When a Mesa/Boogie Maverick’s volume levels fluctuate or become intermittent, check the effects loop, sockets, and tubes.
Hi Jeff,
I just read your article about amp first aid ("Must Know Amp First-Aid") on Premier Guitar.com. It was a great article. Thanks for all the valuable info!
I have an issue that wasn’t exactly addressed and am hoping that you can point me in the right direction. I recently acquired a Maverick that sounded great when I got it. After a few months of light use (no gigging/moving the amp) it started having some issues. While I’m playing, the volume will drop intermittently. It doesn’t cut out completely, though. I told my cousin, who also plays guitar, and he said it needs a new set of tubes. If so, that’s fine, but a new set for this amp is a little over $200. I’m not one to throw parts at a problem and a whole set of tubes sounds like I’d be doing that. If it is a tube problem, is there any way to narrow down the issue to a particular tube(s)? Or could it be a completely different problem?
I appreciate any advice you can give me.
Best regards,
Brett
Hello Brett,
Thanks for reading PG and my column. Glad you were able to glean some valuable information from the amp first-aid article. It’s probably been helpful to many players at some point and should be required reading for a “How do I fix my own gear 101” class, but I’m sorry it didn’t go far enough to address your particular problem. I’ll try to give you a specific troubleshooting path to follow for your amp. Let’s go!
WARNING:
All tube amplifiers contain lethal voltages. The most dangerous voltages are stored in electrolytic capacitors, even after the amp has been unplugged from the wall. Before you touch anything inside the amp chassis, it’s imperative that these capacitors are discharged. If you are unsure of this procedure, consult your local amp tech.To start, I’m going to give you the easiest thing to check and I’m going to label it “Always Check Here First!” In any guitar amp with a passive effects loop, it is the first place I look for a symptom like this. In fact, if you rarely or never use the loop, it’s even more probable that it’s the cause of the problem. You see, in most passive effects loops (except those with “in/out” switches), the entire audio signal runs to the send jack, then through a set of switching contacts in the return jack, and finally to the rest of the circuitry—usually the output stage of the amp. When these contacts sit idle, they can become dirty or oxidized from lack of use and cause the signal to become intermittent (cut in and out).
The best way to find out if the problem is in the loop is to “jump” the loop using a short cable. An effects patch cable is best, but any cable will do. Simply plug one end into the send and the other into the return. And in the specific case of this amp, make sure the FX mix control is set to 100 percent. If this alleviates the symptom, you’ve found the problem.
Generally, a quick cleaning of the jacks with some electronic contact cleaner, preferably with lubricant, can remedy it. Simply spray some cleaner into the jack, work a plug in and out maybe 10 to 12 times, and then leave the plug inserted. Do this to both loop jacks and leave the plugs inserted until the cleaner evaporates. If you can leave them in overnight, that’s even better. Try the amp again to see if you’re back in business.
Now, if cleaning did not alleviate the problem, it’s okay to run the amp with the jumper in the loop until you can have the jacks replaced or, at least, the contacts professionally cleaned with a burnishing tool. If the loop wasn’t the cause, there’s more to check.
Any amp with a passive effects loop may develop volume issues if the send and return jacks become dirty or oxidized
and require cleaning.
We now move into the tube area, but we’re going to check the sockets as a possible cause first. The only tricky part is that you’ll need to wait until the amp actually acts up, which is the case with most intermittent problems. The reason it’s difficult for a tech to find an intermittent problem is that we actually need the failure to occur on the bench before we can find the source. If you don’t experience the symptom and pinpoint the source of the failure, you can never really be sure if you fixed the amp.
Anyway, when the problem begins to occur, one by one, starting with the preamp tube closest to the input jack, gently wiggle each tube to see if that has any effect on the symptom. (You may want to use a towel, napkin, or glove for this, and be very careful working around the much hotter output tubes). If it does, your problem may be a dirty or oxidized tube socket.
Be aware, as you’re doing this, that you may experience some crackling or popping noises. Fear not. While this may be an indication of a dirty tube socket or a bad tube, it’s in no way harmful to the amp. It may scare you at first, but trust me, those crackles and pops, even loud ones, are not as hard on an amp as when it’s turned up loud with a big ol’ dirtbox in front.
