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Mesa Boogie Walkabout Megathread; Part Two

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#141
I've only used a Fishman BP100-which I thought was terrible; and a Bassmax with K&K preamp; which is decent. It still sounds kinda piezo-ee on top.
I'd love to try a Realist but I never seem to make it a financial priority.
 
#142
ctregan said:
Well, I have never contributed to a "Mega Thread" before..... but since I just bought a walkabout amp head, I figure; its a good time for a thread revival.

Currently, I am using the WA amp head with a double bass (just purchased the amp from classifieds). Here is the positive; It feels like the timing (or attack?) can be adjusted using the volume knobs to make the sound response (?), the same as the upright bass. This may sound odd to electric players, but my experience with a Little Mark II and the DB caused problems because the sound seemed to jump out of the amp much quicker than the natural bass. It kind of threw the timing of the band off. The LMII also seemed to be a sustain killer, slower songs, with half notes, were painful. The notes from the WA have a more natural sound, more of an of ext. of the bass, than a separate amp.

So far, the WA is creamy. It had the Mesa stock tubes inside and I switched them with some old 12ax7's from a 1960 Hammond chord organ. I am not sure of the make of the tubes but, the plates are significantly longer than the Soviet Mesa tubes. This made a noticeable difference, not as loud, but very smooth, no harshness at all. I will try the Groove tubes 12ax7c next, just to compare.

I am also using an Ampeg BXT 15 speaker with the WA. They have a different sound compared to regular Ampeg speakers, more scooped middles, I think Victor Wooten had something to do with these. Any way, the combo sounds good.

Double basses are very difficult to amplify, This amp is new to me, I hope it will work out for the best.
Click to expand...

Hey Craig, welcome to the Walkabout brotherhood! I hope the guy that sold you the BXT115 gave you a good deal!!! ;)
 
#143
Yesterday I bought Fathom head and today I went for a trip to another town to check out different cabs. Selection was poor but I found Walkabout head, so I couldn't resist to test it (in fact I got greedy as it was on clearance sale). I played it through Marshall 4x10 cab.

It definitely sounds tubey and huge. Pure AWSOME. I won't say it's versatile but it's perfect for fingerstyle funk and rock. It's not a good amp for playing chords with a pick as it gets boomy and not defined enough - Fathom doesn't have this problem but it's of course much cleaner and more solidstate head.

I stood in front of Walkabout deliberating with myself whether to buy it or not, but I don't really need two amps and Fathom can do things Walkabout can't. Still it was very hard to tell my greed to get lost ;)
 
#144
jetofuj said:
Yesterday I bought Fathom head and today I went for a trip to another town to check out different cabs. Selection was poor but I found Walkabout head, so I couldn't resist to test it (in fact I got greedy as it was on clearance sale). I played it through Marshall 4x10 cab.

It definitely sounds tubey and huge. Pure AWSOME. I won't say it's versatile but it's perfect for fingerstyle funk and rock. It's not a good amp for playing chords with a pick as it gets boomy and not defined enough - Fathom doesn't have this problem but it's of course much cleaner and more solidstate head.

I stood in front of Walkabout deliberating with myself whether to buy it or not, but I don't really need two amps and Fathom can do things Walkabout can't. Still it was very hard to tell my greed to get lost ;)
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+1 I keep telling the guys at Mesa/Boogie that they need to make a 2-channel head, with one channel being the M6 (Fathom) pre, and the other being the Walkabout pre. :bassist: :bassist: :bassist: :cool:
 
#146
Pardon my Walkabout ignorance, but I'm seriously considering buying a used one and was wondering if there are certain vintages, production years, generations or whatever that are preferable over others. Have there been upgrades over the years or are they basically the same across the years?
 
#147
ric426 said:
...wondering if there are certain vintages, production years, generations or whatever that are preferable over others. Have there been upgrades over the years or are they basically the same across the years?
Click to expand...

I'm not aware of any circuit changes but Mesa has moved away from problematic switching jacks in more recent versions in favor of an active/passive input switch at the front end and a small toggle switch to bypass the effects loop.

I don't know if they've changed to a fan that is less noisy, but that's one change that I've made to my brown-face (if that's what they're called) WalkAbout.
 
#148
I've also wondered the same about used walkabouts. I just purchased a used walkabout scout that is 5-6 years old. It has the seperate active/passive inputs rather than the switch. Should i have anything to worry about? And are there any other differences between the new and old ones? Obviously i don't have a warranty for this thing...
 
#149
Sonically and as far as overall preamp/amp design, they're all the same.
I've had three older ones, and not had any issues with the seperate active/passive inputs.
In fact, I never use the acitve input, even with my hottest basses. I don't think it sounds as good.
The fx loop in and out jacks I did have problems with. They would oxidize, and quit passing signal. Then, you gotta clean them.

Mesa will install the active/passive switch, and the fx bypass switch and new jacks etc as a service upgrade, either at the factory, or at any authorised service center. I don't recall the cost, but, it was reasonable.

The newest walkabout is a black chassis, with black bakelite knobs. I sold my one year old walkabout and bought one of these, because it matches my M6;) Either that means I'm exceedingly shallow, or, I just have kewl stuff.

newwalkabout.jpg
 
#150
Thanks for the info. As far as jacks, fans, etc. I can take care of that stuff myself. I just wanted to make sure there weren't early versions that were problematic like you hear about with some other brands, or extra features on newer models. Given Mesa's reputation I wouldn't expect anything more than minor problems like dirty jacks, etc.
One other thing I was wondering about. I've read some posts that refer to their brown face Walkabout. Does that just differentiate it from the black chassis or are there other versions?
 
#151
ummmm...I think there were three incarnations of brushed aluminum chassis:
brown texxt, red text, black test.

i think
could be wrong though
 
#153
When using "asymmetric" cab configurations, such as 3 8 Ohm cabs, does it matter how they are connected to the pair of 8 Ohm outs in the back. I don't see why, but juss checkin'.
 
#156
+1 for a bigger Walkabout. The MPulse 600 ain't it, though they supposedly have the exact same preamp. But, a 5 or 600 watt Walkabout would be the end -it -all amp for me. I'd be one very happy camper. And +1 again, brown text, red text, black text, (all with metal knurled knobs), and now black face with white text, and bakelight knobs. Aside from the active/passive inputs, and the fx loop bypass, they're all the same fantastic amps.
 
#157
Chef said:
swerve:
lomo; is that avatar bass of yours chambered? what is that? pm me if you don't want clutter here...
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It's a Basslab Soul V. It's completely hollow from bridge to nut, and weighs barely a shade over 5 lbs. All passive Delano stacked 'buckers. Sounds much louder than a solid or semihollow unplugged. I can practice unplugged in a quiet room. Huge hollowbody sound. Quite the match with the WA.
 
#160
Well, thanks to you guys, I just sent the payment for a used Walkabout. :hyper::hyper::hyper:
I can't believe that in my 30+ years of playing I've *never* had a Mesa amp before! Had lots of other brands at one time or another, so it was time to fix that situation. It's nice to have a wife who talks me into buying bass gear...
From everything I've read, it sounds like the Walkabout will give me everything I'm looking for in an amp these days. I suspect it's gonna sound pretty good with my Epi UL-112.
 
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