Old School sounding amp to replace Walkabout

[LukeFRC]

4 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Here's a little walkthrough of the Handbox R-400 I made, which is buried away in that thread somewhere.

I really consider it as a 'Walkabout Plus'.

 

Would you go for that one vs the all tube hand box you have been gratuitously showing off? 

[wateroftyne]

4 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Would you go for that one vs the all tube hand box you have been gratuitously showing off? 

The all-tube is wonderful - it just sounds bigger than the R-400. I was actually saving to buy it, but someone beat me to it (lucky for them!).

In the meantime, I'm back with the R-400 and I'm in love with it, but the touch-sensitive draw of the WB-100 will probably win eventually.

Truth is, I would (and have been) smitten with both, which I guess is a credit to the preamp.

Edited September 22, 2018 by wateroftyne

[drlargepants]

That they do lol ! 

I suppose it’s getting it repaired/replaced if anything goes wrong during the warrenty period and actually getting to try one before buying that is the issue. 

They ain’t cheap either. 

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Here's a little walkthrough of the Handbox R-400 I made, which is buried away in that thread somewhere.

I really consider it as a 'Walkabout Plus'.

 

Love that video WoT, great stuff, leaves me wanting to either buy the Handbox amp or perhaps the Walkabout you’re no longer using

[wateroftyne]

10 minutes ago, drlargepants said:

That they do lol ! 

I suppose it’s getting it repaired/replaced if anything goes wrong during the warrenty period and actually getting to try one before buying that is the issue. 

They ain’t cheap either. 

All fair points.

re: the former, Leszek seems a reasonable sort.

The middle point? Yep, I guess it's a leap of faith (which I personally wouldn't have regretted but YMMV).

The latter..? It's not, but then again it's not mass-produced on a production line in Taiwan (mind you, it's actually the same price as some of these :-D).

Edited September 22, 2018 by wateroftyne

[LukeFRC]

17 minutes ago, drlargepants said:

 

They ain’t cheap either. 

I haven’t looked but given we started with a walkabout I doubt they are Mesa prices...

[joescartwright]

1 minute ago, LukeFRC said:

I haven’t looked but given we started with a walkabout I doubt they are Mesa prices...

This!

 

sounds great in the video, I’ll get in touch and see what they’re saying. It’d be nice to try one out before laying down the cash!

[LukeFRC]

just checked: the one that sold on here secondhand was slightly more expensive than what Mesas replacement walkabout  transformer cost to be sent from the US and fitted by their authorised tech.

i would have been better selling the WB for parts and then buying the handbox!

[Al Krow]

The cheapest solution by a country mile is getting a pedal to fill the missing sonic hole. I'm with Dood on this 100% and that would definitely be my starting point before looking to replace an amp that otherwise ticks all the boxes. 

[wateroftyne]

40 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

The cheapest solution by a country mile is getting a pedal to fill the missing sonic hole. I'm with Dood on this 100% and that would definitely be my starting point before looking to replace an amp that otherwise ticks all the boxes. 

The OP mentions more output as a requirement. How would a pedal achieve that..?

[Muzz]

The more efficient cab thing works. I run a Walkabout through a BF Super Twin, and it'll hurt your ears, and drown any drummer, which is more than enough.

Having said that'just for kicks I ran it with a Compact, too, and that was even louder.

[drlargepants]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

The all-tube is wonderful - it just sounds bigger than the R-400. I was actually saving to buy it, but someone beat me to it (lucky for them!).

In the meantime, I'm back with the R-400 and I'm in love with it, but the touch-sensitive draw of the WB-100 will probably win eventually.

Truth is, I would (and have been) smitten with both, which I guess is a credit to the preamp.

Over all volume wise, how to they compare ?

[markorbit]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Here's a little walkthrough of the Handbox R-400 I made, which is buried away in that thread somewhere.

I really consider it as a 'Walkabout Plus'.

 

Great video! Thanks for doing that. Really useful 🙂

[LukeFRC]

11 minutes ago, Muzz said:

The more efficient cab thing works. I run a Walkabout through a BF Super Twin, and it'll hurt your ears, and drown any drummer, which is more than enough.

Having said that'just for kicks I ran it with a Compact, too, and that was even louder.

Ild be interested sticking one through a BFM jack and seeing how efficient that is 

[Al Krow]

35 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

The OP mentions more output as a requirement. How would a pedal achieve that..?

