Mesa Boogie Walkabout Part 6

[Smallmouth_Bass]

That's how many now?

 

[lomo]

That's how many now?

Exactly enough, my friend. Not 1 more or less. Beware, I may have to seek retribuition for piling on......perhaps by spiking your food with something at our next Montreal GTG

 

[lomo]

The only thing I like in my chain when using the WA is a good compressor, used gingerly.

2 questions for you all.

Have any of you happy WA players ever run Bag End cabs with your amp. If so, how did it work out. In the past I have had a number of 2nd cabs (Aguilar GS112NT, Accugroove Tri115, Mesa Powerhouse 2x12) to go with my 2nd gen silver/black faced 4ohm WA 12 combo, but I sold them along the way.

Now I am considering using some Bag End cabs and am looking for any hands on experiences from this dedicated group of WA users. I am thinking of S12's, S15's and S15X. I am thinking of either a single BE cab to go underneath the WA combo, or 2 BE cabs with the WA amp on top.

I am undecided on going Birch or the Deep Red cabs, but aesthetics is a secondary decision at the moment.

Q2.

Do any of you put signal processors in front of your WA. I am mostly interested to hear about experience with non-FX type stuff like additional preamps, EQ's etc, rather than distortion/OD or muti-fx pedals and such. The tone shaping section of the WA seems to be so strong that I don't imagine that you would get much benefit from doing this, but I am considering an effort to reconsider my current tone and am looking for guidance and experience.

Thanks

 

[Chef]

Piling on?

"And the called him Flipper, Flipper....."

(pot, meet kettle, I know, I know)

 

[MarkusBass]

Wow!!! Never saw one like that! Super cool man!!

 

[P. Bass]

This passed Mrs. Lomo's "pretty enough to sit permanently in the living room" test. I don't need anything else under my tree this year. Note the updated back panel. It's an 8 Ohm, wine croc/tan/wicker Mesa CS beauty.

THAT is a hall of fame piece of work that is! Congrats & make it sound as good as it looks.(&more pic angles please)
B.

 

[lomo]

Mo pix: pleasure to oblige. As far as making it sound as good as it looks....that's a tall order for a hack like me, but I thoroughly enjoy trying

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

There was a fellow around here who had a similarly finished Walkabout combo and extension speaker with a crimson anniversary Stingray that looked really nice.

 

[rodl2005]

That sure is sweet Lomo. Congrats!
I've got 2 Walkabouts,
Question, could I simply daisy-chain 'em, outta one, into the other fx in? Advantages?? Double the power, same WA tone?

 

[P. Bass]

Mo pix: pleasure to oblige. As far as making it sound as good as it looks....that's a tall order for a hack like me, but I thoroughly enjoy trying

We're a fraternity. .
I once talked to a bass player for an artist that he's been touring with for over 40 years who considers himself a hacker. It's a great way to fly.

 

[Dave W]

2 questions for you all.

Have any of you happy WA players ever run Bag End cabs with your amp. If so, how did it work out. In the past I have had a number of 2nd cabs (Aguilar GS112NT, Accugroove Tri115, Mesa Powerhouse 2x12) to go with my 2nd gen silver/black faced 4ohm WA 12 combo, but I sold them along the way.

Now I am considering using some Bag End cabs and am looking for any hands on experiences from this dedicated group of WA users. I am thinking of S12's, S15's and S15X. I am thinking of either a single BE cab to go underneath the WA combo, or 2 BE cabs with the WA amp on top.

I am undecided on going Birch or the Deep Red cabs, but aesthetics is a secondary decision at the moment.

I use a Bag End S15D and S15XD with mine. They sound fantastic. They've got enough lows with a ton of mid punch. The tweeter in the XD cab adds just enough sparkle on the top. Normally I don't use tweeters at all, so I was a little afraid with it since there is no way to turn it off unless you unplug it.
I've got a pair of Aggie GS112's that I like a lot as well, but I like the BA's a little more.

The birch cabs are SUPER sexy, but I'd be afraid on them getting all dinged up. However, given the choice between the two, I'd probably still choose the birch. Mine are deep red. I got a very good deal on them, so I couldn't pass them up.

