Mesa/Boogie Nomad 55 112

very early nomad, one of the first made. extremely versatile for any style, 3 channels-6 modes, solo boost, has plenty of power for live gigs, but i mostly work as a session player and this amp covers everything.

sounds fantastic with most any guitar, i mainly use a '91 les paul standard with duncan jb/custom pickups. makes the usual noise expected from a high-gain tube amp. any sound you want if you have the patients to experiment with settings.

bought used, i've heard tone of quality complaints with all but the initial run of nomads, if you want to buy one find an early one like i did. the only problum i've ever had with the amp is that some of the tone controls on channel 3 had taken a solid hit at some time before i got the amp and sometimes would cut out, it was an easy fix as i also work as a pro tech and was certainly not mesa's fault.

this is the second used mesa i have bought. mesa's customer support is awesome, they are friendly and willing to bend over backwards to help people buying mesa gear new or used. they helped me get manuals and replacement tone post for the nomad.

i've been playing for 7 years, i also have a mesa heartbreaker head with a 212 cab, a fender champ, an ibanez lawsuit les paul copy, and a couple of strats that i assembled myself. this is an amp that i would replace without a doubt, but i'd be careful to find a good one. i compared this amp with everything i could find and the only thing i liked better said bogner on it and cost $3000.

I play a very wide range of music, Allman Bro's to Tool. This amp can do it all.

Cleans are very "Blackface" in origin. Channel 2 in the "Modern" setting is much better for leads than channel 3. Channel 3 in the "Modern" setting actually sounded very vintage to me. We play a lot of classic covers and this channel covered all of the tones that I needed.
It is very noisy. Tubes are generally noisy, but this amp seems to not be filtered very well at all. It's a small sacrifice for killer tone. You can get great sustain at low volumes. I use a crappy old Ibanez Custom 542 R (predecessor to the Joe Satch model) with Duncans in it, and I could get any sound I wanted out of it.

I don't think this amp would have been reliable. I only owned it a month, and it started making a metallic rattle on the clean channel only. At first I thought it was the reverb spring or a tube holder, but I couldn't find where it was coming from.
I had this amp for a month and sold it for $150 less than I bought it for just to get out from under it.
This is the second Mesa that I have owned. I sold my Dual Rectifier (older 2 channel) to buy this hunk of crap that sounds and looks great, but breaks within a month. If my car breaks, I fix it. IF it breaks under warranty, even better. If my shiny, brand new, fresh out of the box amp starts to break and I have to ship it somewhere to get fixed, then I sell it or throw it in the ocean.
If you have one of these beauties, I hope you got a good one. From what I have read, 2 out of 5 are junk, and the rest golden. Not bad for the price.

Here's the deal. I bought this amp from a store that had lost it's dealership with Mesa. After you read this you will know why. The salesman that I talked to on the phone was very nice and informative. He said that since they were no longer an authorized dealer, he could give me a deal. I only had $400 that day so he said I could lay it away for the sale price, $1000 even. It lists for $1199. I get to the store and there is another salesman, very pushy, who informs me of my ignorance. "No deals on layaway." Okay, I like the amp so I get it anyway. A week later when I sell my old amp and get my new one, the salesman (rude guy), tells me a little story. It seems that he has gotten the guy that I talked to on the phone fired for offering me a deal. I take my amp, thinking this guy is a CHUMP and a half, and split. Three weeks later the amp starts to buzz. The only guy left at this fine establishment says, "You gotto contact Mesa, we are going out of business and don't handle any returns." Good riddance.
As for Mesa, I called them when I got my Dual Rectifier, and they were very helpful. They made a manual for me. They actually copied one for me by hand because it wasn't available on their website. I don't think their quality is as low as some people say, I just think that the Nomad amps keep their repair guys very busy. I think they are either using cheap parts in this model or it is a design flaw. They try to put too much in them, and it looses reliability.

