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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
Ooh, all this deltalite talk has me interested. I stopped playing my 12” WA combo out because it really didn’t throw the volume I wanted it to for the weight. Does the Eminence Neo represent any significant weight savings over the stock driver, or a volume/efficiency increase?
the deltalite was approx 6 pounds lighter compared to the OEM 4 ohm ceramic from my 2016 combo
- Feb 12, 2006
- 60,968
- 5
- 220,674
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
It depends on the version you have, it may be ~6 lbs lighter but there were some built with 4 ohm DeltaLite II's that won't have any weight savings. The 8 ohm DeltaLite II driver is an improvement over all previous drivers (there may have been some 8 ohm DeltaLite II driver equipped cabinets shipped also, but I don't have this info).
So I picked up an 8-ohm DeltaLite II for my Scout combo.
Is replacing it as simple as removing the speaker from the enclosure, removing the wires from the driver, reattaching the wires to the new driver, and reinstalling?
I don’t see an 8-ohm/4-ohm switch anywhere on the Walkabout head, so I assume the amp detects the resistance of the driver and adjusts output automatically?
Sorry for the sub-elementary level of the questions above, but I am not very savvy re: electronics and would prefer not to damage anything.
Many thx in advance for any assistance offered!!
Shawn G
Is replacing it as simple as removing the speaker from the enclosure, removing the wires from the driver, reattaching the wires to the new driver, and reinstalling?
I don’t see an 8-ohm/4-ohm switch anywhere on the Walkabout head, so I assume the amp detects the resistance of the driver and adjusts output automatically?
Sorry for the sub-elementary level of the questions above, but I am not very savvy re: electronics and would prefer not to damage anything.
Many thx in advance for any assistance offered!!
Shawn G
Most 4 ohm minimum Amps don't have switch for 8 or 4ohms; Mainly 2 ohm stable will have switch one position for 8 or 4 and and one for 2 ohms
Your assumption of amp detects resistance seems likely BUT I would prefer @agedhorse confirms that
- Feb 12, 2006
- 60,968
- 5
- 220,674
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
Yes, it will drive any load down to 4 ohms with no problem. Be sure you keep track of which color goes to the red (positive) terminal. It should be white, but it's possible another set of colors were used back then.
I got a Walkabout-Scout combo a few weeks ago, but found the fan noise was very annoying.
The fan was the original, and the amp was well used, so maybe it had worn bearings or some other fault because it didn't sound like normal fan noise.
Initially, I thought of just replacing the fan with an original Sunon one, but I looked back through this thread and found lots of posts about the Silenx and Noctua fan replacements being quieter.
I wanted to be able to use the amp at home for practice as well as for gigs, but the noise was too loud to practice at home and I was worried that at a gig the fan could give up at any point.
The Silent EFX-08-15 looked good, with 32CFM and 15dBA (the Sunon is 36CFM, I think). However, that 32CFM figure is for a 14v input.
The max voltage of the Walkabout fan power supply is 12v, and that's overlooking the resistor that was added to drop the voltage and therefore noise levels.
The Noctua NF-A8 PWM model produces 32.6CFM at 12v, with 17.7dBA.
So, the Noctua is a bit noisier than the Silenx, but likely to generate airflow of around the right level.
It also comes with extra cables to practice cutting and fitting, and is much cheaper to buy in the UK than the Silenx.
Noctua seems to provide a lot more information about their products than Silenx does.
So, I've installed the Noctua using just the ground (black) and +12v (yellow) wires (the blue and green PWM consoler wires don't need to be connected so I cut the short and covered the ends with small blobs of adhesive).
It's fitted to the case with NA-SAV2 anti-vibration mounts, which made installation pretty easy once you line everything up.
For the wiring, I cut the existing fan cable wires at about an inch from the point they go into the fan, so that I had long tails left on the Walkabout.
The Noctua cable comes with a heat-resistant wrap, so after cutting off the connector, and cutting and pulling out the green and blue wires, I kept a piece of that wrap to put round the remaining two wires in case they ever touched the heatsink.
To avoid soldering, and so that I could replace the fan easily if I wanted to, I used WAGO 221 in-line solder-less connectors.
I fixed the WAGOs to the case using a blob of silicone adhesive and put the wires from the Walkabout in on one side, and the wires to the fan on the other.
The whole process took about half an hour, and was pretty easy.
I'm really happy with the result.
The fan is probably 75% quieter than the one that was in it, and the noise it does make is easy to ignore.
Whether it is quieter than a brand new Sunon fan I don't know, but it would be easy to go back to one of those if I find that the amp is heating up too much.
The fan was the original, and the amp was well used, so maybe it had worn bearings or some other fault because it didn't sound like normal fan noise.
Initially, I thought of just replacing the fan with an original Sunon one, but I looked back through this thread and found lots of posts about the Silenx and Noctua fan replacements being quieter.
I wanted to be able to use the amp at home for practice as well as for gigs, but the noise was too loud to practice at home and I was worried that at a gig the fan could give up at any point.
The Silent EFX-08-15 looked good, with 32CFM and 15dBA (the Sunon is 36CFM, I think). However, that 32CFM figure is for a 14v input.
The max voltage of the Walkabout fan power supply is 12v, and that's overlooking the resistor that was added to drop the voltage and therefore noise levels.
