New Mesa Walkabout-style high powered amp WD-800....and new cabs...

[Sarlscharisma]

I have a Walkabout and used it with Barefaced 210/212 and had loads of power and it registered a high number on my heft meter’

Edited January 5, 2019 by Sarlscharisma

[wateroftyne]

Y’all should just buy the R-400. Honestly 😄

[Beedster]

7 minutes ago, Sarlscharisma said:

I have a Walkabout and used it with Barefaced 210/212 and had loads of power and it registered a high number on my heft meter’

Yep, but you’re selling the WA and have replaced it with an all tube head, so high heft, but not quite high enough?

Dont’t get me wrong, the WA is a great amp, but I do see why folks talk about it being underpowered compared to all-tube heads. Whether the newbie will do the job remains to be seen. 

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Y’all should just buy the R-400. Honestly 😄

Do any of the major UK bass gear retailers stock the R-400 (which would help with warranty claims etc)?

[Sarlscharisma]

Indeed, changing due to tonal preferences in my current band.  We play mainly punk music and the Ampeg fits the bit perfectly.  But powerwise I’ve never found the WA lacking.  Gain at 12 o’clock and up to  11 o’clock on master.  I’d like to keep em all but not enough space sadly.

There is a little bit more trouser flapping going on with the V4b for sure.  Yet many say it lacks on the power side too?

Edited January 5, 2019 by Sarlscharisma

[wateroftyne]

16 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Do any of the major UK bass gear retailers stock the R-400 (which would help with warranty claims etc)?

Frustratingly not...yet.  I keep on at him about it 🙂

[Beedster]

15 minutes ago, Sarlscharisma said:

Indeed, changing due to tonal preferences in my current band.  We play mainly punk music and the Ampeg fits the bit perfectly.  But powerwise I’ve never found the WA lacking.  Gain at 12 o’clock and up to  11 o’clock on master.  I’d like to keep em all but not enough space sadly.

There is a little bit more trouser flapping going on with the V4b for sure.  Yet many say it lacks on the power side too?

Agreed, but keep in mind the V4-B is 100w, substantially lower than the WA, in theory at least. Having said that, my V4-B was a huge step up from the WA in every respect.

[Al Krow]

7 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Frustratingly not...yet.  I keep on at him about it 🙂

I suspect if Handbox are going to "crack" the UK bass market then this will be a necessary first step. And even more so, post Brexit.

[PatrickJ]

I'm really looking forward to trying one of the WD-800's. 

I've always wanted to own a Mesa amplifier.  When I was learning to play the guitar in my 20's the Mesa Rectifiers were hugely popular with the alternative and hard rock bands I was listening to at the time, so obviously I wanted one.   Then as I matured and started to listen to more blues/rock Mesa released the Recto-verb 25 which became my dream amp.

Now I'm an aspiring bass player I'm keen to try some of the Mesa Bass Amps and I'm really bought into the whole Hybrid thing.

I part satisfied my Mesa itch last year by picking up the Subway Pre-amp, but the WD-800 looks great for what I want out of a head.

I'm looking forward to seeing some demo's and hearing some user reviews, I'm sure a few BCers will pick them up pretty quickly.

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by PJ-Bassist

[agedhorse]

On 04/01/2019 at 10:54, Blues Marvel said:

Call me skeptical on this new amp.

So I kind of got off a Class D train here are some of my cons on the new WD amp

If you do the research and go back and look there are countless statements by the engineer that design this amp on the internet where he says they can never design and amp to sound like the Walkabout series it can't be done so now he wants us to believe he did it?

 

The WD Maybe a good I am but I'm sure it's not a walkabout in any shape or form then the other argument is the old Walkabout isn't loud enough and I've used mine and countless situations with two twelves at 4 on and it's freaking plenty loud for any imaginable situation unless you're playing arena games so I call BS on that one

Then there's the whole rated wattage of this amp notice they claim it's 800w but look at the THD it's at 10% Distortion which in my opinion is unusually high for a high-end piece of gear at 1% this is probably a 500 watt amp and that's just a guesstimation

 now here's the next question when is this amp going to be Obsolete and they're going to come out with a new improved version? This seems to be the goal of the day make these little small light way inexpensive to build products and a couple years down the road make them obsolete so everybody wants the new version I am off of that train

 

Since you are quoting me, and quoting me incorrectly, let me clarify what I have said and how the WD-800 came about.

