What happened to Mesa Boogie cabinets?

[Thir13teen]

I seem to remember a plethora of options available from MB but when I just went to their site it shows a total of 5 cabs called "Subway Series". What happened to the 8x10 & 6x10 cabs? Their best feature IMO was the "Road Ready" versions, I can't believe they stopped making the RR series and the bigger sizes, I wonder what happened?

 

[Jeff Scott]

Those were last-century models. I'm sure you can find them, used, in this century.

 

[BioDriver]

IIRC they were bought out by Gibson and streamlined their offerings as a result. Or it could have just been the purchase and strategy happening at the same time coincidentally. Or I could not be remembering right.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Once upon a time there was ROCK! ROCK! reigned supreme. Then came pop?
pop? became king.
Also, in ear monitors and ampless bands.

Long story short, there's very little market for 160 lb cabs these days.
I hear great things about the Mesa Boogie Subway series. Rumor has it you can get a 215 which weighs 62 lbs and it can play ROCK!

 

[Killing Floor]

I’m sure it’s a reasonable business decision. How many large cabs do you think they would sell? When I scroll through TB it’s starting to seem like a
1-12 is ear bleeding for a lot of folks now. If they make 8-10 and don’t sell them the end result is everything else increases in price to close the gap. Or real people get laid off.

 

[GroovinOnFunk]

I can't believe they stopped making the RR series and the bigger sizes

Really? In a world where everyone is going smaller and lighter, you can't see why they would decide to scrap these archaic giant cabs, especially in a world where most people are buying online (think shipping costs)?
I can believe it. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

I'm secretly waiting for an old school Mesa 215 to just jump out and smack me in the face for let's say $250. Once I find a way to get it up into my ManCave it will never again move, I'll either die or sell it with the house as a condition of the sale...

 

[Jack Butler]

Can’t imagine there’s much their 4x10 or 2x15 can’t do. Especially if you had 2.

 

[agedhorse]

I seem to remember a plethora of options available from MB but when I just went to their site it shows a total of 5 cabs called "Subway Series". What happened to the 8x10 & 6x10 cabs? Their best feature IMO was the "Road Ready" versions, I can't believe they stopped making the RR series and the bigger sizes, I wonder what happened?

The demand for the older Road Ready and Powerhouse cabinets fell like a rock as soon as the market said no and hell no. There's almost no demand for 100+ pound cabinets these days, and with the higher quality lighter weight drivers that are available recently, there's really no reason for the average pro player. The Subway cabinets outperform the Powerhouse cabinets model for model. For those who want the old cabinets, they are available on the used market for less than it would cost us to build them.

There are 6 Subway models: 210, 410, 112, 212, 115 and 215.

IIRC they were bought out by Gibson and streamlined their offerings as a result. Or it could have just been the purchase and strategy happening at the same time coincidentally. Or I could not be remembering right.

Yeah, you are not remembering this right. The Subway cabinet replaced the Powerhouse cabinets in 2014-2015, a full 7 years before we were acquired by Gibson. In fact, the Gibson ownership of today wasn't even around ~5 years ago.

I’m sure it’s a reasonable business decision. How many large cabs do you think they would sell? When I scroll through TB it’s starting to seem like a
1-12 is ear bleeding for a lot of folks now. If they make 8-10 and don’t sell them the end result is everything else increases in price to close the gap. Or real people get laid off.

The number of 810's being sold throughout the industry is pretty small. I did design (the electo-acoustic part) a custom 810 for Rex Brown (Pantera) last year, it was a custom shop tour support model and I also designed a 412 for Justin Chancellor (Tool) in approximately the same sized package (but much closer to the Subway family design), also a custom shop tour support model. It's not that we can't produce them, but the demand is really small and from the arena touring market. Clearly size/weight aren't important but the specific look was.

Rex's current tour rig:

Justin's current tour rig, the 810 is a customized Road Ready, the 412 is close to 2x Subway 212's (not exactly, but the differences were for his specific application in the O/D signal path):

 

[S-Bigbottom]

I did design (the electo-acoustic part) a custom 810 for Rex Brown (Pantera) last year, it was a custom shop tour support model and I also designed a 412 for Justin Chancellor (Tool) in approximately the same sized package (but much closer to the Subway family design), also a custom shop tour support model.

