Tell me about the Mesa Walkabout

[mezatron]

Been seeing a lot of these in the classifieds, both heads and cabs and it piqued my interest. People rave about them but I can’t seem to to find anything online that actually describes the Mesa Boogie tone. Only a super old video of Tyler Spicer that doesn’t help much. People of Talkbass, What does the Walkabout Sound like? How do you describe the tone? Ampegish? Tone Hammery?

 

[Hot Rats]

While I have and love my walkabout, I suck at describing tone and such. I'll link this thread in case you have not seen it yet.
Peace.

Mesa Walkabout Megathread! | TalkBass.com

 

[mezatron]

Thanks for this. The mega threads are sometimes hard to navigate since they are so huge. Some good info in there.

 

[amper]

There's no one "Mesa/Boogie tone". Mesa has put out so many different types of amps over the years that it's impossible to make generalizations about them.

The Walkabout is a great amp. It has a tube preamp with conventional tone controls as well as a three-band semi-parametric EQ, with a Class AB solid-state power section.

The Walkabout cabs are a bit harder to describe. They are very popular with bassists who double on acoustic double bass and electric basses, and they produce a lot more bottom end than their size would seem to allow, but they can get a bit tubby at high volumes. The down-facing passive radiator makes them couple very strongly to the floor, and that can be both good and bad, depending on the specific room. Within their comfortable range, they are both clear and deep. The Walkabout Scout 12 makes a great acoustic guitar amp, double bass amp, and electric bass amp. The head can be removed from the Scout cab and used separately with any other cabinets.

 

[Old Fart]

I loved my Walkabout so much I bought the WD800.

 

[ImTheOnlyOne]

Do search the Walkabout threads for terms like "tone", "fat", and "bounce". They're epic for a reason, and the head works great with just about every bass cab.

If Walkabout tone were a color, I'd say rust orange or amber. If you could taste the tone I'd say chocolate covered pretzels with bourbon in the center. If its tones were a scent, I'd say strong cedar with a hint of mint. If a Walkabout could sing... OK, enough of that

Walkabouts are all time classics. Sounds like it has a transformer 4x its size. Get one and hear for yourself.

 

[mezatron]

Do search the Walkabout threads for terms like "tone", "fat", and "bounce". They're epic for a reason, and the head works great with just about every bass cab.

If Walkabout tone were a color, I'd say rust orange or amber. If you could taste the tone I'd say chocolate covered pretzels with bourbon in the center. If its tones were a scent, I'd say strong cedar with a hint of mint. If a Walkabout could sing... OK, enough of that

Walkabouts are all time classics. Sounds like it has a transformer 4x its size. Get one and hear for yourself.

what a great response. I legit lol’d. Thanks to everyone so far. This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

 

[agedhorse]

You might also search through the Subway and WD-800 threads to see what players likes and also struggled with on the Walkabout.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

I have a walkabout head and a Subway d800. I have used them both with the same cabs.

The parametric eq offers many options, but it can also get you into trouble if you overdo or boost the wrong frequencies.

As a guitar player also, I am pretty sensitive to tube distortion and the nuances. So when I got the WA I played around with the gain knob to see what it could do. The previous owner had a mark at about 1 oclock, and this setting gave the amp a really nice saturated bloom and edge in band context.

This is weird but I like the WA better indoors as compared to outdoors.

I used a 112 walkabout scout on a gig once and didn’t care for it.

 

[jdwinva]

The Walkabout is a tube fed MOSFET driven monster that purrrs. I have the Scout combo and it slays. You must set the gain and EQ correctly or it will not sound right. Setting it correctly results in a great sound.

 

[bobfarabaugh]

I had a Scout 15. Good sound. Head sounds great with other cabs also. Silly to carry with the single strap handle on the top.
I wish I would have gotten the 12 because of that.

 

[57pbass]

I own the 4 ohm Walkabout Scout combo which is a legendary piece of gear.
Everything just works so well together on that particular unit.. the combination of the great Walkabout head and and the cabinet design is just perfection IMHO.

The only ongoing complaint about the Walkabout head was the power limitations .. 300 Watts sometimes just couldn’t keep up with high volume level situations.
Once you realize its limitations and learn how to use this head it’s an amazing sounding head.

Once the WD800 was released I purchased since we play at large venues and I need some power on stage.. we don’t use IEM. I use it to drive a variety of cabinets. Never ever lacking in high quality tone and volume.

The M Pulse 600 was also released right around the time when Walkabout was released and might have been in the same line of amps ?? Not sure but I think I’m close.. and it had more power and similar sound.

I never had any maintenance problems with the Walkabout but I would research this to see if there are parts available for repair??

 

[Gnarledlowend]

My Subway 15 arrived and I’m letting go of the Walkabout cabinet if anyone is interested.

For Sale - Mesa Walkabout 4 Ohm Combo Cabinet Only in Excellent condition

 

[mezatron]

I briefly owned an Ampeg PF20T. I liked the warmth of the tone but felt like it lacked immediacy. Is that a characteristic of tube amps in general? A softer attack. Or perhaps just that particular amp for me? Also it never really got dirty on its own. Can the Walkabout drive itself to break up at lower/mid volumes?

 

[agedhorse]

I never had any maintenance problems with the Walkabout but I would research this to see if there are parts available for repair??

We still have most of the parts available for the Walkabouts in stock, but availability of many legacy parts these days a constantly changing.

 

[Topkat13]

That’s a tough one…almost like trying to describe a particular brand of toilet paper.

 

[slagheap]

I had a Scout 15. Good sound. Head sounds great with other cabs also. Silly to carry with the single strap handle on the top.
I wish I would have gotten the 12 because of that.

yes, the 15 model was very awkward to carry. irritating trait over the long term.

 

[Alvin2022]

Last year I bought a used original Walkabout. Something I have wanted for years. I bought the one with the silver face.
I wish it were a little louder because I think it is the finest amp I've ever heard.
My friend liked mine so much she picked up the new version. Not that she is disappointed, but mine has that special something.
The original Walkabout silver face sounds very different than the newer model, and seems much more harmonically rich. With a what people call BLOOM?

We played them both thru her BagEnd 115 cab.. Both very good however the Original Silver face Walkabout is more of a Tone machine and the newer one is just a bass amp. IMO

 

[SlowpokeJoe]

I have my Walkabout listed in the classifieds here, and I really love the thing and the difficult to describe feeling of "quality" I get from using Mesa products.

I am selling it primarily because we are going to IEMs and the band already has a WD800 that is simply louder when running stage sound.

Add to this the fact the I've been getting more and more into amp sims via pedals like the Helix LT and it all starts to make owning this nice amp redundant.

As I also explained in my ad listing it is nearly impossible to play the WA combo at wife-friendly work-from-home volumes. The WA wants to be heard! So for now I'll be keeping my SWR Baby Blue II 1x10 has my home practice amp and ideally moving the WA Scout on to someone who will get better use from it.

 

[joebar]

I’ve owned three of them. They can’t produce a bad sound. I currently use my head to drive an epifani ul310 and have driven SVT fridges with it. It’s been rumoured that the amp tolerates a 2 ohm load and I wouldn’t doubt it.