Question About Mesa boogie rocket 44

I bought this amp used and, in short, it sounds like crap ola. Now, it could need new tubes (the clean channel is acting funny) as there is some weird noises going on. Also, I can't even tell if the reverb is working. Or very weakly, if so. I can get a decent sound out of the lead channel although something just doesn't sound quite right on that channel either.

My question is for anyone with knowledge of these amps/tube amps: Should I invest some money in it and keep her or should I just cut my losses? I know it shouldn't/won't sound like a Fender on the clean channel but what have your experiences been with this amp or mesa boogie in general?

PS: GuitarTricks Rocks!

Hi Pattyb5...
If you have your manual look at page 13 which give you directions on how to diagnose your tubes.
If you don't have the manual you can download it from this link.
http://www.mesaboogie.com/manuals/Rocket%2044%20Manual.pdf
Good luck.

Ahhh...tubes. I remember when you could take your (TV) tubes to a drug store and plug 'em into a tube 'reader'. The kiosk would tell you if the tube was good or not and had a load of replacement tubes if needed. I watched my father repair our TV many times.

But then...I remember corner drugstores too. ;)

A relative started building amps as a hobby, became a name boutique amp builder in Texas and has now moved on to a major manufacturer. When he started, his tubes came from eastern Europe/the old Soviet bloc. I always found that interesting...

Thanks guys. It was a couple of bad tubes! they said they had a "problem" isolating one of them. Long story short, it is fixed and sounds great! I thought it was something worse. didn't cost much to fix. :)