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New mesa subway amps and cabs!

#3,123
The fat, full, round setting with low damping (a real key to getting the WA low end feel) is a great starting point depending on the cab and bass I'm using. I like a touch more on the input (like 1230 to 1 o'clock - there's real magic in that preamp) and find that setting the first two parametric frequencies to around their lowest point and adding just a tad past noon on the gain at 80-100 Hz and even less at 150-200 Hz can get some very rich low fullness with definition - if it feels too undefined I dial up the HPF a bit from its lowest setting. I tend to like more around noon to 1 o'clock on the passive mid to fill things out and reinforce note definition. I rarely add treble unless I have a darker/passive bass.

I always liked the big bottom end on the WA, but struggled to keep it from becoming too much of good thing. The WD lets me use the HPF to tame the sub-lows and blooming while really dialing up some power to drive the cab(s) so I get the round fullness with enough distinct punch that that I don't get a blurring from note to note in a mix. Some folks liked the versions of the WA that were a little brighter and I find some added treble and picking the right freequency on the third semi-parametric EQ control can help open things up in the top end without the tone getting thin or piercing.

I hope that helps. For reference, I'm a round wound, four string, finger style player and tend to work closer to the neck than the bridge. I almost always go direct from my bass to the head and usually use the WD with a SW112/115 stack, Berg CN212, or AudioKinesis C112T (with most or all ports open). Rock (all eras 50's through today) and modern country covers are 85% of what I do these days.

Edits were to fix late night typos.
 
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#3,124
/\/\3phist0 said:
@Al Kraft @Chef ---> they'd likely have tips for this.
Click to expand...
well, I admit my asking is kind of lazy. When I first got the WD800 I did some knob twiddling to see how WA-like I could make it sound. In the end I just let the WD800 do its thing .. and it does it very well IMO. But plugging the WA into the NV212t made me wonder (yet again) about how WA-like could I make the WD800 sound. Interested in what other WA and WD users have done in the same effort.
 
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#3,125
pfschim said:
this may be a throwback question, but has anyone arrived at settings on the WD800 that they feel is very close to the Walkabout.

When I switched over to using the WD800 as my primary gigging amp, I pretty much set my Walkabout aside (poor thing). But I recently picked up a Berg NV212t and wanted to try it with all the amps at my disposal, including the Walkabout.

While I am very happy with the WD800, particularly at louder gig volumes .... once again I am blown away by the wonderful tone/eq/feel of the Walkabout .... and the WA thru a great sealed cab like the NV212t is a thing of beauty.

Of course, there are power level drawbacks with this combination as the NV212t is an 8ohm cab and the WA only gives ~165w @ 8ohms ... but boy-oh-boy what a tone match.

This has me thinking of how I might tweak the WD800 ... thus my question.
Click to expand...

The closest match to a Walkabout with more power on tap that I've experienced are the Genz-Benz Streamliners - that's a big reason why I've kept my 900...
 
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#3,127
36C3E261-65AC-4E9F-85FF-3F33731C5F63.jpeg
I guess if you want a Subway that sounds like a Walkabout you can always do this!

I always thought there was something very classy looking about the silver face Walkabout on top of a black cabinet.

Doesn’t solve the bloomy, low end characteristic and has no where near as much tight, clean headroom as the WD800 but definitely more clean headroom than when I had (2) 12 Radiators stacked on top of each other. Not sure why.
 
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#3,128
DJ Bebop said:
So Mesa kids, when 'they' say:

"One feature that sets your new SUBWAY WD-800 apart from the rest of the market is the inclusion of a studio grade XLR balanced DIRECT OUTPUT."

What are 'they' talkin' about, is there a Jensen transformer or something cool happening in there? :)
agedhorse?
Click to expand...

No, it uses a design that is transformerless and has a long track record of reliability (performance, noise rejection phantom power protection and reliability).
 
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#3,130
DJ Bebop said:
So Mesa kids, when 'they' say:

"One feature that sets your new SUBWAY WD-800 apart from the rest of the market is the inclusion of a studio grade XLR balanced DIRECT OUTPUT."

What are 'they' talkin' about, is there a Jensen transformer or something cool happening in there? :)
agedhorse?
Click to expand...
agedhorse said:
No, it uses a design that is transformerless and has a long track record of reliability (performance, noise rejection phantom power protection and reliability).
Click to expand...
So, something cool then! :)
raw.gif
 
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#3,131
DJ Bebop said:
So Mesa kids, when 'they' say:

"One feature that sets your new SUBWAY WD-800 apart from the rest of the market is the inclusion of a studio grade XLR balanced DIRECT OUTPUT."

What are 'they' talkin' about, is there a Jensen transformer or something cool happening in there? :)
agedhorse?
Click to expand...
Hey Bebop. I used to be a recording engineer and have used a ton of DIs. The only DI I would ever use now besides my Noble, is the DI on the WD800! It's unreal. I like to go post EQ and take advantage of the tube saturation. Sounds wicked in a mix.
 
