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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#2,421
Worldeeeter said:
I'm gonna make a bold statement regarding the last 50 pages of this thread: Mesa/Boogie WILL NOT release a new Walkabout amp of ANY KIND. The last 500 posts have been as follows:

"The Walkabout would be perfect if it had X, Y and/or Z"

"Yeah, well, that's a problem. If we change/add X, Y, and/or Z, the amp will not sound anything like a Walkabout"

The Walkabout is its own product, and will go down in history as such. I am now convinced that there is no way to make a version that has more output or headroom, without Frankensteining a 1200-lb. wall of amps such as the ones recently suggested.
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I believe you are correct. I've been playing Mesa Amps 99% of the time for the last 26 years and have owned a lot of their models. D180, Bass400 (x3), Bass400+, Titan, Strategy888, D800, and now just bought a Walkabout for the 5th time.
I know very well you can't just add power and expect the same thing and be louder, it is what it is because of what it is. :D
To me the Walkabout's very tubey character closely resembled closer to the Titan V12 and BB750. So no need to look much past that BB750 as an example for an amp that makes 550w @ 4 ohm.
Problem to me is, I like the Walkabout for being a small, lightweight 13 lb extremely portable amp. The BB750 and Mpulse 600 were 30 lbs. ehhhhhhh!!! The Titan is 43 lbs, which was one reason why I simply went to the Strategy @ 46 lbs if I'm going to drag around that much weight. The BB750 was $1600 the Titan $1800, and at those weights and costs I for one am not interested in a hybrid, I would rather have an all tube.
 
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#2,422
Actually, I have gotten a lot of good information and some good ideas as well as learned more about what people like (AND don't like) about the WA. Using the Titan based power amp would add about 12-15 pounds to the WA, from what I have seen I am not sure that all that many players would be willing to lug around an (admittedly expensive) amp in the 35 pound range (plus a rack). Using the Titan based power amp is interesting since it goes away from what many people professed to like from the WA power amp... the squishy, looser, woolier, bouncier low end feel. If this is the case, there are many ways to achieve this as it scales much better.

There is no perfect amp for all players, in fact there's no perfect amp period. I understand this, but what I am trying to understand is how to make something "better" (more usable) for more players by addressing these concerns. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking these questions. In some ways, "better" may mean smaller, lighter, more flexible, higher power, more/different features, guaranteed 2 ohm operation, etc., but for others the needs will be different.

I think Caca de Kick did a good job of articulating this in the previous post.
 
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#2,424
mikeswals said:
I believe you are correct. I've been playing Mesa Amps 99% of the time for the last 26 years and have owned a lot of their models. D180, Bass400 (x3), Bass400+, Titan, Strategy888, D800, and now just bought a Walkabout for the 5th time.
I know very well you can't just add power and expect the same thing and be louder, it is what it is because of what it is. :D
To me the Walkabout's very tubey character closely resembled the closesr to the Titan V12 and BB750. So no need to look much past that BB750 as an example for an amp that makes 550w @ 4 ohm.
Problem to me is, I like the Walkabout for being a small, lightweight 13 lb extremely portable amp. The BB750 and Mpulse 600 were 30 lbs. ehhhhhhh!!! The Titan is 43 lbs, which was one reason why I simply went to the Strategy @ 46 lbs if I'm going to drag around that much weight. The BB750 was $1600 the Titan $1800, and at those weights and costs I for one am not interested in a hybrid, I would rather have an all tube.
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13 lbs.?! Please explain how you found this product. My Walkabout head weighs 33 lbs.

EDIT - Sorry...you are correct. The head alone is indeed 13 lbs.
 
#2,426
Titan alone is about 29 lbs in its own. The wa just sounded great through the titans amp. The class D amps just didn't do it. The eden power amp sounded much better but, the titan just had it going on.

Is a 2 rackspace big dog walkabout like this possible?
 
#2,428
I think what I'm going to do for now is to keep the wa for home and smaller gigs, and keep the eden for loud gigs on it's own or to run the wa into. The eden is only two rackspaces and I already have a case for it so...

I'll probably sell the titan and hope that mesa puts out the BIG walkabout sometime soon. And agedhorse, feel free to use me as a beta tester. Although, I'm sure you guys have plenty of in house help.
 