Both rigs were recently on Premier Guitar's Rig Rundown.










And daang, that Justin episode was the fastest 40 minutes ever.
Nice cab job.

 

[Auer]

Luckily all that cool gear is still around on the used market for those of us who like and use it.

Nothing sounds like my Acoustic Corp gear, so I'm likely to keep it.

Todays players don't even need amps and cabs as noted here before. and plenty of class D mouse gear for those who feel they do.

 

[Wasnex]

Years ago the touring industry drove the state of the art in bass amplification. I can say from experience that big and heavy gear is fairly easy to handle when you travel with a cargo truck that has a lift gate. And of course headliners have roadies, so the musicians don't even have to bother with schlepping their own gear.

The touring industry has changed and less and less bands are running huge walls of amps. So now the weekend warrior and casual musician have more influence in the market. It's not so easy to stuff a big heavy rig in a hatchback, so my impression is compact and light are primary market forces now. This impacts both cabs and heads.

You can still build a big rig if you want. If you are into Mesa, get two or more Subway 410s or 215s. Bonus...the Subway cabs are all designed to work well together. So you can mix and match if you like.

 

[db59]

I wonder what happened?[/QUOTE]

no demand= no sales

 

[burgerdj]

The demand for the older Road Ready and Powerhouse cabinets fell like a rock as soon as the market said no and hell no. There's almost no demand for 100+ pound cabinets these days, and with the higher quality lighter weight drivers that are available recently, there's really no reason for the average pro player. The Subway cabinets outperform the Powerhouse cabinets model for model. For those who want the old cabinets, they are available on the used market for less than it would cost us to build them.

There are 6 Subway models: 210, 410, 112, 212, 115 and 215.



Yeah, you are not remembering this right. The Subway cabinet replaced the Powerhouse cabinets in 2014-2015, a full 7 years before we were acquired by Gibson. In fact, the Gibson ownership of today wasn't even around ~5 years ago.



The number of 810's being sold throughout the industry is pretty small. I did design (the electo-acoustic part) a custom 810 for Rex Brown (Pantera) last year, it was a custom shop tour support model and I also designed a 412 for Justin Chancellor (Tool) in approximately the same sized package (but much closer to the Subway family design), also a custom shop tour support model. It's not that we can't produce them, but the demand is really small and from the arena touring market. Clearly size/weight aren't important but the specific look was.

Rex's current tour rig:

Justin's current tour rig, the 810 is a customized Road Ready, the 412 is close to 2x Subway 212's (not exactly, but the differences were for his specific application in the O/D signal path):

I can’t imagine standing in front of those rigs night after night! What is the small box on top of Rex’s 810?

 

[carsbybigd]

 

[frankie5string]

If you really want something huge-sounding, I highly recommend the 2x15. You don’t even have to run it loud. It sounds so heavy.

 

[shoot-r]

I'm secretly waiting for an old school Mesa 215 to just jump out and smack me in the face for let's say $250. Once I find a way to get it up into my ManCave it will never again move, I'll either die or sell it with the house as a condition of the sale...

There's a Mesa Diesel 215 for sale in the T.B. Classifieds right now.
Asking price is $400.00, maybe ya can talk him down????

But unless your in California you'll have to make a road trip!
I can't even imagine what cross country shipping would be.

 

[ELG60]

Once upon a time there was ROCK! ROCK! reigned supreme. Then came pop?
pop? became king.
Also, in ear monitors and ampless bands.

Long story short, there's very little market for 160 lb cabs these days.
I hear great things about the Mesa Boogie Subway series. Rumor has it you can get a 215 which weighs 62 lbs and it can play ROCK!

I have one. The rumors are indeed factual.

 

[agedhorse]

I can’t imagine standing in front of those rigs night after night! What is the small box on top of Rex’s 810?

That's a 210, but I am not sure it was even used with this setup except for the cosmetics.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Rex's current tour rig:

No dummy cabs in there!