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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#3,381
metron said:
This may be a little bit of an odd question but for you walkabout owners who also have experience with the 400+, can you compare/contrast them a little? I'm a WA/NV610 user and I'm just curious how a 400+ compares.
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when I got my walkabout transformer fixed the tech told me I had bought the wrong Mesa amp and should have bought a 400+

Possibly not helpful to you, I've never heard one or even seen one in real life.
 
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#3,382
Luke the Fluke said:
when I got my walkabout transformer fixed the tech told me I had bought the wrong Mesa amp and should have bought a 400+

Possibly not helpful to you, I've never heard one or even seen one in real life.
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interesting. was there any other info offered from this tech ? does the preamp section of the Walkabout compare favorably to the preamp in the 400+ ?
If so, it would be pretty cool to have an amp with a preamp that was similar to the Walkabout .. driving an all tube power section at ~300w.

I have never heard this comparison between the WA and the 400+ made before.
 
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#3,383
The 400+ has a different power amp overdrive character, a little tighter and less wooly/loose. Therefore, it tends to hold together better when slammed hard, especially into lower impedance loads.
 
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#3,384
I used to own a 400+ immediately before downsizing to the WA combo + extension rig I use now. I had replaced the 12AX7 preamp tube with a 12AT7 in an attempt to get a cleaner, more "old-school" vibe out of the amp. Ran it through two Powerhouse 2x12s and I loved it! If I hadn't developed some physical difficulties/limitations which made downsizing necessary, I'd still be rocking that rig!
That being said... I love the **** out of my WA setup, and have gotten more compliments on it than any other rig I've used in the 40 or so years I've been gigging!
 
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#3,386
pfschim said:
interesting. was there any other info offered from this tech ?
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haha not really! I'm in the UK so he was the local tech the MEsas UK distributer pointed me too. Mesa stuff is not cheap in the UK and to repair the blown transformer cost about the same as the amp costs secondhand - probably I should have cut my losses and sold it as broken and found something else but hey ho it sounds good - anyway I digress - we were talking about amps, my looking inside my old class D tecamp puma, the cost to repair stuff, and various brands build quality - finding MosFETs for old trace Elliot is apparently hard, Mesa sell a whole poweramp section with board and cooling bits andall the FETs on it if you blow that, and we spoke about how long the walkabout would be repairable for, and his quote was "it's the 400+ you should have bought"

Wish he had told me that before I spent big to repair the WA!
 
#3,387
metron said:
This may be a little bit of an odd question but for you walkabout owners who also have experience with the 400+, can you compare/contrast them a little? I'm a WA/NV610 user and I'm just curious how a 400+ compares.
Click to expand...

400+ is considerably tighter and cleaner, and as such can get pushed to what seems to be far louder levels.

Fantastic amp.
 
#3,388
Luke the Fluke said:
haha not really! I'm in the UK so he was the local tech the MEsas UK distributer pointed me too. Mesa stuff is not cheap in the UK and to repair the blown transformer cost about the same as the amp costs secondhand - probably I should have cut my losses and sold it as broken and found something else but hey ho it sounds good - anyway I digress - we were talking about amps, my looking inside my old class D tecamp puma, the cost to repair stuff, and various brands build quality - finding MosFETs for old trace Elliot is apparently hard, Mesa sell a whole poweramp section with board and cooling bits andall the FETs on it if you blow that, and we spoke about how long the walkabout would be repairable for, and his quote was "it's the 400+ you should have bought"

Wish he had told me that before I spent big to repair the WA!
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They are really 2 different amps, for different needs. There are a lot of "opinions" out there that are passed off as fact. There's nothing wrong with repairing your WA if that's the amp that works for you. We don't see many power transformers fail, I hope that's all there was wrong and it wasn't something else all along. Major repairs on the WA should run no more than 1/2 - 2/3 the cost of a used one unless the tech used you as a learning opportunity. Let's hope not.
 
#3,389
I know I am terribly indecisive, but I have put my Mesa Scout Radiator 15 and Mesa Walkabout head case back on the market. See the link in my signature if interested. As much as I want to keep, I really want to pay the credit card off after buying a very expensive new bass and some Bergantino cabs.

IMG_3558.JPG


IMG_3506.JPG
 
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#3,390
NOLA Bass said:
I know I am terribly indecisive, but I have put my Mesa Scout Radiator 15 and Mesa Walkabout head case back on the market. See the link in my signature if interested. As much as I want to keep, I really want to pay the credit card off after buying a very expensive new bass and some Bergantino cabs.

View attachment 3049414

View attachment 3049415
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Nice! Those head cases arent easy to come by! Id be all over it if I didnt have one already! Took quite a while to hunt one down
 
#3,391
good luck moving these items NOLA, I would guess they go pretty quickly.

I have a love/not love relationship with my WA headcase. It certainly protects the WA very well, and looks pretty cool too (if aesthetics really mean much), but it sure adds a chunk of weight to the WA ... pretty much doubles it.

Looking at the pic of your WA headcase, I realized there must be 2 different versions. Yours has much more ventilation on top (2 black vent grills) compared to mine which just has one aluminum vent. Never had an over-heating problem with mine (unless I pushed the WA all night at 2ohms ;)), so I don't suppose the added vents is that meaningful.

There was a TB member selling heavy duty aluminum cases for the WA some time back. I keep thinking that would be a better solution .. . just as secure, and certainly much lighter.
 