 

[sunbeast]

There was a fellow around here who had a similarly finished Walkabout combo and extension speaker with a crimson anniversary Stingray that looked really nice.

His are 15" cabs currently on sale in the classifieds, and too damn tempting!

 

[MarkusBass]

No kidding! Love to have that setup! Or the lizard one! Love it!

 

[Jerry J]

The earliest ones were silver with red, the second group were silver with black, and the 3rd (current) group are all black. At some point during the silver w/black run they replaced the seperate active input with an active/passive switch and also added an FX Bypass switch. There was also apparently a short period during the silver w/black era where the frequency spread for the para EQ sections was different- this was discussed recently in this thread. Both of the WAs I've owned were from that era, so I can't speak to any noticeable difference.
The oldest WAs are fine, but if you come across one without the switch upgrades it is worth having them updated as they were put in to fix a problem that tends to develop with unused jacks becoming oxidized and causing intermittent cutouts (cutting out sound to the whole amp even if you aren't using that particular jack).

Thank you for the rundown Karl. I do have you and Mr. Rodl to blame for the Walkabout GAS.

Out of curiosity does anyone know about what it costs to have Mesa upgrade an early WA?

 

[Chef]

$150, last time I checked.

 

[Jerry J]

$150, last time I checked.

Thank you Alan!

So with the shipping to and from Mesa it seems that it's worthwhile to just find one that has been modified or is newer then.

 

[ishouldbeking]

Re: the question about running a 4ohm and 8ohm scout cab together... that's what I do, with zero issues. Sure, the 4 ohm would blow before the 8 ohm, but that was how the Mesa guys told me to run it, and it works well and sounds good so who am I to complain.

Also, since I finally got to test out my newly-healthy Walkabout after its repair (from the beer-drinking incident), I've noticed some interesting developments. First, it seems to sound a little more lively. Not sure why, just slightly 'sweeter' if that makes any sense. No complaints here! Also, the fan now seems ridiculously loud. It always made noise, and it wasn't quiet or anything, but now I'm finally seeing what the fan-complainers were talking about. Weird!

Also, I tried the amp using the settings the store guys were using... and I might have found a rad new tone. Rather than running the bass knob flat and cutting a bit on the mids and treble, I'm leaving mids and treble flat and boosting the bass a bit... and instead of running my typically overdriven sound with the gain up at 1:30 to 2:00, i'm keeping the gain at noon. Really the only cuts I'm making are the para EQ: low cut at 50hz, and some gank cutting at 1.6k or so. Set that way with my tone knob open my precision actually sounds really bright, but if I roll the tone knob down to 7 or so, I'm left with the warmest sweetest sound I've ever gotten outta this thing (and this is all pickstyle, btw).

Good times.

 

[GregC]

Now THAT'S FUNNY.....and I certainly deserve it, ROFLMAO

Hehe, all in good fun. If I had a shot at that cab, though, I would definitely grab it to replace the regular Scout cab sitting in our 2nd bedroom/office.

 

[pfschim]

I use a Bag End S15D and S15XD with mine. They sound fantastic. They've got enough lows with a ton of mid punch. The tweeter in the XD cab adds just enough sparkle on the top. Normally I don't use tweeters at all, so I was a little afraid with it since there is no way to turn it off unless you unplug it.
I've got a pair of Aggie GS112's that I like a lot as well, but I like the BA's a little more.

thanks for the BE info bassgod0dmw. Interesting that you have both the BE's and the Aggies. I had a GS112NT as a 2nd cab for my WA some time ago but I did not like it with the WA very much. It's not that it sounded bad per se, it just did not add much of anything (perhaps that could be a good thing - as in more cone area, but not much coloration). In your opinion do the Aggies sound similar to the BE cabs ?

 

[Dave W]

In your opinion do the Aggies sound similar to the BE cabs ?

No, not really. I'm not very good at describing tone, but the Aggies are very low end heavy and the the BE are more midrange heavy. They do have enough low end though, something else I was worried about because I like a good amount of lows. They are very punchy.

I bought the BE's to use with my Streamliner. It's a low end heavy amp, so paired with the Aggies it was just mud, even if I dialed most/all of the lows out. The BE pair up excellently with that amp.

I like the Aggies with anything else I've owned though, and that includes the Walkabout.