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Mesa Boogie and other brands

#41
B-string said:
Not sure where you heard that?

When played the guitarist said "That Mesa Boogies!". Hence the Name Mesa Boogie before Mesa Engineering.
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All of their paperback catalogs have printed the story since the 90's. While Randall was hotrodding existing Fender combos (it was Carlos Santana that said "this amp really Boogies"). Randall said the first original amp made from scratch was a bass amp.
 
#42
NeonVomit said:
The very first Mesa amplifier was a bass amp. They've been a bass amp company from the beginning, just the guitar stuff is where the real innovations happened and of course that was their real growth area. But they're as experienced in making bass gear as anyone else.

Also most class D amplifiers are cheaper than normal ones for some reason (compare prices on Aguilar's Tonehammer with their DB751).
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It's not about whether they can make good bass amps, it's about the popularity and market share. Their bass stuff has become more appealing to the market in the last decade.
 
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#44
baxter_x said:
Why should I do this as I don't with many other brands? This just tends to proove Mesa stuff is hard to find. But I got the probable explanation from two members earlier in the thread.
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Their gear is somewhat hard to find, in stock, because it is produced in limited quantities and tends to sell pretty fast. It ends up being rare as a result. They build it and it goes to a dealer that ordered it, or is sent direct to a customer.

Unlike, say Ampeg, who produces amps that sit at GC for years.
 
#45
The bass 400 is a great amp. Heavy as hell but it kicks butt. I personally feel like a lot of their gear is overly complicated and over priced for what it is. They make gear that's very flexible almost to the point where it's annoying because I've been at practice with my guitar player for years when he was using all Mesa gear and it sucked waiting around so much while he adjusted his tone. That was back when I was playing a full SWR rig, warwicks and going for that clean hi fi bass tone. These days we use affordable gear that happens to be great for the sounds we actually need. Which for us is the 5150 and sans amp RBI. I use modded ampeg cabs. By modded I mean I have swapped all the speakers for newer higher output and bigger frequency response. The greenboy fearful, fearless argument is valid IMO, all these companies that mass produce cabs cut corners in the name of profit. Now Mesa is one of the better companies but still for the money Id personally rather have a cab custom made for me by greenboy audio.
 
#46
mikeswals said:
Seems like every time I look at Portland CL I see one for sale...

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Where was that when i was looking in early february? I did get an svt av for 700 though...
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#48
One of my early bass amps was a borrowed Mesa 400.
fast forward 30 years, and 100's of amps later... back to Mesa feels like a favorite pair of jeans. The Tone just fits. I sound like ME, not a designer's version of me. POWER on tap. Sold my Titan V12 and replaced it with the D800 (full stack) and am about to go back and buy back my Titan it been sitting in the store for ALMOST A YEAR-- Guitar Showcase in Campbell)

Mesa <3
The customer service is more like calling up a friend for help, than calling a company and steeling myself for a battle.
I KNOW if something goes wrong, they will take it as a personal mission and will MAKE IT RIGHT.
 
#49
Nephilymbass said:
The bass 400 is a great amp. Heavy as hell but it kicks butt. I personally feel like a lot of their gear is overly complicated and over priced for what it is. They make gear that's very flexible almost to the point where it's annoying because I've been at practice with my guitar player for years when he was using all Mesa gear and it sucked waiting around so much while he adjusted his tone. That was back when I was playing a full SWR rig, warwicks and going for that clean hi fi bass tone. These days we use affordable gear that happens to be great for the sounds we actually need. Which for us is the 5150 and sans amp RBI. I use modded ampeg cabs. By modded I mean I have swapped all the speakers for newer higher output and bigger frequency response. The greenboy fearful, fearless argument is valid IMO, all these companies that mass produce cabs cut corners in the name of profit. Now Mesa is one of the better companies but still for the money Id personally rather have a cab custom made for me by greenboy audio.
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I agree with you about the complexity, a lot of Mesa gear is packed with features that I'd never use, but they obviously appeal to people who like the tweakability. I love the tone of my Walkabout, but I could do without the semi-parametric eq, that's a lot of knobs that I need to remember to check when rushing to set up on stage.

On the other hand, Mesa also makes great bass heads with simpler controls like the (discontinued) Buster, the M3 & M6 and the new D-800. I also have an M6 and it's dead simple to use. They're not all nerdy tweaker amps...
 
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#50
baxter_x said:
Why should I do this as I don't with many other brands? This just tends to proove Mesa stuff is hard to find. But I got the probable explanation from two members earlier in the thread.
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Ok, it's hard to find. so what? same here. no dealers locally. at all. I had to buy mine sight unheard from an online dealer(Sweetwater). I could send it back if I didn't like it. No big deal, nothing I'd gripe about, anyway. The prices you have to pay, between exchange rates, freight, duties and VAT, that's another issue.
 
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#51
baileyboy said:
I own two Walkabouts and alternate their use at gigs. I also play through 2-12 Radiator Scouts. This rig has allowed me to dial in pretty much any sound I desire. As well, I feel it's as close to "tube" sound as I'm going to get without the weight.
All their products, to the best of my knowledge, are USA manufactured in Petaluma, CA. I've never had any quality-control issues with their products. My experience with staff and products has been nothing short of excellent. Looking forward to trying out the Subway one of these days...
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My only problems with the walkabout head was the send and return socket failing and kept dropping the signal level. The feedback I got was that if you never use the send and return socket eventually the contacts start to tarnish and if you keep something plugged in all the time the same thing happens. The process of plugging stuff in and out of those sockets keeps them tarnish free.
I've since had new sockets put in and all is fine.
 
#53
For your information I just acquired an M-Pulse 600. The amp is nice but I feel my SVT4 Pro crushes it. In term of volume, headroom, low frequencies.... Everything goes in favor of the SVT4.
The M-Pulse seems to be more like vintage oriented. The sound seems to be like compressed all the time where my SVT4 is like wide opened.
Still, I need to change the tubes on the MEsa, they are dead!
 
#54
They are totally different amps. I've used both and while I slightly favor the MPulse, I can't deny the huge power and low end extension of the SVT4. Plug that sucker into a cabinet with bandwidth and power handling to match and you can really hurt some people.
The MPulse I think is another Boogie take on the Fender tone stack. They love to keep tweaking that design for various amps. So it's going to sound kind of vintage! I have to admit that it took me years to really wrap my head around the EQ in my Mesa Bass 400 which is kind of similar.
 

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