The only three tubes that affect the entire Mesa/Boogie Maverick amp are the V3 (effects loop return), V6 (phase inverter), and rectifier tube.
Back to the wiggles: If you find one of the sockets affecting the symptom, clean it well by spraying some electronic contact cleaner—this time without lubricant—in the socket and work the tube in and out eight to 10 times. Leave the tube out until the cleaner dries, reinsert, and try again. If this didn’t work, try replacing that tube, as I have seen bad pins on a tube that mimic bad tube sockets.
If neither cleaning nor tube replacement alleviates the problem, the socket may be bad or there may be an intermittent condition in that area of the board, which will require professional servicing. If none of the preamp tubes seem to be the problem, use the same procedure on the 5AR4 rectifier tube. This, however, will only be effective if the amp is in the vacuum rectifier setting. Just one point of technical information: The only three tubes that affect the entire amp are V3 (effects loop return), V6 (phase inverter), and the rectifier tube.
If no preamp tube, rectifier tube, or socket seems to be the cause of the failure, the next thing we look at are output tubes, but a failure here generally gives a different telltale sign. Generally, when an output tube fails, it shorts internally and often intermittently. When it does, it pulls the volume down, but this is typically accompanied by an increasing hum and red-plating tubes. If this is the case, I recommend replacing the full set of output tubes and having them biased, if necessary—although that’s unnecessary in the EL84 version.
Well, there you go. I hope that helps you maintain your Maverick without a full re-tube.
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For the first time in the band’s history, the Dawes lineup for Oh Brother consisted of just Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith (left and right).
Goldsmith’s lyrics spoke to me the loudest, with lines like “Well, you can judge the whole world on the sparkle that you think it lacks / Yes, you can stare into the abyss, but it’s starin’ right back” (a casual Nietzsche paraphrase); and “Oh, the snowfall this time of year / It’s not what Birmingham is used to / I get the feeling that I brought it here / And now I’m taking it away.” The way his words painted a portrait of the sincere, sentimental man behind them, along with his cozy, unassuming guitar work and the band’s four-part harmonies, had me hooked.
Nothing Is Wrong and Stories Don’t End came next, and I happily gobbled up more folksy fodder in tracks like “If I Wanted,” “Most People,” and “From a Window Seat.” But 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Folk Albumschart, didn’t land with me, and by the time 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die was released, it was clear that Goldsmith had shifted thematically in his writing. A friend drew a thoughtful Warren Zevon comparison to the single, “When the Tequila Runs Out”—a commentary on vapid, conceited, American-socialite party culture—but it still didn’t really do it for me. I fell off the Dawes train a bit, and became somewhat oblivious to their three full-lengths that followed.
Oh Brotheris Goldsmith’s latest addition to the Dawes songbook, and I’m grateful to say that it’s brought me back. After having done some catching up, I’d posit that it’s the second work in the third act, or fall season, of his songwriting—where 2022’s Misadventures of Doomscrollercracked open the door, Oh Brother swings it wide. And it doesn’t have much more than Dawes’ meat and potatoes, per se, in common with acts one or two. Some moodiness has stayed—as well as societal disgruntlement and the arrangement elements that first had me intoxicated. But then there’s the 7/4 section in the middle of “Front Row Seat”; the gently unwinding, quiet, intimate jazz-club feel of “Surprise!”; the experimentally percussive, soft-spoken “Enough Already”; and the unexpected, dare I say, Danny Elfman-esque harmonic twists and turns in the closing track, “Hilarity Ensues.”
The main engine behind Dawes, the Goldsmith brothers are both native “Angelinos,” having been born and raised in the L.A. area. Taylor is still proud to call the city his home.
Photo by Jon Chu
“I have this working hypothesis that who you are as a songwriter through the years is pretty close to who you are in a dinner conversation,” Goldsmith tells me in an interview, as I ask him about that thematic shift. “When I was 23, if I was invited to dinner with grownups [laughs], or just friends or whatever, and they say, ‘How you doin’, Taylor?’ I probably wouldn’t think twice to be like, ‘I’m not that good. There’s this girl, and … I don’t know where things are at—can I share this with you? Is that okay?’ I would just go in in a way that’s fairly indiscreet! And I’m grateful to that version of me, especially as a writer, because that’s what I wanted to hear, so that’s what I was making at the time.
