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If you can only choose 1 MESA Subway cab...

Which Subway cab to pair with D800+?


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    325
Glad this thread has been resurrected. Most of the comments refer to using the 115 or 112 cab with either a D800 or 800+. What about paired with the 800TT? I play in a five-piece band (two guitars, keys, drums and me). We play rock, Motown, R&B/soul from the mid-60s into the 80s. I mostly play a Lull pbass with Lollar vintage pups and LaBella Deep Talking flats. I'm guessing the 115 may work best, but would appreciate what your experience is.
 
Glad this thread has been resurrected. Most of the comments refer to using the 115 or 112 cab with either a D800 or 800+. What about paired with the 800TT? I play in a five-piece band (two guitars, keys, drums and me). We play rock, Motown, R&B/soul from the mid-60s into the 80s. I mostly play a Lull pbass with Lollar vintage pups and LaBella Deep Talking flats. I'm guessing the 115 may work best, but would appreciate what your experience is.
For me the TT800 and 115 are a perfect match. It's not that the 115 is an old school 15" cab, but there is something about its solid, full but tight bass and full mids that complement the TT vibe in good way. Of course I would say that thought goes double for a SW215. :)
 
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Really interesting thread with great real-world user experience. This gives me pause to think. Why? I demo'd a Mesa D800 head with the Mesa 15" Subway cab yesterday at low volume. I was not getting as much detail or mid grind as I wanted. But this thread makes an excellent point about using the 1x15" Subway cab at "band volume" to hear it perform at its best.

Ultimately for a single cab, almost no 1x12 cabs give me the full complete sound that I want. (except for a Baer ML112. That cab is special!)

Seeing all the votes of approval for a single 15" Subway cab make sense as it will likely be more 'supportive and full.'

I really want to try the 2x10 because there will be times when that's all I would need. And the Combination of 210 and 115 would be superb. My local shop has a 210 on order. So I look forward to trying it out when the time comes.
IME the D800 was too dark and lacked detail. I sold it and picked up a WD800 and it was a big change for the better. Both it and the D800+ are stellar with the SW115. Plenty of detail and mid grind on tap.
 
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I'm currently waiting on a SW212 that is on backorder. After reading the forums here for weeks and taking alot of peoples opinions into consideration, that is the route I decided to go. Initially I was going to go the 410 route but changed my mind. Rave reviews across the board for everything Mesa Subway, but the 212 seemed to be talked about the most. At least from what I seen. Received my D-800+ last week. Patiently waiting.....
 
I'm currently waiting on a SW212 that is on backorder. After reading the forums here for weeks and taking alot of peoples opinions into consideration, that is the route I decided to go. Initially I was going to go the 410 route but changed my mind. Rave reviews across the board for everything Mesa Subway, but the 212 seemed to be talked about the most. At least from what I seen. Received my D-800+ last week. Patiently waiting.....

I feel like the 115 is talked about most and a lot of folks that are doing multi cabs were going with a 210 too. That's the rout I went with a WD800. After a year and a half of fiddling I decided it was not giving me exactly what I was looking for (fortunately got good enough deals on all pieces that I ultimately came out again dispute two of the pieces having been bought new). I went 12s because some folks were saying they were a bit more upper-mid forward. turned out they were correct! Exactly what I was looking for but the WD was still not fitting right… it sounded GREAT but I was being Goldilocks. I compared the WD to all of the other Subway heads (and an M6) through the 212 and with my axe and found that none of them were good enough to sell the WD for but decided that I would sell the WD to buy a Prodigy for a screaming deal and if it didn't work out I would sell it for a profit and buy a D800+, since the + was the closest to what I wanted but didn't have ENOUGH bite and ENOUGH texture to constitute taking a hit in the WD.

Well, so far with the 212, the Prodigy has (almost) the punch and bite of the M6 and has the texture of the WD. Insanely happy with my new little rig. Now I just need another 212 or a Powerhouse 412 for the really big gigs :bassist:
25E52A74-EB99-4E9C-A1C3-181C372A9F0B.jpeg
 
For what its worth I have the TT800 with a 115, and 210 and its pretty good. I would have gotten the 215 out of the gate but they are back ordered for months. So far what I can tell about the TT800 is that the boogie channel has a nice warm tube tone with some soft super pleasant treble. The mid control is pretty much useless to me, i leave it at norm and bump the mids ever so slightly. Very grindy with distortion, and with the deep switch is a really gnarly distortion tone.
The subway channel doesnt remind me as much of the D800+ i used to own, but you can get a really low mid rich tone from the subway channel that is great for a mix. Overall it sounds great, and I am happy. I am excited to check out the 215, and 212 i will be getting at some point.
 
Why not get all three?

