• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#4,901
agedhorse said:
Generally I recommend leaving well enough alone.

Sometimes, parts become unavailable but which parts are generally unknown. Generally workarounds can be figured out, but sometimes manufacturers are simply surprised. This is the nature of the industry.

Thank you for the positive wishes.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the very informative, succinct response.

The better and further I get in music, the more I'm in respectful awe of true, functioning, legends such as yourself. And what you do here is so far beyond.

Should it be of any use to you, I'm sure many here will be willing to write something on your behalf, though I doubt anyone could make your case so well as you could, or forward your name if you end up wanting work elsewhere.

However it shakes out, there is opportunity and as so many times in your long career you will land on your feet and climb even higher.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: chupacerveza and agedhorse
#4,905
They were calling for snow this weekend starting last night, so I needed to do some gear shuffling yesterday. I had this Diesel 115 cabinet that needed a speaker replacement, (original EV15-L is going wonky... might be voice-coil... gremlins... something) So I had swapped it for a ToneTubby Superman 15. Bass Speakers Archives - Tone Tubby Sounds pretty darn good, and if nothing else will hold me until I can sort out what's happening to my original, after which I may land that speaker in another suitable box. So, since I was moving heavy gear around anyway, there was my WalkAbout Scout 15. Yeah... I ain't blown the cobwebs outta' that thing in a while... might as well take it back to the house, fire it up and check it out.

Great googly-moogly... why in the ham-sandwich do I need anything else?! This old thing just kills all. Tone? If you can't find it, it ain't the amp's fault. Yeah, I know they can't hang in a REALLY LOUD GIG, but I don't have one of those. I have a Medium-Loud gig, and I can easily make 'em say uncle with half-throttle on the WalkAbout. It's still heavy as dad-gummit, (I'm on my third handle now) but then, so is that Diesel 115. Of course it has casters... and due to its 'beater' status, I don't mind leaving it in the band's equipment truck. But this old Silverface WalkAbout. They can have it when I'm dead. Not before.

It's a snowy Sunday morning here in Southwest Virginia. Good time to stay in and play some bass!
 
  • Like
Reactions: chupacerveza, mikeswals, pfschim and 8 others
#4,907
Diddywah said:
they're the best combos money can buy IMO
Click to expand...

That's fact, not opinion! :)

EdwardofHuncote said:
Great googly-moogly... why in the ham-sandwich do I need anything else?! This old thing just kills all. Tone? If you can't find it, it ain't the amp's fault. Yeah, I know they can't hang in a REALLY LOUD GIG, but I don't have one of those. I have a Medium-Loud gig, and I can easily make 'em say uncle with half-throttle on the WalkAbout. It's still heavy as dad-gummit, (I'm on my third handle now) but then, so is that Diesel 115. Of course it has casters... and due to its 'beater' status, I don't mind leaving it in the band's equipment truck. But this old Silverface WalkAbout. They can have it when I'm dead. Not before.

It's a snowy Sunday morning here in Southwest Virginia. Good time to stay in and play some bass!
Click to expand...

Replacing Scout handles is one of the best ways to mark the passage of time, and a reminder that you must've been having a lot of musical fun to get to that point.

Call Mesa, leave a message, get a call back... "Hi ... yeah me again... you're not gonna believe this but another Scout handle... oh, yeah please, that'd be great... my address is still the same..."

@agedhorse - are those handles a generic size, or is now a great time to panic?
 
  • Like
Reactions: chupacerveza and bebi
#4,908
EdwardofHuncote said:
They were calling for snow this weekend starting last night, so I needed to do some gear shuffling yesterday. I had this Diesel 115 cabinet that needed a speaker replacement, (original EV15-L is going wonky... might be voice-coil... gremlins... something) So I had swapped it for a ToneTubby Superman 15. Bass Speakers Archives - Tone Tubby Sounds pretty darn good, and if nothing else will hold me until I can sort out what's happening to my original, after which I may land that speaker in another suitable box. So, since I was moving heavy gear around anyway, there was my WalkAbout Scout 15. Yeah... I ain't blown the cobwebs outta' that thing in a while... might as well take it back to the house, fire it up and check it out.

