Just wait till you see what I did...... Mesa surprise

[drbassman]

Stay tuned.  More to come soon.

[drbassman]

Got this today.......

[saltymonkey]

Nice!!!! Love the color! Classy. Are those 15s? I have the same head. I bet that sounds fantastic. Still working my way through all the voice positions. How do you set it Doc?

[Pilgrim]

DANG!!!  That's a lot of cool lookin' "stuff"!

[Dave W]

two 4x10s? Tell us more!

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Aww you got my hopes up. I was hoping you had upped the horsepower and would be sporting the new Strategy. Oddly enough, I just finished jamming on my old 400+ right before I sat down to check things out here. If there would be one improvement I could make to it, it would be to give it a 6550A/KT88 output section which would beef up low end punch considerably. A pair of 6L6GC's can put out the same amount of power as a single 6550A/KT88, but only half the peak plate current, and current is where low end comes from.

[the mojo hobo]

two 4x10s? Tell us more!

Looks like 15s to me.

[drbassman]

Nice!!!! Love the color! Classy. Are those 15s? I have the same head. I bet that sounds fantastic. Still working my way through all the voice positions. How do you set it Doc?

Thanks!  Both are Scout 15s with the 12" radiator in the bottom.  I love the sound of these cabs.  Much richer/deeper than the Powerhouse models.  They are larger and with the extra 12" speaker just plain sound better to me.

I set the selector switch to 5, maximum bass!  All of the other dials are pretty much at 11 or 12 o'clock.  The tone is deep and full and the gain gives it a bit of old school sound.  I love the amp.

[drbassman]

Aww you got my hopes up. I was hoping you had upped the horsepower and would be sporting the new Strategy. Oddly enough, I just finished jamming on my old 400+ right before I sat down to check things out here. If there would be one improvement I could make to it, it would be to give it a 6550A/KT88 output section which would beef up low end punch considerably. A pair of 6L6GC's can put out the same amount of power as a single 6550A/KT88, but only half the peak plate current, and current is where low end comes from.

Well, thus far, I'm happy with the low end from this rig.  Part of the issue I was having before is the Powerhouse models are known for rip roaring mids and upper ends.  Part of that comes from the fact that the cabs are totally different from the Scouts.  I know the design dictates the freq response significantly and I always liked the sound of my old Scout cab.   

I set the controls on the speakers to Normal across the board and that seems to be working.

As for low end, the guitar player at practice last night was complaining about the low end bugging his ears.  I think I have enough now!

As for master volume, this amp has plenty.  With the Gain at 12 o'clock, I have the master set at 8 to 9 o'clock, barely on IMHO.  It's really doing fine thus far.

[drbassman]

DANG!!!  That's a lot of cool lookin' "stuff"!

Thanks Al.  I ordered the speakers in black originally, but my sales guy called to tell me Mesa had a promotion on for free upgrades to the dealers, then they could charge whatever they wanted for them in order to boost sales.  Normally $189 per cab for the upgraded cosmetics.  My guy gave it to me at a cost I can't really mention.  However, I love those guys!

[Dave W]

Ah, I knew they had to be too big for just 1x15s. I've never had a problem with low end from my 2 1x15 EV Mesas, but that's just me.

[drbassman]

Ah, I knew they had to be too big for just 1x15s. I've never had a problem with low end from my 2 1x15 EV Mesas, but that's just me.

Yeah, there's something about the radiating cabs that really appeal to my ear and brain.  I'm a fan!

[Highlander]

Nice looking rig...

Could someone explain the "radiating" component or is their a drawing that shows the arrangement around...?

[Granny Gremlin]

It's a "passive radiator."  Basically replace the port (a given volume of air) with a speaker cone (with no motor/magnet, or just not connected to anything).  The mass of the cone, and it's resonance point, is akin to the the mass of air in a port. Tuning the system is done by adding weight to the cone (there is often a bolt you can add washers to, often on the back, but I put mine on the front for easier tweakage) vs changing the volume of the port (length and/or width).  Theoretically very similar designs but they end up not sounding exactly the same (I tend to prefer passive radiators) and end up being (usually, but not always) more easily user-tunable than ported boxes.

So.... if you ever have a drive unit with a cracked magnet (e.g. shitty stamped frame late 70s PA stuff or white van speakers) whack off the motor with a hammer and you have a PR to play with (you will likely need to add weight and stiffen the cone which can be done by painting it with puzzcoat/hodge podge or just plain old watered down white/wood glue). 

Back when I ran a venue, I wanted the PA to look vintage (mostly indie rock shows), so I scored a pair of those old Traynor 4x12 vertical line arrays (I already had a pair of Sun horns to go on top) for almost nothing because half the drivers were blown.  I converted the broken drivers into PRs.  Later I replaced the remaining drivers with modern (heavier duty) bass drivers (an EV and a Black Widow each IIRC) which worked great because those cabs are a little on the small side for 4 modern 12s, but just 2 was about right.  Those things kicked and I only ever ran them at half the power they could take.

[Highlander]

That makes sense... cheers...

I've been running my old Marshall 4x12 with just the 2 replacement 75w speakers running, leaving the old remaining Celestion pair in place but not powered... put out a lovely sound until the head died...