• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Mesa M6 Carbine Mega Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
#341
Saluki said:
Well, I guess my DIBs doesn't mean anything now:D. Did some A/B testing at Vics the other night and this really is a nice head, with lots of headroom.
Click to expand...

Dibs is Dibs..unless you pick one up first. :cool:
What was you take on the a/b'ing session?

I'm pretty impressed with the M6 but I'd like to play a few more live shows in different rooms before singing the praises. This amp seems suitable for most if not all size gigs. My LMII isn't going anywhere either. The M6 is quite veristile. I like the global eq presets, but used the flat setting last night. Choosing any of the other settings really makes a noticeable change. #1 and #2 mid/scoop/cut to the left or the #4 and #5 mid/bump/boost to the right. Either direction the adjusted global setting results in more volume just by switching from #3 (flat).

My active bass works well in in passive or active mode. I wish there was a clip light though just to be safer. My passive bass sounds great in either mode too, but best in the passive.
 
#342
Well at Vics we tested the M6 against the BB750 and the aguilar DB659/QSC setup. More of a comparison really as the tonal goals of each are not intended to be similiar IMO. We tested them through the AE210, HS210, 2-AE210, or HS210/AE210. Vic had an A/B switch so the comparison could be made almost instantly. What I noticed about the m6 was punch and clarity. Maybe a bit too much on the clarity as I did hear some string noise with my playing as well that I didn't notice as much with the other combos. I think this mut be cured with a set of nickels instead of SS but not for sure.

My overall favorite in just tone alone was probably the DB659/QSC rig through the AE210/HS210 combo. But this was just a slight edge IMO to the M6 and you couple that with all the features of the M6 and that was the real winner for me. I really dig the BB750 for strictly a rock mix, because it is grittier, slower and not as clean, but the M6 through the berg AE210s is punch city. It would punch through any rock mix but with a cleaner, faster more articulate voicing. So still DIBs for me, but I hope you end up liking it.
 
#343
To add to Saluki's comments, the BB750 was definitely more of an old school rocker's dream... especially with that classic distortion channel. You want that grit and nasty growl, the BB is yer man. The M6 simply won't distort like that. You can get it to that "tube knee" where it'll have some extra growl and also some of those nice tube harmonic overtones, but still very clean compared to something like the BB750. It just doesn't do the dirty grit thing. However, that's good for me.

On the tone itself, like Saluki says, it was noticeably bigger and brighter sounding, and didn't have quite the same emphasis through the low mids... at least flat. However, and I demonstrated this for Saluki as well, by dialing up just a little of low mids on the bass, I got darn close to that same sound... in fact the biggest difference is the M6 still had more high end, so I would also have to drop the treble a bit to really cop that tone. I was also able to just tweak the M6 to get there, but what I thought was cool is, with the M6 set basically flat, it responded so well to a little bass EQ I could pretty much do anything I wanted right at the bass. Also, I could definitely tell there were more tubes used in the BB. It wasn't quite as "quick" as the M6.

So here's the way I wrap it up...

Except for the distortion thing, as I've posted before, I could get close to a BB750 tone from the M6, but not vice versa. The BB750 just doesn't have the dynamic range the M6 has. The BB750 does what it does probably as good as any amp in it's class, but tonally, the M6 wipes the floor with it (IMHO!) because it has so much of a wider palette, and at least subjectively, has at least as much headroom.

Disclaimer: Obviously, I put the M6 above the BB750, but that's also ONLY because of what I personally look for in an amp. I hate distortion... I'm really more of an SS person, but at the same time, I dig some of the things tubes do for tone. As I've also said before, it's like someone took what I consider to be the best in tubes and SS and built an amp with both. I'm absolutely positive there's plenty of great bassists out there that would be my polar opposite and be justified by their personal prefs. This is not a slam on the BB750... just not at all MY thing, whereas the M6 very much is.
 
#344
Cool posts, guys.

Did you two pair up any non-Berg cabs with the M6?


Vic said:
To add to Saluki's comments, the BB750 was definitely more of an old school rocker's dream... especially with that classic distortion channel. You want that grit and nasty growl, the BB is yer man. The M6 simply won't distort like that. You can get it to that "tube knee" where it'll have some extra growl and also some of those nice tube harmonic overtones, but still very clean compared to something like the BB750. It just doesn't do the dirty grit thing. However, that's good for me.

On the tone itself, like Saluki says, it was noticeably bigger and brighter sounding, and didn't have quite the same emphasis through the low mids... at least flat. However, and I demonstrated this for Saluki as well, by dialing up just a little of low mids on the bass, I got darn close to that same sound... in fact the biggest difference is the M6 still had more high end, so I would also have to drop the treble a bit to really cop that tone. I was also able to just tweak the M6 to get there, but what I thought was cool is, with the M6 set basically flat, it responded so well to a little bass EQ I could pretty much do anything I wanted right at the bass. Also, I could definitely tell there were more tubes used in the BB. It wasn't quite as "quick" as the M6.

So here's the way I wrap it up...

Except for the distortion thing, as I've posted before, I could get close to a BB750 tone from the M6, but not vice versa. The BB750 just doesn't have the dynamic range the M6 has. The BB750 does what it does probably as good as any amp in it's class, but tonally, the M6 wipes the floor with it (IMHO!) because it has so much of a wider palette, and at least subjectively, has at least as much headroom.

Disclaimer: Obviously, I put the M6 above the BB750, but that's also ONLY because of what I personally look for in an amp. I hate distortion... I'm really more of an SS person, but at the same time, I dig some of the things tubes do for tone. As I've also said before, it's like someone took what I consider to be the best in tubes and SS and built an amp with both. I'm absolutely positive there's plenty of great bassists out there that would be my polar opposite and be justified by their personal prefs. This is not a slam on the BB750... just not at all MY thing, whereas the M6 very much is.
Click to expand...
 
#346
The M6 has picked up a good head of steam on TB recently, sounds like a monster. But from the beginning there have been comments from some players about it being perhaps a bit bright or "revealing". Can it be tamed down in the highs without sacrificing clarity? And can it produce a fatness in the lows I've read the M-Pulse 600 is capable of?

Put another way, if you could add two or three more knobs to the Carbine, what would they be?
 
#347
koobie said:
The M6 has picked up a good head of steam on TB recently, sounds like a monster. But from the beginning there have been comments from some players about it being perhaps a bit bright or "revealing". Can it be tamed down in the highs without sacrificing clarity? And can it produce a fatness in the lows I've read the M-Pulse 600 is capable of?
Click to expand...
I can't comment specifically on the M-Pulse 600, not having spent any real time with one, but to answer generally, yes, you can tame those highs very easily with the treble control, or even on the bass guitar.

Same thing with the mids... on an active bass, just bump them, or play with the tone shaper and the mid knob. Using them together you can actually do more than you might think, and I haven't even experimented at all with combining profiles, which you can do from the back.

It's got plenty of lows without changing anything. In fact, I even cut some of the bass a couple times.

Put another way, if you could add two or three more knobs to the Carbine, what would they be?
Click to expand...
For max versatility for just about anybody, I'd probably add a couple typical semi-parametric controls, but at least for me personally, I'm not so sure it really needs anything.
 
#348
I personally really like the semi para eq used in the Walkabout/Eden WT/Thunderfunk stuff.
I can't say if I'd like the M6 better with this, yet, as I've not had time to meess with one.

Yet;)

I'll report back on that later!
 
#349
See, this is what happens when I have the day off, I end up spending a lot of money...Went to a music store in the North Suburbs and they had this plus a bunch of other Mesa gear (Played it through a 2x15...awesome btw). Then I realized that I wasn't in Cook County anymore and tax would be about 30 bucks less. How could I not do it? This still has the Fathom logo on it as well.

DSC00287.jpg
 
#351
quote smallequestrian:
See, this is what happens when I have the day off, I end up spending a lot of money...Went to a music store in the North Suburbs and they had this plus a bunch of other Mesa gear (Played it through a 2x15...awesome btw). Then I realized that I wasn't in Cook County anymore and tax would be about 30 bucks less. How could I not do it? This still has the Fathom logo on it as well.
Quote


swoon

:thud:
 
#353
Smallequestrian said:
See, this is what happens when I have the day off, I end up spending a lot of money...Went to a music store in the North Suburbs and they had this plus a bunch of other Mesa gear (Played it through a 2x15...awesome btw). Then I realized that I wasn't in Cook County anymore and tax would be about 30 bucks less. How could I not do it? This still has the Fathom logo on it as well.

DSC00287.jpg
Click to expand...

That is an awesome rig, there! :bassist: :cool:
 
#357
I'm officially ordering one of these beasts... what's killin me is, I've become rather addicted to the tone/headroom of this thing, so doing without it while I wait for mine to get here after returning the one I have now is gonna' be painful. While it's a lot heavier than the featherweights I'm used to carrying lately (MB stuff), I don't care. At least for now, this is my amp.

Mesa puts out a lot of absolutely top quality stuff, but until the M6 came along, they didn't have anything that fired on all cylinders for me personally. I still have my niggles with the push/pull controls instead of buttons or micro switches for DI post/pre and mute, but not enough to keep me from getting one, and while the EQ may not be as flexible as some other amps, I've found it's got enough going on natively, in enough different scenarios and venues, that for me, it just doesn't need more control anyway, so I can enjoy the simplicity (kind of a big deal to me... I HATE zillions of knobs and controls... just give me something that sounds the way I want BEFORE I look to the EQ.)

FYI/FWIW anyhoo...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back