This is a great amp for playing around the house, or at practice. It sounds amazing (although I miss the monstrousity of the Dual Rectifier). I wouldn't take it on a gig if my life depended on it.
Wait a couple of years for them to iron out the bugs before you buy one.
After I sold the Nomad, I was going to buy my old Rectifier back. I called the friend that I had sold it to and he told me that He had blown it up on the 1st gig he used it on. This guy's not very technically inclined, he plugged a 4 ohm cabinet into the 16 ohm output jack. The 1st chord he played, the amp started cutting out. Did he go out to the van and get his backup??? No, he had someone wiggle the speaker cord for a whole set becuase this seemed to help. The next day he took it to the shop and realized the entire output circuit was destroyed.
Would I gig without a backup? After buying 1 Mesa, I couldn't afford to buy a headphone amp. I would buy 2 older used Mesa's instead of a new piece of crap. Get it together Mesa, and give the world a call when you do.

As noted below, this amp comes fully loaded, with 3-channels, two voices per channel, solo boost, recording out etc, etc... This was probably one of the first ones to come into Canada (#226) and I've been playing it almost exclusively for about two years. This is my second Mesa/Boogie and probably won't be my last.

My main guitars are a PRS CE 24 and a 52 reissue Tele. This amp loves the PRS and does well with the Tele also. Very versatile overall, I mainly use the second channel with a few boost pedals for extra punch when needed. I find it's heavily biased for mids, but that's a Boogie for you. Clean channel is fine and the 3rd channel (boost) lacks a bit of body for my taste. Maybe I'll try the 5071s Mark suggests. Overall, this amp has performed well for both home and club use. It's definitely the biggest sounding 1x12 I've ever played.

This thing eats tubes for breakfast. I know it's the nature of the beast with a 3-channel high gain combo, but it's been quite a challenge finding good clean tubes to run in it. Boogie tubes have been among the worst I've tried. Apart from that, the solo boost quit a while back, which is not a huge problem since I'm mostly recording with it now anyway.

I have always found Mesa/Boogie's support to be helpful and responsive. I've not had the need to contact them about this Nomad yet, so the rating is based on past history.

I've been playing just over 20 years and feel this is the best 3-channel combo you'll find without selling the farm for a Bogner or some other boutique amp. If it were stolen I'd take another hard look at the Single Recto, but am quite happy with the Nomad overall. No regrets about switching to Boogies 8 years ago. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

*3 chanels *Switchable with foot switch *Independant tone controls yada..yada...yada.. you know the drill

I use a Tom Anderson Drop top, with a variety of pick up configurations. This Amp is fairly versatile The only real complaint I have (or should I say Had) was the voicing on chanel 3, I play more blues and classic rock, chnl.3 is more "modern voiced" so I changed the two Ax7's in valve 3&4 to 5071's (lower gain ) this works due to the indeprndant gains on each chnl. I ususaly run chnl.1 clean Chnl 2 slight crunch and chnl 3 solo. Before I changed these tubes chl. 3 was too harsh now it melts...COOL

VERY!

Always fbeen there when I needed em' this is myb 3rd Boogie the other two are a old MKII, and a subway rocket

This is a 50 watt all tube combo with three channels. It haspenty of features (24 knobs and 5 switches...) but I don't use the effects loop. I use this amp primarily for classic rock and blues/rock, but I ocasionally cover other styles as well.

I am using a PRS ce22 and a fender hotrod fat strat. This amp fits my musical styeles well, providing a great clean and a variety of nice overdrive/distortion sounds. Assuming you keep to sane gain/volume settings (and use your master volume correctly) there is no audible noise except for the ocasoional channel switching pop. I have never turned the clean channel up far enough to power tube overdrive - this is a LOUD amp. 1 gripe - the reverb wet/dry mix knobs don't let you add much reverb to the gain channels/modes. This is obnoxious. Oh, and the eq on the gain channels is a pain in the ass. Moving one knob changes the feel and effect of the other knobs. I've docked it a sound point for these - it really does sound good, but getting it there is a pain.

