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Someone offered me a Nomad 55 in trade for my Rectoverb, but know nothing of the amp. Any owners here care to chime in on the type of tones these guys spit out? I'm in the market for an amp for blues/jazz/fusion type tones.

I had a Nomad for a year or so back when I started playing again. The one I had was the 6L6 50/100 watt one; I'm not sure if the 55 is that one or the EL84 one. I liked mine fine. The cleans were decent (not as sweet or complex as the new Boogie series, the series that replaced the 'mads), the middle channel was nice, warm, classic Boogie, and the third channel was over the top metalesque. All in all, it was a bit modern sounding for my tastes (and too freakin' loud), but you could certainly use one in just about any situation and sound fine. It may or may not be your Holy Grail kind of thing.

FWIW, there is a lot of internet wisdom out there regarding the Nomads being unreliable, but I played mine loud a lot and never had any problems. Granted it was only for year.

My experience with Recto type amps is pretty minimal but (just IMHO) if you absolutely can't stand how your amp sounds now the Nomad might be too close to it for ya. Although I did see a guy in a Beatles cover band last night playing a Rectoverb (I think) and he sounded pretty darn Beatleseque so it's all in how you use it, I guess.

Edit: If it sounds like I'm doing the quot;damning with faint praisequot; thing, I guess I am. But in my experience they are neither terrible nor prone to making your house burn down.

I had a Nomad 45 2x12 for a couple years. I never had any reliability issues why I owned it.

I liked the amp, I traded it for a cab after I got my Marshall 2210. After awhile it just seemed like there were too many knobs to mess with. Just like any Boogie, it can take a little while to find a good sound. It can certainly do the high gain stuff, but I've gotten away from that in the past year.

I also have a Subway Rocket here that can do the thick creamy distortion, so I decided to simplify my setup with a Marshall. Less time messing with buttons.

My only complaint was that the channel footswitch buttons were too close together, and the cord to that footswitch was too short.

Ah, if it's similar to the Rectos I'm going to stay away, I want to move away from what I have right now and try something new.


Originally Posted by FalstaffAlthough I did see a guy in a Beatles cover band last night playing a Rectoverb (I think) and he sounded pretty darn Beatleseque so it's all in how you use it, I guess.

The clean and low gain sounds aren't bad at all, it's Channel 2 that doesn't really sit that well with my tastes anymore.

the nomad 45 uses el84 tubes, its distortion tones will have more clip but still have gain. the only complaint some have against this tube is there is not enough bottom end from some amps that use them. also, the clean channel with this tube can be too chimey but thats easily solved with eq. As far as the Nomad 55 I didnt like it becouse wile the clean channel sounded good- (6L6 tubes of course it would) I didnt care much for the distortion tone of the amp. thing is though, if you were looking at a Nomad 45 make sure it has or you can play it thru 12 inch speakers as I do not think it sounds very good thru 10 inch speakers or maybe it just sounds a whole lot better with 12 inch speakers. but dont trade your recto for a nomad. thats a step down in my opinion.


Originally Posted by philthisbut dont trade your recto for a nomad. thats a step down in my opinion.

They're eerily similar. I checked out Mesa's site and most of the specs are pretty close, even down to the modes on each channel. One thing that kinda turns me off is that the Nomad is 3 channels w/ 2 modes each. That's even more bells and whistles than I currently have, and I'm wanting to simplify a bit if possible.

I hear what your saying, Ime such a gear whore that I always want somthing differant to play thru. currently Ime playing thru a el84 tube amp and running it thru a 2/12 cab and I like the clip plus gain ime getting from this tube. playing this tube type amp thru 12 inch speakers solved the quot;weak bottom end with EL84 tubesquot; stigma that dogs this type of tube's reputation. it does get good cleans and good distortion and I dont have to turn it up to infinity to get great breakup distortion becouse EL84 tubes break up earlier and at lower volumns. the current trend is to get amps around 20 to 45 watts and mike them becouse they reach there sweet distortion faster at lower volumns and then you mike them at the club. those big ol 100 watt monsters will kill your ears just to get to the max sweet spot. Thats why all the latest amp combo's tend to be 50 or less to hit the sweet spot faster.
Fender did an odd thing by releasing that metal amp. they just took a solid state head and gave it so much wattage that you will never turn it up laud enough to ever get the thing to quot;mushquot; Supposidly it retains that great solid state sound without quot;mushingquot; with so much wattage something like 500 watts! I have never played one so I cannot vouch for how good they are. Its an interesting theory.
to be very honest with you most pro's just get a great fender for cleans and a marshall or whatever for distortion and a/b box switch between the two amps to get the best of both worlds. This is the direction ime heading as well.
now to find a good a/b box that seemlessly switches without a pop between amps