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Mesa Boogie vs Ampeg vs Markbass vs Others
- Thread starter tarp21
- Start date
I do want to chime in again. I was being a little The owners of Hughs and Kettner (German) make their amps in Asia and the were pretty shocked to find out Americans don’t want to pay for Asian amps ($1000+) anyway.
There’s a very different ethic and value of doing business in China that is pretty different from the west.
you really should take the time to research it and a basic history of China especially Mao and on. It’s becoming the defining political force of the century.
There’s a very different ethic and value of doing business in China that is pretty different from the west.
you really should take the time to research it and a basic history of China especially Mao and on. It’s becoming the defining political force of the century.
Of the current Mesa offerings I believe the WD800 has the most tonal options available due to extensive mid range control. The TT800 has two preamps which is cool, but neither pre has the EQ adjustability of the WD.
It’s funny - I know that parametric EQs give you a ton of flexibility, but I really didn’t enjoy the one on my Orange 4 Stroke.
I love having flexibility, but I sort of want flexibility in terms of a guided flexibility, if that makes any sense.
Sounds like the WD-800 is right for you and the TT-800 is right for me.
I totally understand what you're saying. Having the ability to sweep different frequencies and then boost or cut them can sometimes be too much flexibility. Certainly amps with preset frequency points are easier to adjust, and preferable if you like those specific frequencies. I have a good ear and understanding of the frequency range of the bass and believe the mid range is the most important in getting the tones I'm after. I find the WD very easy and quick to adjust to get the tones I need no matter the bass I'm playing. I'm sure I'd dig the TT, I hope to check one out soon.
Hmm. Didn't see that in the specs but 130w should be ample for an 8" speaker. I'm thinking of something small that I can practice with (be it bedroom or conveniently putting in back seat to go elsewhere).
Went to Peavey website and I see it "200W @ 4ohms". The cabinet is implied because it runs at 8ohms. Good eye....
Currently have Phil Jones, Ampeg, Markbass, Fender, Eden. Also both Mesa 800+ and WD800. The Mesa has really been working for me the last couple years. WD800 is my main love with 800+ as a backup. Yet it all comes down to personal preference. I’ve always struggled somewhat with the others. Mesa is where I’m staying.
I just had a chance to side-by-side compare a Mesa Walkabout, Mesa WD800 and Markbass LMIII (made in Italy). All were tested at home at low volumes and through a Mesa Subway 115. First off, all three are very good and nice sounding amps.
My biggest surprise, is how much I actually like the Markbass LMIII! And this is now on my mind because I have to decide between the WD800 and the LMIII (the walkabout is not longer with me).
Walkabout: It’s everything everyone has ever said about it. A killer amp with a great low-mid presence that seems to really cut through and in a good way. It can also get deep and dubby if desired, and I found the EQ very versatile (most out of all three). Can fully cancel out “walkabout” tone, but for most situations, you probably wouldn’t want to anyway. The one downfall, as mentioned countless times, is if you want to maintain that tone at louder levels without getting into the overdrive side of thing, it’s a challenge.
WD-800: Out of the box it does sound good, but not as rich as the Walkabout or LMIII. It takes some tweaking to get to the “sweet spot” but, I’m starting to realize that this isn’t a bad thing, rather it’s what make this amp shine. I was able to get very close tone to the Walkabout, and I was also able to get a very close tone to the LMIII. However, this took quite a bit of tone tweaking to do so. For the Walkabout tone, I had to up the higher mids, for the LMIII tone, I had to cancel out nearly all of the 1k eq frequency and a few other adjustments. Naturally, the WD800 has an infinity number of it’s own tones too, and many of the them are superb.
LMII: This was instant plug and play satisfaction, more so than the other two. Some have said that it is “dry” sounding… maybe, but it’s a very rich dry sound. The lower mids were the star of the show and there was instant “umph” without extra highs and extra lows. This was very difficult to replicate on the two Mesa amps. Add in some of the tone shaping filters and there a lot of very solid bass tones. Even with the bass cranked, it rarely got muddy and seemed to hold that “solid bass” tone throughout.
Most of my A/B’ing was between the WD800 and the LMIII. What I found was that I really liked the warm solid tone of the LMIII… it just has the right balance across the board. I would then try to replicate that tone with the WD800, and after some playing around I was able to get close (but there was just some kind of “unnecessary extra tone” that I just couldn’t eq out of the Mesa), but then when I went back to the LMIII I almost found that now sounded rather muddy. To now to get the LMIII to sound like the Mesa, I had to fully crank up the high and use quite a lot of the High Mid.
I tried both with fuzz as well… once again, a few turns of the tone knobs on the MB gave instant satisfaction and an amazing scooped fuzz… took some toying around with the Mesa, but then got an equally (if not better) tone than the LMIII.
