Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

[sunbeast]

I absolutely love the WA with the Berg CN212. When I add a HPF to the equation it seems to give me a little extra head room from the WA - FDeck's HPF-Pre Series 3 is what I use. That Berg cab is 4 Ohms and can get very loud even with a 300 Watt head. Since the CN212 does not naturally have a lot of low end extension it's the perfect complement for the WA and keeps its pillowy, blooming bass characteristic nicely under control. It's a killer rig!

The relatively tight low-end and speaker area are what make all the Berg NV cabs great with the Walkabout as well! With my Walkabout and NV610 I could play with just about any band, though the amp gets a little too compressed for my taste at the volumes my min bands generally play at. Still it works and sounds great!

 

[gillento]

....
I have also run the WA pre (fx out) into both the Demeter and D800+ power sections, but I do not find that this translates into an 800w Walkabout either. This is not a huge surprise as I think its pretty well understood that the WA goodness comes at least partially from the tube driving the mosfets, so simply taking the WA pre signal out to a bigger power amp misses that part of the circuit (I think). I, and many others, have done the same with many different power amp sections (I tried it with an MPulse600 and a 2:90) or stand alone power amps with similar reported results.

Did you try using the "post everything" DI instead of the effect send?

 

[pfschim]

The funky part of the BB750 is that it only gives its full "750" watts into 2 ohms. I never got to compare a WA and BB750 side-by-side but you might not find the volume difference that significant. Though being able to safely run 2 ohms might be just your ideal situation (more speakers is the best route to more sound!).

yeah, I would most probably use the BB 750 @ 2.67 ohms into my "CN312" stack .. an 8ohm CN112 + 4ohm CN212. So, I would think the 750w BB 750 would have a noticeable power improvement over the 300w WA ... IF it had very similar characteristics.

given this power question, the Titan also sounds like a possibility as well if it can get close to that WA tube driven mosfet feel.
1200w @ 4ohms ... 840w @ 2ohms that could do the trick too

 

[pfschim]

Did you try using the "post everything" DI instead of the effect send?

no, I only used the WA FX send to the FX return on those amps I mentioned.
So, your saying that I should try the post everything WA DI (using an XLR) into the FX return (using 1/4 ") ? Is there really a signal path difference ? Does the DI pickup after the 12AX7 stage that drives the mosfets ? That would be a good experiment to try for sure.
hmmm. Got to see if I have an XLR to 1/4" cable around here somewhere.

 

[gillento]

....
So, your saying that I should try the post everything WA DI (using an XLR) into the FX return (using 1/4 ") ? Is there really a signal path difference ? Does the DI pickup after the 12AX7 stage that drives the mosfets ? That would be a good experiment to try for sure.
hmmm. Got to see if I have an XLR to 1/4" cable around here somewhere.

As the DI Level is controlled by the Master as well, it seems to me that it would be post V2, yes.

 

[sunbeast]

Yes the DI is post-everything!
Interestingly I found plugging any preamp into the Walkabout's power amp is where the magic could be found, just doesn't give you the necessary juice...

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Two WAs into a pair of 4 ohm cabs like Berg or Ampeg 212s would be great.

 

[pfschim]

Two WAs into a pair of 4 ohm cabs like Berg or Ampeg 212s would be great.

yes, but kind of inconvenient (as much as I love my Walkabout).
I use my WA primarily with a Berg CN212. Sweet combination. I can totally see, in a gear fantasy sort of way, a "CN412" stack with each cab being driven by its own WA. Even if I never run 2 at once, it might be a good time to snag another WA since they are no longer being made.

 

[pfschim]

As the DI Level is controlled by the Master as well, it seems to me that it would be post V2, yes.

I will have to give that routing a try. It would be very cool to discover that I could really get the WA sound in a higher power package.
I'll remain skeptical until I can hear it with my own ears.

So, you just use an XLR - 1/4" cable for this ? isn't that unbalanced ? is there additional noise added using this approach ?

 

[gillento]

I will have to give that routing a try. It would be very cool to discover that I could really get the WA sound in a higher power package.
I'll remain skeptical until I can hear it with my own ears.

So, you just use an XLR - 1/4" cable for this ? isn't that unbalanced ? is there additional noise added using this approach ?

