Steve Browning

You will not be disappointed. It's a stunning bit of kit.

I've just added this to the reviews section. These amps arrived from the US a couple of days ago and I immediately booked a rehearsal studio in order to check I'd wired up the rack correctly, and to give the amps a good go. As with all my Boogie amp purchases, I was buying 'blind' but I have never been disappointed so ordered one as soon as they were announced. My first Boogie head was a Bass 400 in the mid 80's and the fact that this used the same tone stack made it the amp for me (and my back). You can see I was running through two Subway 1x15 cabs. The basses were an SVL Reserve with flats, an old Precision with rounds and my A/E fretless which is active) with flats. I was joined (socially distanced-like) by @rumblefish who brought along an active bass - and his ears! The signal path was bass - tuner - amp - rack EQ in the fx loop - cabs. The EQ's were in bypass mode. I got the unit merely because the 400 has a graphic and I did use it on my one. The amps were rack-mounted using the Mesa kit. The ears weighed a good bit more than the amp I reckon!! This review is a first impressions review and I imagine I've only scratched the surface of what it can do. First of all, a big shout out to the manual. The best one I've read so far. Not only did it have all the info on the amp, it also had a comprehensive table of the ohm settings and power distribution for a number of cab combinations (1x8ohm + 1x4ohm etc). It's a question that comes up regularly and here was a table with all the permutations and the relevant ohmage setting. So, on to the amp. The 'executive summary' is an emphatic 'wow'. The amp (I was pretty much just using the Boogie channel) has all the tone you need and the combination of gain and volume give you everything you want in terms of grind. By way of comparison, I had my channel gain (on the 400) at about 1 o'clock. I ended up at about 3 on this amp. This gave it that bit of 'bite' when digging in a bit on the bass. The EQ section is typically Boogie with loads of variation on all the controls but the biggest differences coming in with judicial use of the mid controls. I had started off with the deep switch on but decided it was not needed in the end, the high pass filter remained fully counter-clockwise. With everything set at 12 o'clock it sounded wonderful and I didn't get a bad sound out of it. To my ears, the sound was pure 'me'. It's the sound I've had since those 400 and Diesel 2x15 days right through to today. It's a sound I love and always makes me smile. This barely scratches the surface, as I said. There are so many possibilities on the amp that I neither had the time, or the ears, to fully explore all the subtleties in this brilliant package. In my opinion, Mesa have delivered again. They took me from all valve to valve/mosfet without losing any of my sound and have now taken me on to valve/digital, again, without losing any of the sound. An exceptional amp and I now just have to wait until circumstances are such that I can run it up 'in anger'.

These amps arrived from the US a couple of days ago and I immediately booked a rehearsal studio in order to check I'd wired up the rack correctly, and to give the amps a good go. As with all my Boogie amp purchases, I was buying 'blind' but I have never been disappointed so ordered one as soon as they were announced. My first Boogie head was a Bass 400 in the mid 80's and the fact that this used the same tone stack made it the amp for me (and my back). You can see I was running through two Subway 1x15 cabs. The basses were an SVL Reserve with flats, an old Precision with rounds and my A/E fretless which is active) with flats. I was joined (socially distanced-like) by @rumblefish who brought along an active bass - and his ears! The signal path was bass - tuner - amp - rack EQ in the fx loop - cabs. The EQ's were in bypass mode. I got the unit merely because the 400 has a graphic and I did use it on my one. The amps were rack-mounted using the Mesa kit. The ears weighed a good bit more than the amp I reckon!! This review is a first impressions review and I imagine I've only scratched the surface of what it can do. First of all, a big shout out to the manual. The best one I've read so far. Not only did it have all the info on the amp, it also had a comprehensive table of the ohm settings and power distribution for a number of cab combinations (1x8ohm + 1x4ohm etc). It's a question that comes up regularly and here was a table with all the permutations and the relevant ohmage setting. So, on to the amp. The 'executive summary' is an emphatic 'wow'. The amp (I was pretty much just using the Boogie channel) has all the tone you need and the combination of gain and volume give you everything you want in terms of grind. By way of comparison, I had my channel gain (on the 400) at about 1 o'clock. I ended up at about 3 on this amp. This gave it that bit of 'bite' when digging in a bit on the bass. The EQ section is typically Boogie with loads of variation on all the controls but the biggest differences coming in with judicial use of the mid controls. I had started off with the deep switch on but decided it was not needed in the end, the high pass filter remained fully counter-clockwise. With everything set at 12 o'clock it sounded wonderful and I didn't get a bad sound out of it. To my ears, the sound was pure 'me'. It's the sound I've had since those 400 and Diesel 2x15 days right through to today. It's a sound I love and always makes me smile. This barely scratches the surface, as I said. There are so many possibilities on the amp that I neither had the time, or the ears, to fully explore all the subtleties in this brilliant package. In my opinion, Mesa have delivered again. They took me from all valve to valve/mosfet without losing any of my sound and have now taken me on to valve/digital, again, without losing any of the sound. An exceptional amp and I now just have to wait until circumstances are such that I can run it up 'in anger'.

