Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

[DionClassic]

No, but iirc it was not long afterwards. The 8 ohm version was superior, but customers wanted to get the “most” out of their amps so that’s why the 4 ohm version was offered (even if it was less sensitive).

Not sure if this is opening a can of worms, but is running at amp at 4 ohms vs 8 ohms different for overall tone or sound?

like would running walkabout at 4 ohm and 300 watt into a less sensitive speaker produce a different sound from that same walkabout into 8 ohms at lower wattage with more sensitive speaker?

I guess we don't know for sure because the speakers aren't identical, but it makes me wonder why it would be so important for people to be running the 300 watts when you are getting the same volume anyway.

 

[Al Kraft]

No, but iirc it was not long afterwards. The 8 ohm version was superior, but customers wanted to get the “most” out of their amps so that’s why the 4 ohm version was offered (even if it was less sensitive).

I have one of the 4 Ohm combos and would have taken an 8 Ohm in heartbeat, but it wasn't a choice I was given. In those early days (before we all learned better) the WA was said to be 2 Ohm safe/capable, so 4 Ohm speakers weren't a limiting factor like it would have been if you viewed the WA as a 4 Ohm minimum load amp.

I wonder if the less efficient 4 Ohm speakers were popular because they allowed folks to push the WA amp harder to get some of those "artifacts" (good or bad, your choice) at lower volume levels.

 

[DionClassic]

I have one of the 4 Ohm combos and would have taken an 8 Ohm in heartbeat, but it wasn't a choice I was given. In those early days (before we all learned better) the WA was said to be 2 Ohm safe/capable, so 4 Ohm speakers weren't a limiting factor like it would have been if you viewed the WA as a 4 Ohm minimum load amp.

I wonder if the less efficient 4 Ohm speakers were popular because they allowed folks to push the WA amp harder to get some of those "artifacts" (good or bad, your choice) at lower volume levels.

wouldn't running it at 8ohms push it harder because you have less wattage on tap, so you gotta tweak the gain?

 

[DionClassic]

I have one of the 4 Ohm combos and would have taken an 8 Ohm in heartbeat, but it wasn't a choice I was given. In those early days (before we all learned better) the WA was said to be 2 Ohm safe/capable, so 4 Ohm speakers weren't a limiting factor like it would have been if you viewed the WA as a 4 Ohm minimum load amp.

I wonder if the less efficient 4 Ohm speakers were popular because they allowed folks to push the WA amp harder to get some of those "artifacts" (good or bad, your choice) at lower volume levels.

my whole issue would be sorted if i was comfortable running the WA at 2 ohms. then i could just add an extension cabinet at anytime. right now my options are to get a bigger 4ohm cab or replace the scout speaker to an 8 ohm and then add an 8 ohm extension cabinet when necessary, which TBH I'm leaning more towards ditching the scout box for a SW115, which feels like a waste as the scout is a really formidable one hand carry for 75% of what I do.

ideally I would get a SW115 regardless and just pop my scout on top for the big gigs. but id be running 2.66, which potentially could kill my WA.

The one thing that I know is I get plenty of volume out of the WA and don't need to replace that at this point even though i love the WD800 idea as a second amp.

 

[sunbeast]

Not sure if this is opening a can of worms, but is running at amp at 4 ohms vs 8 ohms different for overall tone or sound?

like would running walkabout at 4 ohm and 300 watt into a less sensitive speaker produce a different sound from that same walkabout into 8 ohms at lower wattage with more sensitive speaker?

I guess we don't know for sure because the speakers aren't identical, but it makes me wonder why it would be so important for people to be running the 300 watts when you are getting the same volume anyway.

I think the main issue with the Scout 12” cabinets is that the stock speakers in the 4ohm format weren’t really able to handle the cranked Walkabout at 4 ohms so part of the “tone” of that combo was speaker farting/distortion. I speak from experience as my first Walkabout was in a 4ohm 12” combo, and I later swapped it out with an 8ohm example (also the newer speaker) and the tone was both cleaner and just as perceptibly loud to me.

Some of the earliest had ceramic drivers, then series 1 Neo drivers (not great but an improvement over the ceramic, then the series 2 Neo that were 8 ohm and the best of the lot.

I can’t remember if I asked this before, but what was the evolution of the speakers in the 15” Scout cabs (if you know)? I’ve been rocking a 4ohm 15” Scout combo for 15 years or so but never really dug into what the speaker was unlike the 12” Scout I had before that. All I know is that it blew the 12” Scout away in volume and tone for my uses and is still going strong. There were comments over the years about the 15” Scout combo being too “tubby” tone wise, but I haven’t personally found that to be the case- definitely more “boom” on tap than the 12” combo, but not inherent to the sound). I assume the decreased box volume due to the amp portion contributes somewhat to the tighter sound even with that passive radiator in the mix?

