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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Mega-thread Part 10

#1,521
Just talked to MB yesterday about getting a pair of neo 8 ohm drivers for my scout cabs. The tech guy said they are no longer using neo drivers in these cabs!! DAMN, say it ain't so!!
Cost of neo magnets increased 300% in the last couple years so they have gone back to ceramic. Well, light weight is one of the things that I really love about these speakers. I hate to
see them have to go to ceramic drivers. I'm betting the new cabs will have to be massaged/tuned differently than the previous years. The guy did say that using a pair of deltalite II 2512
8 ohm drivers would probably be fine... He did mention that changes to them by MB were very minor, I'm guessing changing the sticker on the backplate?
 
#1,523
slofut said:
Just talked to MB yesterday about getting a pair of neo 8 ohm drivers for my scout cabs. The tech guy said they are no longer using neo drivers in these cabs!! DAMN, say it ain't so!!
Cost of neo magnets increased 300% in the last couple years so they have gone back to ceramic. Well, light weight is one of the things that I really love about these speakers. I hate to
see them have to go to ceramic drivers. I'm betting the new cabs will have to be massaged/tuned differently than the previous years. The guy did say that using a pair of deltalite II 2512
8 ohm drivers would probably be fine... He did mention that changes to them by MB were very minor, I'm guessing changing the sticker on the backplate?
Click to expand...
If you currently have 4 ohm speakers in your Scout cabs, you may have some of the earlier Deltalite 2512 I speakers, and the 2512 iis will be a huge upgrade in tone! You can tell the earlier Deltalite i speakers because the dust-cover is vented. On the Deltalite ii the dust-cover is solid and they vent through the rear of the magnet.
 
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#1,524
MarkA said:
Jay440...pure speculation, but if that 8x8 is anything like a little fridge in voicing and efficiency, it should play well indeed with the WA.
Click to expand...

I hope so, still looking at other amps & it'll be a while before I can get something.

I do love the sound from the clips I've heard and really like the concept of the Parametric EQ section: I still haven't seen that on too many other amps that can be found used for $300-$700. The Eden WT-500 has something similar, but only for Low and High-Mids.

Anyhow, I finally got the Cabinet home...

Yorkville_zpsjvo1dzyr.jpg
 
#1,525
jay440 said:
I hope so, still looking at other amps & it'll be a while before I can get something.

I do love the sound from the clips I've heard and really like the concept of the Parametric EQ section: I still haven't seen that on too many other amps that can be found used for $300-$700. The Eden WT-500 has something similar, but only for Low and High-Mids.

Anyhow, I finally got the Cabinet home...

Yorkville_zpsjvo1dzyr.jpg
Click to expand...
Technically, the Walkabout's EQ is semi-parametric (fixed width). I don't have a lot of experience with the Eden stuff - played my friend's old WT-500 (think that's the model) and am familiar with the basic tone, but haven't fiddled with the EQ much. I do think that the WA has one of the better EQs out there. Not all semi-parametric EQs are as useful and musical.
 
#1,528
Bought a used early 90s mesa 1516 roadready to accompany my amp. Got it for the bargain price of just over £200!
Excellent tone with all the high end you could ever want and nice low end too. Slightly heavier than my Marshall 2x15 but the build quality is vastly superior to marshall. Tone wise and speaker wise, I'm beginning to think they out do the eminences in my 2x15. Love it :)
DSC_0007.JPG
 
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#1,529
110s lover said:
Bought a used early 90s mesa 1516 roadready to accompany my amp. Got it for the bargain price of just over £200!
Excellent tone with all the high end you could ever want and nice low end too. Slightly heavier than my Marshall 2x15 but the build quality is vastly superior to marshall. Tone wise and speaker wise, I'm beginning to think they out do the eminences in my 2x15. Love it :) View attachment 653897
Click to expand...
Is that a 15", a 10", two 8" s, and a tweeter? Looks like one heavy-duty cab! And you're using this with the Walkabout?
 
#1,530
MarkA said:
Is that a 15", a 10", two 8" s, and a tweeter? Looks like one heavy-duty cab! And you're using this with the Walkabout?
Click to expand...
Must confess i don't use one anymore, did for a short amount of time and was good...wasnt mine but a friends. Ran it with the Marshall head for a couple if weeks but Tbh, I didnt want to start another mesa thread so i thought i'd share my current rig with you all in here :)

And it's Actually two 6 inch speakers which works great for bass!
 
#1,533
Getting a high-pitched ringing noise, I haven't 100% narrowed it down to my Walkabout but I'm pretty sure it's the amp or the cab. Unfortunately I don't have another cab to test with the WA at the moment. I'm thinking microphonic tube is the most likely cause.
 
