What's your preference.....Mesa M-Pulse 600 or Big Block 750?

I think they're both great but the 600 is more versitile. The BB750 is more of a rock amp. If you just want a nice "rock" sound it's awsome. But if you slap or want to change your tone from time to time ( or at least have the option to) the 600 is the way to go.

 

I thought the only main difference is that the BB can hold a 2 ohm load

 

Yes, it can handle a 2-Ohm load, but it also has a dedicated overdrive circuit, and as such definitely gives you a more "growly" tone. LOL, yeah, I hate that term too because it's so subjective. For the record, "growl" to me defines the tone that Chi Cheng from the Deftones gets on the Change in the House of Flies track with his P-bass and SVT-2 PRO. Or even better, Brain Marshall's tone on the Alter Bridge record, but he uses a Sadowsky w/ flatwounds into an M-Pulse 600 and Ampeg 8x10. Absolutely SICK tone!

Peace!

 

The 750 and M600 are totally different amps. I owned both for a short while. The 600 is MUCH louder into a 4ohm load, and has a much more refined sound... still sounds very 'tubey' but can get nice and clean also.

The 750 is really meant to cop a more SVT vibe.... it seems to be grindy and very mid present no matter what, and also has a separate 'distortion' type channel.

I'm not a tube amp guy at all, so this comparison is not exactly correct... however, the 750 seems more like an SVT, and the 600 seems more like an Aguilar type sound... still very warm and big in the low end, but cleaner with more treble sheen versus huge, grindy mids.

 

Just to clarify the M-Pulse 600 is 600 watts @ 4 ohms and the big block 750 is 750watts @2ohms . direct from Mesa web page

 

The M pulse 600 will go down to 2 ohm. its 725w at 2 ohm

 

Mesa's 600 is more versatile IMO. You can use it for classic rock ,Metal..even jazz! My 600 sounds great while covering Ozzy or Audioslave songs. I've used my 600 with an ampeg 8x10 and mesa's 4x12 cab..I dig the 4x12 sound, it's CLEAN and LOUD.
If you can, try A/Bing the 600 and 750 with a cab and see which one sounds better to YOU. Current rig: Warwick corvette,Mesa 600,Mesa 4x12,Furman PL conditioner Toneworks AX1B, depth charger, EBS octabass.

 

I've owned the 600 and currently own a 750...the 600 does have more bells and whistles but ,for me the 750,with it's plug-n-play controls was more to my liking..I'm not much of a knob twiddler(wow,that sounds dirty) the 600 is a little more "hi-fi" sounding than the 750..but to me the 750 is the most "tubey sounding" solid state amp there is. I would compare it's sound to the 400+ more than the SVT..

 

It will but Mesa recommends "to avoid using 2 ohm loads whenever posiible"

It says so in the manual that I downloaded. Always a great way to get the info you need, right from the manufacturer instead of from some bass player on teh interwebs.

 

If you have access to them, try them out. Both are great, I prefer the 600.

 

Justin Chancellor used em' on Lateralus. Wanted one ever since! Granted theres an assload going on there, but its a mysterious amp, and that draws attention from me!

Plugged a powehouse 4x10 into the BB750 when I was test driving the speakers, and well...it pumps in combination

 

Its a good question, i myself have a m-pulse 360 and since changing bands its no longer loud enough so im looking to purchase another mesa amp.
One thing i have to say about the m-pulse series is that it the eq is really tweakable, which depending on weither you like to plug and play or a knob twiddler can be a blessing or a hinderence.
Becuase i play in two contrastingly different bands and rehearse two two different locations (as well as gigging on a varaible scale) i find it helps quite a bit...this maybe becuase ive come from the having experince as a sound engieer and doing live shows that having a lotta knobs doesnt phase me.
I once i found my sound it was simply a case of boosting or cutting the highs and the lows as opposed to having to reset my amp every time i play.
Ive had my m-pulse 360 for about 18months but in that time ive had a few problems, mianly with the input jacks but it was a fairly easy fix.
Though it maybe that my SWR goliath III cant handle the mesa power too well but i find i cant crank my gain up to anything than about one third before the sound muddies but not in a valve od kinda way.

 

Of the 2, I like the 600 more because of the eq section. I have a Walkabout, and the 600 is laid out much the same, but with even more eq control. Also, the amount of clean headroom on the 600 makes it the obvious choice, for me.

 

600 all the way. The big block is great, but you can't really get out of that real big meaty rock sound it has.

The 600 venture is probably the best amp I've ever played through. If I had the money and the gig time, I'd be all over one.

 

I lucky to find a store in my local area that had both heads and I was able to "sort-of A/B them" through a Mesa 4x10.
Granted, this wasn't a true A/B test - but I had set out to get a BB750 and since they had the MP600, I figured it was fool not to try it.
After trying the MP600 I forgot all about the BB750...

Back-to-back, there are some similarities in tone between these guys but I found the MP600 to be more versatile and specifically much more capable of a clean sound.
Features like the compressor and foot controller really helped make my mind up.
The MP600 can get some grit by bumping up the pre so you do have some hope there - but it's nowhere near the grit that the BB750 can put out.

My only con on the MP600 is that there's no foot switchable gain boost. It'd be nice to call up that grit from the floor rather than having to run back to the amp and make adjustments.

My main dislike about the BB750 was it was challenging to keep the mids under control. It's tough, nice looking amp and it had some teeth. Some might even say that certain things about it remind them of old SVT's, but you didn't hear that from me

 

The 750 will safely pull a 2 ohm load all day long. That isn't recommended with the 600.

The 750 is LOUD. Loads of headroom. With a 412 and 610 hooked up, I have my volume knob at about 1. That's 1 out of 10, not 1 o'clock. The 300 watt Peavey I was using before this I had cranked up to about 5, and the gain I needed caused that amp to clip. That's simply not happening with the 750.

I have owned a USA SVT-CL... The 750 is the better amp, hands down.

And the tone is outstanding.

Seems pretty versatile to me too, but what do I know.

 

I'm currently running a M-Pulse 360 into a MESA PH412 and MESA PH610, I'm really loving the tone so far. It's only seen 1 band practice, but I hardly had to push this amp with those two cabs at all to be heard at band practice, I find the 360 to be enough with efficient cabs. I would imagine that I could knock walls down with the M-Pulse 600 but as of right now with my cabs, the 360 is more then enough for what I need.

I haven't had a chance to try a BB750 but have also heard great things about them. Here's a pic of my rig from last weeks band practice: