What happened to Mesa Boogie cabinets?

[40Hz]

Really?

Yeah. Doesn’t surprise me. Friend’s niece started college a few years back and all her textbooks are e-texts. You’re required to either have a laptop or purchase one. (The school gets you a significant discount if you buy one through them.) You buy the books for the year’s courses you selected when you pay your tuition. You also receive all your handouts, course descriptions, and grades -plus- submit all your paperwork and coursework online. She said the only place you might see paper is in class where some students (like her) still use a notebook rather than their laptop to take notes.

Whole new world.

Glad I went when I did.

Despite being a guy who spent the bulk of his career in IT I still never felt the need to funnel everything you possibly could through a computer network if there wasn’t a clear benefit for doing so.
A lot of what I see schools doing on the tech front is purely technology for technology’s sake; and/or the convenience of the faculty and administration rather than something that’s directly benefiting the students.

 

[57pbass]

I went from this 100+ lb Alembic B-15 Cabinet x 2 with an SVT…to The MESA SUBWAY rig…

 

[DJ Bebop]

Yeah. Doesn’t surprise me. Friend’s niece started college a few years back and all her textbooks are e-texts. You’re required to either have a laptop or purchase one. (The school gets you a significant discount if you buy one through them.) You buy the books for the year’s courses you selected when you pay your tuition. You also receive all your handouts, course descriptions, and grades -plus- submit all your paperwork and coursework online. She said the only place you might see paper is in class where some students (like her) still use a notebook rather than their laptop to take notes.

Whole new world.

Glad I went when I did.

Despite being a guy who spent the bulk of his career in IT I still never felt the need to funnel everything you possibly could through a computer network if there wasn’t a clear benefit for doing so.
A lot of what I see schools doing on the tech front is purely technology for technology’s sake; and/or the convenience of the faculty and administration rather than something that’s directly benefiting the students.

I was talking about this with a friend as we gazed into our phones. Once your network goes down or your phone, tablet, or laptop dies, what do you have then?

We still have information on stone or clay tablets in existence today with no battery backup.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Somewhere back, everything went to front of house. Back when I started in the 1970s, the only thing through the P.A. were the vocals. Also, most amps were only in the 100-200 watt range. Maybe different in large tours. Funny, now we have 800-1200 watt bass rigs with light weight cabs that can handle all that power and all they are used for is a monitor. I love the lighter more powerful rigs and I like the way my rig sounds, but I wish they were still used as amps.

 

[logdrum]

I was talking about this with a friend as we gazed into our phones. Once your network goes down or your phone, tablet, or laptop dies, what do you have then?

We still have information on stone or clay tablets in existence today with no battery backup.

It will be bad. If we loose electricity, civilization will probably regress in 10-20 years. It will wipe out a big portion of the population.

 

[DJ Bebop]

It will be bad. If we loose electricity, civilization will probably regress in 10-20 years. It will wipe out a big portion of the population.

I think some of the regression has already begun.

 

[SoulReflection]

I think some of the regression has already begun.

Maybe more than "some"???

 

[Jeff Scott]

Im happy to report that my nearby Barnes & Noble was extremely busy yesterday. Took us about 10 minutes to checkout with three cashiers moving as quickly as possible. I was delighted about that.

I’m sure book stores aren’t as busy as they were 30+ years ago, but they certainly seem busier than I saw them even 5 years ago. Personally, I love physical books. Kindles are convenient, but they aren’t the same thing.

Since the beginning of the Age of Covid I have amassed quite a library to add to my already rather sizable library.

 

[Barticus]

This thread title is misleading

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I had a Mesa/Boogie road ready 2x10 cab, as a youth in the 90s. It was a bit heavy, but it a total tank and it sounded good despite being constructed around a road case.

 

[DJ Bebop]

This thread title is misleading

Welcome to TalkBass!