Only 3 weeks - no opinion, but reading here I'm worried...

no opinion

This amp really sounds quite good, and I plan to keep it for life. If it were stolen, I might replace it strait up, or save up and buy a Bogner Shiva or something. This amp really works well with my ce22 and no effects - it also has an afinity for single coils on the clean channel. I compared it to the fender HR series, and it had as good a clean (although different) and much better overdrive. It also spanked the marshal dsl/tsl combos. Despite the two flaws mentioned under sound, I really like this amp and am using it exclusivly now. If it were't so much more expensive than the compitition, it would have gotten a 10.

alot of features that can take your
tone all over the place

distortion is not even close to a dual recto
as that is what I expected. To my ear the distortion was
wussy my digital junk is way better than it.
Clean channel was ok I wouldn't brag but no one buys
mesa for clean channels

Built like a rock
looks like one too
.....With lights

nice guys call you back
had no problems but complained just to see
if that call back stuff was true

the amp is ok
the tone is not so great
it sometimes felt dead

Nomad 55 W power amp, bought it new in '99 from Guitar Center. Amp seemed fairly versatile and easy to use. The control knobs are super, super sensitive, though, and once I found a tone I liked I never wanted to change any of the settings because I didn't want to go through the hassle of finding my old tone again. I mostly used channel 1 for clean and channel 3 for distortion rhythm, channel 2 for distortion soloing.

Used it with an ESP KH-2 with EMG pickups. Sounded great and it was quiet, occasionally a channel switching click. Also used it with a Squier Strat, and it sounded like junk. Very loud amp, too loud for apartment use. The more I turned up the better it sounded. I had it set up in my apt facing away from my sliding glass door to my balcony. Because the cabinet is open in the back, it was loud enough to get me a noise violation from complaints from the other building across the parking lot from me. I put EL34's in it once, but it was too trebly and squeaky with those tubes.

Had 2 problems with the amp. First, there must have been a bad connection between the cable and the footswitch because it would click and buzz every time I moved the footswitch. Took the cable + switch back to Guitar Center and they gave me a new one. Then I kept blowing power tubes. Since they have a 6 month warranty, I kept getting new ones from Guitar Center. After I'd blown 3 tubes in 4 months (all the in the same socket, by the way), I called Mesa and they told me a repair place to take it to. I put it off because I was going to sell the amp because I wanted to get a Triaxis (easy to change your settings on that one). I sold it to a friend, and then it blew up. So I took it to the repair shop and the guy said that that one tube socket was bad, and it kept making the tubes bad, and the last tube that blew took out a transformer or something with it. He fixed it free under warranty (took about a month). I bought a Triaxis/SimulClass 290 and gave my friend his money back and sold the amp to somebody I didn't like.

Mesa was great (I bought more of their stuff, didn't I?) and when I sent them email or left a message, they got back to me within 24 hrs. Didn't give me a problem about anything.

If this amp was stolen, I'd send the thief the warranty information. It was a good amp, except for it kept breaking down and I didn't like fiddling with the settings for an hour to find a sound I liked, then losing that sound when I went after another one. But I guess all amps are like that except for the triaxis because it has all those handy presets. But since this combo amp costs a third of a Triaxis, a power amp, and cabinets, I guess you can't complain too much. Would have been better if the amp worked all the time.

By now I think we all know most of the features so I will enumerated them concisely. I mostly want to review this amp to counter some criticism, at least from my own point of view.

This is a very versatile amp, and yet it has it's own character. I love the fact that it has three channels which are quite distinct from each other and can be accessed easily with footswitch. Each channel has two modes, which can wildly change the tone (channel one)or subtly affect the tone (channels two and three). All three mode changes produce a stark difference in volume.

Spring reverb has a control for each channel so you can surf on channel one and dry out on channel three, for example.

Solo control provides as much boost as you want in order to reach over and above while keeping the same tone. Priceless.

Each channel has independent Gain, Master, Presence, Treble, Mid, and Bass controls. So not only can you shape the tone of each channel without affecting the others, you can balance the volume of each and control the overall output with a global output knob. Beyond that, the footswitchable Solo control provides as much boost as you want in order to reach over and above while keeping the same tone. Priceless.

Headphone/Recording output and speaker mute. Slave out. Effects loop.

I can play any style with this amp. I can imitate other amps if I wanted

I play nothing but single coil pickup-equipped guitars (fender style, p90s...) and this amp is friendly to all guitars. Because of it's versatility it can radically change the character of a particular guitar.

Channel One in Vintage mode is clean all the way up. Turn the global it up to eleven and it breaks up a little, but it is mostly just clean. For some sounds that I want I find it hard to dial in, so I use a Boss GE-7 graphic eq in a v-shape. It has a vintage vibe that way.