This will be a tough decision. I want to like the Mesa better because of its feature set, its power, reputation/service and because of the matching cab, but the LMIII was so easy to use and just has a very good baked in tone (and it was less expensive (-both are used). The Mesa is definitely the more versatile amp, particularly in the higher end frequencies, and in many cases can produce more complex tones, but there is just something about that LMIII sweetspot that makes all of my basses sound punchy, thick, and clear (with the High/High Mid on/near full).
My biggest surprise, is how much I actually like the Markbass LMIII! And this is now on my mind because I have to decide between the WD800 and the LMIII (the walkabout is not longer with me).
Walkabout: It’s everything everyone has ever said about it. A killer amp with a great low-mid presence that seems to really cut through and in a good way. It can also get deep and dubby if desired, and I found the EQ very versatile (most out of all three). Can fully cancel out “walkabout” tone, but for most situations, you probably wouldn’t want to anyway. The one downfall, as mentioned countless times, is if you want to maintain that tone at louder levels without getting into the overdrive side of thing, it’s a challenge.
WD-800: Out of the box it does sound good, but not as rich as the Walkabout or LMIII. It takes some tweaking to get to the “sweet spot” but, I’m starting to realize that this isn’t a bad thing, rather it’s what make this amp shine. I was able to get very close tone to the Walkabout, and I was also able to get a very close tone to the LMIII. However, this took quite a bit of tone tweaking to do so. For the Walkabout tone, I had to up the higher mids, for the LMIII tone, I had to cancel out nearly all of the 1k eq frequency and a few other adjustments. Naturally, the WD800 has an infinity number of it’s own tones too, and many of the them are superb.
LMII: This was instant plug and play satisfaction, more so than the other two. Some have said that it is “dry” sounding… maybe, but it’s a very rich dry sound. The lower mids were the star of the show and there was instant “umph” without extra highs and extra lows. This was very difficult to replicate on the two Mesa amps. Add in some of the tone shaping filters and there a lot of very solid bass tones. Even with the bass cranked, it rarely got muddy and seemed to hold that “solid bass” tone throughout.
Most of my A/B’ing was between the WD800 and the LMIII. What I found was that I really liked the warm solid tone of the LMIII… it just has the right balance across the board. I would then try to replicate that tone with the WD800, and after some playing around I was able to get close (but there was just some kind of “unnecessary extra tone” that I just couldn’t eq out of the Mesa), but then when I went back to the LMIII I almost found that now sounded rather muddy. To now to get the LMIII to sound like the Mesa, I had to fully crank up the high and use quite a lot of the High Mid.
I tried both with fuzz as well… once again, a few turns of the tone knobs on the MB gave instant satisfaction and an amazing scooped fuzz… took some toying around with the Mesa, but then got an equally (if not better) tone than the LMIII.
This will be a tough decision. I want to like the Mesa better because of its feature set, its power, reputation/service and because of the matching cab, but the LMIII was so easy to use and just has a very good baked in tone (and it was less expensive (-both are used). The Mesa is definitely the more versatile amp, particularly in the higher end frequencies, and in many cases can produce more complex tones, but there is just something about that LMIII sweetspot that makes all of my basses sound punchy, thick, and clear (with the High/High Mid on/near full).
I had the D800+ , fantastic head . I have the WD-800 at the moment and I love it . .. However , there was a Quilter BB800 that I owned that was also very nice for clean punchy tones. The original sound of the bass was amplified without a lot of baked in tones. ( IMHO)
I don't own any of those heads but I do own a Mesa Subway pre-amp DI. I run it into the FX return on my Rumble 500C. I do this because it is so clean. I'm not promoting the pre-amp DI so much as I am promoting Mesa and just how clean their stuff is when you want it to be. In the past I used one channel of a ART 15 band EQ as my pre -> QSC USA 850. The Mesa has the same kind of CLEAN.
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8 months in with the WD-800 and I absolutely love it! I'll never get rid of it! Every musician I have jammed with raves on it's tone and power! The HPF is worth it's weight in gold! Paired up with a Keeley Bassist, Zoom MS-60B for limited effects I use. I even purchased the EQ pedal for the WD-800 if I want to remove the mids controls in a setting! Best amp purchase I've ever made! And will be able to save it for the years to come!
Recently we built an IEM rig and decided to go amp less in the small venues we play. What did I go with??? The MB Subway + Bass Preamp/DI!!!! Get's me similar tones to my WD-800! I run both a DI and post signal to our IEM mixer, DI goes to FOH and post signal goes to my in ears! I can tweak all night without effecting FOH but rarely need to. I LOVE MB products, it's MY tone!
Recently we built an IEM rig and decided to go amp less in the small venues we play. What did I go with??? The MB Subway + Bass Preamp/DI!!!! Get's me similar tones to my WD-800! I run both a DI and post signal to our IEM mixer, DI goes to FOH and post signal goes to my in ears! I can tweak all night without effecting FOH but rarely need to. I LOVE MB products, it's MY tone!
