Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

[Folmeister]

The rack, which has been the subject of previous threads, sucks on the 15. If mesa would put fenders over the wheels on the cab side, I would not have the two prominent ruts in the cab where the wheels rub. Any bumps, cracks, seams, or rocks cause the whole thing to wobble and rub. Mesa also graciously replaced the whole unit the last time I had it in to their shop because the wobble also cracked all the plastic parts in the assembly. I have a small, folding dolly that works much better for the extension cab. Oh the compression caps that keep the wheels on have failed too

 

[pfschim]

The rack, which has been the subject of previous threads, sucks on the 15. If mesa would put fenders over the wheels on the cab side, I would not have the two prominent ruts in the cab where the wheels rub. Any bumps, cracks, seams, or rocks cause the whole thing to wobble and rub. Mesa also graciously replaced the whole unit the last time I had it in to their shop because the wobble also cracked all the plastic parts in the assembly. I have a small, folding dolly that works much better for the extension cab. Oh the compression caps that keep the wheels on have failed too

yeah, I remember we kicked those problems around a few years ago. The luggage thing worked pretty good for me on my WA 12 on fairly easy surfaces, but it's true, those tiny wheels just could not take cobblestones, uneven brick pavers or chunky gravel parking lots.

I don't actually use the combo much anymore, I more typically run my WA into a Berg CN212 and NV610. For that, I use a bigger folding dolly/cart too. I did do some rehearsals with a new project last month, and a few recording sessions, where I put the WA back in the combo with the Mesa luggage thing still attached. The terrain was easy and I was reminded of how good that combo sounds in low/medium volumes.

 

[NightCat]

WOW this thread is overwhelming...
Can someone help me with links or band examples for this:
I would like to hear the Walkabout12's natural over-driven tone. I specifically want to hear the range of over-drive tones this amp has on tap at studio or practice volume. I'm a huge Jack Casady fan and I like a little, to a medium amount of "wool" on in my tone. I have not been able to find examples of the distortion range this amp can do on its own. I don't want to buy an amp of this caliber and then have to run a pedal in front of it for mild overdrive.
Thanks,
NC

 

[pfschim]

WOW this thread is overwhelming...
Can someone help me with links or band examples for this:
I would like to hear the Walkabout12's natural over-driven tone. I specifically want to hear the range of over-drive tones this amp has on tap at studio or practice volume. I'm a huge Jack Casady fan and I like a little, to a medium amount of "wool" on in my tone. I have not been able to find examples of the distortion range this amp can do on its own. I don't want to buy an amp of this caliber and then have to run a pedal in front of it for mild overdrive.
Thanks,
NC

I don't have any links to provide, but I will say that, depending on the preamp tubes used, the WA definitely does overdrive when the gain is pushed past about 1:00 (at least on my WA). It goes from mild OD/compression at 1:00, to moderate growl at 3:00 and pretty snarly at the stop point on the gain pot - around 5:00. Personally I don't ever use this kind of gain level live or in a recording situation, I use a pedal for mild distortion because I can kick it in/out as needed, but it's definitely an available flavor from the WA.

good luck

 

[RickenBoogie]

Absolutely agree with pfschim's post above- and I find the same levels of o/d as he does. It'll stay clean and warm up to about 1 o clock, and from there, as you go higher you get a nice soft "tubey" drive all the way to fairly wooly at the extreme. And, of course, the amp does well with a dirt box in front, which is also how I use it. Gain around noon, TRex Bass Juice in front- so I have a big fat warm clean tone, and snarly dirt with a stomp.

 

[MarkA]

OD on the Walkabout is available at any volume via the gain control. However, it takes on more life and richness when pushed at high volume. I don't often use OD of any stripe, but the most glorious, moderate OD I've ever gotten was running the WA through a tweeter-less 2x12 at a stupid-loud gig. For what I was shooting for (clean, uncompressed bass) I'd have needed more juice, but what I got, while neither clean nor uncompressed, was the most harmonically rich bass sound I'd ever heard live. If sounds could glow, this would have. Sounded like a pipe organ. Glorious rock sound. Finger funk? A bit too compressed for that. Slap? Not so much, though the WA can sound great in these styles at moderate volume.

Running an HPF in front of the cab yielded more clean headroom, which you might or might not want, depending on how you want the amp to behave.

 

[sunbeast]

OD on the Walkabout is available at any volume via the gain control. However, it takes on more life and richness when pushed at high volume. I don't often use OD of any stripe, but the most glorious, moderate OD I've ever gotten was running the WA through a tweeter-less 2x12 at a stupid-loud gig. For what I was shooting for (clean, uncompressed bass) I'd have needed more juice, but what I got, while neither clean nor uncompressed, was the most harmonically rich bass sound I'd ever heard live. If sounds could glow, this would have. Sounded like a pipe organ. Glorious rock sound. Finger funk? A bit too compressed for that. Slap? Not so much, though the WA can sound great in these styles at moderate volume.

Running an HPF in front of the cab yielded more clean headroom, which you might or might not want, depending on how you want the amp to behave.

+1 to this post (except for me it has been through a 6x10" cab). If you can get enough headroom for your gig with the Walkabout sweating a bit then it will give you one of the best overdriven tones you can get from a solid-state head IME...

 

[MarkA]

+1 to this post (except for me it has been through a 6x10" cab). If you can get enough headroom for your gig with the Walkabout sweating a bit then it will give you one of the best overdriven tones you can get from a solid-state head IME...

A not-entirely solid state head... If you can get it to "sweat" a little, you can vary the nature of the OD with the gain/master settings, but I guess that's basic OD, for those more versed in its use than I.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Quick question for the Brains-Trust here...

A Scout 15" cab (minus head) has come up for sale at a good price (Aussie forum member) that I'm keen to snap up. I have a Mesa WA silver face already to pair it with.

At the same time an Ampeg B100R has come up (eBay interstate). Haven't tried one (yet) but I'd LOVE to add the B15-vibe to my current arsenal:
Berg CN212, Baer ML112, Mesa WA head (silver face), Thunderfunk 550, Fender Studio Bass combo (95lbs).

Are BOTH the Scout and Ampeg purchases necessary?? both rare in Oz...
(price & space not an issue, as long as I use them). I play Rock thru to Jazz - slab, hollowbody, Rob Allen Mouse, Acoustic upright Takamine B10, and DB for various gigs so it's nice to have choice in amps.


Also...
I have a vintage Roland Cube 60W Beige Tolex I leave at Big Band rehearsal space (intermittent issue of volume dropping, thinking to flip it anyway). Was thinking of leaving Ampeg there instead (no need to carry it) or just use the Ampeg around the house.

 

[Groove Doctor]

^ or to rephrase it better...
what will a Scout 15" 4 ohm cab give me that a Berg CN212 or Baer ML112 (or Ampeg B100R) won't?

How does the Scout 12" differ from the 15" (esp for Jazz/doubling gigs)??

 

[Bugeyed Earl]

^ or to rephrase it better...
what will a Scout 15" 4 ohm cab give me that a Berg CN212 or Baer ML112 (or Ampeg B100R) won't?

How does the Scout 12" differ from the 15" (esp for Jazz/doubling gigs)??

I'm curious to see the responses to this question. I have a Scout 15 combo and was looking for a B100R for a long time (before the scout came into my life.) A few of the Ampeg combos have surfaced recently, but I'm pretty content with the WA combo at the moment, and storage space is an issue in my case. Still, the GAS is powerful...

 

[Groove Doctor]

GAS has only one cure...

 

[rodl2005]

The WA has a ton more versatility imo. I've only used a friend's B100R a few times both at a Blues gig and at a jam night. I'll take the WA over it any day. I feel my WA scout can easily cop the exact same vibe the Ampeg does plus a heap more. Plus has a lot more volume on tap.
The B100R is nice, no doubt, but is very limited unless you're doing his that 100 ss watts will suffice. For me, that ain't many.

 

[RickenBoogie]

Can't comment on the Scout 15, but I have owned an Ampeg B100R, and while it's a fine little solidstate combo, it offers nothing your Walkabout doesn't already provide, in spades. So, +1 to the above.

 

[ValmiX]

I've noticed that some Walkabouts (silver and black plates) have different default parametric frequencies.
Some have 160 1.2k 6.8k and others 60 340 2K as you can read on the plates.
Anyone knows the real differences?

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Interesting.

My earliest silverface model (#08xx) has 60/340/2k. I'll check the other one later... but I think they're the same.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

A bit late to the megathread party here....

and a bit late to the Walkabout...

went through a "clean is good" phase, went through a load of stuff and ended up with a Hellborg preamp into poweramp into ACME b2 .... which I wasn't happy with... traded for a Thunderfunk 750a which .... sucked big time (with my active basses, passive sounded ok) sold the lot and picked up a GK combo which was ok but heavy...


stuck it up for sale and a fella contacted me locally - owned a studio and didn't have a GK to add that the arsenal... he asked if I could bring it along for him to try and I would get to play with a pile of his gear... so we did it.
He had a georgeous 1970's stingray the M-Pulse 600, 2 different walkabout heads and we were stickin them through a Ashdown 810... sounded nice- actually no- the M-Pulse was a bit aggressive rock sound for me- didn't like it... the Walkabout was lovely sounding - I liked.... then stuck the walkabout through a barefaced 1x15 (no tweeter) which sounded a bit rubbish (well like a 3015 played without a filter taking off the top end....

then he pulled out this wee green scout combo cab for the walkabout, brown leather corners....looks awesome I thought.
Then we plugged it it... and OMG awesomeness

big thick tone... flexible semiparamentic, good bass and treble and a valvey active mid... and the tone - just the bass sound I hear in my head - big fat and traditional - yet at the same time modern sounding enough that it doesn't seem daft putting a Warwick streamer with ACG preamp into it...
man I've even used the head as a stand alone preamp for straight to desk gigs.... sounds awesome there too.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Matter of fact, I got my Walkabout/Scout 15 out for an acoustic patio gig this afternoon...

 

[cfsporn]

A bit late to the megathread party here....

and a bit late to the Walkabout...

went through a "clean is good" phase, went through a load of stuff and ended up with a Hellborg preamp into poweramp into ACME b2 .... which I wasn't happy with... traded for a Thunderfunk 750a which .... sucked big time (with my active basses, passive sounded ok) sold the lot and picked up a GK combo which was ok but heavy...


stuck it up for sale and a fella contacted me locally - owned a studio and didn't have a GK to add that the arsenal... he asked if I could bring it along for him to try and I would get to play with a pile of his gear... so we did it.
He had a georgeous 1970's stingray the M-Pulse 600, 2 different walkabout heads and we were stickin them through a Ashdown 810... sounded nice- actually no- the M-Pulse was a bit aggressive rock sound for me- didn't like it... the Walkabout was lovely sounding - I liked.... then stuck the walkabout through a barefaced 1x15 (no tweeter) which sounded a bit rubbish (well like a 3015 played without a filter taking off the top end....

then he pulled out this wee green scout combo cab for the walkabout, brown leather corners....looks awesome I thought.
Then we plugged it it... and OMG awesomeness

big thick tone... flexible semiparamentic, good bass and treble and a valvey active mid... and the tone - just the bass sound I hear in my head - big fat and traditional - yet at the same time modern sounding enough that it doesn't seem daft putting a Warwick streamer with ACG preamp into it...
man I've even used the head as a stand alone preamp for straight to desk gigs.... sounds awesome there too.

Here is the solution I have for the "clean is good" vs "peaches are better than nectarines" debate that's constantly raging in my skull. It probably won't work for everybody, but it works for me.

Get both!

I have a Mesa Walkabout for my small and medium gigs, as well as any gig that I want some fuzzyliciusness. For big gigs and/or times I want a clean sound, I have a GK 1001 RBII. Between these two heads, I have every venue and tone covered. For under $900.

 

[MarkA]

A bit late to the megathread party here....

and a bit late to the Walkabout...

went through a "clean is good" phase, went through a load of stuff and ended up with a Hellborg preamp into poweramp into ACME b2 .... which I wasn't happy with... traded for a Thunderfunk 750a which .... sucked big time (with my active basses, passive sounded ok) sold the lot and picked up a GK combo which was ok but heavy...


stuck it up for sale and a fella contacted me locally - owned a studio and didn't have a GK to add that the arsenal... he asked if I could bring it along for him to try and I would get to play with a pile of his gear... so we did it.
He had a georgeous 1970's stingray the M-Pulse 600, 2 different walkabout heads and we were stickin them through a Ashdown 810... sounded nice- actually no- the M-Pulse was a bit aggressive rock sound for me- didn't like it... the Walkabout was lovely sounding - I liked.... then stuck the walkabout through a barefaced 1x15 (no tweeter) which sounded a bit rubbish (well like a 3015 played without a filter taking off the top end....

then he pulled out this wee green scout combo cab for the walkabout, brown leather corners....looks awesome I thought.
Then we plugged it it... and OMG awesomeness

big thick tone... flexible semiparamentic, good bass and treble and a valvey active mid... and the tone - just the bass sound I hear in my head - big fat and traditional - yet at the same time modern sounding enough that it doesn't seem daft putting a Warwick streamer with ACG preamp into it...
man I've even used the head as a stand alone preamp for straight to desk gigs.... sounds awesome there too.

I've played my Walkabout through a bunch of cabs but have never played the Scout cabs. From descriptions of them being on the loose side, sonically, they wouldn't be my thing, plus there's been a lot of development in cabs since, but now and then I wonder. I'd have to road trip to try one, though - don't know anybody in the area who's got one and the area stores don't carry them.