Channel One Modern mode was a puzzler at first. It sounded weird and unusable at low volumes. Muddy bass, not much sustain, but overdriven. I recently cranked the global using an attenuator and now I can see what the fuss is about. This is a nice channel with a tighter bass and singing highs and tons of sustain. Very 'classic rock'.

Channel two is the fatt boy. The bass is a little loose so I don't have much use for it when playing chords. It's a fine lead channel, though, thick as toothpaste. I can't hear a lot of practical difference between the modes, except for a volume difference.

Channel three is sometimes my favorite. It's very gainy with a very tight bass. Makes my Fender Jaguar sound like a shred monster. The lead tones are silvery and stinging. Kind of reminds me of Fripp's solo on "Baby's on Fire". Very sweet. The great thing about channel three is that I can play disonant chords and you can hear the notes as clearly as if I were playing an acoustic guitar. That's with high gain, mind you. The second mode is only subtly different to my ears. This channel is also useful as a clean channel. It's voicing is fairly high, so it is not an all-occasion clean for me, but it does have a good sound.

This amp isn't noisier than any other amp. It has some background sound, part from gain, part from single coil pickups. Nothing unmanageable.

Here's the controversial part. I haven't had an ounce of trouble with mine. I got it when they first came out, if that means anything. Before any complaints were logged into Harmony Central and all reviews were positive.

Mine is built solid with good materials.

It seems that most problems logged here were tube problems. Would I gig without a backup? I have another Boogie to rely on, but I don't feel unsafe with this model.

The Nomad seems like a love it/hate it instrument, but the discouraging thing is that people seem to hate it for failures rather than character and features.

See customer support....

For their own sake, I hope that Boogie addresses the reliability issues that others have had. How about a recall, or something like that? This is a fantastic amp that too many people have had terrible problems with. Many of those problems were fixed with simple tube replacements, but nevertheless I would hope that my beloved Mesa would take responsibility for poor stock tubes.

Anyway, anytime I've talked to Boogie they were very knowledgeable, generous and had great customer service. I've never had major problems and sometimes they were a little too busy to get back to me same day, but they have gained my trust.

I've been playing for 22 years. I've played vintage Fenders mostly, but prefer this amp for it's versatility. It has clean, pushed, and gainy regions that make it all-in-one for me. It also has a unique character that sets it apart from other amps.

I also currently play an '81 Mark IIb, which has the single best clean sound that I've ever had the pleasure of playing. If the clean channel on this amp were closer to that, this would be the miricle amp. Nevertheless, I give it high ratings.

I compared it to other interesting amps (Fender Vibroking - sorry, one trick pony, Bogner combo - out of my price range) and this is a good fit for me. Versatile, decent price, durable...

I wouldn't mind having a graphic eq on mine, but for whatever reason they're only available on the 100 watt Nomad. I use a stompbox which is only a minor hassle.

As far as the looks go, I think it's a fox. I like the tolex, I love the leather corners, I dig the pattern of the grill cloth. I also love the purple light.

A lot of players have criticized the knobs. I like them. As far as I'm concerned, the numbers on a knob are just arbitrary. This amp has small knobs with no numbers and an arrow that is molded into the shape of the knob. I think it's classy: i set it up before the lights go out and change it if needed by ear. The layout is so logical, I just reach for the knob and it's clockwise for more, counter- for less.

I wouldn't be discouraged by the bad reviews. Evidently there are some bad apples in the cart and I hope Mesa steps up to fix or replace them. We expect the best by buying Mesa and they can prove it by having good customer service.

This amp is not really worth the time it takes to review it, except to warn others not to go near this piece of crap. I play in drunk clubs mainly, and vary between hard rock/blues, contemp covers, jazz whatever. The amp was designed for versatility with 3 channels each with state switches between vintage and normal, but you don't need all this jazz; besides it's not really worth the necessary effort to form your career around all its settings. You can use 6L6 or EL34 power tubes which are okay in just about any other amp. But not in this one for some damn reason. Bottom line: versatility traded for quality control.

