Preamps and bi-amping

[gare]

Joey..
Well said.  In 'the old days', manufacturers  didn't use tweeters and mid-range speakers, you only had the frequency response of the speaker, whats a 15 2500 hz ? But alot of the vintage sounds required pushing alot of air..the 8 x10's,the 15's and 18's.
How many classic recordings were made from the Beach Boys to Motown using just the flip top Ampeg with a single 15 tho?
I used to use a couple Sunn cabinets, sounded good, but I'm glad I don't have to lug them around any more.
But, fast forward 30 years..with the advances in technology, the size of the cabinets is appreciated, and the fidelity of the speakers is far superior. The response of alot of speakers is also wider.
I've never been a big fan of tweeters, they sound a little to squeaky clean to my ear, I usually turn them way down or off. I do like the sound of a speaker with just a bit of distortion that a driven speaker gives.  
With a 400+ you could always run the direct out to another power amp for additional cabinets or effects.  
 
Ok,I'm going to go listen to A Whiter Shade of Pale a few more times
 
Gary  
 
Pepsi and Crown Royal ? Arrrrgh !

[son_of_magni]

Maybe I just don't get it but...
 
I'd go for the sound of a 4x10 over a 2x15 any day.  The only reason I added the 1x18 to my rig was to fill in the very bottom.  If I was running a 2x15 I'd probably be adding a big midrange horn or a 2x8 to fill in the top.
 
As far as biamping when I already have the 400+, I don't believe that under 250 hz you can really hear the difference between tubes and solid state unless you're really going to overdrive the system (I don't play thrash...).  I just want to take the load off the 400+, let it give me the sound and add some warmth to the bottom.
 
The other thing I like about this setup is I can run reverb on just the high side.  It sounds much tighter this way.  I think reverb just adds mush to the bottom.
- SoM

[gare]

SoM
I hope I havent offended you or anyone else with my babbling. My point was achieving some vintage sounds requires a low tech approach. I agree that 4x10's doesnt provide quite enough bottom. I've used 2 4x10 ,nice full sound but still lacked bottom.  
In the past I've used several 2 amp setups,which I prefer over bi-amping..but thats just me.
Have you checked out re-tubing the Mesa ? Ouch!
 
Uffda
Gary

[son_of_magni]

Hi Gary, no apology needed, when it somes to your sound there is no right or wrong, just what you like.  Vintage sounds, hmmm.  Actually I'm just trying to achieve the sound I want, not anything I've necessarily ever heard before.  And what I have now is really really close.  The crossover lets me dial in the bottom with great precision.
 
Tubes and blue glow.  I did some reading on the Svetlanta website, very interesting.  Turns out the blue glow in my tubes is normal.  It goes something like this: A dark blue glow that stays near surfaces is ok.  A lighter blue glow that is more like a cloud inside the tube is bad.
 
When you say 2 amp setups do you mean 1 amp for each pickup?  I used to do that with my old Fender P-P bass and it was pretty cool.  I liked playing with the phasing on that setup.

[gare]

When I checked out re-tubing the Mesa (just in case) it was about 280$..there's alot of tubes in there.
2 amps..when I used nothing but the Rickenbacker I ran each pickup into a seperate amp. On other instruments I've also split the signal from the bass and ran that into seperate amps,then eq'd each differently.  
Recently I've been messing around splitting the signal into 2 amps,then taking the direct out of the Mesa and running that into effects (chorus/delay/etc) using just the wet sound then into pwr amp and a seperate cabinet. 3 channels..interesting.  
I'm something of a pack rat,never seem to get rid of things, so now and then I have to put on the lab coat,mess up the hair and resurrect things ito a new monster.