“But then as I got older, it became, ‘Oh, maybe that’s not an appropriate way to answer the question of how I’m doing.’ Or, ‘Maybe I’ve spent enough years thinking about me! What does it feel like to turn the lens around?’” he continues, naming Elvis Costello and Paul Simon as inspirations along the way through that self-evolution. “Also, trying to be mindful of—I had strengths then that I don’t have now, but I have strengths now that I didn’t have then. And now it’s time to celebrate those. Even in just a physical way, like hearing Frank Zappa talking about how his agility as a guitar player was waning as he got older. It’s like, that just means that you showcase different aspects of your skills.
“I am a changing person. It would be weird if I was still writing the same way I was when I was 23. There would probably be some weird implications there as to who I’d be becoming as a human [laughs].”
Taylor Goldsmith considers Oh Brother, the ninth full-length in Dawes’ catalog, to be the beginning of a new phase of Dawes, containing some of his most unfiltered, unedited songwriting.
Since its inception, the engine behind Dawes has been the brothers Goldsmith, with Taylor on guitar and vocals and Griffin on drums and sometimes vocal harmonies. But they’ve always had consistent backup. For the first several years, that was Wylie Gelber on bass and Tay Strathairn on keyboards. On We’re All Gonna Die, Lee Pardini replaced Strathairn and has been with the band since. Oh Brother, however, marks the departure of Gelber and Pardini.
“We were like, ‘Wow, this is an intense time; this is a vulnerable time,’” remarks Goldsmith, who says that their parting was supportive and loving, but still rocked him and Griffin. “You get a glimpse of your vulnerability in a way that you haven’t felt in a long time when things are just up and running. For a second there, we’re like, ‘We’re getting a little rattled—how do we survive this?’”
They decided to pair up with producer Mike Viola, a close family friend, who has also worked with Mandy Moore—Taylor’s spouse—along with Panic! At the Disco, Andrew Bird, and Jenny Lewis. “[We knew that] he understands all of the parameters of that raw state. And, you know, I always show Mike my songs, so he was aware of what we had cookin’,” says Goldsmith.
Griffin stayed behind the kit, but Taylor took over on bass and keys, the latter of which he has more experience with than he’s displayed on past releases. “We’ve made records where it’s very tempting to appeal to your strengths, where it’s like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this, I’m just gonna nail it,’” he says. “Then there’s records that we make where we really push ourselves into territories where we aren’t comfortable. That contributed to [Misadventures of Doomscroller] feeling like a living, breathing thing—very reactive, very urgent, very aware. We were paying very close attention. And I would say the same goes for this.”
That new terrain, says Goldsmith, “forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do. I’m really excited in that sense, because it’s like this is the first album of a new phase.”
“That forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do.”
In proper folk (or even folk-rock) tradition, the music of Dawes isn’t exactly riddled with guitar solos, but that’s not to say that Goldsmith doesn’t show off his chops when the timing is right. Just listen to the languid, fluent lick on “Surprise!”, the shamelessly prog-inspired riff in the bridge of “Front Row Seat,” and the tactful, articulate line that threads through “Enough Already.” Goldsmith has a strong, individual sense of phrasing, where his improvised melodies can be just as biting as his catalog’s occasional lyrical jabs at presumably toxic ex-girlfriends, and just as melancholy as his self-reflective metaphors, all the while without drawing too much attention to himself over the song.
Of course, most of our conversation revolves around songwriting, as that’s the craft that’s the truest and closest to his identity. “There’s an openness, a goofiness—I even struggle to say it now, but—an earnestness that goes along with who I am, not only as a writer but as a person,” Goldsmith elaborates. “And I think it’s important that those two things reflect one another. ’Cause when you meet someone and they don’t, I get a little bit weirded out, like, ‘What have I been listening to? Are you lying to me?’” he says with a smile.
