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New Mesa/Boogie Fathom Amp

#161
funkytoe said:
I was not knocked out by the Fathom. Call it what you will. It's just not that much of a departure from the really good solid state amps that have been around for the last 10 years.
Click to expand...

+1 on that comment ... I really wanted to like this amp and walked away thinking it sounded just like plain old SS GK or SWR head to me. Of course, I'm pretty much a tube tone bigot. Oh well, lots of other good stuff to check out.

Amp names don't mean much to me personally, but where Fathom sounded a little odd to me, M6 Carbine sounds plain silly. :rollno:

.. and this from a pretty dedicated Mesa fan at that!
 
#162
pfschim said:
+1 on that comment ... I really wanted to like this amp and walked away thinking it sounded just like plain old SS GK or SWR head to me. Of course, I'm pretty much a tube tone bigot. Oh well, lots of other good stuff to check out.

Amp names don't mean much to me personally, but where Fathom sounded a little odd to me, M6 Carbine sounds plain silly. :rollno:

.. and this from a pretty dedicated Mesa fan at that!
Click to expand...

I agree, that I don't like the new name. Oh well, its the sound that counts, right!

I also agree that it does not sound like a tube driven amp, but I respectfully disagree that it is sounds like a plain old GK or SWR. Over the past 24 years, I have been fortunate enough to play through many amplifiers, including the above. I have never been as excited as this amp has made me. I have had it for a month now, and the tone consistency between different rooms and band situations has been impressive. We all know what a bad sounding room can do to us bass players, The Fathom has done a great job for me in keeping things warm and articulate.

We have heard it before when you get compliments on a "new amp" from other band members. Personally, I do not think other musicians care, but I have had other players start a conversation and compliment me about this amp.

I am sure the Venture is a wonderful amplifier. It is great to have so many choices.

On another note, I did get my custom Tuki cover. It fits like a glove and does a great job protecting the amp. I will post a pic in the near future if anyone is interested.
 
#163
WinterBass said:
I agree, that I don't like the new name. Oh well, its the sound that counts, right!

I also agree that it does not sound like a tube driven amp, but I respectfully disagree that it is sounds like a plain old GK or SWR. Over the past 24 years, I have been fortunate enough to play through many amplifiers, including the above. I have never been as excited as this amp has made me. I have had it for a month now, and the tone consistency between different rooms and band situations has been impressive. We all know what a bad sounding room can do to us bass players, The Fathom has done a great job for me in keeping things warm and articulate.

We have heard it before when you get compliments on a "new amp" from other band members. Personally, I do not think other musicians care, but I have had other players start a conversation and compliment me about this amp.

I am sure the Venture is a wonderful amplifier. It is great to have so many choices.

On another note, I did get my custom Tuki cover. It fits like a glove and does a great job protecting the amp. I will post a pic in the near future if anyone is interested.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the respectful part of your statement. I have always (well almost always ;)) tried to do the same on TB. You know.... life's to short and all that

My comments on the Fathom reflect a personal bias towards the more tube-y sounding MPulse series amps (Walkabout, 360 and 600). When I read that the Fathom/M6 Carbine also had a tube driven pre, I expected it to lean more towards the exceptional MPulse style tone. It clearly does not, and in conversation with the Mesa artist rep folks I know, they backed that view up, saying that the whole design intent was to have a more SS sound vs the multiple tube driven stages of the MPulse series.

again, its just a personal tone bias on my part, and we bassplayers a blessed these days (I have been playing for over 35 years, geez!, on all kinds of gear) with a huge range of very well designed amps and cabs to choose from.
 
#166
Okay, nine days since the post from "Insider Information" went up and there is nothing on the Mesa Website yet.

Thomann is listing it in their online catalog as the "M6 Carbine" but the photos still show the "Fathom" faceplate although all M6 Carbine's are listed as out of stock.

Maybe this one should be called the "Fantom 08" :rolleyes:

Maybe the attorney's are still Googling "M6 Carbine", I was midly surprised what turned up in the first two pages that came up when I did.

Cheers,

Mr. BEAR
 
#167
Okay they still don't have anything on the revised Fathom, and I am now at the two month wait point for my custom vinyl order, but.....

The Titan V12 is shown with a complete Blackface look, and sports the Vintage Knobs ala' the Fathom/Carbine look.
The Big Block 750 is also shown with the Vintage knobs.

Top photo of their individual spec pages only, the rest of the photos are of the old look.

Cheers,

Mr. BEAR
 
#172
I have only had first hand experience with the Mesa guitar amps. I've never heard a Mesa bass amp in person. I have to say of all the amp makers Mesa does the best advertising and website work. I look at their advertisements and I just want the stuff. Even the semi offensive M6 Carbine name becomes acceptable to me when I look at the pics and read the ad. Hats off to Mesa Marketing.
 
#176
I wonder if Mesa's lawyers ran this by the folks at BMW?

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#178
+ 1 for an excellent amp. Mesa has done it again. I am the proud owner of Fathom #181 and I must say that I love this amp. When I ordered my 2x12 RR cab 2 months ago, my local music store just got it in, and I couldn't wait to try it out. My cab came in, I plugged into it and that was it. I had to have it. I own a D-180, 400 and M-Basis 2000, and by far the Fathom was the easiest to dial in whatever tone I need. For myself, I think the simple control layout is perfect for what I here in my head, tone wise right now.
 
#179
I played one and the salesman agreed with me that it sounds sterile compared to the M-Pulse Venture. We did a side by side test. The Venture is still a better amp.

We really couldn't get a bad sound out of the Venture 2x12 Combo but really had to dial in the Fathom 2x12 to get a really good tone. Even then it was very sterile.

We then compared the Venture and the Fathom to a Walkabout 15 with a 15 extension and it was heaven.

1.Walkabout
2. Venture
3. Fathom
 
#180
fenderhutz said:
I played one and the salesman agreed with me that it sounds sterile compared to the M-Pulse Venture. We did a side by side test. The Venture is still a better amp.

We really couldn't get a bad sound out of the Venture 2x12 Combo but really had to dial in the Fathom 2x12 to get a really good tone. Even then it was very sterile.

We then compared the Venture and the Fathom to a Walkabout 15 with a 15 extension and it was heaven.

1.Walkabout
2. Venture
3. Fathom
Click to expand...

while I don't think Mesa was actually going for "sterile" with the Fathom, when I spoke to one of the Mesa artist relations guys that I know, he did say that the design goal of the Fathom (now M6 ??) was a more SS tone than the very tube-ey MPulse series amps.

But, I agree with you in this completely. I auditioned both the Fathom 2x12 and a Fathom head driving a PH4x10 and PH1200, against a Venture 2x10 (older model), Venture 2x12 (latest version, now also discontinued :() and my Walkabout 12 stand-a lone, and with the Scout 15 extension. To my ears anyway, there is just no comparison. The various MPulse combinations just had a bigger warmer sound, with much better tone shaping options. This of course is all IMO. The Fathom did get loud, particularly driving the PH1200 (!!:bassist:!!), but, mo matter how I tweaked the tone knobs, it remained a much more "generic" SS tone that I just don't care for.

Of course, I am totally into the tube driven, but clean, sound of the MPulse line. To those who seek a more SS sound, I'm sure the Fathom will have it's fans .. and apparently does based on all the positive posts in this thread.
 

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