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Mesa Walkabout Megathread!

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#942
Anyone willing to give a fair comparison of the walkabout head vs the Gallien Krueger 1001RBII?

The RBII is my current weapon of choice but I'm thinking about maybe purchasing a walkabout head and pairing it with an aguilar gs112 (my current cabs).

Being able to purchase the walkabout and compare the two side by side would be ideal, but unfortunately the 1001rbII would be funding the purchase.

*sorry if any of this has already been covered in this thread. I have not been able to read it all just yet.

Thanks so much for any responses!
:bassist:
 
#943
Bassman62 said:
To be quite honest I must say that I found the head rather lacking with no outstanding features for the price asked, paying fo the nameplate certainly comes to mind when you consider that I've recently purchased an Ashdown Little Giant 1000 for just over £300 GBP/$450 USD
Click to expand...

62Bass was quite a bit more polite in his reply to you.

If you don't like a certain piece of gear, you are welcome, entitled even, to your opinion.
 
#944
Bassman62 said:
To be quite honest I must say that I found the head rather lacking with no outstanding features for the price asked, paying fo the nameplate certainly comes to mind when you consider that I've recently purchased an Ashdown Little Giant 1000 for just over £300 GBP/$450 USD
Click to expand...

Thankfully, I got mine used. It doesn't have a lot of outstanding features... just one. Tone :)
 
#945
SAP said:
Anyone willing to give a fair comparison of the walkabout head vs the Gallien Krueger 1001RBII?

The RBII is my current weapon of choice but I'm thinking about maybe purchasing a walkabout head and pairing it with an aguilar gs112 (my current cabs).

Being able to purchase the walkabout and compare the two side by side would be ideal, but unfortunately the 1001rbII would be funding the purchase.

*sorry if any of this has already been covered in this thread. I have not been able to read it all just yet.

Thanks so much for any responses!
:bassist:
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm so close selling my GK 700 RBII for a Walkabout
 
#946
I had a GK MB2 500 for a while. It was supposed to replace the walkabout, more power, light weight, yada, yada. It sounded great, no complaints. I played quite a few gigs with the GK before I plugged the walkabout back in. But WOW, what a difference. The GK was gone in a week.

It is hard to say why other than the walkabout just sounds more musical to me.

Just my opinion.
 
#947
62bass said:
I'm glad you like your Ashdown, Bassman. It sounds like a good amp.

Your views about Mesa and the prices you have to pay in the U.K. are well known. If I were you, I wouldn't pay that price either. Luckily for us, here in North America the prices are much more reasonable. It sounds like you did the right thing by not getting a Mesa when you first wanted one.

Some U.K. and European gear gets ridiculously expensive when imported to North America too. That's why it doesn't sell very well here. That doesn't mean it's not good quality stuff. It's just overpriced here.

Enjoy your Ashdown while we, who like our Mesas, enjoy them.
Click to expand...
Than you for the polite reply; what I will add is that I think that the cab configuration is behind much of the success of the Walkabout combo.
I think that other manufacturers should be going down that route especialy with the increasing popularity of Neo speakers amongst manufacturers.
The 12" walkabout belies it's size regarding performance but as I said previously I couldn't justify buying one.

Many thanks JS
 
#950
barteroo2002 said:
I'm glad me and Bassman62 are on the same wavelength. The Cab is very intriguing. The Head is, well its a Tube preamp 300W head. And thats that. The Cab is what draws me to the combo. The head does not.
No offence to anyone!?
Click to expand...

None taken.

BUT I'm fairly sure there's more to it than a normal hybrid amp. It certainly sounds like it. Something to do with another stage in the signal path...?
 
#953
barteroo2002 said:
I'm glad me and Bassman62 are on the same wavelength. The Cab is very intriguing. The Head is, well its a Tube preamp 300W head. And thats that. The Cab is what draws me to the combo. The head does not.
No offence to anyone!?
Click to expand...

No offense taken. But, respectfully, I don't agree that the Walkabout amp section is a generic hybrid at all.

I am not an engineer/EE or amp designer, but I think the thing that differentiates the Walkabout hybrid design from, say the Genz Shuttle 6.0 or the Markbass hybrids, is in the way Mesa has the preamp tubes driving the 6 mosfets, gives it way more "tube character" than these other "tube in the preamp" designs.

I have had the opportunity to use some of the competing designs and they simply do not have anywhere near the tube tone of the Walkabout head. In fact, I also used to have a Mesa Buster 200, all tube amp, and ironically, it did not sound as "tubey" to my ears as the Walkabout.

I have also used my Walkabout on other cabs, and while it sounds great driving any number of other cab configurations, the combination of the Walkabout head with the passive radiator design of the Scout cab just seems to go together in a very unique and positive way.

Just my 2 (but pretty experienced) cents on this subject.
 
#954
pfschim said:
No offense taken. But, respectfully, I don't agree that the Walkabout amp section is a generic hybrid at all.

I am not an engineer/EE or amp designer, but I think the thing that differentiates the Walkabout hybrid design from, say the Genz Shuttle 6.0 or the Markbass hybrids, is in the way Mesa has the preamp tubes driving the 6 mosfets, gives it way more "tube character" than these other "tube in the preamp" designs.

I have had the opportunity to use some of the competing designs and they simply do not have anywhere near the tube tone of the Walkabout head. In fact, I also used to have a Mesa Buster 200, all tube amp, and ironically, it did not sound as "tubey" to my ears as the Walkabout.

I have also used my Walkabout on other cabs, and while it sounds great driving any number of other cab configurations, the combination of the Walkabout head with the passive radiator design of the Scout cab just seems to go together in a very unique and positive way.

Just my 2 (but pretty experienced) cents on this subject.
Click to expand...

+1 Could not have said it better.
 
#955
Concur.
The Walkabout with the input low, and master high, is every bit and clean as say an SWR or Eden hybrid, but has more native girth.
reverse taht, and run input high and master low, and the Walkabout gets as tubey as anything out there, including the Mesa 400(+) and svt's Ive tried...from fat harmonic saturation, to very nice overdrive.
Most "hybrid" heads won't do that last part; they just clip and get ugly.
 
#956
I agree completely. Why carry a 50 lb. + tube head when you can get something as tubey and probably with more power using the Walkabout? And you don't have just one volume level it breaks up perfectly at. You can get that at any volume. And yet it'll play a clean as any other "hi-fi" amp out there if you want it to.

No, it's nothing at all like the one tube hybrids out there.
 
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