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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#941
McFarlin said:
Funny thing about their dancing is they are all, by our standards, outstanding musicians and songwriters. The tall guy built my bass.
Thanks for passing it on.
You should check out some of their vids: search Opposite Day (try finding Current Currency Current for some bass chops) or Invincible Czars
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Good grief... Caught the opposite day vids, I should just sell my stuff...
 
#943
agedhorse said:
The effects send is also line level, and when used with a typical passive DI will deliver about -30dBu to the console. A typical DI steps the voltage down through a transformer which is how the transformation occurs allowing a higher impedance output to drive a lower impedance input ( even though it will do the same thing with a low impedance signal like from the fx send jack)
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Hey coyote, something like this was discussed recently... go back a couple pages for more.
 
#946
spiritbass said:
Walkabout + JBL = :) :) :)

P1130499_zps99b3c275.jpg
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Is that a D-140, he inquired expectantly?
 
#947
McFarlin said:
Not exactly relevant to the current discussion, but I finally got the ML112 out for a show. Expecting to play the small indoor stage I thought it would be about perfect, but they put us outside. Our 165W Walkabout and the ML112 with PA support held up pretty great. Ran all settings flat with very slight boosts at 55 and 125, then a slight cut at 2K--DI level about 11:30, gain just below 12:00, master at 12:30. I'll probably use the NX2-212T next time, but I think it worked.
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I frickin LOVE this! Awesome job! Great arrangement and great bass playin'.
 
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#948
Quick report: after fleeing the sprinkler gig

:-/

Swapped in the JJ golds and it feels like i got that 10% increase in available gain, and they are clear sounding. Downside may be the 26 appears to not like that 10%.

edit: to be fair, this was w/o the fdeck and occasional comp i normally use on a gig. Gain/master @ noon.
 
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#950
McFarlin said:
Thanks! It sure is fun.
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Looking for a little info... I'm playing through a GK mb800 now. I'm not using near full power.

I've always wanted to try a Mesa head, and may have an opportunity to trade for a silver face, black lettering walkabout head.

Will this be enough power to play small to medium clubs through 2 GK 8ohm 2-10" cabs? How about w/o PA support?

I don't mild a bit of grit in my sound, but not wanting to feel like I'm under powered.
Thanks in advance for any info...
Steve
 
#951
Of the very few compaints encountered here about the Walkabout, one of the most common is that it's underpowered. Not for me... I regularly do small room bar gigs with an older silverface Walkabout and two Scout 12 cabs which notoriously can't handle what the Walkabout puts out at max... it's loud enough I wear earplugs, but obviously our perception of what's "loud" varies widely. Anything outdoors or bigger than small rooms, then I just send the DI to house and use the combo cab for a stage monitor.

The thing about a Walkabout is the incredible tone... all us headroom junkies have lobbied for a more powerful Walkabout. Some more than others. ;)

Any chance you could A/B it with your GK before closing a deal?
 
#952
jbravo said:
Looking for a little info... I'm playing through a GK mb800 now. I'm not using near full power.

I've always wanted to try a Mesa head, and may have an opportunity to trade for a silver face, black lettering walkabout head.

Will this be enough power to play small to medium clubs through 2 GK 8ohm 2-10" cabs? How about w/o PA support?

I don't mild a bit of grit in my sound, but not wanting to feel like I'm under powered.
Thanks in advance for any info...
Steve
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That will never be a problem. I play small and medium clubs with the same amp (WA silver face) and two Scout 12" cabs (mini-stack). Every club I play mics one speaker; I played a huge joint two weeks ago and never turned the volume above 9:00.
 
#953
jbravo said:
Looking for a little info... I'm playing through a GK mb800 now. I'm not using near full power.

I've always wanted to try a Mesa head, and may have an opportunity to trade for a silver face, black lettering walkabout head.

Will this be enough power to play small to medium clubs through 2 GK 8ohm 2-10" cabs? How about w/o PA support?

I don't mild a bit of grit in my sound, but not wanting to feel like I'm under powered.
Thanks in advance for any info...
Steve
Click to expand...
Having done small/medium clubs with a WA and various cab combinations for several years, I can say from personal experience that it can work out just fine.

What you lose compared to a more powerful head, like your GK MB800, is clean headroom. The other thing that the WA does at the top, and past the top, of its useful volume range is that it compresses quite a bit. So, IMO/IME, when you push the Gain to its max clean point for your bass (and whatever other outboard gear you use), and you run the Master much past 1 o'clock, you will just not get any more volume out of the amp, and will get increasing amounts of sag/compression. Dialing up the Gain with the Master at that point, will just get you grit that gets increasingly compressed/saggy sounding.

This situation will be offset considerably if you use cabs with more drivers and try and keep the total ohm-age at 4. As has been stated many times, the WA will do 2.67 and 2ohms just fine, but again, what happens - IMO/IME - is that compressed/saggy thing happens quicker with the lower resistance values.

Now, having said all that, I do not have any total SPL numbers to offer to back up my claims scientifically, so you will have to work out whether the volume level will work for you/your gigs. My advice is - get more drivers going.

oh, and let me repeat for the record, I am still totally in love with my WA, and get the best out of it (at least for me) from the 104db Berg CN212. Even so, it does not go out on gigs where I need more clean headroom. For this purpose, the WA has been replaced (!) by a 11oow@4ohms Ampeg SVT 6Pro - which really delivers the clean headroom that I want on all bigger gigs.

good luck and enjoy!
 
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#954
Ran mine through an old Ampeg 810 @ 4 ohms this past Saturday night. Had the Walkabout's gain around noon, master around 10 O'clock for a loud 3 piece rock gig in a small 100-person bar with only vox and kick through the PA. Plenty loud. Possibly too loud. Great little amp.
 
#956
At a recent visit to the Atlanta Bass gallery, I recently found a clean, used 1x15 Powerhouse cab to go with the one I already had. The only problem was that the new(er) one had a black grill while my existing cab was an older silver grill version. The solution was to have both grills freshly powdercoated in black, which was way cheaper than buying a new grill from Mesa. What started out as a WA12 combo now has really big sound with mucho clean headroom.


DSCN1737_zps33352606.jpg
 
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#958
WoodyJ said:
At a recent visit to the Atlanta Bass gallery, I recently found a clean, used 1x15 Powerhouse cab to go with the one I already had. The only problem was that the new(er) one had a black grill while my existing cab was an older silver grill version. The solution was to have both grills freshly powdercoated in black, which was way cheaper than buying a new grill from Mesa. What started out as a WA12 combo now has really big sound with mucho clean headroom.


DSCN1737_zps33352606.jpg
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Nice rig. My Walkabout's still in the Scout 12 cab but I'm hoping to make the jump soon to something bigger. Has anyone paired the WA with the Berg NV115?
 
#960
At risk of getting flamed, I can't find my answer, so I'm hoping someone here can help me out.
I have an older Walkabout head with the two input jacks. I would like to mod it so that it functions like the newer model with one input jack and an active/passive switch.
I thought it would be an easy mod, but when I opened up the case, I found three wires to each jack. The red (hot) and black (ground) make sense on the active jack. The white (hot) and black (ground) make sense on the passive jack.
The part that has me confused is the purpose of the white wire which continues on to the other side of the passive jack then continues to the active jack.

Does the active jack feed the passive circuit? Or is this a cut off so that only one jack will work at a time? Or?

If anyone can point me at a thread or even some search keywords I'm not thinking about I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!
 

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