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Need help comparing Mesa Big Block 750 and TT800

madasahatter

madasahatter

May 28, 2013
220
514
#1
I’ve been contemplating between getting a Darkglass Microtubes or Alpha-Omega 900 and a Mesa Boogie TT800. After listening to the clips I could find and giving it more thought I'm now leaning toward the Mesa. While the Darkglass still sounds good to me I think I was more enamored with the distortion over the actual tone. It seemed like the Mesa responded better and was more dynamic than what the Darkglass could do.

I decided to have a look at some of Mesa's older offerings and came across the Big Block 750. There aren't many clips I could find but I liked what I did find. I liked the warmth and dynamics of the tubes and it had just as much distortion available as the Darkglass. Seemed like a good mix of the boogie channel of the TT800 and the distortion of the Microtube. I'm also used to guitar tube amps so this felt like it may be familiar territory.

With my style of playing, I pretty much find my settings and lock it down; only making minor adjustments to compensate for room acoustics. So, versatility is not a large concern for me. I like some but it isn’t a priority. The boogie channel of the TT800 and the Big Block appear to be the classic tone I’m after; SVT vibe but different. The Big Block has the added bonus of the distortion channel.

To my Questions:
1. What is the current opinion of the Big Block 750?
2. How does the Big Block compare to the TT800 tone wise? (mostly the Boogie channel)
3. Does the Big Block have enough headroom to get a good clean sound whne needed?
4. Big Block using its distortion or TT800 with a distortion pedal (like a Darkglass Microtube) what would be your preferred option?
 
#2
1. Hard to say, but in general I think those who really liked the sound of the heads put up with some of their quirks and problems. I would be concerned about parts availability these days. IME they were not as reliable as the WA heads have been from that same time period.
2. I think (and it's been years since I played a BB) the TT can give you some of that character, but the TT has more power on tap. IIRC the OD on the BB was bit more aggressive.
3. If you have enough speakers/cabs and they are efficient, it's probably fine for most indoor venues. Outdoors I think many folks felt the BB 750 was a touch short on clean headroom. Once again IIRC the BB always has a bit of pushed tube preamp kind of tone when you're driving it hard. It's not all out distortion/overdrive, but it's hard to keep it solid state clean (like a Carbine) at high volume IME.
4. I would go for the TT and an effect pedal...hands down. The TT can do clean (with some tube character) at high volume, has a 5 year warranty, comes from a lineage of outstanding reliability (previous SW series heads), and gives you two preamps and lots of voicing options to work with.

There will be lots of other opinions and many from people with a much better memory of and more experience with the BB 750 than me...this is at best one data point, but answer 4 would still be my answer for the reasons given.
 
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#4
I don't own a BB750 but I have demoed one and I own it's big brother the Titan 1200. The Titan uses the same preamp, except it has two switching channels. The Titan also has quite a bit more power. The Titan is the tubiest hybrid I have ever played. The BB750 is supposed to be even tubier. People attribute this to the smaller output section.

Both of these amps had some reliability issues. I suggest calling Mesa with the BB750s serial number to see if it needs an update. If it does they should be able to give you an estimate, and the cost can be pretty expensive.

I read about the BB750 quite a bit and a lot of people did complain that it was short on power. The impression I got is this varies somewhat with the impedance you run the amp at. Here are the power specs: 750 Watts @ 2 Ohms (550 @ 4, 280 @ 8). If you plan to run the amp at 8 ohms its going to be a bit wimpy, but if you run 4 or 2 ohms with a relatively large speaker system, you will probably be okay.

The Subway amps are rated 800W at 2 or 4 ohms. 400W at 8 ohms.

Unless you are getting a really great deal on a BB750 that has all of the factory updates, I would probably be more tempted by a brand new amp with a warranty.
 
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#5
I've owned the Big Block 750 , the TT-800, and a Darkglass Microtubes 500 V1. The BB750 I had for over 10 years and I absolutely loved it. It has such a great tone and really easy to dial in a good sound. I never used the overdrive on it much so I can't tell you if I prefer that to the DG stuff. I got it super clean by running the master volume full all the time and adjusted the gain. I found the TT-800 to sort of capture the BB but not completely, and it was just too much tweaking for my liking so I sold it after a few months. The Darkglass stuff is sort of different from both. It has good clean but it really focuses on that distortion engine side, which again I don't use all that much.

Let me know if you have any more questions. I put the BB750 through a lot of scenarios, cab configs, and had i on the road for many years.
 
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#6
Something I like to do with my Titan is engage the Drive circuit and dial it down just below breakup. This gives the amp even more of a tubey quality.

AFAIK the Drive circuit is based largely on the Mesa Bottle Rocket.

