F/S - Feeler: Mesa Buster Bass 200 $450 Shipped

[chaosMK]

FS/Feeler: Buster! Bass 200 head in excellent condition.

EDIT: On Hold. I am liking it again after shooting those vids.

Originally in a Wedge combo. Works awesome, cosmetically flawless (aside from one EQ slider cover). Basically I am busy again without a lot of time to finish the job on the case and am interested in selling it as-is. Could use a classy tweed front cover, handles, and a poly finish. I found my holy grails in the Bass 400 and D180 and rarely use this guy. Beautiful tone as plug & play, I just really like dirty tube heads.

The case itself doesnt have a lot of value to me, essentially pricing this for the hardware itself. This is my rock bottom price. Buy now before I finish the job and have no choice but to sell it for the going rates of $600-700!

$450 shipped! USA only please. Will consider trades for only the following: different type of Mesa head or any PH cabinet; GB STL; 5-6 string USA Cirrus or Millennium (+my cash); Rackmounted Sansamp (+your cash), or "lunchbox" low wattage guitar amp (+a little of your cash).

Comes as-is with:

Buster Bass 200 head
No Power Tubes +$100 for very low hours Mesa/Boogie tubes
Preamp tubes (Groove Tube in V1, low gain NOS type tubes in the other stages)
Cool semi-completed beautifully figured custom pine case
Goodies (to help finish said case)

Note: New Mexico sunlight makes the stain ("Jackobean") job look lighter/browner than it really is. It's much darker under normal conditions.

Front:


Back:

Back:

Top:


Goodies:

[chaosMK]

Bump! Most inexpensive Buster! around...

[tbird36go]

Got a Traynor DB800h for sale/trade here on talkbass. Let me know if you wana trade. I use to have a Buster back in the early 90s. I could use another one.

[chaosMK]

Thanks for the offer. I updated my "trades" info. Mainly interested in cash though.

[Bunyo]

Hi Chaos MK.
How would you compare buster to D180 sonically?

[chaosMK]

They are essentially opposites on a spectrum of tube amps.

D180 is very similar to the 400/400+ with a slightly more "rounded out" midrange personality than the 400/400+ when set flat. Anywhere past 2-3 on your Channel (gain) volume, the D180 starts doing all of the tubey stuff like soft compression, overdrive, etc. D180 gets loud and the louder it gets the more it overdrives.

Buster! has a very clear clean kind of tone at just about any volume. The overall voicing is pretty different too, much more straightforward and less of the burly midrange orientation. I find the Bass/Mid/Treble controls to deliver in relatively extreme settings (compared to the 400/400+ where a slight turn goes a long way); small turns alter the midrange a little and to get a typical fat bass tone I'd cut the Treble to about 2-3 and boost the Bass to 8-10. With the right preamp tubes it might grit up more, but that's not really it's character. It can do very nice shimmer but if pushed to power tube breakup, you have to watch out because it's *very* nasty (in an angry/good way). If you have an awesome sounding bass Buster! will bring that tone out in a straightforward way without too much coloration.

[paganjack]

holy nerts that's cheap!

[chaosMK]

I popped my power tubes (my D180 came with burnt out tubes and Buster! came with new ones so I made a transfer a while back) back into Buster! and threw a quick video together. The camera is cheap and its mic can only handle so much bass. The PH 112 that I am going through has a kind of cut-through voicing with Neo mids (the 410 below it is way more mellow and deep) and the Cirrus is a little hifi as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=RrmdrQB_VFg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=UovTNKlwZcA

[icke2433]

not sure if it's still for sale but pm'd! :]

[Primakurtz]

These recordings helped convince me to buy a Buster. So glad!
BTW - this amp loves a boost. It gets all kinds of fat and dirty.

[chaosMK]

Sorry guys, no longer for sale. I went ahead and finished the case (will post pics in Amps at some point) and put JJ's in the pre. Warmed it up and gets a little fuzzier earlier, though I run the Gain quite high at around 75%. I am probably going to swap them for Long Plates to get even more gain. It's such an awesome head and kind of overlooked.

Making a case- OMG, so much work and million tiny expenses.

[Session1969]

Lol ! It wouldn't have lasted long. I had no problem selling mine for $700 after using it for a year.

[icke2433]

:[ super sad face man, but I had to try!

[nukes_da_bass]

My favorite amp ever- but the weight of the combo was insane. What you did with a head case is brilliant! wish I'd thought of it.