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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#3,922
Darbitrator said:
Based on all of the positive reviews here I recently purchased a used Walkabout Scout 15 combo amp w/ the 4 ohm speaker. The speaker died and I replaced it with an 8 ohm Eminence replacement. Very happy with the outcome. I occasionally used a 15" Eden 4 ohm extension cab with the Scout prior to its speaker blowing (I have followed closely the whole 2 ohm debate here). But now that I have the 8 ohm Scout speaker I'm looking for a 2 X 10 8 ohm mesa cab as my extension cab.

Any experiences using a 2x10 cab with the Scout? From a tech standpoint was the WA Scout intended to be linked with a matching driver (MB never produced a WA 2x10 extension cab).

Also, while I would love to splurge on a Subway Lite 2x10 cab ($$) any reviews on how a Powerhouse 2x10 cab would work with the WA Scout 15?

Sorry if this has been covered in other threads.
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@Darbitrator, was the 8ohm Eminence a recommended replacement by Mesa? Mesa did make a 1x15 extension cab, but I don't see how it would be used as an extension cab if it would bring you under 4 ohms??
 
#3,923
Coolhandjjl said:
Let us know on the Ampeg 212AV. People seem to like that cab here.
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The 212av is an excellent cab for the price and can handle its own against comparable cabs. It is a superb match for the V4B head but may not be as bright with darker sounding heads.

After comparing with the Scout 15,the 212av does well with the WA and gets about as loud as the scout with gain and master at 1pm, but the Scout shows off the booty of the WA on the low E string so well. I preferred the WA/Scout 15 combo and I preffered the v4b/212av como. They were made for each other and sound best together. For sheer volume with the WA, the Berg hs410 punched the hardest and sounded great. It didn't have the rubbery depth and booty of the Scout15 however.
 
#3,924
U4EA said:
@Darbitrator, was the 8ohm Eminence a recommended replacement by Mesa? Mesa did make a 1x15 extension cab, but I don't see how it would be used as an extension cab if it would bring you under 4 ohms??
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My understanding was that you could order the Walkabout Scout with an 8 or 4 ohm driver (and ordering the 4 ohm driver locked you into never being able to use an extension cab.) It makes sense that extension cabs were only available with 8 ohm drivers.
 
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#3,925
Coolhandjjl said:
My understanding was that you could order the Walkabout Scout with an 8 or 4 ohm driver (and ordering the 4 ohm driver locked you into never being able to use an extension cab.) It makes sense that extension cabs were only available with 8 ohm drivers.
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That's untrue. The default was 4 Ohms for the combos *AND* the extension cabs. I'm looking at an order form as I type this. There's fine print which states you could order them as 8 Ohm versions.

The original manuals from the silver face era had a section about the WalkAbout amps being test-run at Mesa overnight at 2 Ohms with no problems, but that the "suggested" impedance to run the amp was 4 Ohm.

Then there's the Mids control which is, quoting, "passive ...fills in the holes ... [and] is boost only [emphasis Mesa's] and while it can competently remove this broad spectrum of midrange from the mix it cannot provide the extreme attenuation of an active style control."

Passive control that fills in the holes in your sound via a boost-only attenuator!?! Truly a wonderous and mysterious amp.
 
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#3,926
StayLow said:
That's untrue. The default was 4 Ohms for the combos *AND* the extension cabs. I'm looking at an order form as I type this. There's fine print which states you could order them as 8 Ohm versions.

The original manuals from the silver face era had a section about the WalkAbout amps being test-run at Mesa overnight at 2 Ohms with no problems, but that the "suggested" impedance to run the amp was 4 Ohm.

Then there's the Mids control which is, quoting, "passive ...fills in the holes ... [and] is boost only [emphasis Mesa's] and while it can competently remove this broad spectrum of midrange from the mix it cannot provide the extreme attenuation of an active style control."

Passive control that fills in the holes in your sound via a boost-only attenuator!?! Truly a wonderous and mysterious amp.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it is a paradox of quantum mechanics? Schrödinger’s mid control, if you will. The mids are both cut and boosted...until you observe the knob? :thumbsdown:
 
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#3,928
Well @U4EA, now you see there are some differences of opinion throughout this thread on running the WA Scout with the 4 ohm speaker below the 4 ohm load by adding an extension cab. It makes for some very interesting reading. (MB should have put a permanent plug in the "Ext. speaker" input on all the 4 ohm combos. Just to keep honest people honest. But then again, there is similarly nothing preventing us from turning the gain and master to 12, other than a shutdown or smoke/combustion.)

