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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#4,082
rodl2005 said:
At one stage I had TWO Walkabouts. I can't see why ppl that need the sound of the original WA don't simply do this, slave one into the other.
It ain't as tho they're heavy or large and a problem to move.
That has always muddled me
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I have always wondered about that. When I looked at the manual, too me the explanation was very vague and couldn't exactly wrap my head around how to stack two of these.....Can you shed more light on it? The feeling I'm getting is that in order to do this it has to be with two cabs?

So in my ideal situation..... would I be able to get 600W (1 pre through two power sections) into one single 4 ohm powerhouse cab?
 
#4,083
4stringmf said:
I have always wondered about that. When I looked at the manual, too me the explanation was very vague and couldn't exactly wrap my head around how to stack two of these.....Can you shed more light on it? The feeling I'm getting is that in order to do this it has to be with two cabs?

So in my ideal situation..... would I be able to get 600W (1 pre through two power sections) into one single 4 ohm powerhouse cab?
Click to expand...
Can’t send two amps into one cab ever.

To get 600 watts, you need two complete Walkabout Scouts with 4 ohm drivers. Take the effects-out of the top head and send it into the effects-in of the bottom head, so that bottom head operates like a slave/power amp and all the controlling is done on the top head. Both masters get set on full with the output level controlled by the gain on the top head.
 
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#4,084
4stringmf said:
would I be able to get 600W (1 pre through two power sections) into one single 4 ohm powerhouse cab?
Click to expand...
This would not be possible and should not be tried. You can use a single pre-amp (pre-amp section of a head) to feed multiple amplifiers (much like sending the signal to the FOH mixing board and its associated amplifiers and speakers). However, you cannot feed a speaker level signal from one head/amp to another. Two heads means at least two separate speaker cabs - and you cannot feed two different amplifier speaker outputs to one cab to "double the power it gets" even though the cab has two connectors on the back.
 
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#4,088
4stringmf said:
I have always wondered about that. When I looked at the manual, too me the explanation was very vague and couldn't exactly wrap my head around how to stack two of these.....Can you shed more light on it? The feeling I'm getting is that in order to do this it has to be with two cabs?

So in my ideal situation..... would I be able to get 600W (1 pre through two power sections) into one single 4 ohm powerhouse cab?
Click to expand...
Never merge two amps speaker outputs in one cab, smoke show for sure. Tech advice true for any kind of amp. Connecting two amps with theirs respctives speakers by the fx loop is another story.
 
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#4,089
4stringmf said:
I have always wondered about that. When I looked at the manual, too me the explanation was very vague and couldn't exactly wrap my head around how to stack two of these.....Can you shed more light on it? The feeling I'm getting is that in order to do this it has to be with two cabs?


So in my ideal situation..... would I be able to get 600W (1 pre through two power sections) into one single 4 ohm powerhouse cab?
Click to expand...

Correct, each amp drives one cabinet, the linking is in the line level signal path before the power amps.

No, not possible with one cabinet.

4stringmf said:
with that being said, then there is no way for both amps to power one connection?
Click to expand...

No.
 
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#4,094
agedhorse said:
Correct, each amp drives one cabinet, the linking is in the line level signal path before the power amps.

No, not possible with one cabinet.



No.
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unless the single cabinet had two separate sections like some of the Ampeg 810e cabs, where you can drive 2 separate 8ohm 4x10 sections of the cab. So, in that case, you could run the output of WA 1 into the top 8ohm 4x10 of the 810e, and WA 2 could drive the bottom 8ohm 4x10 of the 810e.

2 amps, one cab. But this is limited to those cases where the cab was purpose built this way.

Diddn't Mesa make a multi enclosure cab that could be run full range or in "biamp" mode ... 1516B or something like that. I could be wrong on that, but I know my 810e example is accurate.

Of course, given that the separate inputs were 8ohm, you'd only get about 165w out of each WA.
 
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#4,096
agedhorse said:
Yes, split cabinets are a special case. I didn't want to confuse things.
Click to expand...
gotcha, rodl's post just made me think about this a bit ... and I recalled the split cab scenario for the Ampeg and Mesa cabs.

I think the other thing not quite right about using 2 WA's, is that other than driving two completely separate WA rigs (which would be cool), if I recall correctly, if you run two WA's connected by the FX out/in, in the slave/2nd WA you will miss the mosfet driver for the power section.

When folks here on TB, including myself, ran the WA FX out to other amps (even an MPulse 600 which has a family resemblance to the WA) while the second amp was getting the WA preamp input, it did not get the "tube driven mosfet" sound which certainly must be part of the overall WA tone.

and, of course, this is why we now have the WD-800 to consider :thumbsup:
 
#4,097
I don't have the paperwork with me, but I believe the FX loop is pre driver. If it was post driver, the send to the second amp would have the first driver's signal anyway. I can't see any way to get no driver or double driver signalpath,
 
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#4,098
agedhorse said:
I don't have the paperwork with me, but I believe the FX loop is pre driver. If it was post driver, the send to the second amp would have the first driver's signal anyway. I can't see any way to get no driver or double driver signalpath,
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however it is designed, and I am no tech for sure, the issue with running the WA pre out to another power amp source, even one as close to the WA in concept as the MPulse 600, has never really resulted in a "more powerful" WA. This has lead me to believe that the WA tone is more than just the pre being driven transparently by its power section. It must have something to do with the whole circuit including how the pre signal is linked to the power section (via the 12AX7 driving mosfets ??).

however, on the upside of all that, we now have the WD-800 to consider.
I just need to get some time to do that for myself.
looking forward to it.
 
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#4,099
pfschim said:
however it is designed, and I am no tech for sure, the issue with running the WA pre out to another power amp source, even one as close to the WA in concept as the MPulse 600, has never really resulted in a "more powerful" WA. This has lead me to believe that the WA tone is more than just the pre being driven transparently by its power section. It must have something to do with the whole circuit including how the pre signal is linked to the power section (via the 12AX7 driving mosfets ??).

however, on the upside of all that, we now have the WD-800 to consider.
I just need to get some time to do that for myself.
looking forward to it.
Click to expand...
I just looked, and the loop is before the power amp driver

2 x Walkabouts linked driving a cabinet each will behave just like a Walkabout.

Of course, the preamp alone is not responsible for much of the Walkabout uniqueness, the power amp in this specific case imparts a fair amount of coloration (both tone and dynamics coloration) to the package. That's why the WA preamp into say the M-Pulse 600 doesn't sound/feel like a larger WA.
 
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#4,100
agedhorse said:
I just looked, and the loop is before the power amp driver

2 x Walkabouts linked driving a cabinet each will behave just like a Walkabout.

Of course, the preamp alone is not responsible for much of the Walkabout uniqueness, the power amp in this specific case imparts a fair amount of coloration (both tone and dynamics coloration) to the package. That's why the WA preamp into say the M-Pulse 600 doesn't sound/feel like a larger WA.
Click to expand...
This is what I found after many experiments! The Walkabout pre plugged into any other power amp via the FX Loop sounded really dry and not particularly special, but any preamp plugged into the Walkabout power amp via the FX loop sounded really good!
 
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