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#3,393
Last rehearsal I had some hum in my amp; thinking it was from the pedals, I started the usual checks...no result, but then I checked the connections on the efx loop and the cables I was using had this angled jack, flat wide top, so when I turned them, the hum disappeared . I switched the cables around to the straight jack in the other end and the problem was gone...just in case some of you experience this :) its quite tight between the connections there; so a straight jack may make a difference !!
 
#3,394
metron said:
This may be a little bit of an odd question but for you walkabout owners who also have experience with the 400+, can you compare/contrast them a little? I'm a WA/NV610 user and I'm just curious how a 400+ compares.
Click to expand...
They are both fantastic amps and do very different tubey flavors. I've loved both, but ditched the 400+ years ago and still have a Walkabout that I never intend to let go of. At one point I had a 400+, D-180, Carbine and Walkabout together and tested all sorts of mix/match preamp into power-amp combos between them. I actually found the Walkabout preamp to sound pretty bland through the other power-amps, and its magic really seemed come from that driver tube which came after the FX loop (any preamp into the Walkabout power amp sounded really good!).

As mentioned, the 400+ tends to be tighter and punchier by nature. The 400 pre would get lots of crap on here for the "cut-only" passive Mid, but with the pull-knob mid-boosts and graphic-EQ I found mine to be a very mid-heavy amp that could crunch and articulate where the Walkabout tended to compress and smooth-out. The 400+ could get MUCH louder with less apparent compression. The 400+ could also have much more top-end and higher-mids on tap. That said, the 400+ was probably the least intuitive amp to dial in that I've ever owned, whereas the Walkabout is one of the easiest (it just always sounds good!). Once I learned the 400+ I found it capable of a range of punchy and aggressive tones I've never found in another amp since (though my Prodigy gets in the ballpark and does some stuff the 400+ couldn't do in a much smaller/lighter package).
 
#3,395
sunbeast said:
They are both fantastic amps and do very different tubey flavors. I've loved both, but ditched the 400+ years ago and still have a Walkabout that I never intend to let go of. At one point I had a 400+, D-180, Carbine and Walkabout together and tested all sorts of mix/match preamp into power-amp combos between them. I actually found the Walkabout preamp to sound pretty bland through the other power-amps, and its magic really seemed come from that driver tube which came after the FX loop (any preamp into the Walkabout power amp sounded really good!).

As mentioned, the 400+ tends to be tighter and punchier by nature. The 400 pre would get lots of crap on here for the "cut-only" passive Mid, but with the pull-knob mid-boosts and graphic-EQ I found mine to be a very mid-heavy amp that could crunch and articulate where the Walkabout tended to compress and smooth-out. The 400+ could get MUCH louder with less apparent compression. The 400+ could also have much more top-end and higher-mids on tap. That said, the 400+ was probably the least intuitive amp to dial in that I've ever owned, whereas the Walkabout is one of the easiest (it just always sounds good!). Once I learned the 400+ I found it capable of a range of punchy and aggressive tones I've never found in another amp since (though my Prodigy gets in the ballpark and does some stuff the 400+ couldn't do in a much smaller/lighter package).
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Thanks for putting this together sunbeast, I always appreciate your feedback! There is a used 400+ locally and wondered what using one would be like coming from everyday WA abuse. From what you are describing, I feel like it's an amp I should at least try out.

Are you using the WA as a backup to the Prodigy or just a different flavor depending on the gig?
 
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#3,396
metron said:
Thanks for putting this together sunbeast, I always appreciate your feedback! There is a used 400+ locally and wondered what using one would be like coming from everyday WA abuse. From what you are describing, I feel like it's an amp I should at least try out.

Are you using the WA as a backup to the Prodigy or just a different flavor depending on the gig?
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The Walkabout is mostly just a home amp for me, though it gets use occasionally when I don't need the volume or aggressive punch, or when a smoother/warmer tone seems more fitting. Also with pedals I can get "in the ballpark" of my normal tone with the WA Scout 15 combo if I need despite the two amps being very different.

I should add that the stock tubes in my 400+ when I had it did not really inspire me- I put Shuguang 6L6s and JJ 12ax7s in which were a vast improvement (mine blew some power tubes soon after receiving it though, so its possible there were bias or other issues affecting the tone).
 
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#3,398
Kukulkan61 said:
Did a gig today in a park and the soundman swore I was using an octave pedal, I was playing my P bass thru my Walkabout amp head with my Subway 115 I don’t use effects pedals never have, can someone explain this to me??
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The SW115 has a lot of deep bass extension, but outdoors I would not have mistaken it for sub-woofer or a cab getting an octave down signal fed to it. I'll assume you were sending him a DI signal from the WA and IME with that head, it produces abundant lower frequency content that I typically tame with a HPF. While not exactly octave pedal deep, the WA can produce some very full and powerful lows. That's my best guess anyway!
 
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#3,399
Al Kraft said:
The SW115 has a lot of deep bass extension, but outdoors I would not have mistaken it for sub-woofer or a cab getting an octave down signal fed to it. I'll assume you were sending him a DI signal from the WA and IME with that head, it produces abundant lower frequency content that I typically tame with a HPF. While not exactly octave pedal deep, the WA can produce some very full and powerful lows. That's my best guess anyway!
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Thanks, yes we used the DI in the back of the amp, sounded great to me that’s a great head!!
 
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