 

[SunByrne]

Yeah. Doesn’t surprise me. Friend’s niece started college a few years back and all her textbooks are e-texts. You’re required to either have a laptop or purchase one. (The school gets you a significant discount if you buy one through them.) You buy the books for the year’s courses you selected when you pay your tuition. You also receive all your handouts, course descriptions, and grades -plus- submit all your paperwork and coursework online. She said the only place you might see paper is in class where some students (like her) still use a notebook rather than their laptop to take notes.

A lot of what I see schools doing on the tech front is purely technology for technology’s sake; and/or the convenience of the faculty and administration rather than something that’s directly benefiting the students.

University professor since 1999 here. Different schools have different processes for handling e-textbooks these days; not everyone does it with tuition (we don't). I've never seen an explicit requirement that students must have a laptop but they all do. There are indeed a few students who take notes on paper but yes, the vast majority now do on laptops or tablets. Paper is indeed now a rarity and yes, pretty much all assignments are now given out and handed in electronically.

What I don't understand is your objection to this. I promise you that there are ZERO students clamoring to going back to the old system. Just because you prefer paper doesn't mean that the current crop of 18-22 year olds do.

 

[dbase]

 

[DJ Bebop]

View attachment 5372857

 

[pbassnut]

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!

Agreed. Lotsa factors have contributed to this trend ... IEMs, better PA systems, smaller venues, and the expense of requiring bigger vehicles to haul gear. Then there's the Class D amplification thing. I suspect that very few bassists these days want to schlep a heavy, bulky cabinet along with their 5 pound bass head that they can transport in their accessories bag. Then from the standpoint of the gear manufacturers, there's the shipping expense issue of getting their cabinets to customers which adds to the cost of doing bizniz.

 

[agedhorse]

Somewhere back, everything went to front of house. Back when I started in the 1970s, the only thing through the P.A. were the vocals. Also, most amps were only in the 100-200 watt range. Maybe different in large tours. Funny, now we have 800-1200 watt bass rigs with light weight cabs that can handle all that power and all they are used for is a monitor. I love the lighter more powerful rigs and I like the way my rig sounds, but I wish they were still used as amps.

Many still are.

 

[USAJO]

Our bass player has an Ampeg 810 that hasn’t left the garage in 3 years. He just retired his 410 Ampeg cab and SVT head last summer. He now uses a Markbass 210 combo that he can carry with one hand, bass in the other. This guy’s pretty muscular too but just has no interest in lugging super heavy gear anymore.

I think that’s pretty much the trend now. If you play once a month maybe you deal with heavy stuff but doing a lot of gigging where the band provides backline the lightweight stuff is a winner.

 

[RJC1811]

All of us who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s have stories (and long term hearing deficits) of being in front of the stage with deafening volume levels. Then other concerts that may have been ticketed seating and not being able to hear some of the instruments or just a muddy mess. That is what monster rigs at high volume on stage with poor PA support gets you. My band is just a B level cover band having fun and we have PA support that makes big amps unnecessary. I have done large outdoor gigs with my 2x10 cab and had people compliment my tone because it was all through the PA w/subs.

Now I am a hypocrite because I am looking to upgrade to a modern 2x12 but that is just selfish G.A.S. And I want more low end on stage. That and it would replace my 4x10 which is heavy and I tend not to use it much.

 

[perfektspace6]

I remember the powerhouse cab with 4x10s and a 15 in the middle. Those things were awesomely backbreaking.

 

[KellyC]

As a long time designer of class AB amps, the days of that technology is pretty much done. Class D (done right) is at least as reliable as class AB at this point, lighter and less expensive. Powered cabinets in the bass world were never popular, very few were made by any manufacturer that I am aware of. With such low demand, it just doesn't make any sense. That could change in the future, but that's not a prediction I'm willing to (at this time) hang my hat on.

Lightweight drivers have been revolutionary in amplification, at least from a user's perspective. Is there anything on the horizon that comes close to changing the game to a similar magnitude, or do you believe that advances will be small and incremental in the foreseeable future?