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Mesa Subway D-350!

#1,782
Revisiting this thread, and I think this just might be the right amp for me, next. Do I really need 800 W? I’ve only ever owned one amp in that class, the SWR Power 750, and I never came anywhere close to needing its full power into two cabs. In fact, it probably would have fried my two cabs if I’d tried it. Other than that, my current Walkabout is 300 W into 4 ohms, and although it’s more limited by my desire not to blow the Scout combo cab’s OG driver, it seems to be inadequate at very high volumes when used as a combo, but then again, it’s doubtful I’ll ever again need to play at very high volumes. I’m more concerned about size and weight, now, as I’m now 15 years older than when I got my Walkabout Scout, and car-free.

Well, for the time being, I’m still not back to gigging post-pandemic, so the Walkabout is still fine, but I feel more at ease knowing what my next step is going to be.

Pre-pandemic, when I still had a pickup truck, I used the Walkabout head into my Trace Elliot 1248 cab as backline for a few local rock festivals where I was running sound and lights, and even though the 1248 is 8 ohms, the Walkabout never struggled to be loud enough for the bands on stage.
 
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#1,784
My fine
ImTheOnlyOne said:
One neighbor's landscape team several houses away uses a pair of massive leaf blowers just slightly out of tune with each other, if you follow. The two together produce throbbing oscillations that resonate throughout my home.

I prefer my D-350 active switch engaged and feed it a boosted signal if using pedals. It somehow eliminates the top end hiss from a couple of digital pedals while retaining similar tone and volume.

It's also excellent just bass straight into the input.
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My fine neighbor has one of the trigger activated blowers. OMG!! WAA, WAAA, WAAAAAAA.... Can't stand it!! Can't stand him!!!
Yes, I go straight into my Mesa, no pedals.
Great organic tone.
 
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#1,785
DJ Bebop said:
:(

Well maybe @HelpImaRock will report back

:)
Click to expand...

Last night was a lot of fun.

The Starfire made it's debut. It's a beast. I need to dial it in a little better, along with my Ultrawave. But that'll come.

From an amp perspective, it's rock solid. I've played a few gigs with it now. Soundguy takes the DI out and we're done. So my volume is only for the stage. We're a loud rock trio and it competes well. I ran the gain around 11 o'clock and master at noon. I cut bass and low mids, boost high mids and leave the treble at noon with the bright switch on. Cab is a GK Neo 115 III. If I needed more volume (I don't see why I would), I would get a second cabinet. But that would be overkill for the small stages we play on.

Overall, it's a huge, aggressive sound that lands with the Allen Woody vibe I'm going for. Couldn't be happier.
 
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#1,786
HelpImaRock said:
Last night was a lot of fun.

The Starfire made it's debut. It's a beast. I need to dial it in a little better, along with my Ultrawave. But that'll come.

From an amp perspective, it's rock solid. I've played a few gigs with it now. Soundguy takes the DI out and we're done. So my volume is only for the stage. We're a loud rock trio and it competes well. I ran the gain around 11 o'clock and master at noon. I cut bass and low mids, boost high mids and leave the treble at noon with the bright switch on. Cab is a GK Neo 115 III. If I needed more volume (I don't see why I would), I would get a second cabinet. But that would be overkill for the small stages we play on.

Overall, it's a huge, aggressive sound that lands with the Allen Woody vibe I'm going for. Couldn't be happier.
Click to expand...
Speaking of Allen, I was just listening to this…



:)
 
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#1,788
HelpImaRock said:
Last night was a lot of fun.

The Starfire made it's debut. It's a beast. I need to dial it in a little better, along with my Ultrawave. But that'll come.

From an amp perspective, it's rock solid. I've played a few gigs with it now. Soundguy takes the DI out and we're done. So my volume is only for the stage. We're a loud rock trio and it competes well. I ran the gain around 11 o'clock and master at noon. I cut bass and low mids, boost high mids and leave the treble at noon with the bright switch on. Cab is a GK Neo 115 III. If I needed more volume (I don't see why I would), I would get a second cabinet. But that would be overkill for the small stages we play on.

Overall, it's a huge, aggressive sound that lands with the Allen Woody vibe I'm going for. Couldn't be happier.
Click to expand...
Keep us posted. I have a Guild Starfire II but it's been relegated to my office. But I honestly have too many basses and definitely didn't give it the chance it deserved with my D350 or my D800+
 
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#1,789
HelpImaRock said:
Those first 3 records are huge for me. I don't play as dirty as Allen, but his up front approach in the mix and overall presence are what I want to achieve.
Click to expand...
You know the story of the Roseland concert. That the bass feed didn't work for the recording so that bass track comes from his vocal mic. Some say it sounds horrible. I think it sounds great! Kinda natural to me.

:)
 
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#1,790
lermgalieu said:
Keep us posted. I have a Guild Starfire II but it's been relegated to my office. But I honestly have too many basses and definitely didn't give it the chance it deserved with my D350 or my D800+
Click to expand...

It's really just a matter of getting comfortable with the master volume and volume and tone for each pickup. I'm also not used to the pickup selector location. As for the pedal, I had too much gain going on one preset and another needs more bottom end. Tiny tweaks nobody but me will ever notice.
 
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#1,791
DJ Bebop said:
You know the story of the Roseland concert. That the bass feed didn't work for the recording so that bass track comes from his vocal mic. Some say it sounds horrible. I think it sounds great! Kinda natural to me.

:)
Click to expand...

Better than the bass being non-existent, like half the board tapes I've gotten from shows of other bands over the years. We had a #PeopleForALouderDan campaign for the God Street Wine reunions. He's so great but gets buried by the guitars.
 
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#1,794
HelpImaRock said:
Gov't Mule - "Trane" from Live at Roseland
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Excellent album by the Mule. I was privileged to see them live at the Grand Opera House during GABBAfest '97 in Macon, Georgia. Unforgettable night, that was.

And while I'm at it, long live the music of the Allman Brothers Band. If Berry Oakley was still with us, he might just be playing Mesa Engineering amps!
 
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#1,798
HelpImaRock said:
No, we have a short video of last night!

https://youtube.com/shorts/Q7v7kx9W9ms?si=s6ZhBXIXUtza-RaT
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Sweet!

IMG_4210.gif


I like it!

:)
 
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#1,799
If you were going to overdrive the D-350, how would you do it? That clip of Gov't Mule's "Trane" posted above really encapsulates the sound I'm going for. I can do it with a pedal but I want to try dialing it in with the amp. Turning up the gain tends to hit the clip light just as much as the gain. I may also need to use the active pickup setting with these hot passives I have.
 
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