Great googly-moogly... why in the ham-sandwich do I need anything else?! This old thing just kills all. Tone? If you can't find it, it ain't the amp's fault. Yeah, I know they can't hang in a REALLY LOUD GIG, but I don't have one of those. I have a Medium-Loud gig, and I can easily make 'em say uncle with half-throttle on the WalkAbout. It's still heavy as dad-gummit, (I'm on my third handle now) but then, so is that Diesel 115. Of course it has casters... and due to its 'beater' status, I don't mind leaving it in the band's equipment truck. But this old Silverface WalkAbout. They can have it when I'm dead. Not before.

It's a snowy Sunday morning here in Southwest Virginia. Good time to stay in and play some bass!
Click to expand...
Removable casters on a Scout 15 would be fantastic! I’d love Mesa to offer combo enclosures for some of their new bass amp offerings too- I could fit my TT-800 in my Scout combo, but that speaker probably wouldn’t be happy and a combo version of one of their Subway 15s would be MUCH lighter
 
#4,909
sunbeast said:
Removable casters on a Scout 15...
Click to expand...

They sure would, and I could probably engineer that with a casterboard somehow. I was referring to my 'beater' Diesel 15 though... it has casters. Good thing too, that dude is heavy, though it dropped a couple pounds with this ToneTubby driver. (seen here with the original EV15-L)

Series I & Mesa Diesel 15.jpeg


FWIW, that Alembic F-1X can dial pretty close to what I like the WalkAbout to sound like... if/when gigs come back, I'll put the old Diesel back in the band truck, gets me out of having to haul it around and find help loading. I just don't like the idea of leaving my WalkAbout/Scout in that truck. If I had a roadcase maybe. I definitely need to gig this old thing more. I've been playing with it off and on all morning and afternoon, and it's just a great little bass combo. I had forgotten how great it was. Shame on me. :oops:

I think the last time I gigged with it was FloydFest 2018, after that (and some surgery) I started using the D-800 and a couple Bag End S15 X-D's.

The Office.jpeg


HGB_FloydFest.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: chupacerveza, BillyB_from_LZ and SJLee
#4,910
EdwardofHuncote said:
They sure would, and I could probably engineer that with a casterboard somehow. I was referring to my 'beater' Diesel 15 though... it has casters. Good thing too, that dude is heavy, though it dropped a couple pounds with this ToneTubby driver. (seen here with the original EV15-L)

View attachment 4150277

FWIW, that Alembic F-1X can dial pretty close to what I like the WalkAbout to sound like... if/when gigs come back, I'll put the old Diesel back in the band truck, gets me out of having to haul it around and find help loading. I just don't like the idea of leaving my WalkAbout/Scout in that truck. If I had a roadcase maybe. I definitely need to gig this old thing more. I've been playing with it off and on all morning and afternoon, and it's just a great little bass combo. I had forgotten how great it was. Shame on me. :oops:

I think the last time I gigged with it was FloydFest 2018, after that (and some surgery) I started using the D-800 and a couple Bag End S15 X-D's.

View attachment 4150302

View attachment 4150315
Click to expand...
If you like the F1X you might appreciate the Mesa TT800- the "Boogie" channel on that one is derived from the same old classic Fender tube-driven passive EQ architecture from the Bandmaster/Bassman/etc. They both have their own little voicing tweaks, but I can highly recommend it. It is also the same width/height as the Walkabout, though shallower and quite a bit lighter too (not that the Walkabout head is a heavyweight)
 
  • Like
Reactions: EdwardofHuncote
#4,911
StayLow said:
Replacing Scout handles is one of the best ways to mark the passage of time, and a reminder that you must've been having a lot of musical fun to get to that point.

Call Mesa, leave a message, get a call back... "Hi ... yeah me again... you're not gonna believe this but another Scout handle... oh, yeah please, that'd be great... my address is still the same..."

@agedhorse - are those handles a generic size, or is now a great time to panic
Click to expand...

