LukeFRC

you should have started a poll... then we could all decide for you!

the attraction is the thing and the physicallity of it. (and the tendency imperfection once it's been played a fair bit...) it's not music they are buying it's the whole physical, emotional process of getting a big slab of plastic and the artwork and everything that comes with it. Similarly the old wood and lacquer guitars is as much about the romance and style of the 'idea' of rock music and all our heroes and what they played as much as it the quality of the instrument itself. Without getting into the metal or carbon fiber we can show this with old wood basses.... Most music shops will sell Yamaha and Fender basses at a range of prices. I'm willing to bet that most of us would agree that comparing values the Yamaha equivalent will be the "better" bass... yet most folk will want a Fender...

you know that GK sound when you have the Master almost at full and use the preamp gain as a volume control.... and the whole thing starts to sound bigger and fatter than if you have the Master down? Imagine that more rounded and organic. That's how I would describe the Mesa sound. When I bought my walkabout it was trying it against the GK1001Rbii and 2x10 combo I had, and the mPulse 600 and Walkabout through ashdown 810, barefaced 115 (awful sounding) and the Mesa 112 scout cab....

I think when it comes to cabs, there are EU based makers who make cabs as good or better. Paying a premium for Mesa ones doesn't seem to make sense... I'm sure they are very good, but there are lots of good cabs about . With the amps though - what else is there in the same kinda sonic sphere? @wateroftyne suggested Handbox ... but of the two one has brand recognition (and you can presume on long term support) and is less of a risk of the unknown, and you can google, or start a thread like this, and find lots of user reports. I think it's easier to justify spending the extra on the amp front. It's been a good thread this though, it made me think again about amp choice. I think I'm pretty happy with my amp. I think the only ways I would change it would be to go all valve route, or to go for a more hi-fi cleaner sound (specifically wish I had bought the Warwick Hellborg rig that came up on here a while back!) The combo is lovely, but there's part of me that just enjoyed plugging separates into one another!

I think he was selling that very amp off recently...

So an update... I played this a bit, it needed a bit more of a set up and I wasn't sure about the sound, nothing sounded good! Then in an unrelated incident my amp blew up and I was without it for two months... Got it fixed and first thing I wanted to do is finally finish this bass... Switched the pickups around. The "Classic bass" in the neck position gives more high end and slightly hollow mids which does kinda P bass type sound. The "Original bass" in the bridge gives me the tone that I enjoyed in the pink bass, more of the punchy low mids with a bit of fatness to them... sounds good. The "jazz setting" needs the preamp set up differently but gets a kinda jazz bass like single coil tone thing going on. So the thing that I've learned is I think I've over build the bass - the super tight neck joint and and good bridge and thru body make it all feel very solid. It is quite bright resonant accoustically and it sounds quite clean and controlled. The 'warmth' of the wood isn't there as much! What's been really nice is since I got my amp back is that it's the "go to" bass. It's fun to play

it's the cut only mids that catch folk out I think

Interestingly you currently use old vintage trace elliot stuff. Which is great gear but almost the opposite to Mesa! I do the same with Trace, spend ages trying to convince myself I like the tone... Mind you as much as I love it, I'm not tied to this amp for life and could see myself having to explain to the wife why the pretty green loud box had turned into a ugly black hairy one!

1. I tried lots of amps, and had a sound in my head. When I tried out the Walkabout I ended up buying, it was just a really nice sound. It's good quality, there is support (not cheap) and availability is in my case not important as I only need one of them! 2. I tried a Mpulse 600 and the walkabout at the same time before I asked the fella if he wanted to sell me his amp (I was supposed to be selling him one!), the Mpulse was more spiky and 'rock' to the warmer and more rounded walkabout tone. The 3 band parametric also had wider Q which I found more musical than the 5 band on the Mpulse.... It has a big punchy sound with a lot of warmth to it. It's a bit like a cross between a B15 and a bigger valve amp. A lot of the amps I had had before were more hi-fi and clean and sound less musical. Good DI tone 3. erm no idea! I have the walkabout with the scout combo, @wateroftyne had a nice setup with a pair of 1x12 from TKS 4. big warm sounding amp that softens the fact I hit the strings hard... 5. G&L L1000, Warwick thumb and Warwick SS1 with ACG preamp. I especially like it with the warwicks. 6. Walkabout combo. The cabs that WoT will recommend if you need bigger? You're welcome to come try mine if you're in the vicinity. Oh and it looks nice enough that shethatmustbeobeyed doesn't mind it in the front room it fits easily in half the the boot of a Mk7 golf without removing the parcel shelf. Some things like that matter! Having just paid for a new transformer on a Mesa walkabout.... parts aren't cheap on them either.

Go on, let's see a photo of a Gus

I think, especially with Fender, they went from being a small company making basses and stuff to a big company/corporation making basses and stuff. I guess the question is, did the quality change - or more importantly, did the quality control change, and what effect would that have? Similar with Warwick, started out as a tiny company, grew, then in 1992 moved to a bigger plant and stopped using solid brass hardware, then late '90's early 2000's on the back of the nu-metal phase started making lots and lots more instruments a month... then later by 2012 or so scaled back to making less again... ask yourself did the quality change - and why, and I don't think the link is exactly to 'vintage'. I would rather have a custom shop Jazz made in 2017 than a vintage Jazz from 1978... The other aspect is desirability. If there are limited numbers of it then it stands to reason that it will be desirable to some folk. An example is my old JV precision. It was a really nice instrument. But because it said "Fender, squier series" rather than "Squier" it was one of only a few hundred, and because of that worth more than the later ones. Much different to a later one? Probably not! That said sometimes construction tequniques change, nitro sounding "better" for example but not safe to apply. The slab and laminate fretboards Fender used, Musicman changing their preamp, Or my current G&L only having the pickups it does for a couple of years....

Neon...

I dunno, sounds like an unlicensed fake copy to me...

nothing. really nothing.

There's a moral in there for you!

only one of those pickups could be in the correct position!

Again a note of caution - if the PA speker is designed to cross over to a sub then the bottom end might be compromised compared to what we would expect of a bass cab - they will have made different compromises when designing the bass cab

Secondhand Warwick corvette $$ fit the bill or does it need to look more traditional?