The Noctua NF-A8 PWM model produces 32.6CFM at 12v, with 17.7dBA.
So, the Noctua is a bit noisier than the Silenx, but likely to generate airflow of around the right level.
It also comes with extra cables to practice cutting and fitting, and is much cheaper to buy in the UK than the Silenx.
Noctua seems to provide a lot more information about their products than Silenx does.
So, I've installed the Noctua using just the ground (black) and +12v (yellow) wires (the blue and green PWM consoler wires don't need to be connected so I cut the short and covered the ends with small blobs of adhesive).
It's fitted to the case with NA-SAV2 anti-vibration mounts, which made installation pretty easy once you line everything up.
For the wiring, I cut the existing fan cable wires at about an inch from the point they go into the fan, so that I had long tails left on the Walkabout.
The Noctua cable comes with a heat-resistant wrap, so after cutting off the connector, and cutting and pulling out the green and blue wires, I kept a piece of that wrap to put round the remaining two wires in case they ever touched the heatsink.
To avoid soldering, and so that I could replace the fan easily if I wanted to, I used WAGO 221 in-line solder-less connectors.
I fixed the WAGOs to the case using a blob of silicone adhesive and put the wires from the Walkabout in on one side, and the wires to the fan on the other.
The whole process took about half an hour, and was pretty easy.
I'm really happy with the result.
The fan is probably 75% quieter than the one that was in it, and the noise it does make is easy to ignore.
Whether it is quieter than a brand new Sunon fan I don't know, but it would be easy to go back to one of those if I find that the amp is heating up too much.
- Feb 12, 2006
- 60,968
- 5
- 220,674
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
To be clear, I do not recommend replacing the stock fan with by fan that has less air flow than the stock fan at 12V.
I have placed a Broughton “always on” hpf in the effects loop of my Walkabout Scout and have been very happy with how it has tightened up the bass on this combo. Also hoping I am gaining the benefit of some additional headroom by reducing the subsonic frequencies the amp has to reproduce.
I am putting together a small pedalboard (tuner, compressor, Sadowsky preamp) and have an fdeck mini hpf that I was going to put in front of the compressor.
Is there any harm, or benefit, to leaving the Broughton in the effects loop when using the pedal board, or would it be best to remove it? I’m not sure of the overall effect of having an hpf in front of, and behind, the Walkabout’s preamp.
Thx for any insights.
ShawnG
I am putting together a small pedalboard (tuner, compressor, Sadowsky preamp) and have an fdeck mini hpf that I was going to put in front of the compressor.
Is there any harm, or benefit, to leaving the Broughton in the effects loop when using the pedal board, or would it be best to remove it? I’m not sure of the overall effect of having an hpf in front of, and behind, the Walkabout’s preamp.
Thx for any insights.
ShawnG
If it's working for you in the effects loop, just leave it there. Worst case would be that it's not really doing anything....
Of course the HPF is additive when you stack them, though your compressor could potentially mitigate some of the HPF from the FDeck by squashing the signal back down again (effectively raising up the relative sub frequencies) Indeed if it sounds good that's really all that matters!
Having a HPF on the input and another in the FX loop will compound on each other. If they are set to the same point and have the same db slope it will simply increase the slope of it cuts off faster.
It won’t hurt anything but if a combined HPF that is too steep it may not sound natural. If you’re running PA support you may be eliminating any presence of the bass guitar in the subs. Which may be what you want or not depending.
It won’t hurt anything but if a combined HPF that is too steep it may not sound natural. If you’re running PA support you may be eliminating any presence of the bass guitar in the subs. Which may be what you want or not depending.
Highlighting my ignorance of all things electronic here, but…
Re: HPF, is there any benefit to hitting a tube preamp with the full spectrum of frequencies (then cleaning it up post-preamp) vs. hitting it with a pre-filtered signal? Or vice versa?
Re: HPF, is there any benefit to hitting a tube preamp with the full spectrum of frequencies (then cleaning it up post-preamp) vs. hitting it with a pre-filtered signal? Or vice versa?
Sure the power at low frequencies can be strong, which can drive tubes into saturation faster and change the character of the saturation (low frequencies can cause more looseness/sag to tube overdrive). This is why overdrives and boosts meant to push tube amps into overdrive often boost treble/mids and/or cut bass, as this can tighten up the overdrive response. This is why I often prefer to put an HPF before the input of my Walkabout vs in the FX loop, as it tightens up the preamp section in a pleasant way to my ears
I got this for a really good price today. I'm guessing this isn't one of the more coveted WalkAbouts. But I've been working on a solo album tentatively titled Walkabout for a while now. So it seemed appropriate. I got it home and have been testing it out. I'm running it into my 810 Ampeg cab. I'm kind of in love.
Congrats- they are killer amps still and mine has become my main amp over the last few years after many years of being a backup/small-show rig!
@agedhorse has pointed out that there were several circuit adjustments over the years of the Walkabout, but from a player's perspective I don't think there is much if any perceptible sound difference between them- just aesthetic changes (different screen print colors over chrome on the early versions, later version was on an all-black base with white printing) and a few mechanical things (dual input jacks replaced with a single jack + switch, addition of FX Loop Bypass switch on back). It looks like yours is from a similar era from mine by the screen print color, and mine has served me without issues (apart from a preamp tube replacement or two long ago) for 14 years or so now.
