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Mesa d800 and passive basses causing distortion/overdrive

#22
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#23
MCF said:
Post in the Mesa Club thread.
Official Mesa Boogie Subway Series Club

I have several Epi Thunderbirds. I play them through a Mesa TT 800 and an SVT VR. Never had an issue. I’d have the amp checked since it’s new and under warranty.
Click to expand...
Yep! It doesn’t hurt to cover both threads . Both of those will be helpful for other things too. But hopefully the OP will follow through with the advice of @agedhorse too! :thumbsup:
 
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#24
Jack Torrance said:
I recently purchased a used Mesa d800 and am having a hell of a time getting anything but distortion/overdrive out of it. I am pretty new to bass playing and it took me a while to get my active basses to sound good, but man after I figured it out the Mesa sounds AMAZING! Anyway I have an Epiphone thunderbird and it sounds horrible. I can’t seem to find a good setting. Has anyone ever come across this situation? This bass has stock pups, while my P and J basses have active EMG’s. My previous amp was a GK mb200 which is pretty straightforward. Oh I am playing through a GK cx210 400 watt cab. Any comments are appreciated!
Click to expand...

I had a D800 and have many passive basses. Never had an issue getting awesome tones.

Go to Mesa website and download the D800 manual. Everything you need to know is in there, including suggesting settings.
 
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#26
N4860 said:
Same. I think people seem to have a common misconception that all active basses are louder than passives. It's probably only true if you are someone who maxes out all of the eq knobs on an active preamp.
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Yup.

They tend to be low output, and sterile without any tweaks to the pre amp. It almost always takes a nudge here and a nudge there to get anything decent going on. Including output.
 
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#27
MCF said:
Post in the Mesa Club thread.
Official Mesa Boogie Subway Series Club

I have several Epi Thunderbirds. I play them through a Mesa TT 800 and an SVT VR. Never had an issue. I’d have the amp checked since it’s new and under warranty.
Click to expand...
Yep. Two best clubs on the forum. But you know that! With Andy on the case, OP should get the assistance he needs pretty quick. It sounds like something could be amiss with the amp, assuming OP has the correct ohm setting and has looked at the manual….
 
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#28
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Yup.

They tend to be low output, and sterile without any tweaks to the pre amp. It almost always takes a nudge here and a nudge there to get anything decent going on. Including output.
Click to expand...

That's just not true. Some active basses have lower output, sometimes because somebody set the internal trip control to be that way, or to balance with a passive bass, but there are just as many active basses with output levels higher than a typical passive bass.
 
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#29
N4860 said:
Same. I think people seem to have a common misconception that all active basses are louder than passives. It's probably only true if you are someone who maxes out all of the eq knobs on an active preamp.
Click to expand...
Generally, though, it’s pretty accurate. I almost always find hotter output with active than passive, although there are certainly exceptions both ways. And that’s without maxing the boosts ;)
 
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#31
Jack Torrance said:
I recently purchased a used Mesa d800 and am having a hell of a time getting anything but distortion/overdrive out of it. I am pretty new to bass playing and it took me a while to get my active basses to sound good, but man after I figured it out the Mesa sounds AMAZING! Anyway I have an Epiphone thunderbird and it sounds horrible. I can’t seem to find a good setting. Has anyone ever come across this situation? This bass has stock pups, while my P and J basses have active EMG’s. My previous amp was a GK mb200 which is pretty straightforward. Oh I am playing through a GK cx210 400 watt cab. Any comments are appreciated!
Click to expand...
Do what ever this guy asked you to do, agedhorse , please.
He is the designer/engineer of that amplifier.

