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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread 8
- Thread starter Chef
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Mine was a 2009 silver face floor demo that required Petaluma attention a couple of years ago. I was told that they updated the layout to incorporate the active/passive switch on the front panel in place of the dual input jacks. As I noted above, I didn't know the effects mini toggle existed until the tech on the phone asked me if one had been installed. It looks just like the ground lift switch, but is near the top beside the back panel Mesa/Boogie logo. The one on mine is unlabeled, which I think was why I didn't take note of it before (that, and the fact that I get all the happy sounds out of the knobs on the front).
One of my groups is coming back from the inactive list (damn, we'll all so old! The guitarist took a break because he was having side effects from his heart medication
) and, if so, I'll be testing the WA soon. It sounds so good with his jazzy guitar that I'll put the G-B aside. Nothing against Genz-Benz, but it's a lot more generic than Mr MB.
One of my groups is coming back from the inactive list (damn, we'll all so old! The guitarist took a break because he was having side effects from his heart medication
) and, if so, I'll be testing the WA soon. It sounds so good with his jazzy guitar that I'll put the G-B aside. Nothing against Genz-Benz, but it's a lot more generic than Mr MB.
I ran my old PA 100 Fender and my GB Shuttle 6.0 into mine. The cab added a little bit of umph under the tons of both. So I would say it's tuned a bit boomy. That's fine by me. I dig it. I can dial in some bright and it cleans up nice. Neither sounded muddy by any stretch. But they were just a bit more low-mid heavy with each head when compared to my other cabs (except my Avatar 1-12, which is tuned incredibly boomy for such a small cab...... almost to the point of muddy.)
My Scout cabs are the 15" though so you may get different results with the 12" version.
My Scout cabs are the 15" though so you may get different results with the 12" version.
Rual1 said:
Yes! I run the Aguilar TH500 through a Scout 12/4ohm. It kills. Tighter and lighter than the Walkabout head. Sounds amazing with any bass I've played through it.
I may consider this setup as a backup - except I would run it into two scout 12s.
I got to run my WA Scout combo plus extension cab at 2 ohms with the new fan in on a rock gig last night.
I had the gain at 10:30-11:00 and master around 1:30-2:00. I was using my FDeck HPF 3 in the effects loop set to 35Hz. Bass was boosted a bit and Mid and treble at 12:00. No parametric adjustments were needed. Sufficing to say, there really isn't much more volume to be had out of the WA beyond these settings. Perhaps a little bit more but it won't be clean and will start to compress the 4 ohm 12" speakers in this rig.
This was the first time I brought my WA to a gig with this particular band and they commented on it's looks right away. After the second song, the band leader told me how much he loved the sound of it. "It's so warm and creamy!" LOL! Creamy bass tone. That's with using a Ibanez ATK305 equiped with a 2-band Musicman preamp. I'm sure he would have loved it if I had my FBass BN5 there.
The fan verdict:
AWESOME!! It ran a little warmer than it has in the past on hard gigs but I was never concerned about the amp getting too hot. The faceplate did get warm to the touch by the end of the night but the rest of the amp was only slightly higher than room temperature. I have the back of my combo vented instead of the factory cover.
I believe this mod is key to the aftermarket fan working so well for me as it allows the heat to escape out the top of the combo (heat rises naturally) instead of being redirected back down the sides of the amp out the bottom and potentially getting sucked back into the amp. Cool air at the fans intake is a must if you want the fan to do it's job.
I am truly in love with this amp now. My only beef with it was the fan was so loud in my quiet home studio. With the new temperature controlled fan from SilenX, it's dead silent in the studio even with my ear next to it and ramps up to sufficient air flow when ran hard at 2 ohms on gigs.
I'll admit, I wasn't totally sure this fan would provide enough flow to keep things cool so I had my full Bergantino AE410 plus Eden WTX500 in the car just in case. I was closely monitoring the heat dissipation during the first set. No problems at all.
The SilenX fans aren't all that expensive and they really take the WA to boutique status IMO. I'm really surprised more people don't notice the fan noise on these but for me, this upgrade was a must. Now it's my preferred practice amp as all my other micros, SWR Headlite, Eden WTX500 and WTX260, Markbass F500 have fans that are louder than the WA. The Markbass is second for being quiet as it's thermostatically controlled as well but my WA is still quieter.
Do you have a link to the exact SilenX fan you bought? I know that there have been several different ones floating around that people have tried in their walkabouts. I may try to replace the fan in mine. I never notice it at rehearsals or gigs, but I practice in my bedroom with my WA right near my ear and the fan can be a little distracting, especially when trying to play along with songs on iTunes or whatever.
Silenx IXP-54-14T iXtrema Pro 80mm x 25mm "Silent" Temperature Controlled FAN
I bought it off of ebay for $10.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300765395804;jsessionid=2DC2921C2079AF4C388C992EBB9DFA97?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_sacat%3D0%26_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D300765395804%26_rdc%3D1
One thing of note: With this fan you have to mount the temperature sensor to the heatsink. My particular Walkabout had an extra hole drilled in the heatsink near the tube end of the amp which is perfect because my WA mainly resides vertically in the combo. The tube end will heat up quicker because heat rises and it's the furthest away from the fan. I just used a plastic "zip" tie to affix it to the heatsink.
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Hey Dudes! So I was thinking about looking for a low wattage all tube amp for my living room...like 100 watts or less, but if I were to swap out my 4 ohm driver on my Walkabout for an 8 ohm one, will this allow me to get in the amps sweet spot without crazy volumes for the house?
It's still dang loud- 165w @ 8 ohms 1x12" - for house-hold use.. But it's got gain control, so it's very easy to get the 'sweet spot' anyway. It ain't all tube.
An amp, like the Walkabout, that has seperate gain and volume controls, can hit the "sweet spot" at ANY volume. Wattage is not what makes loud, speakers are. So even a 100 watt amp through a small spkr, can be quite controll-able, volume-wise. I use my WA amp with an 8 ohm 1x12 at home every day. No problem sounding good at low volume.
There is definitely a point on the Master Volume/ Gain relationship where the Walkabout really gets really nice though, and it does require significant volume that would be a bit much for home levels in my experience (running through my 8 ohm Scout 12). Since the Driver tube is located after the Master Volume, you really have to push the Master and Gain to get that tube pumping. The Walkabout does sound pretty great at any volume, but there is definitely a sweet spot that requires significant volume. You could always DI the amp with the Master cranked up and play it through a different (studio or stereo) system that way at any volume.
I do kinda wish Mesa would take all of the innards of the walkabout up to the power amp, and stick it in a pedal. I don't care if it has to work on 120v. I would worship that thing for a cabless solution.
I totally agree that the WA grunts sweetest when the power section is pushed, regardless of where you like your gain. However, I like the front end so much that if it was offered as a preamp (pedal or rackmount) with a tuner out (and ideally an aux in) I'd probably buy one. used it as a pre to a Crown poweramp and it sounded very good, but a 15lb, 2-space preamp at that price just doesn't make any sense to me.........I'd still keep my WA head of course......
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