As many others on this thread have done, I've gotten past this debate by replacing the 4 ohm speaker with an 8 ohm. My question to the group is whether anyone has added a 2x10 extension cab as an extension to the WA Combo, and if so, what cab have you used and what were the results?

Thanks
 
#3,929
Mark Desmo said:
Can anybody tell me anything about the control knob on the back of the cabs please? I can't find any mention of it on Mesa official documentation.

I know the clever answer is 'mess about with it and see what happens', but I've tried that and it doesn't seem to do anything.
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There are two styles.

One is a simple tweeter control. Dial in to suit your taste.

The other style is that tweeter knob plus a switch that controls the crossover point (where the woofer stops and the tweeter takes over) You can let the woofer handle all the tone up to 5K with the tweeter handling frequencies above 5K, or use the switch to drop the crossover point to 4K or 3K, meaning you have the woofer responsible for less of those upper frequencies thereby sending a wider band of upper frequencies to the tweeter. The tweeter knob still works like in the first style, dial in to suit your taste.
 
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#3,930
Coolhandjjl said:
There are two styles.

One is a simple tweeter attenuator. Dial in to suit your taste.

The other style is the attenuator plus a switch that controls the crossover point (where the woofer stops and the tweeter takes over) You can let the woofer handle all the tone up to 5K with the tweeter just adding some highs above 5K, or use the switch to drop the crossover point to 4K or 3K, meaning you have the woofer responsible for less of the upper frequencies thereby sending a wider band of upper frequencies to the tweeter. The attenuator still works. As with the first style, adjust to suit your taste.
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Lol thanks.
That's kinda beyond me, but hopefully it'll sink in as the months pass by.

I only started playing about 18 months ago, and up until now has been spent just beginning to play, but now I'm starting to think about finding the tone I want. I sort of know what it is, but have no real idea of how to get it.

I have an 8ohm walkabout 12, plus extension cab. They're both what I assume to be 'first generation', so no switch involved on either - just the knob.

Thanks again for the reply.
 
#3,932
There were enough changes over the 15 year lifespan of the product that generalities may not apply.

Some WAs were ok at 2 ohms but there was enough variables in the MOSFETs and the open loop circuitry driving them that as the amp evolved (and the parts changed) it became clear that reliability into 2 ohms wasn't as good as originally expected. Therefore 2 ohm recommendations were suspended.
 
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#3,933
StayLow said:
Then there's the Mids control which is, quoting, "passive ...fills in the holes ... [and] is boost only [emphasis Mesa's] and while it can competently remove this broad spectrum of midrange from the mix it cannot provide the extreme attenuation of an active style control."

Passive control that fills in the holes in your sound via a boost-only attenuator!?! Truly a wonderous and mysterious amp.
Click to expand...
As I understand it from discussions with agedhorse the filter design itself is a passive, however, they integrated a make-up gain feature into the circuit path so that the actual functionality is sort of a hybrid passive/active circuit.
While this will not behave exactly like an active filter design, it does offer an opportunity to have a middle range in the control which is more neutral with a cut and boost type effect to the left and right. As best I understand, a similar circuit is part of the WD-800 design with only enough modifications to seamlessly integrate it into the new design. Agedhorse could perhaps provide more insight and would most likely have said that better than I did.
 
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#3,935
Al Kraft said:
As I understand it from discussions with agedhorse the filter design itself is a passive, however, they integrated a make-up gain feature into the circuit path so that the actual functionality is sort of a hybrid passive/active circuit.
While this will not behave exactly like an active filter design, it does offer an opportunity to have a middle range in the control which is more neutral with a cut and boost type effect to the left and right. As best I understand, a similar circuit is part of the WD-800 design with only enough modifications to seamlessly integrate it into the new design. Agedhorse could perhaps provide more insight and would most likely have said that better than I did.
Click to expand...

Correct, the mid is passive with supporting active circuitry. It's inherently passive voiced but not entirely in it's practical application.
 
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