Mesa Next-Gen Walkabout Scout

[Al Kraft]

Stick with quality, concentrate on the sound and gigable features and make the best product you can. I think that’s the key to Mesas next Walkabout.

FWIW I agree with these thoughts. The Mesa crowd has the WA Scout combo as their benchmark...does it seem likely that the same target audience would want anything less than USA made Mesa/SW series quality and performance?

 

[DJ Bebop]

FWIW I agree with these thoughts. The Mesa crowd has the WA Scout combo as their benchmark...does it seem likely that the same target audience would want anything less than USA made Mesa/SW series quality and performance?

How does the old WA Scout compair with the WD 800 and a SW 112 or 115, as far as sound, close?

And did all the Scouts have the extra passive radiator speaker on the bottom?

Use you Google DJ
Yes, I saw the 12 had the radiator, how about the 15?
Yes the 15s too!

 

[DJ Bebop]

could work, but it also might be a little bit of "competing with yourself" too that Mesa might not want to do. Don't really know. hmmmm

I get it.
"This offshore combo is just as good as a Mesa!"
Squires to Fenders wars And the Rumbles and Rockets are here. Why try to enter that market when that has never been your market to begin with.
Cadillac Cimarron anyone?

 

[agedhorse]

How does the old WA Scout compair with the WD 800 and a SW 112 or 115, close?

And did all the Scouts have the extra passive radiator speaker on the bottom?

The Subway amp/cabinets have a lot more performance with similar (though not identical) tone.

Most Scout cabinets have the passive radiator, though I have seen examples that were ported. I don’t know when they were built, how many or if they were a custom version for a particular market.

 

[MuthaFunk]

The Subway amp/cabinets have a lot more performance with similar (though not identical) tone.

Most Scout cabinets have the passive radiator, though I have seen examples that were ported. I don’t know when they were built, how many or if they were a custom version for a particular market.

FWIW being a Mesa Walkabout Scout fan, then owner and observer from the release until production end I can say they ALL had both ports and radiators. I never seen one without both.

They had different size radiators and ports depending on the cab and speaker size. Combos had smaller radiators to their extension cab equivalents presumably due to the internal space difference the WA amp took up from the cabs. The extension cabs were the same external dimensions to their combo brothers given a 12” or 15”.

 

[agedhorse]

Here's an example of a Scout without porting (that's the tweeter in the upper right)

I also recall seeing ported without the passive radiator, one of the biggest problems with the passive radiator is that when set on a carpeted stage the passive radiator was essentially ineffective and the cabinet tuning shifted a lot.

I do not have the production history available, but there may also have been a run or two of custom shop models that were different.

 

[MuthaFunk]

Interesting. Do you have a pic of the back? The porting was on the back of both the extensions and combos. Never saw porting on the front.

 

[MuthaFunk]

This was an early ad and here’s my last gen

 

[MuthaFunk]

Here’s the last gen matching extension 12” cab I bought with the combo.

 

[MuthaFunk]

 

[agedhorse]

Interesting. Do you have a pic of the back? The porting was on the back of both the extensions and combos. Never saw porting on the front.

No, but many were ported on the front.

Here's one with the port on the back, the tweeter is in the upper right routed down so it sits under the edge of the LF driver.

Here's one with the port on the other side, much larger diameter and not routed under the lip of the driver, the grille is routed around the port. The tweeter we used didn't change.

Like I said, there could be versions I am not aware of and there could also be custom shop versions that are different still.

 

[MuthaFunk]

^^^agreed. Those are tweeters on the front. Not ports^^^

 

[agedhorse]

^^^agreed. Those are tweeters on the front. Not ports^^^

It’s too big for the stock tweeter and the grille is cut differently. It looks like there’s a tweeter on the other side.

 

[MuthaFunk]

It’s too big for the stock tweeter and the grille is cut differently. It looks like there’s a tweeter on the other side.

Oh. I see what your saying.

My last gen tweeter is mounted just like like that. It’s mounted to the back of the baffle giving the appearance of a port.

I value your expertise and input on everything here on TB. I’m not here to argue about stuff like this but I think you may be incorrect with this one. See below, theres no tweeter on the right and what looks like a port on the top left. It has ports on the back though.

They did change the location of the tweeter from the original Gen from top right to the top left at some point with the 12” combos.

 

[agedhorse]

I don't recall ever seeing any of our tweeters mounted to the back of the baffle, in fact it would be darn near impossible to screw in, not something I have seen in any production units.

 

[MuthaFunk]

I don't recall ever seeing any of our tweeters mounted to the back of the baffle, in fact it would be darn near impossible to screw in, not something I have seen in any production units.

Just to clarify I took some pics of how the images online could look like ports on the front when they’re in fact the tweeters. See below:

Sorry for the side ways pics.

The tweeters were behind the wood grills and recessed into the baffle. This gives the appearance of ports when looked at from the front when the grill cloth is somewhat see through.

The hole left in the grill that is viewable front the front is smaller than the tweeter Mounting outline which seen below does interfere a bit with the woofer like the original position on the top right. Note the tweeter in mine is mounted in the top left of the cab. The pics are sideways.

 

[sunbeast]

I know my Walkabout Scout isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and it is much heavier and less efficient than the modern Mesa gear. I’m sure they could nail it if they tried. Even something like the Carbine/Fathom combo, which I believe had a luggage type handle/roller mechanism and no doubt was able to carry most gigs these days with ease.

 

[agedhorse]

Interesting and good to know. That's a very early cabinet as that driver was discontinued long before I arrived.

Like I said, there may be versions that are different, that's the nature of a company that also runs a semi-custom shop. I can not possibly be familiar with all of the different versions a product might go through over a ~15 year life cycle. It's possible that I'm thinking of a version of the M-Pulse 360 or even an M3 combo, but i really don't know.