To my ear the GK MB series are more similar to the Mesa Carbines than the mP600, but as you can hear in the vid, the 600 can also shine mids brightly if you choose. I tend to set my mP600 with less forward mids, and my basses are not very middy either.
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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
NAD- also first Mesa gear
with about 5 minutes of living room sound check I am easily converted to Mesa!
perfect bass sound right out of the box
Love the thickness of the sound without muddyness
sounds perfect with gain on the cleaner side
After reading all about the lack of power I did not have high expectations for the power output, but am pleasantly relieved that the head does in fact have some oomph and and the capability to push the cones in the Fearful 12/6
Transformer was knocking around inside and needed to be tightened up
Tubes are 1 Sovtek and 1 "thetubestore.com" 7025 . Sounds great but I will probably go to Mesa tubes or try some of my vintage spares
I have a flea market bag of old Mullard 12AX7 that I think will be interesting to try
Looking forward to testing the amp against the MB 800 Fusion, B1500, and with Fearful 15/6, 15Sub, 12/6 combinations
with about 5 minutes of living room sound check I am easily converted to Mesa!
perfect bass sound right out of the box
Love the thickness of the sound without muddyness
sounds perfect with gain on the cleaner side
After reading all about the lack of power I did not have high expectations for the power output, but am pleasantly relieved that the head does in fact have some oomph and and the capability to push the cones in the Fearful 12/6
Transformer was knocking around inside and needed to be tightened up
Tubes are 1 Sovtek and 1 "thetubestore.com" 7025 . Sounds great but I will probably go to Mesa tubes or try some of my vintage spares
I have a flea market bag of old Mullard 12AX7 that I think will be interesting to try
Looking forward to testing the amp against the MB 800 Fusion, B1500, and with Fearful 15/6, 15Sub, 12/6 combinations
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so far I have only tried the amp with my Sage 4 string with Aero single coils- these pickups have always blown me away and they are Singing through a great amp like this. the fearful helps too
Had to put up the Carvin for sale to bring in the Walkabout so I will run that a bit today before sending it off.
By the end of the day I hope to test my latest build, a lightweight PJ 4 string, just a little wiring and setup to go on that one
ash neck, alder body, Aguilar PJ passive vol, vol, tone
Had to put up the Carvin for sale to bring in the Walkabout so I will run that a bit today before sending it off.
By the end of the day I hope to test my latest build, a lightweight PJ 4 string, just a little wiring and setup to go on that one
ash neck, alder body, Aguilar PJ passive vol, vol, tone
Just got my first Scout. It's second-hand from GC. Old silver face with no effects loop switch. Handle literally coming apart and power light only works half the time. Since I'm thousands of miles from home I checked it out for function with my iPhone. Defenitely seems functional. Can't wait to get it home and try it out.
So. . . I'm thinking of just checking it as one of my baggage. I'll hold the gig bag on with some tape. Who has flown with one before? And words of wisdom?
Sam
So. . . I'm thinking of just checking it as one of my baggage. I'll hold the gig bag on with some tape. Who has flown with one before? And words of wisdom?
Sam
Well, just got in to Doha From JFK. I put the gig bag on and taped it around the bottom so it wouldn't come off and checked it as baggage. 23.0kg exactly on the scales! Plugged it into my 1500W step-down transformer here in Doha and we have ignition! Middle of the night so I can't try much. First impression is it has a deeper voice than the Marshall MB4210.
The biggest challenge will be to keep someone from plugging it into 230v when I'm not looking. I'm going to have to watch like a hawk!
More later.
The biggest challenge will be to keep someone from plugging it into 230v when I'm not looking. I'm going to have to watch like a hawk!
More later.
Wasn't all that convinced that I was hearing the sound everyone here is raving about. Since the amp doesn't appear to be obviously broken (but does appear to be quite old) I figured maybe the pre-amp tubes were past their personal best. Dug the head out from the cab (which let me see the serial number) and popped it open. Found two "Russian 2" Mesa tubes in there that sure look original. Since I have a random assortment of pre tubes rolling around in my cupboard none of which have many hours on them I swapped until I found myself with a Sovtek closest to the edge of the amp and a JJ in the next door position (the one most easily seen through the vent). To my eye it looks like that lefthand one (looking from the front) is probably the "V1" input valve and the one on the right is running the MOSFETs but I couldn't see any labeling.
Well, I sealed it all up and I have to say she seems to have a voice now. Couldn't play much as it is already 1:30am but definitely seems to sound much more clear and alive.
Does anyone have a way to decode the serials. Mine is WK-001391 which, as far as I can tell, is pretty durn early. Maybe over ten years old. Oh well, it's new to me! Sunday will be my first rehersal with it. We'll see how the guys react.
Sam
Well, I sealed it all up and I have to say she seems to have a voice now. Couldn't play much as it is already 1:30am but definitely seems to sound much more clear and alive.
Does anyone have a way to decode the serials. Mine is WK-001391 which, as far as I can tell, is pretty durn early. Maybe over ten years old. Oh well, it's new to me! Sunday will be my first rehersal with it. We'll see how the guys react.
Sam
Sounds like an early serial no. I'm no pro on that. But I've never noticed any difference in sounds from the various WA models myself. ...ymmv.
Tube swapping does make a good change tho. One of the fun things to play with in the Walkabout.
Tube swapping does make a good change tho. One of the fun things to play with in the Walkabout.
Man, you need to pair that up with a WA cab! (I have a like new 15 white available.)
Mine is an early one too - - 0000789. New tubes made a huge difference. The svetlana 12ax7's from thetubestore.com sounded just like the stock ones. My preference was a pair of their 'preferred series 7025' tubes. There's lots of options and opinions...
What differences did you notice with the latter if you don't mind my asking?
Agreed- I had a pair of Walkabouts from the same era for awhile. One had Mesa Russian tubes and one Mesa Chinese tubes, and they sounded and acted quite differently. I switched the tubes between the two amps and was able to corroborate that it was in fact the tubes that were the culprit. I liked both amps, but when I sold one of the two Walkabouts I kept the tubes that were more mid-forward and aggressive vs the set that I found more scooped and a bit muddier to my ears. Can't recall which tubes were which at this point, though my remaining Walkabout now sports JJs and I love 'em!
Hard to describe and it was a year or so ago, but I would have have to say more open sounding (less pinched?), fuller sounding.
Not very scientific I know. But as soon as I heard it, I knew that I liked it.
The thing is that my tone may be totally not what you want. Preamp tubes are pretty inexpensive. Talk to the dude at thetubestore, and see what he recommends for the tone you're after.
hth
darrell
Played a bit more today with it. I feel like the key to this amp and finding a good sound is learning the EQ knobs. The Bass Treble Middle and the three Parametric ones. It's amazing how much things change with little adjustments. One thing that has really been driving me up the wall is the way this amp seems to pick up the string hitting the fret. Not in a good way either. I found a very small adjustment with the middle parametric knob that almost completely got rid of this. I found I couldn't get as much Bass as I wanted in the signal without it going muddy. Turns out I needed to back off on Bass control and then just bring in a small amount of sub bass on the lefthand parametric (about 12:30 in amount and frequency all the way at 30hz). So I'm learning.
The new voice with the tube swap can get a sort of nasal growl when I dig in. I'm loving that. I think it's going to be a whole new experience to play this in a band setting. It's not so much the noise it makes as the way you can shape it by your playing technique. I can see that as I learn this amp I'm going to get better and better sound out of it. The only thing that makes me nervous is losing the "good" settings since such small movements of the knobs seem to have such a big affect on the sound.
Sam
The new voice with the tube swap can get a sort of nasal growl when I dig in. I'm loving that. I think it's going to be a whole new experience to play this in a band setting. It's not so much the noise it makes as the way you can shape it by your playing technique. I can see that as I learn this amp I'm going to get better and better sound out of it. The only thing that makes me nervous is losing the "good" settings since such small movements of the knobs seem to have such a big affect on the sound.
Sam
Does your cab have the adjustable frequency switch for the tweeter? I noticed some of the tweeter settings could cause some harshness and prevalent fret-noise. I tend to roll the tweeter on my 15" Scout cab most of the way off (also sounds better that way when the amp overdrives)...
