Amp question

[hankster]

I’m in the process of replacing gear that got killed in the flood last month. Anyone had any experience yet with Mesa Subway amps and/or new Mesa cabs?

[edwardofhuncote]

Can't speak to any experience with the cabs except that I have yet to read a bad thing about them.

I personally have a first-run Subway D-800. I also have a Subway DI+ preamp pedal, which allows you essentially the same control as a Subway D-800+ amp. Both are top-shelf quality as far as I'm concerned, but lately I don't even use them. I found the more I twiddled with that shizzle, the less I liked the sound of my bass 'straight-up'. So for me, it's an old F-1X into a power-amp, and a fossil of a heavy old Mesa-Boogie speaker from the 90's. I can get where I need to a lot faster that way.

Simply put, all the knobs I need are on my bass... I just need the amp to amplify it. I don't need a filters or a super-comprehensive eq section to surgically tweak this or that. Somebody more skillful (and it might be you) may find it indispensable, but I don't need it. Just gimme' an input gain and master volume. And the DI is awesome.

I ain't tryin' to talk you into or out of them. They're great at what they do.

Happy New Year Rich. Sorry to hear your place got wrecked. Something similar happened to me in 2012. Google 'Derecho'. (tree went through my house)

[pauldo]

I’m from the same school as Gregory.  I used to lug around my GK 800RB and kept everything set flat, because I own an Alembic. 

On rare occasions I would tweak a frequency here or there (more often the crossover in bi-amp mode) to compensate for the venue we were at.

These days I have a Carvin MB 15 which works well for pretty much all of my gigs.  I can add an extension speaker to it for the rock shows!  😃

Paul (who hasn’t had an actually gig in years other than “track” work through headphones)

[hankster]

Thanks, that’s helpful. I can use the eq features- they can be helpful with upright bass. I was curious about the build quality and it sounds like that is still in the slot. Thanks for your well wishes. Remediators start tearing walls out Monday.

[StephenR]

I played through a D800 at one gig, it is a nice amp but a bit dark sounding, not totally my thing but I really didn't spend enough time with the head to figure out if it would ultimately get the tone I was looking for. I ran the D800 into my Barefaced SuperTwin, not the club's Mesa cabs, so I have no personal experience playing through the cabs but they generally sound really good when I hear other players using them. The build on the cabinets themselves seemed really nice, solid cabs. IMO the D800+  has a few additional features that would make that model more attractive to me if I were amp shopping, particularly the effects loop. Depending on your needs I suggest looking at the + model, too.

[hankster]

Thanks again. It’s the + I’m most interested in.

[rv_bass]

Sorry to hear about your flood damage.  The acoustic image Clarus amps are pretty nice if using an uptight

https://www.acousticimg.com/home

If I’m not using a power amp and F-1X/2B, I use a GK MB500 or Walter Woods amp, both are compact, light, and easy to transport and set up.

[kenbass4]

I recently purchased a WD-800 and subway 210 to make gigging easier than my SVT CL and 810 allowed. Haven't gigged with it yet, but I have to say I'm really not missing the weight of the Ampeg playing at household practice levels. I do pair the 210 to a peavey 15 with the WD.