
Kleber AG

[RDV]

It's not just that amp.  Some distortion pedals sound great after a wah, and some sound terrible.  I just wish I knew what distinguished them in terms of design so that it could be compensated for in some manner to assure a great wah+dist tone every single time.

I find the Dist+ particularly pleasing after a wah, but very few others. The more gain, the less wah it seems.

RDV

[Chris R]

i use my vox wah.. w/ my nomad 45 (I love this amp) and it works fine..

is there anything else in your signal chain ?

you could always try running it through the effects loop.. not my first choice for a wah.. but might work ok in a pinch.

C

[swt]

i don't know if this is correct, but as far as i know these amps have a ferrite bead, or some kind of inductor at the input.  maybe that's causing you trouble. I own a dc5 dual caliber, which is the previous version of the amp you have, and never realized there's a 1.5meg at the input of the clean channel, for channel switching purposes. It sound great with a wah, so i began experimenting with my d*mble clone, that has a 22k res at the input, trying to understand what happens. Maybe the gurus can correct me, but the case seem to be that the input resistor acts as a bias or impedance matcher, as in the f*lltone 69. it's unbelievable how good it sounds with a larger resistor at the input. But the fact is that it mess your clean sound. Will have to experiment a bit more, but maybe this and the ferrite bead is a good start for hypothesis, and let the ones who know more than me talk. hope this help.

[george]

is there any kinda buffer/noisegate i can build/buy to fix this problem?

have you tried just a boss pedal or other pedal that has a buffered bypass between the wah and amp?  This might give you the fix you are after, or at least tell you if putting a buffer in your wah is going to work or not