Mesa/Boogie Basis M-2000

klejst · #1 11-23-2011, 01:27 PM

To all who have either owned one or currently use one what are some of your opinions, pros, and cons of the amp? I like that it is basically two amps in one and how you can mix both the tube and solid state together as well. I take it should be really no problem to find a good rock tone. What is typically a fair price for one?

icks · #2 11-23-2011, 02:14 PM

I own one, use it as main amp. And totally love it!
The tube preamp has warmth and clear crystal tube tone that I really dig, the overdrive is crispy just what I'd expect from it. The fet channel is very nice too, I use it less often than the tube chan but sounds really bassy and clear.

I don't know what is a faire price for it, I live in Belgium and this amp is fairly unknown here. Back in the 90's when Mesa sells this amp, this goes at the price of 130.000 BEF = 3250 € !!! Which was insane!

I got it used in the early 00'. The guy worked in a music shop and granted himself with the 'factory price'.

Make sure to get the pedalboard with it. It allows you a wide variety of tones at the tips of the shoes :
Tube chan / Blend / Fet / Overdrive or mute / EQ tube / EQ fet

Pro:
Loud, many greats tones
2 U which is 'small'

Cons:
heavy (20 kgs)

bassgod0dmw · #3 11-23-2011, 02:44 PM

Without looking around, I'd say somewhere between $700 and $800 is a decent price.

I had one, I liked it, I sold it. GAS is a terrible thing. I was a nice amp, but it doesn't have quite the thunderous low end of the other Mesa amps. It does have tons of features, most of which are useful. The compression was the only built in comp that I've actually liked.

paganjack · #4 11-23-2011, 03:11 PM

I had one for a year or two- they are super versatile amps, very pleasing mid-voiced tube channel and the SS channel does any sort of sound. Lots of EQ to play with, and as bassgod0dmw mentioned, the compressors are REALLY nice. If you like to play with knobs it's an amazing amp to have. Kinda heavy for a non-(all)tube amp these days, but a cool piece of kit. I got mine for US$600-700, with a footswitch (which you NEED to make it worth it). I recall the distortion channel was pretty fun to mess around with. I wish I had tried recording with it, I imagine it would be awesome for that.

I only got rid of mine to go all tube, although I stuck with Mesa for that.

klejst · #5 11-23-2011, 06:08 PM

Thanks for the replies guys, the info helps get a little better understanding of the amp. I have read reviews that through the DI it can have a bit of a hiss on both channels is that true? One guy went as far to say the guy he was recording with said the amp could not really be used for recording because of it. I generally don't totally go off what reviews say, however just curious if anyone else has had this problem?

Standalone · #6 11-23-2011, 06:49 PM

It isn't a silent amp by any means. I had and gigged one for about two years.

On paper, all the features should add up to everything a serious knob tweaker would want in an amp. In practice, however, it's hard to get a reliably high quality tone out of it on any given gig.

I was playing a mix of jazz and '50's rock on it at smallish gigs, so maybe cranking the amp would have opened it up more. And I had no use for the overdriven tones that are available through the amp. But adjusting to the needs of the room or the band on the fly on a gig was just too hard, even for someone like me who understands what everything on that flight deck of a control panel does.

People ask $7-800 for theirs, but I think that is high. I traded mine in for a minty 800RB in a rack case and a matching old GK210 at the local Sam Ash. I much prefer the GK.

icks · #7 11-24-2011, 03:36 PM

I've recorded some tunes with mine by the DI and was never disappointed with it.
I didn't had any hum or noise.

bassgod0dmw · #8 11-24-2011, 04:55 PM

I never had any issues with the DI either. I don't remember using it for recording, but it was fine for live use

Turkeylips · #9 11-27-2011, 08:37 AM

I bought mine about 6 months ago for about $750 including the footswitch. I'm playing through a Mesa Diesel 4x10 and i can get very powerful sounds out of it. I mainly play through the Tube channel, but I find having direct access to the FET-channel very useful for playing with effects such as a bass synth. It makes this amp very versatile. The Mix function, mixing both pre amps is good for some extra boost of clarity when needed. And then theres the gain setting. I haven't gone too much into playing with the equalizers too much, but find the default "instant glorification" setting to be very nice and a good starting point. It would be very interesting to see examples of good eq-settings. Great amp in my opinion.

levis76 · #10 11-28-2011, 06:23 AM

I bought mine used from GC several months ago, $550 shipped to my door. It came with the original white label Mesa tubes and they still sound great! I put mine into a 212 Mesa cabinet I bought locally, see sig.

I actually went the opposite direction that most ppl do, I sold my 400+ to fund this rig and I couldn't be happier. The 212 really matches well with the M2000. I don't have that big tube boom anymore, but I found the 400+ to be too scooped. That and the 400+ doesn't start breaking up until it's shaking the foundations of every house on the block, it was just a stupid loud amp. The M2000 is much more tame, sounds great at any volume level, and is a lot more versatile.