Mesa TT-800 or WD-800?

You might download both owner's manuals and explore how one might be better than the other for your needs.

 

Mesa owes you a T-shirt for being such a brand loyalist. Enjoy it all, and let us know how you perceive the differences.

 

I think if you ask a bunch of people you will get a bunch of different answers. Besides Subway, have you ever played their Legacy amps? Walkabout, D800+, Carbine, Titan, etc and how do you like your EQ? I am a mid heavy kind of guy, I gravitate toward the Walkabout and Carbine and the only Subway (class D amp from anyone actually) model that does the thing for me is the WD800. Differences are WD800 is a modern extension of the Walkabout with some Carbine flavor, the TT800 has a 400 channel essentially and D channel. Never sat down with a TT, but the D800 and + didn't get my juices flowing like the WD800 does. Of the group and for me personally if I were to go Class D amp, the only model from any manufacturer that I have tried and enjoyed is the WD800 but again it really goes back to what you like for your EQ and taste. Whether it be Mesa or Ampeg, I personally avoid hi low switches, I prefer to get it out of my parametric EQ or somewhere else. Amp dampening is really a slick feature, like AH said its best to read the manual on it and I am not tech or wordsmith but on low it is looser and high is tighter, it's a control you have to experience. I think you will enjoy them all, they all do something different and people like them all.

 

I use the D800+ with a SW115 and SW210. I went thru a trial period and tried all of the Mesa SW amps as I wanted to make sure I had the best sound I could. After it was all said and done I kept the 800+ and sold the other 3. For me it gives me the most complete sound and is easy for me to dial in multiple basses. They are all good I just favor the 800+. I use some other amps for rehearsal and practice but my gig amp is my Mesa setup.

 

I like the WD800. The pre-tube gives a nice little bit of rasp past noon. The HPF and damping options can tame the boom in most rooms. Great frequency shaping, quiet fan, light weight , tons of power, usb port option, etc etc.. lots on offer in this head .

 

Both?!?

 

So it’s a few days past Tuesday, what are your thoughts on the WD?

 

Nice. Gotta say, I love the WD and 410.

 

Hey guys, I just recently got a TT-800 and am loving it! Both circuits are equally amazing. A bit of a newbie here and new to playing bass but I love it so much I decided to go with the brand recommendation of Mesa. Also I apologize if this is a dumb thing to ask about because I am fairly new to this equipment. Here we go.

I was preparing my setup with a Boss Waza Craft DM-2w. The amp was muted. However, the pedal was on, I didn’t realize it was set at pretty high intensity, and apparently it began to oscillate to the point where I could hear it faintly. When I started to hear something, I realized what it was and then quickly shut it off. To be clear, I began hearing this though the amp was muted. My main concern is that I did some damage to my amplifier or amplifier tubes. Im not thinking it hurt the speaker because barely a signal was audible through the subway 115 speaker. Thanks for any help.*To add, the gain switch as well as other switches were on low.

 

OP-your Mesa boogie petting zoo could clearly use one or two of those delightful sw15 cabs…….. Just stirring the pot…

 

I consider the TT-800 to be "next level" great!

I do not think that there is a more well thought out, feature provided, power packed and flexible Bass amplifier in production here or on any other planet...!

When I am able to obtain a footswitch, the second channel with EFX Loop insert point allowing another preamp into the power section with the distortion/EFX/Clean punch exponentially adds to the Boogie Tubie channel voicing with some conditioning/boost before hitting the 12AT7's in the front end on that channel.

To be able to set tones independently and mix on a separate device and just hit the footswitch and you have another dimension is very nice.

Boogie Tubie

Boogie Tubie + A bit of grit + Boost

Clean punch

Heavy Distortion

EFX (with or without Distortion)

The two channels and footswitch provides a huge degree of tone context variation with an economy of effort.

 

The mute function mutes the signal coming in by around 80dB. This is "almost" zero, but because of practical reasons, when you shove a signal that's oscillating rail to rail, that's about 3.5 volts RMS which will potentially clip the input amp (depending on the position of the active/passive switch and gain control) and inject a little of the resulting noise into the surrounding circuitry. This is entirely normal, and the amp is protected against such misadventures. It's not going to hurt the speaker either. It's a good thing you didn't unmute the amp while this was happening, because this is exactly the type of "accident" that can happen that I refer to often when it comes to matching speaker power to amplifier power (in spite of those who insist that it never happens).

Also, 80dB(voltage) down is 40dB(power) down and represents ~80mW, which into an efficient speaker like the Subway 115 is going to be audible for sure.

 

Sir, you are a genius. I am grateful for the help and I yield any further anxiety towards the matter. FTR. I also own a Mark V/35 powering a standard recto 412. Both of these instruments are borderline actual magic sir. Back to the Boogie(s)

 

I'm interested in purchasing a Mesa WD-800 in the near future. I have the Ampeg PF-500 head, but I was wanting something louder. I have 2 Ampeg Portaflex cabs... 2x10HE and 1x15HE. Would those cabs be adequate enough for the WD-800 or not?

 

Yes, but with those cabinets you might be safer operating the amp in 2 ohm mode, which reduces the rated power into your 4 ohm load to ~600 Watts.

 

My journey went
Subway DI --> D-800 --> D-800+ --> WD-800 --> Mesa free zone...

I found it really easy to dial 'me' in with the D-800+ but really wanted to see what the WD-800 brought to the party. For me it was a party killer... I tried like heck to love it over several gigs in different rooms. Just couldn't make it work for me. Other folks I respect love the thing. Noted. It isn't you, it's me ;-)

In retrospect I should have stayed with the D-800+. For me it was a better fit. Now I'm looking for a Subway DI+

I've just started going HX Stomp(XL) to the board and taking and aux back to a QSC PLX II. So the DI + might be just the ticket in this new environment.