Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

[Willy B]

When you plug your Mesa into your Berg, you can use either of the 8 ohm jacks on the back of the Mesa. If you get a second 8 ohm cab, you can daisy chain it off the first Berg or you can plug it into the second 8 ohm jack on your Mesa.

Do NOT use an instrument cable to connect your amp to a speaker. It may catch fire. Best off using a quarter inch speaker cable.

^ This. The Walkabout manual states that you should use 14 gauge or thicker speaker cable. The speaker outputs on the WA are 1/4"- I do not know if the HD112 has 1/4" inputs or just speakon- if just speakon, get a speaker cable with a 1/4" jack on one end and a speakon connector on the other end.

 

[pfschim]

I use a 1/4" to Speakon speaker cable to connect my WA to either of my Berg cabs, but the Bergs also have 1/4" jacks too (at least the CN212 and NV610 do), so you could also just use a straight 1/4" speaker cable too.

as for the Ohms question, your WA will work at 8, 4 and 2 ohms just fine (you can read about that here in the WA Megathread).

1 8ohm cab will get about 165w out of the WA
2 8ohm cabs = 4ohm load, and will get the WA's full 300w
1 4ohm cab will get the full 300w
2 4ohm cabs = 2ohm load, and will get close to 500w from the WA

enjoy the WA/Berg combination, should be a great pairing.

 

[felixxx]

Thanks guys.

 

[cfsporn]

That was quick!
Thanks a lot.
So, either way I connect two cabs they will go down to 4 Ohms?

Yes. Provided they are both 8 ohm speakers.

 

[Jazz4]

Your going to love the HD112 with the WA head.

 

[Willy B]

Update: I received the pair of SVT210-AV cabs a few weeks ago. I compared them side-by-side to the Scout 12 stack at home, and preferred the Scout cabs but, I would like to try them on a gig or rehearsal for a true test. However, it may be moot- I recently picked up a Hathor 1203. At home and at rehearsal the WA sounded amazing through it. I felt it "breathed new life" into the WA, in the way others have talked about their berg and baer cabs.

 

[mb94952]

That was quick!
Thanks a lot.
So, either way I connect two cabs they will go down to 4 Ohms?

I even heard the WA will go down to 2 ohms (or is it 2.6 ohms ?) comfortably, too ! Ask Chef.

 

[MarkA]

That was quick!
Thanks a lot.
So, either way I connect two cabs they will go down to 4 Ohms?

Yep.

At the risk of stating the obvious, don't plug or unplug the speaker cable while the amp is on.

Edit: Doh! Missed that there were more posts after the above.

 

[felixxx]

Your going to love the HD112 with the WA head.

That's what I was hoping for.

 

[pfschim]

I even heard the WA will go down to 2 ohms (or is it 2.6 ohms ?) comfortably, too ! Ask Chef.

WA will do 2.67ohms (4ohm + 8ohm) no problem, but there will be a bit of a power mismatch to the cabs with the 4ohm cab getting more power than the 8ohm cab. it won't cause any major issues, but just be aware of it.

WA will also do 2 ohms no problem, even though the newer manuals say to avoid it. Many here (including myself) have used our WA's at 2ohms without issue.

Personally I don't do it anymore, because I started to feel as if the WA got kind of "squishy" at 2ohms when pushed - nothing super obvious other than to me.

I switched to using more drivers in a 4ohm cab (in my case, Berg CN212 or NV610) rather than trying to get too much out of 2 smaller single driver cabs like the WA 1x12 or 1x15. IMO/IME, that approach works way better with the WA.

great amp, still gets most of the playing time on my gigs after 7 years

 

[Worldeeeter]

I even heard the WA will go down to 2 ohms (or is it 2.6 ohms ?) comfortably, too ! Ask Chef.

I run my WA at 2 ohms (2 x 4ohm WA Scout cabs). The head gets hot during shows, but I have never had a shut-down. Other folks on here have told me they do it as well. It's not recommended by Mesa, but it can be done.
By the way, if you daisy-chain one speaker cab off the other, it will DOUBLE the impedance, not cut it in half. So, two 8-ohm cabs run in series (one cab off the other) will increase the impedance to 16 ohms, not lower it to 4.

 

[Willy B]

I don't think that's completely right. I think for the most part, if you daisy-chain, the cabs are run parallel.

