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mesa 400+ VS titan v12 (make your choice)

which one would you choose?

  • Mesa 400+

    Votes: 77 65.3%
  • Mesa Titan V12

    Votes: 41 34.7%

  • Total voters
    118
I purchased a 400+ about 6 months ago and I struggled with the EQ and then I read somewhere about using an Alembic preamp with it. Just happened to have an F1x that I wasn't using and patched it into the effects return. Immediately had the tone I was looking for with gobs of power and headroom. Simple 3 knob passive tone control with bright and ultra low switches. Much easier to dial in my sound.
 
I purchased a 400+ about 6 months ago and I struggled with the EQ and then I read somewhere about using an Alembic preamp with it. Just happened to have an F1x that I wasn't using and patched it into the effects return. Immediately had the tone I was looking for with gobs of power and headroom. Simple 3 knob passive tone control with bright and ultra low switches. Much easier to dial in my sound.

That kind of doesnt make sense to me. IIRC they are both fender derivative passive eq preamps(putting aside the graphic). The place most folks get lost on the mesa is the mid is CUT ONLY. The bass and treble are flat at 2. That means you have only two notches of cut and 8 notches of boost. Then there is the bass and treble pull shift.
That moves the freq up for a wider bass in terms of the bass knob, or down for a wider treble in the case of the treble.
The different channels of course sound much different both in terms of gain and response.
 
Where's all the carrots?

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oh right here, haha




sorry had too, after 4 pages, haha
 
You can find a good Mesa 400+ every week on german EBay. They are around € 1.000,--.

I lug around a custom built, closed 410 cab for some years now, because I played a Mesa 400+ over that cab some years ago, and it soundet awesome! Seems that this cab is made for this amp.

I've got me a whole lot of gear during the last six months, a SVP Pro, a poweramp, two Peaveay cabs, a GenzBenz GBE 1200 and Tecamp L 810-cab.

So now I am collecting money for my next amp, and this will be a Mesa 400+. The cab is already here. ;-)
 
I've now had two rehearsals with this head with my band which is Blue-Jazz-Rock-Alt...and this head is one that sounds better in the mix than by itself in my opinion. It really has a nice warm full robust sound which does'nt get buried :D wile driving the band. Peace...DAcat :cool:
 
I've owned and gigged both. I voted V12 for several reasons. The V12 is lighter, requires almost no maintenance other than swapping in a few preamp tubes every few years, has unlimited headroom and clean power, and is much more versatile tone wise. The 400+ was great, but it was a one or two trick pony. My god it was loud but it ran out of clean power pretty quick, even with a 12AU7 in the V4 socket to tame the gain.

I'll always regret selling both of them, but I'm happy with my Basis M-2000.
 
I never understood people who buy a Mesa Bass 400 (+) to run it clean. Sure it can kinda do that, butI find it excels when yuo gain stage it to be intentionally overdriven when youhit it really hard and be able to back off on your playing a bit to clean up. Sounds very dynamic that way.
 
I have to Vote= BOTH!! ;) Yesterday My Mesa Boogie 400+ just arrived and is paired with my Titan V12 via a Morley ABY box so I'm capable of just about every concievable tone I can dream of. Below in the House of Bass ... Left -Right...

Mesa Boogie V12 1200 Watts on top/ Genz Benz Uber 410 4 ohm cab(1000 watts ) + Mesa Boogie 400+ on top / Two 4 ohm EarCandy 212 BassBomb cabs (950 watts each) =:hyper::hyper::D:D Heavenly Tonal Bliss...its gonna take a while to figure all the tonal possibilities but adding the 400+ gives an amazing Punch, Presence and bite to the tone no matter how you color it...I love standing really close to my amps(Just out of the line of fire-and my pants really do flap!!! Peace...DAcat :cool:

Just let your girlfriend stand there while you are playing... she may get multiple orgasms... lol
 
Yeah-... since I have put new tubes in its a whole new ball game-I am really diggin this Rich, organic overdriven sound in either channel. If I turn the master up to 5-6 by the time, I have the volume in channel 1 at three its getting Over-driven already and the notes are ready to explode off the strings and thru the cabs...the warm grunting biting tone that I now have with my Ibanez Prestige 1000 is close to the old Jack Bruce tone I loved so much from the Cream days but clearer without the sound of mushy speakers possibly coming apart :D ...I just love this amp! And so does my wife!! :hyper:
Peace...DAcat :cool: