Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

[agedhorse]

That is not what I would have expected, nor does it match any of my testing with that driver. If you are happy with the results, I don't see any downside since the driver is plenty robust for the amp.

 

[WoodyJ]

My experience is that it continues to be a tone monster and it is surprisingly articulate in every range and even though the speaker isn't nearly broken in and I am being careful with the volume level, it already has more clean headroom than I've ever experienced with the Walkabout in 1x12 combo mode. I suppose it ended up being a happy accident as I was concerned that the highs wouldn't be there, but they are.

Here's the WA when it was in gigging mode prior to the acquisition of D-800 #427.

 

[slofut]

Jack,
I'm a little confused but I think I got it now. You put the Kappalite 3012LF-4 in the Combo box correct? To replace the original 4ohm speaker? And you're just playing the combo like that without an extension cab?

 

[WoodyJ]

Apologies for the confusion, I was pretty excited when I wrote that lengthy post (still am!).

Yes, the 2512LF-4 replaced the original Eminence 12 in the WA combo box. There is no extension cabinet which is why I went with the 4 ohm LF speaker - which theoretically should not be ideal but it sounds killer in the WA cabinet. I did crank up the treble a bit and while I usually don't use a horn, I dialed this one up to +2dB as I mentioned earlier and the highs are clean and sparkly even with flatwound strings on a P-bass.

 

[BassPilot]

My walkabout is SN 2200. I believe the tubes are original. I have no idea how much usage it's had before I got it. The majority of time I use it (10-12 hrs a week average) is at low volume. They appear to perform as others have stated theirs do (Al Kraft, pfschim) so I'm not looking for trouble. I'm just wondering if I in fact am missing something on the sound and or clean headroom of this amp.
Visually these tubes seem fine but I want to get opinions (Andy?) on replacing them based on age and model. They are model 12AX7-A Russian 2 - see pic.

 

[agedhorse]

My general suggestion is to leave things alone unless there is a problem you are trying to solve. Preamp tubes usually last between 5,000 and 10,000 hours in your amp.

 

[BassPilot]

My general suggestion is to leave things alone unless there is a problem you are trying to solve. Preamp tubes usually last between 5,000 and 10,000 hours in your amp.

Thanks Andy!

 

[Coolhandjjl]

And tube rolling is a slippery slope.

 

[BassPilot]

Speaking of a slippery slope.....I was thinking that if I replaced them, someone in DC might want to buy them (12AX7-A Russian 2)

Hey Now!!!!

Note: In this specific case DC <> Direct Current

 

[sratas]

In my experience with the wa, tube rolling has little effect on tone, and the russian 2 compliment sounded pretty fine and aggressive when clipped. At the moment I have tung sol tubes in it, I find them excellent, clearer, cleaner, extended, but for less defined raw distorted sounds with rounds I would choose the stock tubes

 

[sunbeast]

In my experience with the wa, tube rolling has little effect on tone, and the russian 2 compliment sounded pretty fine and aggressive when clipped. At the moment I have tung sol tubes in it, I find them excellent, clearer, cleaner, extended, but for less defined raw distorted sounds with rounds I would choose the stock tubes

Interesting- I found the V1 tube in a WA to be pretty receptive to tube-rolling myself. V2 is less obvious, and mostly seems to potentially affect volume level, but also changes gain-structure and response in subtle ways. I actually had 2 Walkabouts for awhile maybe 8 years ago that were identical and made months apart except that one had stock Mesa Russian 12ax7s and one had stock Mesa Chinese 12ax7s and they sounded quite different (and yes I did try switching the tubes around to isolate most of the difference to the tubes themselves)! What kinda cab were you comparing them through? I would expect less difference through a more mid-scooped cab. I was comparing through my Berg NV610. I can't recall the specific differences now, but think I posted about it a few times back then. I think I ended up keeping the Russian tubes as they provided more clean headroom and more mid clarity, where the Chinese tubes were darker and more furry/compressed to my ears. They were actually both pretty cool in different ways, but I eventually decided I didn't need multiple Walkabouts haha! My WA now has a JJ in the V1 position, and I can't remember what I chose for V2. Or maybe it was an Amperex in V1 and a JJ win V2? Its been a bit...