#1,535
Well I guess it's time to go tube-shopping then. I've been thinking of doing some tube-rolling anyway. Any suggestions? Articulation and headroom are probably the qualities I'm looking for most (and less than $25 per tube would be ideal). Looking at the comparisons on tubedepot.com, I'm leaning toward the Sovtek 12AX7LPS or the Mullard.
 
#1,538
I'm thinking of trying some tube rolling, but rather than trying for clean headroom like a normal person, I'm doing it with the intention of looking for the most pleasing and controllable overdrive. From what I've gathered so far, V2 doesn't really factor into the overdrive equation that much, which makes sense. It seems that as manufacturing changes, different tube brands and configurations come in and out of favor. What are the most current recommendations for tube choices with an ear towards nice overdrive characteristics, that don't include the $300 ultra rare trans-dimensional unobtanium plate pre-1925 NOS versions? I'd like to get 2 or 3 choices in the $50-60 total range. I seem to be channeling echos of Jack Casady from 1969 lately and don't have access to a Versatone Pan-O-Flex.
 
#1,539
ric426 said:
I'm thinking of trying some tube rolling, but rather than trying for clean headroom like a normal person, I'm doing it with the intention of looking for the most pleasing and controllable overdrive. From what I've gathered so far, V2 doesn't really factor into the overdrive equation that much, which makes sense. It seems that as manufacturing changes, different tube brands and configurations come in and out of favor. What are the most current recommendations for tube choices with an ear towards nice overdrive characteristics, that don't include the $300 ultra rare trans-dimensional unobtanium plate pre-1925 NOS versions? I'd like to get 2 or 3 choices in the $50-60 total range. I seem to be channeling echos of Jack Casady from 1969 lately and don't have access to a Versatone Pan-O-Flex.
Click to expand...

A long time ago, I posted on an old blog about tube rolling in my WalkAbout, and here is a quote from the WABAC:

Preamp tubes in Mesa Walkabout

Some time back, I had an opportunity to run through a number of different preamp tubes in my Mesa Boogie Walkabout. The tubes at my disposal were as follows:

Mullard 12AT7/CV4024
JAN Phillips 12AX7
JAN GE 5751
Shuguang 12AX7C9
Telefunken ECC83 (smooth plate)
JJ ECC83S

The original Mesa tubes said "Russian 2" on them, but I don't know who made them.

Virtually all of the tubes mentioned above offered some kind of improvement over the stock tubes. However, most differences were very subtle.

The Mullard was by far the warmest sounding, and had a good deal of low mids - too much for the already mid-heavy Walkabout. Still, if you are looking to add some meat, the Mullard would certainly do that.

The JAN Phillips is a great all around tube. Very nicely balanced tonally, with good articulation.

The JAN GE 5751 also had good tonal balance and was a pleasant sounding tube - not harsh at all. However, with the reduced gain, it didn't overdrive as well as the others, which is something I like to do with the Walkabout.

The Shuguang was a bit of a surprise. Upon first firing it up, I thought that it might be the ticket. Very robust signal and tone, overdrives great. However, then I noticed that it was really bringing out the finger/string noise in a huge and somewhat obnoxious way. I don't know if this means that it was slightly microphonic, but it was not desirable. Too bad, because otherwise this tube has a lot of promise.

The Telefunken was the most articulate tube of the bunch, with a bit more upper mids than most. Very clean sounding tube with the Gain down and the Master up, and probably sounded the best of the bunch when overdriven. Good balance, too.

The JJ was very similar to the Tele. Not quite as articulate, but perhaps had sweeter high end. Overdrove quite well, though not as nice as the Tele.

By comparison, the stock Mesa tubes did not have as much articulation as any of the tubes above (though they were close to the Mullard in that regard), and the tone was not as coherent. They did overdrive quite nicely, though not as convincingly as the Tele or JJ. Granted, there wasn't a huge difference overall, but I would say that you can do better than the stock tubes, and it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg.

Ultimately, it came down the JAN Phillips, the Tele, and the JJ. These three were the most similar sounding of the bunch. I ended up choosing the Tele for its articulation and best overdrive tone. The JJ would probably be my second choice, although the JAN Phillips was very, very comparable.

The Walkabout has a second tube which drives the MOSFETs, and after playing around a bit, I chose the JAN Phillips for that duty. It really is too bad that the Shuguang had that string noise thing going on, because it really kicked in the pre-MOSFET socket - most balls and gain of the bunch.

There are a lot of good tubes that I didn't get a chance to try, but there you have the results of my own very unscientific preamp tube shootout.

Hope this helps, Tom.

P.S.
I got my tubes from Doug's Tubes, and he was very helpful.
 

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