Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier Twenty-Five Owner's Manual page 31

BIAS ADJUSTMENT
(Continued)
Some of the other recommended biasing, "methods" — such as -".. tubes running red hot, increase the bias .. sounds harsh
and runs too cool, turn it down ..." are guesswork at best. Luckily, one of the great things about tube amps is that they can
usually stand some abuse without causing any real harm ... at least not immediately. But don't these alterations imply that you
are second-guessing the amp designer and that there's a better set of operating conditions that the designer missed but the
tube sellers have discovered?
Now some players may like the sound of their amp altered by tubes with extreme characteristics and with the bias set to help
compensate. But often it is the mere novelty of change that they're really responding to and when the amp goes back to the
proper original way, we've seen them be far happier still!
Because every part in every one of our designs has been meticulously evaluated, compared and stressed over — no matter how
seemingly insignificant it might be. And with every design we look for a "sweet spot" where all the parameters — including the
bias — come together to give the best sonic performance, consistently and reliably. Every part and voltage is important — yet
no one complains that these other parameters aren't available for tinkering.
Consider our patented Simul-Class circuitry where there are two different bias voltages used for separate pairs of power tubes
... and changing one voltage also changes the other. Great care goes into getting this just right and we think we'd be asking for
trouble to have it adjustable for the world to play with ... unless you like paying to have your amp messed up. Sorry, I meant
to say, "Uh, ... your amp needed biasing."
If that doesn't appeal to you, then merely plug a matched set of MESA tubes into one of our amps and you're ready for tone.
Guaranteed. You'd be amazed at the number of service calls we field every day that lead to a diagnosis of out-of-tolerance,
non-spec tube problems. To think these would be prevented by including a bias adjustment is something of an insult to you
and us. If you put the wrong size tires on your car, do you think changing the pressure will make them right?
Please, don't think this is a blanket indictment of the other guys selling tubes — it isn't. And their tubes aren't all bad either.
It just doesn't make sense to pay more of your hard earned cash for tubes that were probably made in the same Russian or
Chinese factory and which have the possibility of being outside the performance window we select for your amp. And it pains
us to hear the hype and mystique built up around biasing when twenty-five years of evidence affirms our decision to make bias
circuits that "never need adjustment". How much money and trouble that has saved MESA/Boogie players you couldn't estimate.
Our rigorously tested and hand selected tubes are available at your nearest MESA/Boogie Pro Center or from us directly. Nobody
offers better price, quality or warranty than we do ... so why swerve?
Cheers!
Randall Smith
Designer & President
MESA/Boogie Ltd.
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