Mesa Nomad Players...how do you make it sound good?

[Gresh]

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I spent the better part of an hour with a Jem and a Nomad 55 2x12 combo and I couldn't get one decent tone out of it. Out of frustration, I plugged into the Rectoverb 50 combo next to it and blammo...good tones immediately, a little more tweaking and I had both a killer clean tone and an awesome Petrucci tone happening...it sounded huge.

Went back to the Nomad, tried some more and it just sounded like chewed bubble gum. I've read all the praises for this amp, so that's why I tried one but I can't get anything out of it. I really did like the Rectoverb though, and that surprised me. THe Nomad was really really noisey and it hummed to high heaven....maybe this one is messed up????

Any suggestions. My Marshall is just too much amp and I have a trade offer for a Nomad 45 2x12 plus cash. I can't find a 45 to try out so I thought the 55 would be close. Any input guys...I know a few folks have the Nomad 45 around here.

Thanks, Brad

[jemsite]

Originally Posted by Gresh

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I spent the better part of an hour with a Jem and a Nomad 55 2x12 combo and I couldn't get one decent tone out of it.

Come on, how is anyone reading this on the internet supposed to know your idea of "decent tone".... LOL.

The nomad should be very quiet... sounds like something is wrong. The nomad also has 2 modes and a full eq, gain & vol for each channel so there is alot of tweaking needed. Overall you should be able to get classic rock/clean out of ch1, and higher gain/lead sustain out of ch2 and 3. If you throw in a good distortion pedal it can be almost used like a 4-channel amp.

The 45 is a bit different than the 55 but i'd do the trade in a heartbeat... nevermind getting cash too... CA-CHING The 45 and a 2x12 cab is a great rig (very portable if needed all alone)... glen

[Gresh]

I guess the bottom line is that this particular Nomad shouldn't be used as a yardstick for anything else. It had to be messed up.

[track7]

wo wo wo!!! nomads rule big style! ha ha..i think you tried a bad one.

But seriously you're not an idiot at all in fact they can be tricky to get find the good sounds with. But i find that with all mesa amps.

The biggest problem i think you will be having is that the 55 and 100 have to be cranked. To get a sweet sound at low volumes is certainly a tweaking affair.

You say you have the option of the 45...well if you dont need the volum (and i reckon you wont) the 45 is a much much better option. Its 2 poweramp voicing modes (normal and exteme) offer a great balance between satuartion, rawness and bass response. Basically if you are after a more raw full body aggressive tone you can get it at relativley lower volumes by switching to extreme mode.

For a full review and demo settings check this out

http://www.petrucciforum.com/cgi-bin...m=2&topic=5854

if you want some sound samples of my 45 in action just reply and let me know and i'll host some.

hope it works out for ya..

track7

p.s in all fairness i tried out both the rectoverb 50 and the nomads and found the rectoverb to be much quicker to get a good tone with however not as pleasing in the long run, also its far less versatile. But still very nice amp!

[Gresh]

Thanks Track7,

I printed out your settings and will demo it tonight on the 45...I'm gonna bring along my 2x12 recto cab and plug it in too just to get the full effect. I appreciate your input, thanks very much.

You too Glen, thanks.

[Dan D Mahnn]

Despite what everyone else is saying (namely that there must be something wrong with the Nomad you played) have you considered the Nomad just isnt the kind of sound you like personally? Nomads are very different from Recto's. Ive owned recto's and my rhthym guitar player played a Nomad 45 for years before moving to a marshall TSL. They always sounded very different.

When you described the tone of the Nomad I felt like saying "I hear that" becouse personally I feel the same way about the tone. I like very different types of amps from Nomads. It took me years and an army of amps to realize what I like as a player and what I dont. Mostly becouse I listen too much to hype and convinced myself the problem is my hearing becouse thiers no way I could dislike something so many other people love.

So what Im saying is, if you tried it and didnt feel you like it, dont let other people persuade you otherwise. By all means try out thier settings and see if you like it, but dont persuade yourself to think you can like it if you dont becouse other people say you should. I posted this because it sounds like your looking for excuses for why you didnt like something that so many other people did. Trust your ears. Its those ears that have to listen to the amp/guitar/pedal/etc.. every night if you buy it.