Maybe that will the case, I have no idea about your setup. But using a power amp with XLR inputs should take care of this.

 

[pfschim]

Maybe that will the case, I have no idea about your setup. But using a power amp with XLR inputs should take care of this.

no dedicated power amp on hand, just the power sections of the D800+, SVT 6Pro and Demeter VTBP to plug into via their FX returns (1/4")
Still may try it, I think I do have an XLR to 1/4" cable around here somewhere.
gotta go do a rehearsal first though

 

[agedhorse]

There's probably enough makeup gain on the Subway power amp to accommodate the lower than line level output of the WA's DI, you will likely have to run the master volume on the Subway around 2:00-3:00 to get rated output.

 

[pfschim]

so Andy, any reason that 2 Walkabouts can't be used together, each one driving its own cab .. say 4ohm 2x12's ?
other than the amp haulage overkill, I'm wondering why I could not/should not consider that.

 

[agedhorse]

so Andy, any reason that 2 Walkabouts can't be used together, each one driving its own cab .. say 4ohm 2x12's ?
other than the amp haulage overkill, I'm wondering why I could not/should not consider that.

No reason at all, just use the effects send from 1 amp into the effects return of the other amp. the first amp's preamp will be the master preamp for both amps.

 

[pfschim]

hmmm ... thinking ......

 

[SJLee]

Ben Kenny has arrived at this conclusion as well.

 

[Al Kraft]

hmmm ... thinking ......

...and usually thinking is a good thing,...but in this instance it could be bad for your wallet!

 

[pfschim]

...and usually thinking is a good thing,...but in this instance it could be bad for your wallet!

ha!
all (well nearly all) of these purchases are done with gig money, and for the past 5 years gig money has been pretty darn good. I don't live on gig money, so from my perspective it funds itself. And besides all that, used Walkabout's seem pretty affordable.

I only have one piece of gear that falls outside that general rule, my Lull M4V, which was a 50th birthday present ... waaaay back when I turned 50

 

[mikeswals]

ha!
all (well nearly all) of these purchases are done with gig money, and for the past 5 years gig money has been pretty darn good. I don't live on gig money, so from my perspective it funds itself.

Same here...everything I buy is from gig money.

 

[pfschim]

ok, well I dug an XLR - 1/4" cable out of my gear box and connected the Walkabout DI out to the FX return of the D800+

works fine. No issues with the WA DI out level. Ran the WA gain at around 11:00 (still mostly clean), ran the WA Master at about 11:00 (played with it a bit, but found things got too grindy with the WA Master much over 11 or 12:00) WA DI level was all the way up.
WA signal was audible with D800+ Master starting at 9:00, and went all the way up the dial from loud to plenty loud to ouch!

definitely more WA flavored than the D800+'s more native Carbine flavor (sorry Andy, I'm just not hearing a ton of WA in there unless I twist the Voicing control past 2:00 and more). Even so, it seems to still have this tighter, brighter, "boxy mids" thing going on that I do not usually associate with the WA tone/sound, but DO associate with the Carbine/M series amps. Does not sound bad, it's just not a tone/flavor I associate with the WA.

Any differences between the native WA and the WA DI into the D800+ power section may be entirely attributable to the fact that the last WA driver stage is not hitting the WA mosfets and iron transformer. I have no doubt the D800+ class D power section is faithfully reproducing the WA DI tone, but I'm guessing (as I have in the past) that there is some magic foo foo dust in the full circuit that gets eliminated when you take the signal out to another power amp, whether that exit point is the FX send or the Walkabout's post everything DI (must really not be post "everything" ).

on the upside, it IS more WA flavored than the D800+ pre (naturally), and there is more WA flavor using this method than using the WA FX out to the D800+ FX return.

So, this is definitely a reason to keep the 800+; as a stand alone amp and a power amp for its older sibling. Given its small/light format I can easily see bringing both the WA and D800+ to a gig to run my 2.67ohm Berg "CN312" stack.

can anyone offer a reason that a dedicated power amp would be any different than the power amp section of the D800+. I don't think so, but I am fully open to suggestion on this.

downside: still not an 800w Walkabout

c'mon Mesa