I would not really expect the TT800 to sound exactly like the BB750. The Boogie channel is based on the Bass 400/400+ and my understanding is these amps are naturally voiced to have relatively bright, aggressive highs. The BB750 and Titan are tubey, but I believe they are a bit darker by nature than the Bass 400/400+ .

For the record I own a D180, M9, and Titan. The D180 is the progenitor of the 400 and I would say it sort of sits midway between the M9 and Titan. From what I have read, the low end became progressively fuller and heaver with each step of evolution from the D180 to the 400+.
 
#7
Thank you all for the advice thus far. I came across a listing for a Titan and am thinking of getting that. I like the idea of the 2 separate channels with their own EQ. Use one for clean and one for distortion & set the EQ accordingly for each. I'm still a tad apprehensive of the failures I've heard about, but I figure if it's lasted this long it should be okay. I also got the serial number and it looks like it was in the latter half of the production run. I gave Mesa a call & while the service tech wasn't able to give me an exact date of production to know if it had the newer components that fixed the failure issue, he did say they had no records of factory repairs. He also gave me the run down of the problems, what the fix was, and what to look for on the power transformer.

Between the BB750 and the Titan... from what is mentioned here and what I've read elsewhere my understanding is they do sound different; the 750 being more tube sounding and more growly/aggressive from lack of headroom and pushing the tubes harder. Is this only a slight difference or is a bigger noticeable difference where the overall tone is different between the two?
 
#8
madasahatter said:
Thank you all for the advice thus far. I came across a listing for a Titan and am thinking of getting that. I like the idea of the 2 separate channels with their own EQ. Use one for clean and one for distortion & set the EQ accordingly for each. I'm still a tad apprehensive of the failures I've heard about, but I figure if it's lasted this long it should be okay. I also got the serial number and it looks like it was in the latter half of the production run. I gave Mesa a call & while the service tech wasn't able to give me an exact date of production to know if it had the newer components that fixed the failure issue, he did say they had no records of factory repairs. He also gave me the run down of the problems, what the fix was, and what to look for on the power transformer.

Between the BB750 and the Titan... from what is mentioned here and what I've read elsewhere my understanding is they do sound different; the 750 being more tube sounding and more growly/aggressive from lack of headroom and pushing the tubes harder. Is this only a slight difference or is a bigger noticeable difference where the overall tone is different between the two?
Click to expand...


I only played the BB750 in a showroom. From what I remember the tone was very similar to the way my Titan sounds after the factory updates were done. The updates cleared up and focused the tone a bit.

I demoed and bought an M9 on the same day that I tried the BB750. I actually thought the BB750 sounded better, but I liked the features better on the M9, and thought I would be able to dial in the sound I wanted with a bit of practice. The M9 is a great amp, but I find it hard to dial in. Always seems to be almost there.

AFAIK the preamp architecture of the BB750 and Titan are exactly the same. The Titan just has a second set of controls. When you switch channels, the same set of tubes are used and the amp switches different controls into the circuit. So it's not a true two channel amp. It's a channel switcher. V1 and V2 are just for the OD circuit. They are out of the circuit when the OD is not selected. Also the OD circuit has a bit of it's own baked in EQ. It's a bit darker, leaner on the lows, and more mid heavy.

My expectation is the difference is in the feel and power capabilities of the output section. The Titan has massive; practically bone-crushing amounts of power on tap. It sounds and feels sort of tubey, but has massive punch, even out very high volume levels. From what I understand the BB750 gets squishy when pushed hard, which may or may not be your cup of tea...but it's not a tube thing. Honestly I would complain if someone donated a BB750 to my collection, but I am a sucker for big power even if I never really use it.

If you get a Titan you will probably want the massive foot switch that goes with it. What's the point in a channel switcher without the footswitch?
 
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#14
Good choice on the Titan! I've recently fallen back in love with my BB 750 for aggressive rock picking. I set the clean channel with the gain around 2 o'clock. Funny enough I use a Darkglass B7K ultra with the drive about noon and a 75% dirty/dry mix into the Mesa. I never had a volume issue and gigged it regularly for 4 years.
 
#15
I had a BB 750 w/a Powerhouse 410 and 115 cab. The frequency range was crazy between these cab configurations. It never disappointed me with the tone and could dial it in from a really warm tube sound to a bright clean tone, but the mixed ability to dial in a combination of warm tube low & a overdrive growl with a bright high was what I appreciated about it the most. Saying that I sold my rig and bought a TT800 due to size/weight preferences and am hoping to get some of the same tone qualities out of it that the BB750 had. I'm considering a subway ultra-lite 212 cab from the reviews I've read. The BB had a very good range of tones and a aggressive capability. Anyone have experience w/the subway 212 w/the tt800?
 
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