 

[sunbeast]

my whole issue would be sorted if i was comfortable running the WA at 2 ohms. then i could just add an extension cabinet at anytime. right now my options are to get a bigger 4ohm cab or replace the scout speaker to an 8 ohm and then add an 8 ohm extension cabinet when necessary, which TBH I'm leaning more towards ditching the scout box for a SW115, which feels like a waste as the scout is a really formidable one hand carry for 75% of what I do.

ideally I would get a SW115 regardless and just pop my scout on top for the big gigs. but id be running 2.66, which potentially could kill my WA.

The one thing that I know is I get plenty of volume out of the WA and don't need to replace that at this point even though i love the WD800 idea as a second amp.

I have a feeling that the Walkabout in a nice bag on your shoulder combined with the lightweight of the SW15 would probably still be a very easy lug, I’m almost certain I’d prefer it to lugging my Scout 15” combo and probably with few downsides apart from the convenience of a combo amp. I’ve been stubborn to upgrade the cab as my back and knees (due to the way I have to carry it down stairways or through small doorways) are really the only things that bother me about the Scout 15 combo haha

 

[DionClassic]

I have a feeling that the Walkabout in a nice bag on your shoulder combined with the lightweight of the SW15 would probably still be a very easy lug, I’m almost certain I’d prefer it to lugging my Scout 15” combo and probably with few downsides apart from the convenience of a combo amp. I’ve been stubborn to upgrade the cab as my back and knees (due to the way I have to carry it down stairways or through small doorways) are really the only things that bother me about the Scout 15 combo haha

yeah I agree. the only thing that sucks is that the 4ohm scout combo without a head is basically worthless to sell, and I hate holding onto things I wont use.

 

[Al Kraft]

I have a feeling that the Walkabout in a nice bag on your shoulder combined with the lightweight of the SW15 would probably still be a very easy lug, I’m almost certain I’d prefer it to lugging my Scout 15” combo and probably with few downsides apart from the convenience of a combo amp. I’ve been stubborn to upgrade the cab as my back and knees (due to the way I have to carry it down stairways or through small doorways) are really the only things that bother me about the Scout 15 combo haha

I have a WA Scout 12 combo and a WA in the Mesa shoulder bag (it's a nice bag!). For easy fo transport/carry the SW 115 and that WA in a bag beat even my WA Scout 112 combo...at least for me.

 

[Al Kraft]

wouldn't running it at 8ohms push it harder because you have less wattage on tap, so you gotta tweak the gain?

The 8 Ohm driver actually has higher sensitivity as best I know....so it gets louder faster on less Watts.

I also feel like there is something in the preamp/power amp relationship where some of those looser low end blooming effects are less prominent even at higher settings when the head sees an 8 Ohm load than when it is working at 4 Ohms.

IME the "interesting behaviors in the WA" seem to come out more when feeding lower impedance loads and higher volumes. I do not think what is going on under the hood on the WA scales linearly as power goes up and especially as load impedance goes down. I love the WA and own two so this is not a WA bashing thought, it's just my observation and how I've made the WA work beautifully for me over the years.

Andy will have a better/more technically accurate take on it. He had to address a lot of these quirks in coming up with a WD design approach that produced the best attributes of WA tone and performance, doing it at volume while remaining focused, and eliminating some of the lesser appreciated behaviors.

 

[DionClassic]

Well. I shouldn’t have walked into the music store today. There was a peavey black widow 2x15 cab. At the front of the store for $125 CDN. I decided I’ll go that route for now. I’ve always wanted to hear a WA through a 215 but never wanted to pay the money for it as I don’t play a ton of massive shows.

I wonder if I’ll be able to change out the drivers for some Neo ones to make it at least a bit lighter. I guess that’ll require a new thread.

 

[WRM]

Well. I shouldn’t have walked into the music store today. There was a peavey black widow 2x15 cab. At the front of the store for $125 CDN. I decided I’ll go that route for now. I’ve always wanted to hear a WA through a 215 but never wanted to pay the money for it as I don’t play a ton of massive shows.

I wonder if I’ll be able to change out the drivers for some Neo ones to make it at least a bit lighter. I guess that’ll require a new thread.

Ha! If it works, I'd leave it alone (or if not, re-cone?), but there probably are suitable replacement drivers. Sounds like an excellent score to me!

 

[Al Kraft]

Well. I shouldn’t have walked into the music store today. There was a peavey black widow 2x15 cab. At the front of the store for $125 CDN. I decided I’ll go that route for now. I’ve always wanted to hear a WA through a 215 but never wanted to pay the money for it as I don’t play a ton of massive shows.

I wonder if I’ll be able to change out the drivers for some Neo ones to make it at least a bit lighter. I guess that’ll require a new thread.

I would probably stick with the BWs, they were great speakers in all the Peavey cabs I ever owned. If you want a different voicing, IMO you're best bet would probably be a different cab.