[Guitarlos2]

Originally Posted by Gresh

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I spent the better part of an hour with a Jem and a Nomad 55 2x12 combo and I couldn't get one decent tone out of it. Out of frustration, I plugged into the Rectoverb 50 combo next to it and blammo...good tones immediately, a little more tweaking and I had both a killer clean tone and an awesome Petrucci tone happening...it sounded huge.
Went back to the Nomad, tried some more and it just sounded like chewed bubble gum.

How can you make a Nomad sound good? You probably can't. Do exactly what you did and plug in a different Mesa amp Im not a big fan of the Nomads myself. Ive tried them multiple times and just found they sounded uninspiring and stale. I'd stick with the DC and Recto series.

[Gresh]

Thanks for all the opinions and input folks, and especially thanks to Track7 for those settings.
I spent two hours with the Nomad 45 2x12 combo last night, brought my entire rig, all guitars, effects, extra cabinet...the whole nine yards. This is one versatile amplifier, I was very very impressed with the ground it could cover, and it did most of it extremely well if not outstandingly well. Oh and the clean tone...I could go on for days about this, very open, very chimey, more Fenderish tone than I've heard from any amp other than a Fender. Makes we wonder what it would sound like with Jensens instead of V30 Celestions. Then I realized I had the preamp voicing switch to the extreme mode...popping it back to Normal made it even better. There's enough gain on hand to do crunch rhythm tones and SRV blues in spades. My strat sounded incredible through this thing, it loves single coil pickups.

Channel 3 is recto with more depth and warmth, not as shrill and biting, but it does get raunchy and nasty if you want it to. Channel 2 is just a big fat crunch channel...would be great for those mid heavy lead tones...didn't spend too much time in this channel, but I got a very convincing JCM 800 tone out of it believe it or not. Lots of mid, lots of crunch.

I found that by moving one knob it changes like 3 other parameters...seems like everything is interconnected so you can't just change one thing without a counter-effect elsewhere. Sound like Rivera to anyone?????

The speakers in this are the same as in my Recto 2x12 cab, except this combo is obviously an open back. The sound from the speakers is altogether different. Using the two together, they really seemed to complement one another and it makes for a cool, albeit unconventional looking half stack.

All in all, I was extremely impressed with this combo. The versatility is nothing short of astounding. Covered much more ground than my Modded Marshall, and sounded better doing it and sounded better at much more reasonable volume levels.

Bottom line: I now own a Nomad 45 2x12, plus with the extra cash I can buy more gear....hmmmmmmm. Can't wait to get home and play.

One question: Anyone tried the direct recording output? Is it any good straight to PC?

[guitarkatana]

Congrates on the amp I think I'll check one out myself.

[Drew]

Yeah, I was kind of suprised you weren't able to get good sounds out of the first Nomad you played. It's an amazingly versatile amp, and when I purchased my TSL, it was between that and a Nomad. The TSL won, partly because I'd been playing a Mesa for years and wanted something "different" sounding, and partly because I couldn't get to a nearby Mesa dealership for long enough to give them a really good workout, and the only used one i found, in a shop up in burlington, had a defective prescense control- cut out about 2/3 of the way up. Weird.

Anyway, the tone controls on a Mesa are disturbingly interactive. It took me ages to work out how the settings on my Rocket-44 affected each other, and compared to a Nomad, that's pretty simple.

Anyway, enjoy the thing.

-D

[track7]

Hey man

Congrats on the amp! Another nomad fan club inductee

You are gonna have a hell of a time with it, the longer you have it the better and better it gets as you find even more settings and sweet spots for it.

1 recomendation, dont record direct to the P.C...i have never heard an amp direct recoding output that sounds good never never. I tried it with the nomad for ****s and giggles and suprise suprise it was pants.

WIth the extra cash buy an SM57 and a basic little mixer/mic-pre and record it the real way! That will sound infinatley better.

Anyway, let us know how you get on

Track

[Dan D Mahnn]

I second that last post. I have a SLO100 and a Bogner XTC both worth over 2k a piece and they both have DI's of some sorts. Id rather use a Sansamp then go direct from them. Great tube amps dont always yeild great DI tones.

[Gresh]

I agree that most of them are crap, I was just wondering if this were any different. I use a POD Pro to go direct anyway...I'll always have something like that in the tool kit, indespensible for late night fiddling and getting ideas down.

[Dan D Mahnn]

Exactly

[Drew]

Off topic- I've heard great things about the ADA MicroCab- anyone tried one?

-D