The unfortunate truth is that my MESA BOOGIE TC-50 Combo is the worst amp I have ever purchased and I believe after you read this you will understand why.
3 years ago I did something my friends and bandmates thought would never happen, I purchased a new amp setup and it wasn't a Marshall or Fender, it was the MESA TC-50 combo. It was the most expensive amp I have ever bought, and it was a clear departure from the past 40 years of tube amps. Photos of my whole music career will show me with my long hair and a 50 or 100 watt tube head on a stack of 4x12 cabinets behind me.. shaking the walls and melting faces... but this time I deployed a different strategy and the MESA was to be the heart of the whole new modern solution. My Marshall head was now 20 years old, had gone through several normal repairs and I felt it was time to retire her and go with something newer and more reliable. The irony of that last sentence will haunt me forever.
After hundreds of hours of research on the best backline solutions for huge festival stages all the way to smaller live venues and recording, my goal was to find a modern tube amp rig with versatile gain stages, that would transfer clean powerful low end with smooth creaming high gain tones. I had found clear sonic evidence that an open back 1 x12" speaker cabinet did in fact transfer more bottom end and a cleaner cut through the mix than my old trusty 4x12's. So rather than purchase that MESA 4x12 and a 50 watt TC-50 head, I went with the 1x12 combo and trusted in the science. I also purchased a matching 1x12 90watt extension cabinet, just to add a little more umph to the air around me, simply for self satisfaction. It seemed like the perfect plan. The purchases were made and off we went.
From day 1, the amp had an intermittent electrical issue that sounded a bit like a bad cord or loose jack. In fact, this is what we thought it was. I would unplug one of my cords, the static would go away, and we all thought that must have been it.. until the next practice.. and it did it again... and again... it was when I removed everything from the amp and it still did it, all be it fainter, that we realized it must be an issue with the MESA TC-50. No big deal, probably a tube, and I took it back to the dealer for a repair.
"your reverb tube was bad, we replaced it, your good to go". No big deal. Thanks.. and off I went.
Got it home.. 45 minutes later.. the sound was back. WTH!
Back to the dealer. New Tubes, new reverb tank, new speaker. "Your good to go."
Got it home... a couple of minutes later the sound was back.. Damn it! Back to the shop.
More tubes. "We think we got it this time, just bad luck with tubes, but we are going to send it back to Cali to be sure." Off to Cali she went.
Meanwhile, I had concerts, rehearsals, and I was back to using my old Marshall 1/2 stack. The band loved it.
The amp came back from California with a "There is nothing wrong with this amp!" Brought it home, thankful the issue was solved. It wasn't.
Back to practice and after a couple of times through the set.. you got it.. the static sound was back. The whole band heard it. Back to the dealer.
"OK, we are sending it back to Cali to get to the bottom of this." and off she went again. More concerts. More rehearsals. Still no amp. It's now been almost a year.
The amp is back. This time it is more tubes, I think another reverb tank and a capacitor. "It's all fixed for sure, you are good to go"
By this time, as you can imagine, I was f'n done with this piece of $hit amp. I was over it. I put it up for sale and a young man came buy to buy it. Problem.
This time the static was gone, but for some damn reason the reverb was barely working. It was on, just enough to hear it, but it would not increase to normal levels.. I couldn't believe it... and back to the dealer. "This time they are going to replace the whole chassis." It was once again shipped off to the main MESA factory repair in California.
We are now at 2 years, and I still did not have a working amp. The band hadn't seen it so long, they forgot all about it.
Covid. Delays. I pick up the amp with the new chassis. I'm just going to sell this lemon piece of $hit. It sat on my studio floor for 2 weeks. I didn't even want to try it because I thought "what if it doesn't work?". My friend Charley came over to the studio, so we plugged it in.. and within 1 minute.. THE SOUND WAS BACK WORSE THAN EVER.
I was furious! How could this be? WTF!
News. Gibson buys MESA BOOGIE.
I am a huge GIBSON player and fan, owning several of their high end guitars. I felt bad, I didn't want to put a black mark on their latest acquisition, but something has to be done at this time. I was furious. I made a video to send to MESA BOOGIE management.
The sound you can clearly hear in this video happens with every cord, every guitar. It sounds like a bad cord, or a bad jack. It isn't. It comes from the amp.
"We are going to send it back to cali. we are so sorry.. we are going to make this right"
Really?! Back to Cali? Again?
It has now been 3 years and I have never, not for 1 day, and a working MESA TC-50 Combo.. not once. 3 years, the most expensive amp I have ever purchased.. supposed to be the new reliable solution.. and it has been exactly the opposite. I decide to make the video public and post to social. Within minutes I hear from a MESA rep.
I can tell you that the MESA team was very apologetic, very cool, and actually fun to talk too. I enjoyed the discussion very much. In the end, their solution to make it right is to grab a whole new amp off the floor and send it to me ASAP.
To be honest, I guess that is fair enough. It does seem a bit odd that after 3 years of not having a working amp, their solution to make it right is to just send me a new one.
At this point, I have lost faith in the whole MESA TC-50 combo platform. Wouldn't you? My professional player friends asked me "Will you ever trust that amp to be there for you at a show?" and the answer is NO. The very minute I get it, I will list it for sale, and simply try and get as much of my money back as I can.. and be done with this giant pile of $hit that has been the worst music purchase I have ever made in over 40 years of playing.
"It is our hope that when you get this amp, you will fall back in love with it, and hopefully tell all your friends on social media"
(crickets)
To be fair, my friend DJ has the same amp and never had a problem with it. But at this point, it has done nothing but cause me stress and anxiety. I don't trust it.. and like a car that has been in a couple of crashes.. I'm over it and simply won't ever trust the MESA TC-50 Combo for a professional performance. It is dead to me. It can't just be coincidence that all of these problems have happened over and over and over again.
BTW.. I purchased a new reissue Marshall Jubilee stack. It has never, not once, ever, had any problems, and sounds amazing. It might not be the modern solution I had hoped for, but it has never let me down the way the TC-50 has let me down. 40 years of tube amps and the MESA BOOGIE TC-50 combo has turned out to be the worst purchase I have ever made. This isn't the MESA BOOGIE TC-50 Review that MESA wanted to hear.. and it isn't the one I wanted to make.. but its the truth.. and now you know.
Patrick Capone
Patrick Capone Official Website