 

[DionClassic]

I would probably stick with the BWs, they were great speakers in all the Peavey cabs I ever owned. If you want a different voicing, IMO you're best bet would probably be a different cab.

Yeah the speaker change would be strictly for weight . But yeah maybe play it first and see lol

 

[agedhorse]

I have one of the 4 Ohm combos and would have taken an 8 Ohm in heartbeat, but it wasn't a choice I was given. In those early days (before we all learned better) the WA was said to be 2 Ohm safe/capable, so 4 Ohm speakers weren't a limiting factor like it would have been if you viewed the WA as a 4 Ohm minimum load amp.

I wonder if the less efficient 4 Ohm speakers were popular because they allowed folks to push the WA amp harder to get some of those "artifacts" (good or bad, your choice) at lower volume levels.

It's all of the above, but the guys doing the speaker design back then didn't appreciate the impact on sensitivity plus they liked the mushier feel of the 4 ohm driver with the Walkabout's already mushy output section. Tastes have changed however and hindsight is 20-20.

wouldn't running it at 8ohms push it harder because you have less wattage on tap, so you gotta tweak the gain?

No, because of how the output stage works, the amp's internal losses increase a lot, which is where the mushy feel comes from. It's also why this architecture couldn't be scaled up without problems.

I think the main issue with the Scout 12” cabinets is that the stock speakers in the 4ohm format weren’t really able to handle the cranked Walkabout at 4 ohms so part of the “tone” of that combo was speaker farting/distortion. I speak from experience as my first Walkabout was in a 4ohm 12” combo, and I later swapped it out with an 8ohm example (also the newer speaker) and the tone was both cleaner and just as perceptibly loud to me.

This was part of the issue, but it ended up being more trouble than it was worth if higher volume was needed.

yeah I agree. the only thing that sucks is that the 4ohm scout combo without a head is basically worthless to sell, and I hate holding onto things I wont use.

No, install an 8 ohm DeltaLite 2 and it will be a lot better (and pretty close to the original 8 ohm speaker we used)

Yeah the speaker change would be strictly for weight . But yeah maybe play it first and see lol

The cabinet itself is awfully heavy, that's why you got it so cheap. Heavy cabinets are an almost impossible sell these days and it's not just because of the drivers.

 

[DionClassic]

The cabinet itself is awfully heavy, that's why you got it so cheap. Heavy cabinets are an almost impossible sell these days and it's not just because of the drivers.

1000% if I was giging regularly I’d be after a lighter stack. Right now I’ve been renting a large cab for those bigger shows and those cabs weren’t light either. If I could rent a subway 215 I would just do that every time but no one is renting the good light gear it’s all big heavy stuff.

With the money saved I will likely look at an 8 ohm deltalite for the scout.

Thanks for the help.

 

[freedomryder]

Hey all! Looking for some troubleshooting help.

I plugged my silver face Walkabout in for the first time in a few months and I'm getting some unpleasant noise. It will sound just fine and then starts to fuzz out a bit then a popping sound then back to normal. Very strange.

Things I have tried so far to isolate the issue:

• different instrument cable
• different bass
• plugged directly into the effects return (to take the preamp out of it)
• changed the speaker cable
• plugged into a different speaker cabinet (both cabs are Ampeg SVT112AV's)

The noise continues to be present.

I haven't tried a different room or power yet. That has never been a problem before (in my home office).

I uploaded a sound file in case it's helpful.


This amp was sent to Mesa in April of 2020 when I was having an issue. I believe they ended up changing out the power supply but I can't find my invoice at the moment.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[WRM]

My first thought was a capacitor loading (fuzz) and releasing (popping), but after listening to it, I doubt that's it. That doesn't sound like a "popping" to me, more like "power loss". Perhaps "something" in the amplifier circuit is damaged/can't handle the power and is heating up/cutting out. I doubt it's user-serviceable (fuse or tube?), so probably best to send it in again.

Please keep us posted.

 

[DionClassic]

My first thought was a capacitor loading (fuzz) and releasing (popping), but after listening to it, I doubt that's it. That doesn't sound like a "popping" to me, more like "power loss". Perhaps "something" in the amplifier circuit is damaged/can't handle the power and is heating up/cutting out. I doubt it's user-serviceable (fuse or tube?), so probably best to send it in again.

Please keep us posted.

Are we still able to send these in? As long as it’s not a mosfet issue?

 

[WRM]

Are we still able to send these in? As long as it’s not a mosfet issue?

I thought so but could be wrong. I'm sure @agedhorse will be by soon to let us know?

 

[Al Kraft]

I'd call customer service at Mesa and see what they recommend. They have (or at least had) a person there who is by reputation possibly the world's expert on WA's.

Obviously if Andy has other advice or suggestions, that would always be my first choice for a next step.