Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

[rodl2005]

No worries, find an amp you like and stick with it. Simple solution.

Exactly. GAS free since I was recommended to try the Fender Super Bassman. I bought one. ..1st note did it for me. ..literally. ..1st note!
It still impresses me everytime I use it.
I've got other amps. ..as I'm past the days of lugging a 300w all tube beastie up stairs or where there's poor access to stage area.

 

[kringle77]

Truth is, there is a lot of excellent gear on the market now. There are so many options available. Another truth is, as many options as we have now, they aren't necessarily any better than a few old designs. I sure do love trying all of it though.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I've got a fairly large gig this weekend, and was planning on using my WalkAbout Scout 15 anyway.... if I have enough time at soundcheck I'm going to play with that mid at full-on, and see if I can still get what I want to hear out of the combo. It (theoretically) shouldn't be all that different from these settings on my F-1X. FWIW, these settings produce a fairly scooped tone I like.

 

[Al Kraft]

I like having a broad range of voicing/tonal options available and appreciate the diversity/flexibility we have in some of the newer product offerings. The Walkabout pretty much nails down its own corner of the envelope most impressively (a class of its own IMO), but it doesn't have the range of voicing options I get with the D-800. If you're lucky enough to own multiple amps, then a strong signature sound in each one is fine. For those who choose to, or can only have a single head, it's nice to have something that covers a broader tonal spectrum.

 

[Zonked]

If everybody was the same, designing new products would be a hell of a lot easier, that's for sure

I don't think Walkabout fans are asking for an amp that "everyone will like".

If that was the the goal of all amp designers we would have no amps at all.

Seems that what Walkabout fans want and are ready to spend $$$ on, is an engineering impossibility.

 

[agedhorse]

I don't think Walkabout fans are asking for an amp that "everyone will like".

If that was the the goal of all amp designers we would have no amps at all.

Seems that what Walkabout fans want and are ready to spend $$$ on, is an engineering impossibility.

...and what WA owners want falls into 2 distinctly different needs as well.

 

[husky123]

All this Walkabout talk got me to do something today I've never done: set it up on top of my Berg NV412. All holy hell broke loose. I will never sell this amp. I've tried A LOT of gear over the years and when I start to get bent up and jaded, I know I can always plug the WA into just about any cab on the face of the earth and get an incredibly insane bass tone. WA FTW.

 

[Zonked]

...and what WA owners want falls into 2 distinctly different needs as well

I am assuming most Walkabout fans want the Walkabout and its tone just with higher output correct? This is an engineering impossibility right? Can't be done.

If the characteristic tone of the Walkabout can not be scaled up power-wise then I believe talk of a few updated features and distinct needs are irrelevant at this point.

 

[agedhorse]

I am assuming most Walkabout fans want the Walkabout and its tone just with higher output correct? This is an engineering impossibility right? Can't be done.[\quote]
There are some who would like the same tone at the same volume but continue to get louder, there are others who would like the WA tone but at the louder volume. Which is more desired I'm not sure.

I
If the characteristic tone of the Walkabout can not be scaled up power-wise then I believe talk of a few updated features and distinct needs are irrelevant at this point.

Perhaps, but some of the additional feature requests might point more clearly to what players are hoping for.

 

[adam montminy]

I've got a fairly large gig this weekend, and was planning on using my WalkAbout Scout 15 anyway.... if I have enough time at soundcheck I'm going to play with that mid at full-on, and see if I can still get what I want to hear out of the combo. It (theoretically) shouldn't be all that different from these settings on my F-1X. FWIW, these settings produce a fairly scooped tone I like.

I owned an F-1X and I thought it was a completely different sound than my WA. I would be extremely surprised if you could get them to sound the same. To my ears, the gain structure is completely different and that's the most important part. There's no way to get that harmonically-rich WA tone from the Alembic in my experience. As far as the tone stacks go, I found them to be very very different as well.

 

[adam montminy]

Heck, many of the music styles of today weren't even thought of back then, so products evolved to better reflect and appeal to a wider and wider cross-section of the musical world (this specifically includes international world music).