 

[tombowlus]

I run my WA at 2 ohms (2 x 4ohm WA Scout cabs). The head gets hot during shows, but I have never had a shut-down. Other folks on here have told me they do it as well. It's not recommended by Mesa, but it can be done.
By the way, if you daisy-chain one speaker cab off the other, it will DOUBLE the impedance, not cut it in half. So, two 8-ohm cabs run in series (one cab off the other) will increase the impedance to 16 ohms, not lower it to 4.

That is incorrect. Two 8-ohm cabs create a 4-ohm load, whether you daisy-chain them to each other or plug them both into the back of the head. With a special serial speaker cable (think of a triangle of speaker cable), however, you can combine two 8-ohm cabs into a 16-ohm load.

 

[Worldeeeter]

That is incorrect. Two 8-ohm cabs create a 4-ohm load, whether you daisy-chain them to each other or plug them both into the back of the head. With a special serial speaker cable (think of a triangle of speaker cable), however, you can combine two 8-ohm cabs into a 16-ohm load.

OK. I thought I had paperwork from Glockenklang that said that, but I cannot find it. Disregard my comment.

 

[cm3ohana]

Just got my Walkabout today and it's amazing. Love the organic tone. I enjoy the sound of each of my amps for different reasons. The Walkabout adds a whole 'nother dimension to my collection. I'm not really about the volume but more about the tone. Here's a pic of the amps I currently have (minus the Ampeg PF800 since its with another rig right now)...just stacked them for the pic. Lovin' the Walkabout....

 

[mb94952]

Hello cm3ohana ! Like you, I have about six or seven different bass rigs and I like them all for different reasons. I LOVE that about owning multiple rigs !!! It's so addictive, and good for you . I mean, c'mon. One always needs a backup to the backup bass amp. Also like you, I LOVE my Walkabout SOOOoo much. It's my #1 go to amp now. Plus, I recently traded my RARE SWR 2x8 Baby Blue speaker cab for a Mesa Scout 112 cab. So now my foot print both on stage and in rehearsal is tiny, yet I have some huge tone and PLENTY of volume. The WA is legendary and still one of the best bass amps and most loved bass amps ever made.

 

[MarkA]

That is incorrect. Two 8-ohm cabs create a 4-ohm load, whether you daisy-chain them to each other or plug them both into the back of the head. With a special serial speaker cable (think of a triangle of speaker cable), however, you can combine two 8-ohm cabs into a 16-ohm load.

Hey, Tom, is it possible to wire a cab internally so that daisy-chaining to another cab causes them to run in serial rather than parallel? Would it then matter which cab was hooked up directly to the amp?

If that were possible, and if cab order made a difference (and I'm conceptualizing things correctly), a possible application would be to have small, "weird" cab that you could run in serial with another small cab (this one wired "normal" or "weird") for a 16 ohm load, or a atop a big cab in parallel for a 2.7 Ohm load, or with all three cabs for a 2 Ohm load... all Walkabout-able. Or perhaps the above could be accomplished more simply with a serial cable in the right place.

No immediate application for this. Just thinking.

 

[tombowlus]

Hey, Tom, is it possible to wire a cab internally so that daisy-chaining to another cab causes them to run in serial rather than parallel? Would it then matter which cab was hooked up directly to the amp?

If that were possible, and if cab order made a difference (and I'm conceptualizing things correctly), a possible application would be to have small, "weird" cab that you could run in serial with another small cab (this one wired "normal" or "weird") for a 16 ohm load, or a atop a big cab in parallel for a 2.7 Ohm load, or with all three cabs for a 2 Ohm load... all Walkabout-able. Or perhaps the above could be accomplished more simply with a serial cable in the right place.

No immediate application for this. Just thinking.

Well, that'd be difficult. You need to go positive from amp to positive of cab one. Then negative of cab one to positive of cab two. Then negative of cab two to negative of amp. If that makes any sense...

 

[MarkA]

Well, that'd be difficult. You need to go positive from amp to positive of cab one. Then negative of cab one to positive of cab two. Then negative of cab two to negative of amp. If that makes any sense...

Umm... sorta? It will make more sense when I think about it again later, I am sure. Appreciate the answer!

 

[vin*tone]

Things could be worse....

I just picked up the 8 ohm 12 after owning the 4 ohm 15 for a while. This little beasty does put out some volume.