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#2,431
pfschim said:
yeah, that's where my head is at re the WA.
I always use it pretty clean - with gain never run above 11:00, even less sometimes. I also don't over EQ it .. little bump, hair over 12:00 on the Bass control, Mids set at about 10:30-11, Treble with just a small bump past 12:00. Only ever use the Para EQ controls to do room adjustment - or sometimes I will use it as a low end cut (not quite a HPF .. but kind of) by setting the low para control at 30hz and cutting it about -5 t0 10db or so.

So, where I run into trouble is when I need to push the Volume/Master over 12:00 .. it's right there where the magic starts to disappear for me .. all that great tone starts to get kind of sloppy, squishy, indistinct, maybe over compressed (?) - almost feels slow to respond at that Master level, like it's playing behind me. This is at 4ohms .. when running 2.67 or all the way down to 2, I have found the loss of definition to start earlier on the Vol/Master. At this point in a gig I am also pushing the Pre level up too, just to get a scoshe more overall V .. which is a bad decision, because now I am adding OD that I don't really want (Mr. Warm & Clean) - and this just adds to my frustration.

I'll never sell my WA, too much goodness in the amp. But, I also know not to use it where it will not work well. There are other solutions for that.
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Amen! agedhorse, pfschim and Chef are two guys, among A LOT of others, who want to run it fairly clean, and it sounds absolutely wonderful that way, but it just ain't got enough headroom. They've either had to put up, pick and choose or move on–which is a damn shame to loose that sweet WA tone. If I remember correctly, the WA manual even talks about the sweet spot being the 'compression zone' I posted about earlier. (Sorry, I don't have it readily available to quote.) But I feel that their version may be the different amp. The 'dirty power' folks can take advantage of one of your other offerings to get close to the tone but the 'clean' folks will always be wanting. Please correct me if I'm misinterpreting guys. I'm not trying to speak for anybody, just trying to interpret what I've been reading thru the years. What a thread! What WA LOVE!
 
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#2,432
bumble yeti said:
Amen! agedhorse, pfschim and Chef are two guys, among A LOT of others, who want to run it fairly clean, and it sounds absolutely wonderful that way, but it just ain't got enough headroom. They've either had to put up, pick and choose or move on–which is a damn shame to loose that sweet WA tone. If I remember correctly, the WA manual even talks about the sweet spot being the 'compression zone' I posted about earlier. (Sorry, I don't have it readily available to quote.) But I feel that their version may be the different amp. The 'dirty power' folks can take advantage of one of your other offerings to get close to the tone but the 'clean' folks will always be wanting. Please correct me if I'm misinterpreting guys. I'm not trying to speak for anybody, just trying to interpret what I've been reading thru the years. What a thread! What WA LOVE!
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you got it man
 
#2,435
kringle77 said:
Unless things catch up with class D, and I'm sure someday they will, please don't make it class D. I and several serious tone geeks have gone back to transformer amps. Big difference. I don't want to beat that horse anymore though.
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+ 1000

I'm quite sure there is no objective or scientific way to support this strong opinion in favour of more trad amps versus class D and switching power supplies, but I am in that camp very firmly. It's a player feeling thing, maybe the way bursts are reproduced or the tendency of the midrange to be controlled...really I don't know and I admittedly haven't tried newer class d products, but only because I spent some dollars in the past trying to make the micros work for me but it did not, at all.

I finally came to the conclusion that class d/smps are optimal and desirable with big pa work where lightweight, dependability and costs are as important as sound, but for bass I think there are better design choices. My old back hurts, but my ears are in heaven, so things balance out well.

My Walkabout is quite old, second generation I think, it has been beaten by the previous owner, and there is no doubt I want to buy a newer WA in my future. Please, if you mesa decide to come up with a new amp with the WA mission, please maintain trad power supply and if possible huge mosfet power stage
 
#2,436
Thank you sratas! I've owned all the new ones, plus separate power amps and it's just not there. I've even owned the super higher stuff where there are only a few in existance, and good as they were, any of my old common, low prices lead sleds sounded and felt better. That's when I got honest with myself. On a slushy February night, that little class D and neo gets tempting, until you do a last minute co,parisian before loading up and you think, what was I doing?!
 
#2,440
I haven't read the whole thread so pardon me if this has already been suggested. What if Mesa were to build a standalone Walkabout preamp/D.I. so buyers could hook up their power amp of choice? I believe it would sound different than the Walkabout but perhaps this would satisfy the "Walkabout only louder/cleaner" desire?
 
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