I play a lot of different styles, (using modified strats/ Gibson ES-225, Les Paul custom, ES-175/ Jackson)and use Fender Twin, JC-120 or Mesa Boogie. I customize sound for whatever band. So it seemed like the versatility and the price of the Nomad would work fine. Wrong. It generally sounds like someone riding a rabid pig through a glass factory. Maybe that's what you're looking for, but even so, make one little volume change (up or down) and you'll have an entirely different sound. The second (lead) channel is your best bet. But essentially, there's just no compression here; your sound will go up exponentially to a complete high-end shriek, or you get a flimsy, nothing whimper. Very difficult playing above the drums with any quality except for all-out rock, maybe. A word about noise: if you buy this turkey, learn to love tube noise, because that's what you'll get. Taken with constant hiss, the amp quality sounds uniformly cheap. And its not just manageable, regular tube noise such that all tube amps have; this amp sits there and spews out a rasty standby noise that not even punk players should have to endure. Keep a finger on your guitar volume knob if your songs end during a set.

Constant trouble. After going through 3 tube changes to get rid of a high frequency (>60 Hz noise) whine, its still there. After changing the driver tube twice with new ones, rearranging the other tubes into different patterns, servicing pots, conferring with Mesa technicians, no luck. At one point I thought a warranty shop fixed it. So then I had two more band rehearsals as probationary. Seemed okay. Then I take it to a relatively small bar (playing low) and we start up with a Springsteen cover (what else? This is Jersey). Then on the last chord of the song...WHINE!!! That was it. Traded it for a Rivera

The guys at Mesa are okay. But you can tell from speaking with them that they've dealt with a lot of problems just like the one you'll be describing. They've obviously heard it all about the Nomads.

I've been playing a long time; as a kid, I bought Zappa's first album off the rack and learned how to play "trouble comin every day". So I've gone through a lot of amps (my first amp was a Sears silvertone in-the-case amp) So take that for what its worth: either experienced or out-of-touch. I was hoping someone would steal this amp (I insure everything) but no takers. I loved the amp until I turned it on. How could you go wrong with Mesa Boogie? Finally, I should point out that after buying the first Nomad 55, I took it back to the dealer, exchanged it for another one, and then another one. 3/3, they all sucked alike.

I bought my Nomad when they first came out a couple of years ago. One of the main reasons was the versatility. I like having three channels with independant volume, gain, tone and reverb settings. The effects loop is nice and the solo boost is a great feature to have live. I can't really think of anything Mesa left pff this amp that would make it a more versatile tube combo

I grew up in the 70s so I know what the old tube amps sound like. I've always liked cranked Marshalls, Fenders and Ampegs from the 60s and 70s and have tried all the stuff that has come out through the years that try to sound like them but give more versatility. I have to say that while its not perfect the Nomad is the closest I've come to those sounds yet. I play a variety of guitars (82 model American 57 reissue strat w/ custom shop 54s, stock 99 American 57 reissue strat, 2000 American Deluxe Strat ash body/rosewood w/Texas Specials, stock 95 American 52 reissue Tele, Les Paul Classic w/Fralin HBs, and a stock 91 PRS Custom) and the Nomad lets the distict charactor of each one come through. One of the nice things about the amp is you canput EL34s in it, put the master vols on 10 and use channel 3 to get really close to the sound of an old non-master volume Marshall cranked. Of course you loose the versatility but ot does sound sweet :) A word about tubes: I've tried several of the different Mesa 6L6 and EL34 tubes in the Nomad and it really changes a lot fron one to the other. Mine came stock with the 6L6 STR-420s (Chineese tube) which sound a little more focussed and compressed than the 6L6 STR-454 (Svetlana) which I personally prefer. If you have a Nomad I highly suggest trying different tubes to fine tune the sound to your liking. I'm going to rate the sound at 9 since I think theres always room for improvement.

The only problem I have had with mine is preamp tubes getting microphonic, but that's not Mesa's fault as any high gain combo is succeptable to this problem.

I've called them a few times to ask questions and they always call be back and help out. Also their regional sales rep was very helpful and spent about an hour on the phone with me talking about the amp and things I might do to dial in all the sounds I like.

I've been playing for 20 years in all sorts of bands. This is the first time I felt the urge to past a comment on any of my gear but after using it for 2 years I'm so happy with the Nomad I thiught I should. One more thing to keep in mind if you're checking out a Nomad (or any Mesa) in the store. It may sound a little on the mid-rangy side when you play by yourself but that really makes it cut through when you play live with a band.