Taylor Goldsmith's Gear
Pictured here performing live in 2014, Taylor Goldsmith has been the primary songwriter for all of Dawes' records, beginning with 2009’s North Hills.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
Guitars
- Fender Telecaster
- Gibson ES-345
- Radocaster (made by Wylie Gelber)
Amps
- ’64 Fender Deluxe
- Matchless Laurel Canyon
Effects
- 29 Pedals EUNA
- Jackson Audio Bloom
- Ibanez Tube Screamer with Keeley mod
- Vintage Boss Chorus
- Vintage Boss VB-2 Vibrato
- Strymon Flint
- Strymon El Capistan
Strings
- Ernie Ball .010s
In Goldsmith’s songwriting process, he explains that he’s learned to lean away from the inclination towards perfectionism. Paraphrasing something he heard Father John Misty share about Leonard Cohen, he says, “People think you’re cultivating these songs, or, ‘I wouldn’t deign to write something that’s beneath me,’ but the reality is, ‘I’m a rat, and I’ll take whatever I can possibly get, and then I’ll just try to get the best of it.’
“Ever since Misadventures of Doomscroller,” he adds, “I’ve enjoyed this quality of, rather than try to be a minimalist, I want to be a maximalist. I want to see how much a song can handle.” For the songs on Oh Brother, that meant that he decided to continue adding “more observations within the universe” of “Surprise!”, ultimately writing six verses. A similar approach to “King of the Never-Wills,” a ballad about a character suffering from alcoholism, resulted in four verses.
“The economy of songwriting that we’re all taught would buck that,” says Goldsmith. “It would insist that I only keep the very best and shed something that isn’t as good. But I’m not going to think economically. I’m not going to think, ‘Is this self-indulgent?’
Goldsmith’s songwriting has shifted thematically over the years, from more personal, introspective expression to more social commentary and, at times, even satire, in songs like We’re All Gonna Die’s “When the Tequila Runs Out.”
Photo by Mike White
“I don’t abide that term being applied to music. Because if there’s a concern about self-indulgence, then you’d have to dismiss all of jazz. All of it. You’d have to dismiss so many of my most favorite songs. Because in a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.” (He elaborates that, if Bob Dylan had trimmed back any of the verses on “Desolation Row,” it would have deprived him of the unique experience it creates for him when he listens to it.)
One of the joys of speaking with Goldsmith is just listening to his thought processes. When I ask him a question, he seems compelled to share every backstory to every detail that’s going through his head, in an effort to both do his insights justice and to generously provide me with the most complete answer. That makes him a bit verbose, but not in a bad way, because he never rambles. There is an endpoint to his thoughts. When he’s done, however, it takes me a second to realize that it’s then my turn to speak.
To his point on artistic self-indulgence, I offer that there’s no need for artists to feel “icky” about self-promotion—that to promote your art is to celebrate it, and to create a shared experience with your audience.
“I hear what you’re saying loud and clear; I couldn’t agree more,” Goldsmith replies. “But I also try to be mindful of this when I’m writing, like if I’m going to drag you through the mud of, ‘She left today, she’s not coming back, I’m a piece of shit, what’s wrong with me, the end’.... That might be relatable, that might evoke a response, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily helpful … other than dragging someone else through the shit with me.
“In a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.”
“So, if I’m going to share, I want there to be something to offer, something that feels like: ‘Here’s a path that’s helped me through this, or here’s an observation that has changed how I see this particular experience.’ It’s so hard to delineate between the two, but I feel like there is a difference.”
Naming the opening track “Mister Los Angeles,” “King of the Never-Wills,” and even the title track to his 2015 chart-topper, “All Your Favorite Bands,” he remarks, “I wouldn’t call these songs ‘cool.’ Like, when I hear what cool music is, I wouldn’t put those songs next to them [laughs]. But maybe this record was my strongest dose of just letting me be me, and recognizing what that essence is rather than trying to force out certain aspects of who I am, and force in certain aspects of what I’m not. I think a big part of writing these songs was just self-acceptance,” he concludes, laughing, “and just a whole lot of fishing.”
YouTube It
Led by Goldsmith, Dawes infuses more rock power into their folk sound live at the Los Angeles Ace Hotel in 2023.