:)
 
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#33
Jack Torrance said:
I recently purchased a used Mesa d800 and am having a hell of a time getting anything but distortion/overdrive out of it. I am pretty new to bass playing and it took me a while to get my active basses to sound good, but man after I figured it out the Mesa sounds AMAZING! Anyway I have an Epiphone thunderbird and it sounds horrible. I can’t seem to find a good setting. Has anyone ever come across this situation? This bass has stock pups, while my P and J basses have active EMG’s. My previous amp was a GK mb200 which is pretty straightforward. Oh I am playing through a GK cx210 400 watt cab. Any comments are appreciated!
Click to expand...
Seriously, listen to agedhorse ,he designed that amp…don’t go lurking around other forums getting misinformation
 
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#34
I had this happen with a newer Gibson EB-4 that I owned. It sounded OK through my Markbass amp, but through my WD800 it was distorted. All my other basses sounded OK through the WD, and the EB was OK through the MB. No clipping or anything indicated. Even with the pad switch turned on. I never figured out what was going on. FWIW the EB pickups were VERY high output. The most I have ever seen on a passive bass. It just wasnt a good match for the Mesa amp. I wonder if the pickups of these basses are similar?
 
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#35
BobKos said:
I had this happen with a newer Gibson EB-4 that I owned. It sounded OK through my Markbass amp, but through my WD800 it was distorted. All my other basses sounded OK through the WD, and the EB was OK through the MB. No clipping or anything indicated. Even with the pad switch turned on. I never figured out what was going on. FWIW the EB pickups were VERY high output. The most I have ever seen on a passive bass. It just wasnt a good match for the Mesa amp. I wonder if the pickups of these basses are similar?
Click to expand...

If that was the case with your Gibson and other hot passive basses that have been mentioned, did you, or anyone else who mentioned hot passive basses, try changing the input from passive to active?
 
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#36
BobKos said:
I had this happen with a newer Gibson EB-4 that I owned. It sounded OK through my Markbass amp, but through my WD800 it was distorted. All my other basses sounded OK through the WD, and the EB was OK through the MB. No clipping or anything indicated. Even with the pad switch turned on. I never figured out what was going on. FWIW the EB pickups were VERY high output. The most I have ever seen on a passive bass. It just wasnt a good match for the Mesa amp. I wonder if the pickups of these basses are similar?
Click to expand...
Very unlikely, the D-800/800+ in active mode can handle the hottest basses I have ever seen.

The WD and TT have more gain and therefore it’s possible under extreme circumstances to overdrive the input stage of the WD and TT just like the amps that they emulate (Walkabout and Bass 400).

I don’t think this is the case for the OP.
 
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#37
Parzival said:
If that was the case with your Gibson and other hot passive basses that have been mentioned, did you, or anyone else who mentioned hot passive basses, try changing the input from passive to active?
Click to expand...

or low gain position for the TT?
 
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#38
agedhorse said:
Very unlikely, the D-800/800+ in active mode can handle the hottest basses I have ever seen.

The WD and TT have more gain and therefore it’s possible under extreme circumstances to overdrive the input stage of the WD and TT just like the amps that they emulate (Walkabout and Bass 400).

I don’t think this is the case for the OP.
Click to expand...
Yup!

I have two P basses now that I have to work the Active/Passive switch back and forth, depending on what I'm going for.

One has a Dimarzio DP 122, a high output pickup. It can overdrive the front end when I dig in on the Passive setting.

The other has a 62 CS P pick up. It was fine until I switched string to La Bella 1954 flats 110-52. Those suckers drive that pickup into overdrive. Think James Jamerson isolated bass tracks. It's that sound! :)

So depending on if I want that sound or not, is what determines if I go passive or active.

:)
 
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#39
Hello friends I have an update. I setup the Mesa d800 as instructed in the manual (see photo) which I did from the beginning. When I plug in the thunderbird it has a distorted farting sound from the E string. I switched to active and 2 ohm and it gets a little better but only with the tone on the guitar completely off. If the tone is completely on the yellow OD light begins to illuminate. The volume knobs have to be barely on or the distortion is unbearable. I tried a different thunderbird bass with passive Gibson pickups as opposed to Epiphone and it behaves the same. I even tried lowering the bass on the EQ and high and low mid but to no avail. Oh I also lowered the pickups themselves just in case. The amp was packed pretty good for shipping and doesn’t appear to ever have been dropped. Appears really clean as it was only used as a backup a few times. I’m starting to think maybe it did get damaged during shipping because all my guitars sound great on my GK rig. I will say the GK rig will get played less as my active basses sound phenomenal on the Mesa rig, next level!
 

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