I have said that it is not possible to design a higher powered Walkabout that sounds exactly the same as the original Walkabout because of the was the power amplifier works. The very benefit of it's dynamics is also the very thing that prevents scaling that design up to a higher powered yest otherwise identical Walkabout.

On Talkbass, a number of dedicated Walkabout devotees created a thread about where they would wish the Walkabout might evolve to IF there was a follow-up model, knowing that it wouldn't (couldn't) be identical. Players listed their likes and also their dislikes of the existing amp and what they would like to see changed or added to maybe make it better for players gigging out. Some specific changes that were asked for included a (much) quieter fan, aux input, headphone output, more power, a sweepable high pass filter, no pull-switch type controls and smoother operation of all controls. Of course they wanted to keep the tone and feel as close as possible.

The resulting amp is the result of a collaborative effort based on this player input which resulted in an amp that's quite close in tone and feel (but not identical) to the original WA but also includes enhancements that allow it to go to places that were simply impossible due to the significant limitations of the original model. If somebody really wants an original, there's nothing stopping them because they are readily available used. If the original Walkabout is loud enough for you, great, but you don't represent other player's needs anymore that they represent yours.

As far as the power rating, due to the way the preamp gain and driver stages are designed there is some distortion generated in the preamp proportional to gain/level that is almost the same as in the original Walkabout. At higher levels, that distortion is very much a part of what made the Walkabout popular and the WD-800 follows this signal path quite closely. The power amp itself (though it can not be accessed since the aux in and fx return are pre-driver stage) is capable of about 700 watts (RMS) at 0.1% distortion and about 750 watts (RMS) at 1% THD, though this is not how the amp is being used.

 

Why don't you reserve your comments until you get an opportunity to play one and spend some time exploring both its similarities and differences to the original WA?

[wateroftyne]

Hello Mr. Horse, and thank you for contributing.

To be fair to the previous poster, you might want to have a quiet word with your marketing department who don’t exactly hold back on the WA comparison:

You spoke, we listened. In direct response to player feedback and the longstanding demand for a more powerful version of our WalkAbout™ Bass Head, we’re proud to unveil the latest in the Subway® Bass Amp Line, the WD-800™ Head. This Head combines the warm, soulful sounding magic of the WalkAbout tube preamp section with the musical Class D Output Power used in our Subway Line (D-800™ and D-800+™), to create the ultimate lightweight hybrid.

[Al Krow]

57 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Hello Mr. Horse, and thank you for contributing.

To be fair to the previous poster, you might want to have a quiet word with your marketing department who don’t exactly hold back on the WA comparison:

You spoke, we listened. In direct response to player feedback and the longstanding demand for a more powerful version of our WalkAbout™ Bass Head, we’re proud to unveil the latest in the Subway® Bass Amp Line, the WD-800™ Head. This Head combines the warm, soulful sounding magic of the WalkAbout tube preamp section with the musical Class D Output Power used in our Subway Line (D-800™ and D-800+™), to create the ultimate lightweight hybrid.

Not sure I see there being any contradiction here in what's been said above?  i.e.

a) bass players wanted a more powerful version of the WA

b) the WD-800 makes use of a similar tube preamp section to the WA

c) what I understood @agedhorse to be saying was that it was not possible to have a power amp that was simply "WA x 2 or 3" => they have a different power amp on the WD-800

d) there are also a bunch of bells and whistles on the WD-800 not on the WA

[wateroftyne]

It’s been established that a substantial dollop of the WA’s magic - IMO its USP - comes from the power amp, which (from reading above) isn’t possible to recreate. 

Don’t get me wrong, Agedhorse doesn’t have to prove his credentials in this field - I’m also confident that it’s a fantastic amp that will sell like hot cakes.

[Musicman20]

This is the first bass amp I've been interested in for YEARS....

