Mesa Bass 400 to M-Pulse 600 - Not tubey enough?

chaosMK · #1 07-01-2011, 02:10 PM

I've been trying to reassemble my rig after having to sell off some of my loud live gear a while back. In the past I was using a KT-88 loaded Mesa Bass 400 (set at slightly honky midrange settings, pull switches pulled, low mids bump on EQ) with a Sansamp BDDI blended in the effects loop (tiny scoop and significant presence boost).

I think the mix of old school tubeyness beefing up the midrange and the Sansamp adding a little bit of modern scoop gave me everything that I could ask for. The slight edge of OD I'd get out of it made it epic.

I tried out a used M-Pulse 600 today (using a fairly fancy 34" scale Ibanez with steel strings) that was at a price too good to pass up. I brought my Sansamp just in case and ended up fiddling with it alongside the head (its shaping didnt really do much, and OD pedal might have been better).

I'm not sure how I feel about the M-Pulse. It's a great sounding head. I used my friends M-Pulse/PH1000 rig once back when I was a kid and it blew me away. It made me stop loving my SVT-4 and Ampeg cabs (which sounded "dark" after that).

After ~40 mins of fiddling with this thing, I was able to get a range of great tones out of it. There were times where it didn't seem so forgiving (clank spikes) when I played more aggressive/percussively, even with some compression on it. I think that my Bass 400 would just get saturated by these types of peaks and fill out with a little OD, or power tube compression took the edge off of things.

I ran the gain fairly high on it at all times (1:00 - 4:00). The higher settings definitely gave it some squishiness. I was able to get close to the type of OD that I like but it wasn't as epic.

All in all, nice and warm for a solid state head... but maybe not enough! I tried everything to get a really strong mids/low mids orientation and couldnt quite peg it.

The Genz Benz Streamliner that I tried recently actually put out a broader range of highly musical tones and sounded more tubey to me.

After this testing I'm not sure if I want to move forward. I know these Mesa heads can take a while to really get to know, but maybe I'm kind of a vintage guy after all! All tubes may have ruined me.

derridiandrift · #2 07-01-2011, 02:31 PM

I've used the 400+ and I owned an MPulse 600. Both are great amps, but it sounds to me like you're not going to be happy with the MPulse in the long run. My impressions of it were the same as your and I ended up selling it. I think it's a great amp if you like what it does, but if you find yourself comparing it to a tube amp, my guess is you'll never be completely satisfied. Of course, if you get a good enough deal on a used one, you can try it for a bit and then flip it if it's not your thing.

chaosMK · #3 07-01-2011, 03:43 PM

The deal the sales guy offered me was $550 from $750 since he said it had been sitting around for a few weeks. I've never heard of one going so low. Definitely flippable.

Surprisingly, I liked the way it sounded more on the PH 1x15 than 4x10 (which is my go to).

georgestrings · #4 07-01-2011, 04:35 PM

Sounds to me like you might like the Big Block 750 more - I'd say it cops the 400 sound closer than the M-pulse 600... I own the M-pulse 600, and really like it - but I tend to go more for clean and warm, with just a touch of grit/growl... The BB750 wouldn't stay clean enough for my tastes at the volumes I play, but I think you'd like it, given your post... Also, the BB750's overdrive sounded really good - and I'm not that big a fan of OD for bass...

- georgestrings