Y'know... I still need to call out there and ask about having my Diesel speaker checked anyway, maybe the smart play is to go ahead and buy an extra handle. Looks like the store has them in stock. Shop - Hardware - Handles - MESA/Boogie
 
  • Like
Reactions: StayLow
#4,913
EdwardofHuncote said:
They were calling for snow this weekend starting last night, so I needed to do some gear shuffling yesterday. I had this Diesel 115 cabinet that needed a speaker replacement, (original EV15-L is going wonky... might be voice-coil... gremlins... something) So I had swapped it for a ToneTubby Superman 15. Bass Speakers Archives - Tone Tubby Sounds pretty darn good, and if nothing else will hold me until I can sort out what's happening to my original, after which I may land that speaker in another suitable box. So, since I was moving heavy gear around anyway, there was my WalkAbout Scout 15. Yeah... I ain't blown the cobwebs outta' that thing in a while... might as well take it back to the house, fire it up and check it out.

Great googly-moogly... why in the ham-sandwich do I need anything else?! This old thing just kills all. Tone? If you can't find it, it ain't the amp's fault. Yeah, I know they can't hang in a REALLY LOUD GIG, but I don't have one of those. I have a Medium-Loud gig, and I can easily make 'em say uncle with half-throttle on the WalkAbout. It's still heavy as dad-gummit, (I'm on my third handle now) but then, so is that Diesel 115. Of course it has casters... and due to its 'beater' status, I don't mind leaving it in the band's equipment truck. But this old Silverface WalkAbout. They can have it when I'm dead. Not before.

It's a snowy Sunday morning here in Southwest Virginia. Good time to stay in and play some bass!
Click to expand...

I'll second that emotion. I love my Walkabout for everything in the low to medium volume range ... just can't be beat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bebi and StayLow
#4,914
It seems as though the effects loop on my Walkabout is not working. I think it might even be the return jack specifically. If I recall this is known to happen and is why the effects loop bypass switch was added (which mine has and there’s no problem with bypass engaged). I also think it was mentioned here that some deoxit on a patch cable into the send and return jacks sometimes fixes this, in case of corrosion. I tried that it the problem persists. No sound with the effects loop engaged (or bypass switch off). There was one instance where there was sound briefly, but it sort of crackled as though there was a bad connection and went out again. I know it’s not bad cables. I’m pretty sure it’s not user error as I’ve used effects loops before (send to pedal input, pedal output to return). Should I try the deoxit again or might there be something else?
 
#4,915
If the effects loop isn't being used on the WA's, the bypass switch should be engaged. If you are using the effects loop then the bypass function on the jacks can not contribute to the noise.

If you use a 1/4" cable and jump the effects send to the effects return with the bypass switch off (loop active) and it passes signal without distortion, then you are fine.

Don't mess with anything else until you do the test above.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chupacerveza, Avalon5 and Willy B
#4,916
agedhorse said:
If the effects loop isn't being used on the WA's, the bypass switch should be engaged. If you are using the effects loop then the bypass function on the jacks can not contribute to the noise.

If you use a 1/4" cable and jump the effects send to the effects return with the bypass switch off (loop active) and it passes signal without distortion, then you are fine.

Don't mess with anything else until you do the test above.
Click to expand...

I will try that, thanks.
 
#4,917
I did that and at first there was no signal. I moved the patch cable around some and the signal went in and out. At one point the signal remained, but once I moved the cable it went out again. If I apply some pressure to the cable towards the send and return jack, I get a signal.
 
#4,918
Which version of the walkabout do you have?

Most of the versions I am familiar with use a 90 degree PCB mount part. You might give our service department manager a call and see what it would cost to repair the problem correctly (I think the tech replaces all of the jacks on that board) as well as go through the rest of the amp. It may not be all that expensive.

The 90 degree jacks all use different pin pitch and offset to the mounting surface, the part is quite specific.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chupacerveza
#4,919
agedhorse said:
Which version of the walkabout do you have?

Most of the versions I am familiar with use a 90 degree PCB mount part. You might give our service department manager a call and see what it would cost to repair the problem correctly (I think the tech replaces all of the jacks on that board) as well as go through the rest of the amp. It may not be all that expensive.

The 90 degree jacks all use different pin pitch and offset to the mounting surface, the part is quite specific.
Click to expand...

It’s the silver face with black lettering. I believe it had the two instrument inputs originally but was updated with the active/passive switch.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back