[agedhorse]

15 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

Hello Mr. Horse, and thank you for contributing.

To be fair to the previous poster, you might want to have a quiet word with your marketing department who don’t exactly hold back on the WA comparison:

You spoke, we listened. In direct response to player feedback and the longstanding demand for a more powerful version of our WalkAbout™ Bass Head, we’re proud to unveil the latest in the Subway® Bass Amp Line, the WD-800™ Head. This Head combines the warm, soulful sounding magic of the WalkAbout tube preamp section with the musical Class D Output Power used in our Subway Line (D-800™ and D-800+™), to create the ultimate lightweight hybrid.

I think that statement accurately represents the amp, and doesn't represent it as an identical yet larger Walkabout. It's very much related to the Walkabout, models many of the elements that players liked and asked for, but also intentionally avoids some of the things that were not liked (including the always present wooliness that got in the way of some clean players and the difficult to control (especially with some under-damped ported speakers) low end response that could quickly become too much of a good thing. The new model is a little bit brighter, closer to the earlier versions. Since this model had a close to 15 year lifecycle, there are some minor differences as the design evolved.

It's very much based on the original Walkabout (including much of the basic preamp circuitry), and since there were players who did not care for the Walkabout, I would expect the same for the new amp as well. Respectfully, that's why I suggest that conclusions don't get drawn based on guessing rather than actually spending some time playing it. If it's not your tone, that's fine too... there are plenty of fine options out there for bass players these days.

[Blues Marvel]

So cant wait to see the new improved version of the WD800 when sales of these start to fall off. With the new Class D amps being much cheaper to design, build, and get to market you can just throw this one away in a year and get a new one. Cant Wait!

[LukeFRC]

2 hours ago, Blues Marvel said:

So cant wait to see the new improved version of the WD800 when sales of these start to fall off. With the new Class D amps being much cheaper to design, build, and get to market you can just throw this one away in a year and get a new one. Cant Wait!

The fella has just finished a decade or so long project to come up with a tonal replacement to the walkabout, years of getting the opinions from talkbass... and you want an upgrade next year! 

Ps - if you’re throwing an amp away I can dispose of it for you...

Edited January 9, 2019 by LukeFRC

[thodrik]

2 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

The fella has just finished a decade or so long project to come up with a tonal replacement to the walkabout, years of getting the opinions from talkbass... and you want an upgrade next year! 

Ps - if you’re throwing an amp away I can dispose of it for you...

Given how long the Talkbass Walkabout thread has been running, trying to redesign an updated version of the same preamp would be a tricky task! I would agree that most of the improvements can be seen as a positive, especially a quieter fan! Admittedly I am a massive fan of the original Walkabout and of Mesa products in general. 

My only query to the current Mesa bass line is whether there is enough differences between the D800, D800+ and the new WD800 as to warrant them all existing in the same product line at the same time? Three different 800 watt bass heads, all with similar features, all within the same general price bracket, all three of them released within the last couple of years. I have read that the D800 series was designed to sit somewhere in between the Walkabout and the Carbine spectrum in terms of tone. However, if the WD800 is designed to have benefits of the Walkabout pre-amp but with far more clean headroom and tonal flexibility, would this not mean that the new WD800 also sits in pretty much the same tonal spectrum as the D800 and D800+? The differences between the various models seem very subtle compared to Mesa's guitar line (say like the Rectifier Series as compared to the Lone Star series).

I don't mean this as a criticism, more that I would just be interested in trying the different heads and seeing the differences and subtleties between the heads. 

[agedhorse]

To clarify, there's quite a difference in feature sets between the D-800 and the D-800+, there are players who prefer the D-800 for the simpler user interface and smaller size and have no interest in the plus model. There are also users who find the added feature set of the plus model essential, especially the sweep highpass filter and 2 bands of seeep eq. Both models, while voiced between the Walkabout and the Carbine, are closer to the Carbine side of things. 

The WD-800 is based on the tube (valve) preamp of the Walkabout, has the original eq section along with the passive mid and modified tonestack voicing and power amp damping control that comes directly from what many players liked from the original Walkabout. This model is by necessity larger than the other two models, but is rack mountable whereas the others are not (without using a rack shelf).