 

[sratas]

Tube rolling with 12ax7 only, from different brands. If I changed tube type there would be much more differencies.
Recorded the same riffs with all tube brands in order to evaluate unbiased and avoid ear trichery or ecpectations. Good audio interface, very good reference headphones. As far as cabs barefaced big baby 2

 

[rodl2005]

I put Tung-sol 12ax7 in my v1 pos of my WA and it made a good difference iirc. That's compared to the stock tube that was in it.

 

[gillento]

The only 12AX7 I found to make a difference is the TungSol Gold in V1.

Even in the much cleaner sounding MarkBass TA503

 

[sratas]

This is the exact reason that set me on tung sol 12ax7 in v1 and v2. It was the most obvious change against stock and other tubes, including sylvania, philips, national ,sovtek, GT etc.

The wa becomes more transparent, extended with a controlled lowend and evident highend. A great tube, albeit I have to admit that with distortion (from wa circuit) I may prefer the stock russians or the sylvania.

 

[sunbeast]

Interesting- I tried a ton of different tubes in my WA and felt there were always noticeable differences. Not usually dramatic differences, but noticeable. The few dramatic differences were in total output and clarity (some 12ax7s seem significantly darker/murkier in the high-mid and treble region which is an area that the WA benefits from extension in IMO). I have a handful of vintage tubes that I flip around in every amp that I can, but the only one that I remember standing out much in the WA was a particular Amperex Bugle Boy- it was the cleanest and clearest I tried in V1. I think I ultimately preferred the more ballsy mids and dirt of a standard JJ though (I think these are one of the new stock Mesa tubes, though mine is an older silver-face that originally came with Sovteks).

 

[Coolhandjjl]

The TungSol 12AX7 re-issues are great pre-amp tubes. (not familiar with the Gold version) They have quite a following in the Hi-Fi world too!

 

[Luke the Fluke]

I was mucking around with a Zoom B3n into my walkabout and scout 12 .... putting music through the aux it sounds remarkably not rubbish like most the time you put music through bass gear.

Oh I've got some old 50/60's Philips British made I think in v1 in mine - found it wrongly labelled on eBay for about £1.50

 

[bumble yeti]

Hmm. No NOS rolling here but I could tell a difference.
FWIW, I settled on Tung-Sol Reissues all around for a big, clean, compressed sound. Don't really care to push them into saturation tho. These days I get my dirt from my CAL Grizzly Bass split with clean. Still waiting for that WA OD… Andy!!!
Otherwise, I really like the JJ ECC83-S/Tung-Sol combo for the dirty side. Lotta sound for not a lotta coin.
Of course, YMMV depending on what you're trying to achieve.

 

[sunbeast]

Hmm. No NOS rolling here but I could tell a difference.
FWIW, I settled on Tung-Sol Reissues all around for a big, clean, compressed sound. Don't really care to push them into saturation tho. These days I get my dirt from my CAL Grizzly Bass split with clean. Still waiting for that WA OD… Andy!!!
Otherwise, I really like the JJ ECC83-S/Tung-Sol combo for the dirty side. Lotta sound for not a a lotta coin.
Of course, YMMV depending on what you're trying to achieve.

Yeah those JJs are great tubes for dirty bass! I've ended up with one or more in every Mesa I've had for the last 12 years starting with a Mesa D-180 and 400+. Even after trying many more expensive tubes those ones always just seem to give me what I'm looking for (at least in the amps where there is an audible difference- the Mesa M6 Carbine was one where differences were very subtle, and preamp tube changes in my Prodigy are also actually much more subtle than in the WA in my experience).