Spain and Bulgaria have nil VAT registration thresholds so selling just one CD in these countries requires you register for VAT there.

That can only be said by any impartial folk who were there. Any deviation would require both the UK and EU governments to agree.

Yes they are. At the rehearsal studio now. First impressions? Wow. Just wow.

Yes. I have two of the Subway 15s. They didn't make a 2x15 when I bought them. To my ears, my sound hasn't changed from my original Bass 400 and Diesel 2x15 rig. I still just love the sound of it. They're my usual cabs. The Walkabout is my rehearsal/recording rig.

Cheers Dave. Looking forward to tomorrow with great anticipation.

I sit corrected!!

I really like my Walkabout and was the same with the M-Pulse (pretty much the same in terms of preamp) but always really loved the sound of my 400. The fact that the TT used more valves in the path (and aimed to replicate the 400) was the clincher for me. I can rig up the amps tomorrow (at some point) with one driving a 1x15 on Boogie and the other driving the other (1x15) on Subway and see what I get.

That location idea sounds like an excellent one.

Oh you flatterer!! 🙂 I originally ordered one from Andertons (this is a story that played out on these pages). The original delivery date was such that it would arrive in time for me to use it at a small number of gigs I had in the diary. As time went on and the delivery slipped, I started to panic that the amps wouldn't arrive. In the meantime (and somewhat rashly), I had sold my 'big' amps, the two M-Pulses and my original Bass 400. I still had my Walkabout but would have preferred to use my usual rig. The second M-Pulse was bought (here) because it had hung around on the FS page for a while and the price was attractive. I haven't needed a spare but (frankly) I thought having the pair looked quite cool. As the delivery date slipped to after the gigs, I made contact with a very good friend (with whom I had toured) who is a Boogie endorsee and asked if there was anything he could do to help. He put me in touch with his artist relations guy and suggested I write some kind of impressive bio to try and get a deal of my own. I confess to being very pessimistic but thought 'what the hell' (I got my Rotosound deal in a similar way). So, I wrote the email, dropped a couple of names (I had also toured with Barry Melton - in some ways, the very reason Boogie came into existence) and, lo and behold, it worked. Now we get to the crucial bit. I asked Kris (the artist relations chap) how much a TT-800 and rack ear kit would cost. The price was considerably lower than the Andertons price and so I cancelled the Andertons order (I was shallow enough to enjoy telling them why) and reckoned, at that price, I'll get a spare. So that's it, the second one is a spare. Of course, the trouble now, is that I'm thinking that the second one could drive a 2x12. I haven't asked Kris the price yet but my hold on to reason if slipping!!

I have booked a rehearsal room for Thursday and will report back after then.

It's the carnet that kills it, I fear.

No it bl00dy isn't. I hate that record with a passion!!!! 🙂

... save for the tolling of a muffled bell.

Have a great birthday. Going anywhere nice? 😉

The shipper will produce the commercial invoice and either you will be charged directly (if you are he importer of record) or you will be charged by the shipper, for reimbursement of the various import charges. I would guess you fall under the latter camp. You need to check the incoterms of your agreement with your supplier. It is possible they are not mentioned, of course.

They're here!!!!!!

Hopefully folk have got the message now.

That's interesting (and worrying). That is not the Tariff free that was highlighted. Thanks for pointing that out.

They're in the UK. Getting excited!!!

I used to have one of those amps. It was an absolute killer guitar combo.

The 6 questions below are how HMRC determine whether there is a business. They are 6 points that have arisen from earlier tax cases. The first of these may be open to interpretation but, as I sad, profit is not an issue. I was involved in demonstrating to HMRC that a certain drummer with an interest in Arab horses can still be running a business, even though it ran at a spectacular loss. He could easily afford to subsidise it. The clincher here is that last one. It's not the only one but it's hard to argue against it. Is the activity a serious undertaking earnestly pursued? Is the activity an occupation or function, which is actively pursued with reasonable or recognisable continuity? Does the activity have a certain measure of substance in terms of the quarterly or annual value of taxable supplies made (bearing in mind that exempt supplies can also be business)? Is the activity conducted in a regular manner and on sound and recognised business principles? Is the activity predominately concerned with the making of taxable supplies for a consideration? Are the taxable supplies that are being made of a kind which, subject to differences of detail, are commonly made by those who seek to profit from them? This is probably more than we need to know but my point is that anything we buy could easily be seen to be an asset to be used by such a business. I would imagine that goods we buy will not qualify for any kind of relief or allowance as being 'private'. This may well be irrelevant but I wouldn't want anyone to believe that there is a way of avoiding the costs relating to import. The extract from taunton-hobbit seems to put a threshold of £1k income (not profit) on it. VAT law uses only those 6 questions and that is harder to quantify. You can answer yes to all of those without getting to £1k.

As I have said, we need to be careful how liberally we interpret private use. If we are gigging or getting any reward for our labours then the law says we are a business and any stuff we bring in could be seen as a business asset. This gets a bit tax technical but business doesn't equate to profit.