I've got the 115 112 and the 210 teamed with the D800. The 115 is the pick, sometimes on stage I hear myself and think "that sounds so perfect". View attachment 3029615
Hey Gman...

I have the SW 115, 112 and a D-800 also. Was considering the SW 210. I would most likely use all 3 cabs the majority of the time. Can the 210 get a little thicker in the bottom end than the 115? Also, what genre of music do you play? I'm almost exclusively rock/hard rock. Thanks!
 
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Hey Gman...

I have the SW 115, 112 and a D-800 also. Was considering the SW 210. I would most likely use all 3 cabs the majority of the time. Can the 210 get a little thicker in the bottom end than the 115? Also, what genre of music do you play? I'm almost exclusively rock/hard rock. Thanks!
I HAD a 115 and 210 with the WD800 for about 18 months. The 115 is very even across the spectrum and I found the 210 to be a little scooped. I was never totally satisfied and dumped both cabs and got the 212. Was SOOOO much happier after that. The 212 has a pronounced upper mid I love. It's difficult to say if the 210 went lower since there are so many other frequencies that jump out.

Also, I was still not totally happy and dumped the WD for a NOS Prodigy and now I'm in heaven!

I prefer and aggressive rock tone. (Think Chris Squire, Geddy Lee)
D5C007B0-43AC-4F18-B12E-7CEEF7B33738.jpeg
 
I HAD a 115 and 210 with the WD800 for about 18 months. The 115 is very even across the spectrum and I found the 210 to be a little scooped. I was never totally satisfied and dumped both cabs and got the 212. Was SOOOO much happier after that. The 212 has a pronounced upper mid I love. It's difficult to say if the 210 went lower since there are so many other frequencies that jump out.

Also, I was still not totally happy and dumped the WD for a NOS Prodigy and now I'm in heaven!

I prefer and aggressive rock tone. (Think Chris Squire, Geddy Lee)View attachment 4811575
Thanks for sharing!
 
Purely hypothetical for me since I have neither space nor budget for a Mesa cab, and my existing cabs are great.
But since my MAS 1,8 totally covers my "small to medium" needs I would sure like to have the Subway 215. That would be the one.
 
I'm pretty set on the D800+ but only have enough funds for ONE MESA Subway cabinet- either the 210, 112, or 115.

Here's the thing- I'm really more of a guitar player who is picking up the bass for a project. So although I can try all the cabs at the store, I stilll wouldn't know what to look for in terms of what constitutes "a good sound".

With that in mind, I'm thinking maybe I'll rattle off a few keywords and hopefully they would enable you to advise me as best as possible, please:
- Bedroom/Home Studio playing 95%
- Live playing 5% (<200 pax events)
- Fender P-bass
- Music Man Caprice
- Flatwounds
- Motown ("What's Going On")
- Neo-soul (D'Angelo, Erykah Badu)

Please don't recommend Bergantinos, Barefaced, fEARful, etc. I'm in Malaysia so it's either Ampeg, Fender, TC Electronic, or MESA. Shipping and taxes of these exotic cabs would be too prohibitive.

Thanks!

Ps. Yes, I have searched. There is that one HUGE thread on MESA that's like 4,000+ posts or something. I just can't read through all that. I hope you understand.
Definitely the 115.:thumbsup:

Just got the 115, that I'm powering with a Walkabout. Fills the whole room with volume and booty. Very impressed with this cab.
Thanks for your post. I also have a Walkabout and was thinking that it and the 115 would be good together.:thumbsup:

I really like the 115 but I'm not gigging and I worry that it may make the house resonate too much. The 112 takes the least room so that's something to consider.

The other thing is that my tonal preferences seem to be shifting and idk where that's gonna go. I've always preferred 12's and especially 15's but for the last year I've been using a Peavey Max 208 at home. Often using other preamps ran into the 208's 120w power amp feeding the 2x8 speakers. I'm really impressed with how well those little Faital speakers sound. They are much easier to control in the house for excessive boom and the like too.

A suggestion for Mesa.

Now that the D-350 has been released. I think either a Subway 2x8 or 1x10 should be developed. The small footprint of such a rig would be very appealing to home players and city dwellers commuting to smaller gigs. I'd definitely be into a D-350 and either a 28 or 110 for home and then double it up for smaller gigs and louder jams. The output at 8 ohms is still more than enough for the house.

Winner winner chicken dinner!:D:thumbsup:
 
I really wanted to love the 112. The voicing of that cab didn't work for me. I paired it with a 210 and it sounded better but I was not thrilled. I bought a 115 and now I am happy. I sold the 112 and recently played a gig with just the 115. It sounded great. The 210 also sounds great soloed. Together they sound lovely. If I could have only one it would be the 115.