Different players have different wants/needs, that's why we don't all play the same amp. If these amps don't work for you, then make a choice that's better suited for your needs. 

[thodrik]

22 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

To clarify, there's quite a difference in feature sets between the D-800 and the D-800+, there are players who prefer the D-800 for the simpler user interface and smaller size and have no interest in the plus model. There are also users who find the added feature set of the plus model essential, especially the sweep highpass filter and 2 bands of seeep eq. Both models, while voiced between the Walkabout and the Carbine, are closer to the Carbine side of things. 

The WD-800 is based on the tube (valve) preamp of the Walkabout, has the original eq section along with the passive mid and modified tonestack voicing and power amp damping control that comes directly from what many players liked from the original Walkabout. This model is by necessity larger than the other two models, but is rack mountable whereas the others are not (without using a rack shelf).

Different players have different wants/needs, that's why we don't all play the same amp. If these amps don't work for you, then make a choice that's better suited for your needs. 

Thanks for the clarification.

From owning both a Walkabout and M6, my preference is definitely in the Walkabout camp in terms of how  the pre-amp operates. I will probably be trying the WD-800 at some point as I'm intrigued in how the power amp dambing control operates. 

[Beedster]

An awful lot of the above, and elsewhere, does make me question why Mesa discontinued the Walkabout. I get the realities of the marketplace, competition and technological progress/innovation etc, but for many bassists the whole Walkabout package really does work, and on many levels. I suspect that with the increasing polarisation of lightweight Class D and old school all-tube heads, and despite the new WD-800, there will soon be a gaping hole in the market right where the Walkabout used to sit  

[Steve Browning]

On 05/01/2019 at 17:48, PJ-Bassist said:

I'm really looking forward to trying one of the WD-800's. 

I've always wanted to own a Mesa amplifier.  When I was learning to play the guitar in my 20's the Mesa Rectifiers were hugely popular with the alternative and hard rock bands I was listening to at the time, so obviously I wanted one.   Then as I matured and started to listen to more blues/rock Mesa released the Recto-verb 25 which became my dream amp.

Now I'm an aspiring bass player I'm keen to try some of the Mesa Bass Amps and I'm really bought into the whole Hybrid thing.

I part satisfied my Mesa itch last year by picking up the Subway Pre-amp, but the WD-800 looks great for what I want out of a head.

I'm looking forward to seeing some demo's and hearing some user reviews, I'm sure a few BCers will pick them up pretty quickly.

 

You really should look at the stupidly reasonable M-Pulse 600 for sale here. Obviously heavier than the WD800 but 1/3 the price and a truly wonderful amp. 

[wateroftyne]

2 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

You really should look at the stupidly reasonable M-Pulse 600 for sale here. Obviously heavier than the WD800 but 1/3 the price and a truly wonderful amp. 

Lovely amps, but tonally.. they don't have the WA's 'magic mids'.

IMO.

[eude]

8 minutes ago, Beedster said:

An awful lot of the above, and elsewhere, does make me question why Mesa discontinued the Walkabout. I get the realities of the marketplace, competition and technological progress/innovation etc, but for many bassists the whole Walkabout package really does work, and on many levels. I suspect that with the increasing polarisation of lightweight Class D and old school all-tube heads, and despite the new WD-800, there will soon be a gaping hole in the market right where the Walkabout used to sit  

I expect it was down to what might be perceived as lower wattage when compared to newer class D heads, even though watts do not equal watts in real terms, but lets not get into the solid state heft vs class D debate here  All in, the original Walkabout was VERY expensive compared to a lot of newer fully featured class D's claiming 3 times the wattage, makes it a hard sell really.

It could also be down to not being able to source or perhaps even use specific parts anymore?

Eude

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, Steve Browning said:

You really should look at the stupidly reasonable M-Pulse 600 for sale here. Obviously heavier than the WD800 but 1/3 the price and a truly wonderful amp. 

I've not tried the M-Pulse, but if it's as good as / better than my M6 then I have to agree your recommendation! And the same for @Sharkfinger