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#3,132
RudyTardy said:
Hey Bebop. I used to be a recording engineer and have used a ton of DIs. The only DI I would ever use now besides my Noble, is the DI on the WD800! It's unreal. I like to go post EQ and take advantage of the tube saturation. Sounds wicked in a mix.
Click to expand...

With apologies for not remembering all the golden nuggets in the 3000+ posts in this thread, this reminds me of a question I have been meaning to ask re: running the WD 800 solely as a DI at live gigs.
The manual states "...it is completely safe to operate the amp without a speaker load." So, I'm confident that running the WD800 as a DI with no cab attached will be fine.

My question is: "are any of you doing this? If so, how is that working out?" I'm grateful for any tips/advice you care to share- Thank you!

PS. The reason this is coming up, is that our frontman has had a sudden hearing loss and to minimize impacts of practice (and stage) volume we have switched to IEMs (not an easy transition, but I'm getting used to it). Since we use a PA, I'm thinking I could just carry the WD800 to the next gig and leave the cab at home since no one needs the stage volume. I could also use the DI on my Darkglass VMT or the Ampeg SCR; but, I prefer the tone coming out of the WD 800.
 
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#3,133
sacahill42 said:
With apologies for not remembering all the golden nuggets in the 3000+ posts in this thread, this reminds me of a question I have been meaning to ask re: running the WD 800 solely as a DI at live gigs.
The manual states "...it is completely safe to operate the amp without a speaker load." So, I'm confident that running the WD800 as a DI with no cab attached will be fine.

My question is: "are any of you doing this? If so, how is that working out?" I'm grateful for any tips/advice you care to share- Thank you!

PS. The reason this is coming up, is that our frontman has had a sudden hearing loss and to minimize impacts of practice (and stage) volume we have switched to IEMs (not an easy transition, but I'm getting used to it). Since we use a PA, I'm thinking I could just carry the WD800 to the next gig and leave the cab at home since no one needs the stage volume. I could also use the DI on my Darkglass VMT or the Ampeg SCR; but, I prefer the tone coming out of the WD 800.
Click to expand...
Yes to assuage your concerns, i had a gig (no IEM's) where only floor space for me was a choice of the cabinet, OR ME.
wd DI to PA.. stage wedges, flown mains and subwoofer right next to me.... worked better than i expected.
 
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#3,134
sacahill42 said:
With apologies for not remembering all the golden nuggets in the 3000+ posts in this thread, this reminds me of a question I have been meaning to ask re: running the WD 800 solely as a DI at live gigs.
The manual states "...it is completely safe to operate the amp without a speaker load." So, I'm confident that running the WD800 as a DI with no cab attached will be fine.

My question is: "are any of you doing this? If so, how is that working out?" I'm grateful for any tips/advice you care to share- Thank you!

PS. The reason this is coming up, is that our frontman has had a sudden hearing loss and to minimize impacts of practice (and stage) volume we have switched to IEMs (not an easy transition, but I'm getting used to it). Since we use a PA, I'm thinking I could just carry the WD800 to the next gig and leave the cab at home since no one needs the stage volume. I could also use the DI on my Darkglass VMT or the Ampeg SCR; but, I prefer the tone coming out of the WD 800.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is done and can work just fine. Much will depend on your overall success adapting your playing to an IEM environment.
 
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#3,135
agedhorse said:
Yes, this is done and can work just fine. Much will depend on your overall success adapting your playing to an IEM environment.
Click to expand...

Indeed. For the first few months I would say that

IEM = "Inverse Enjoyment of Music"

now,

"I...Er...Meh"

We're getting things dialed in, but it will never be the same as hearing everything with naked ear bones.
Nonetheless, the switch to IEMs does have tangible benefit, and I am "on board"!

Thank you again for the reassurance that the WD800 is ready to rock as a stand-alone DI!
 
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#3,136
sacahill42 said:
With apologies for not remembering all the golden nuggets in the 3000+ posts in this thread, this reminds me of a question I have been meaning to ask re: running the WD 800 solely as a DI at live gigs.
The manual states "...it is completely safe to operate the amp without a speaker load." So, I'm confident that running the WD800 as a DI with no cab attached will be fine.

My question is: "are any of you doing this? If so, how is that working out?" I'm grateful for any tips/advice you care to share- Thank you!

PS. The reason this is coming up, is that our frontman has had a sudden hearing loss and to minimize impacts of practice (and stage) volume we have switched to IEMs (not an easy transition, but I'm getting used to it). Since we use a PA, I'm thinking I could just carry the WD800 to the next gig and leave the cab at home since no one needs the stage volume. I could also use the DI on my Darkglass VMT or the Ampeg SCR; but, I prefer the tone coming out of the WD 800.
Click to expand...
I’ve taken my WD-800 on its own(just the head. No cab or pedalboard) to gigs with great results :)
 
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#3,137
Another example: Got a recording session today and we are all tracking live in the same room. I'm taking my RNDI to provide a solid bare clean signal, but also my Cali76 compact bass + WD (slightly overdriven probably) to give the engineer 2 choices :)
 
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