Clean boost pedal? And combine with...

26 minutes ago, Muzz said:

The more efficient cab thing works. I run a Walkabout through a BF Super Twin, and it'll hurt your ears, and drown any drummer, which is more than enough.

Having said that'just for kicks I ran it with a Compact, too, and that was even louder.

+1^^ more volume by getting a more efficient cab for sure. 

[wateroftyne]

6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Clean boost pedal? And combine with...

+1^^ more volume by getting a more efficient cab for sure. 

A clean boost pedal is just going to hit the pre harder. I doubt it will give more workable volume on a head like the WA. 

More sensitive cabs will work, definitely. But my TKS is pretty sensitive, and I was hitting the rails on my WA a little earlier than I’d like.

 

[Al Krow]

2 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

A clean boost pedal is just going to hit the pre harder. I doubt it will give more workable volume on a head like the WA. 

More sensitive cabs will work, definitely. But my TKS is pretty sensitive, and I was hitting the rails on my WA a little earlier than I’d like.

Yeh fair enough. The WA is 300W and that's going to be a key limitation on volume.

Must admit I'd be looking for 500W as a minimum for my amp heads to give me enough headroom for decent sized venues that don't have a house PA. My lowest powered head is my Markbass AC 121 Lite, rated 500W and I've never had to push it particularly hard.

[Al Krow]

...oh and my Markbass amp also has a VLE effect built into the amp head, if you're into a more vintage sound. Add a dirt pedal of your choice, if you want some grit, and you're home free.

Edited September 22, 2018 by Al Krow

[LukeFRC]

9 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Yeh fair enough. The WA is 300W and that's going to be a key limitation on volume.

Must admit I'd be looking for 500W as a minimum for my amp heads to give me enough headroom for decent sized venues that don't have a house PA. My lowest powered head is my Markbass AC 121 Lite, rated 500W and I've never had to push it particularly hard.

That one has the benefit of being bi-amped ... 

[Muzz]

The numbers don't tell the whole story, though - I like Class D amps (especially the newer Gen), but the numbers don't line up exactly with volume (even ignoring cabs) with different designs, and Valve is different again: AB to D to Valve are not really comparable. Not that one is inherently better than another (that's a bag of rats I don't want to open), just there's no point getting hung up on numbers. I've had 300w valve, 300-600w AB and 500-800w Class D amps, and you know what? Most of them were very loud indeed.

Also, the WA is rated at 300w, but that's at 4 ohms, and I've regularly run mine at 2.67, which equates to more output. The Super Twin, though, makes the WA capable of Very Very Loud, so I don't have to any more.

It's worth saying at this point that tone and EQ are essential to consider: for example, an aggressive mid-heavy tone can sound much more immediate and louder than something dubby, and therefore not need as much power to be perceived as loud...

[Osiris]

@joescartwright Take a look at the Genzler Magellan 800, it ticks all of your boxes (ooh err). It's light weight, has more power than you'll ever need and it does some amazing old school tones; the quickest way to get you there is to set the single knob EQ curve to voice B and dial in to taste. EQ curve B progressively dials in all the useful mids to give a great retro sound that retains depth and clarity. Leave the rest of the tone stack at noon and possibly add in the drive circuit for some smooth, rich, low gain warmth. It's not full bore distortion, neither does it do the driven scooped mids thing, it's just adds some extremely useable additional harmonic thickening. More of my thoughts about it here;

 

 

[Muzz]

And that's my favourite Class D amp, right there 😀

[LukeFRC]

I’ll throw it out there that when the tech was putting a new transformer in my walkabout he did all the tests on the power stage - my one generates over 400w into a 4ohm load in test conditions.... 

[Muzz]

That would not surprise me at all...I had an older amp to a tech after a courier did their best to destroy it, it was a Tech21, and the chap said it was capable of putting out significantly more than the number on the front...

[LukeFRC]

3 hours ago, Muzz said:

That would not surprise me at all...I had an older amp to a tech after a courier did their best to destroy it, it was a Tech21, and the chap said it was capable of putting out significantly more than the number on the front...

So maybe the whole “300w AB = 800w class D” thing is more conservative rated AB vs class D rating trying to quantify its peak power too. 

The thing I don’t understand is we’ve had this leap from lower powered amps to 4000w class D amps - but has there been an equivalent jump in driver technology?