This is a great point. I think the only times I have ever wanted more power with my WA were when I was playing salsa, trying to get that big salsa bottom end. You can try and get the right cabs for that sound but the powerful bass-heavy cabs are usually pretty low-sensitivity too and turning up the bass knob just eats up more of your 300 watts. Situations like that might just call for an amp like the D-800 I think, so it's great to have options rather than trying to make one amp do everything.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I owned an F-1X and I thought it was a completely different sound than my WA. I would be extremely surprised if you could get them to sound the same. To my ears, the gain structure is completely different and that's the most important part. There's no way to get that harmonically-rich WA tone from the Alembic in my experience. As far as the tone stacks go, I found them to be very very different as well.

I always thought they were radically different too, but recent posts on this thread have suggested the tone stack is essentially the same.

 

[adam montminy]

I always thought they were radically different too, but recent posts on this thread have suggested the tone stack is essentially the same.

Yeah, I scratched my head when I read that one too, for sure. I've owned 3 preamps with the "Fender tone stack" (BMAX-T, Yamaha, and Alembic) and they definitely don't behave anything like the WA EQ. And more importantly, they don't really have the same sound. The Fender-type preamps all have the same sort of vibe but the WA gives me a very different sort of sound and the interaction between the controls is much different too.

 

[kringle77]

Like I said, the tone stack is in there but, only the mid is variable, it is followed by solid state bass and treble contols. The stack is more of a preset voicing. I do find that boosting the mid almost had more effect on harmonic content than actually adding mids. That's because you are hitting the next tube stage with more gain. I've seen the the schematics and mesas designs are what I've always thought, based on guitars designs. But, they are tweaked and work well. They start with the fender circuits and then add on. This is actually how the company started, from my understanding.

 

[kringle77]

Maybe those who like the d800+ but, miss the tube feel, etc, could find the right small tube preamp to run in front of it. The question is, what device would that be? I've always thought the h&k batt would be the ticket but, they are pretty rare.

 

[sratas]

I usually don't go higher than 10 o clock on the mid dial, and lately I set the mid knob at 9 o clock...the tone is not mid heavy but it still punches like hell in a band mix. My jazz never sounded better, it's bold but very very detailed. I have la bella flats on it and that setting, along with a slight cut at 350 hz more or less, allows me to obtain all the classic jazz bass tones, including a super burpy bridge one, hitting the tubes a bit. In all honesty, I have never had these results with another amp, and usually I had to tweak the amp so that it sounded so so by itself but good with the band, and this meant having a good amount of mids and high mids. With the WA the tone is there and without an umbrella of mids, it cuts trough with ease. It sounds like itself if played alone or with the band. No more continuous knobs fiddling for me, and even changing cab or room has never been so easy. A little, miniscule adjustment here or there and in 2 min I'm ready to push the band and rock the house. Love this amp

 

[kringle77]

I've been experimenting with only using the bass, mid, treble and the 200 to 2kHz active mid. It brought me to the conclusion that the titan could really work for me. Even though the mesa gear is based around fender circuits, the extra mid complexity makes them sound more like a full tube 70's svt when adjusted right. That mid forward assertiveness that is bold but, not annoying. I am running a broughton audio hp/lp in front which brings the hyped bottom under control and makes od tones much more pleasing.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

If everybody was the same, designing new products would be a hell of a lot easier, that's for sure

Nah it would already been done and perfected and you would be doing something else with your time and skills

 

[kringle77]

Oh, that reminds me, speaking of the titan. I plan to replace the preamp tubes with EH 12ax7's and maybe use lower gain tubes in the od section. Can anyone tell me which section each tube is used for?

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Well... I'm here to learn, and the past week or so has surely been educational even though I fall into the camp of those who are pretty much happy with WalkAbout as-is. I'll gig it as long as I can still heft that Scout 15 up into my hatchback and go. I'd still be willing to try something different if @agedhorse and Mesa came up with it.