One Year Using the Mesa WD-800 | Review
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Some thoughts about my experiences after using the Mesa Engineering WD-800 for a year.
Mesa WD-800 on Thomann: bit.ly/3aghJwx
Mesa Bass Amps: bit.ly/2u74FsA
WD-800 demo: • MESA/Boogie Subway WD-...
D-800 Plus vs WD-800: • MESA/Boogie D-800+ vs ...
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I just received my WD-800 in the mail today. Had a Markbass Little Mark 800 and only had it for about 1 week and returned it after first band practice because I wasn't impressed with its drive and "ummff". This amp is by far best sounding amp i've played. I play in a rock (mostly classic) cover band and this sounds perfect for what I want. It can give you the lows, mids and highs all with great clarity. And you are right about the feel aspect. The sound you get from it makes you feel what you're playing more, hard to describe, but its amazing.
Congratulations!! Yes, i love my WD. It so versatile and it makes the bass sit great on mixes (live & recorded)
@@IvanBassist I have followed your suggestions based on your experience with it. I have the passive mids all the way up, left parametric EQ flat, and i noticed the damping does sound better on high when playing at louder volume! Great review.
There you go and did it again! I just moved forward and purchased this amp. My wife wants me to stop watching you because every time I do, I'm buying something new. Regardless, you have been a big inspiration and my sound has definitely gotten better. I do have a question about the high pass filter. Currently, I use a Broughton high pass filter and leave it on full time. Now with this amp, it has one built in. Should I shut off the Broughton when using this amp or would they work in unison in some fashion?
hahaha sorry, not sorry :D Glad to hear the channel has helped you. I hope you like the amp!
Whether you use the Broughton on or off, depends a bit on how you have your signal chain. Do you rely on your amp to fill a room or use a DI before the amp?
In most cases, I'd turn the Broughton off and just use the one on the amp, because stacking HPFs creates a more drastic effect and you might lose too much bass. Agedhorse on talkbass has described it on the forums
Thanks for the tip on dialing out unwanted frequencies. Dialing up the db relative to the freq range followed by sweeping and then dialing back db once it's identified will be really helpful.
Peace,
"BOOG"
Hey there! Thanks! Happy to help :) That’s a pretty classic technique used in mixing consoles 😊
Bought one two days ago to go with my Subway 115's. Was unsure about dropping the $ but after watching your videos I was convinced. This thing is fantastic. Cheers bro.
Awesome! Enjoy your new amp, Jason!
Excellent video. Great review and very helpful. I’ve been looking at Mesa and other class D amp and this is very helpful.
Thanks for watching! Glad you found the video helpful!
You aren’t joking that you are nitpicking on size and weight ha ha ha…you can lift this thing with 2 fingers and with its bag it is like a light purse……from someone that toured years with SVT, Aguilar DB 751 etc ….this thing is like it’s sent from the Gods.
I know 🤪
WD vs D? And I'm glad it's bigger, more dense heatsink inside for better cooling of the switching mosfets for better heat dissipation, less heat build up overall internally. Plus it just looks better, i wish mesa would re release the d180 or the bass 400, both were great tube amps. :(
They sound different. It depends a lot on what the user is looking for. Here’s a side by side comparison of the DI signals: ruclips.net/video/F1wcVRVEqcU/видео.html
@@IvanBassist thanks brotha!!!
They just released a new amp, the TT800. 2 channels. One is aimed to sound closer to the 400+ and the other one is modeled after the subway D series. I’ll be getting one for testing soon, but Mesa already released an official video about it 💪🏽
To get a warmer better tone to get a better tone . Less brittle .I go in the active input
Only words 😮
🙏🏽
I have both 800+ and the WD and agree with you 100% - it's the feel! Awesome review - Thank you Ivan!!!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!
i have used many amps in all my years of playing ive played them all on all stage sizes etc i have personally found that if your net feeling the amp and what i mean if your in harmony with it where it really connects to you all the bells whistles etc dont mean anything.when i started in 1980 there were not alot of amps that performed the way i wanted a big problem was volume trying to compete with marshalls and rectifiers etc you need an amp that pushes power and head room.when i started there were the old acoustic 360,the sunn coliseum and the svt.i couldnt afford an svt so i usedbasically what i could afford until one day i got an ampeg svt all tube head.the feel of the bass the sound and punch i have never found anything that compares with that.im not sure about ampeg now that its not made in america anymore but i use my old svt and i have an svt 3 pro also for added power i have an ampeg power amp i can use on the svt 3.i know everything is going into real light bass rigs etc well i still use the old workhorses ampeg i was not impressed with this mesa amp it doesnt hit me like my ampeg.im not knocking anyones gear its what works for me
I appreciate your honesty because I have money for A purchase and I just want the experience I’m envisioning. I want it to be real when i get it and plug in. I think imma get the svt heritage.
Great review, you definitely speak the language of feel and tone.
Thanks, Chris! Glad that it was helpful!
I just bought this amp and this vid was a huge confidence booster that I made a good decision! I cant play it out of my cab yet (ampeg pf115h) because I didn't know about the speakon output 😞 ordered a speakon to 1/4" cable and cannot wait to blow up my windows tomorrow! Just played with headphones for an hr and really love the rich tube tone. Thanks for the thorough review!
Glad to hear you’re liking the amp so far! Let me know how it sounds through your cab :)
Btw, the headphone out has a Subway 1x15 speaker simulation ;)
I have the 800+, love it. I like the fact this is a bit bigger and heavier, the super small and light amps get pushed around too much and knobs can be too fidgety.
That’s true. I’ve heard stories of tone hammer amps falling out of cabinets 😂
Eich amps solved that problem by putting magnets on top of the cab and below their amps. You can tilt the cabs without issue ✌🏽
Good work I like your approach, I can apply your ideas to my sound
Ron Anderson thanks 🙏🏽 happy to help! Let me know how it turns out!
Thanks a lot... really nice work! I'm also very intrested in this amp!
What do you think how versatile is the amp for different genres... mostly i play reggae, soul, funk and hiphop!
Also i heard some guys complaining about the fan is to loud. What's your experience with that?
Hey Ralf! Thanks for watching!
1. The fan is not loud. Before i switched to mesa i used to own a GK amp and that fan was LOUD. Sometimes even louder than my playing at practice room volumes.
2. The WD is definitely very versatile due to the 3 mid bands + all the other good stuff and I’m pretty sure that you can dial in good tones for the genres that you mentioned.
However, i think the D-800+ might be a better choice for you. It is naturally rounder/thicker sounding and you can get some very THICK tones using the deep switch, which is great for reggae and hip hop.
Try to test both, if possible, or watch the comparison vid i did playing them side by side :)
Great review bro, gratings from Uruguay!
Gracias, Ivan! Un abrazo 💪🏽
You are so right about how having parametric EQ trains your ear. Eden WT 600 amp taught me to hear and recognize the frequencies… this WD seems reminiscent of the Eden, but with added features of HPF and passive mid, and variable damping… I think I need this amp!
I have one too and love it. I always leave my damping on low as in I don't see the point of it. I would have much more preferred a compressor. I love the hpf too.
Awesome amp!
That amp! After watching your first vid on this, I couldn't get it out of my mind....finally got one a couple weeks ago, (I blame you!) All great, and thanks again for the great review.
Haha guilty as charged 🤪 Enjoy the new amp!!
Just ordered one instead of the TT-800
Hope you like it!!
I watched a local concert and was blown away by the D800+ with a pair of Mesa Subway 112s. The sound was amazing and cut through the band without a sub. I'm about to upgrade my gear and am going to get the WD800 for sure. What are your thoughts of using this amp with a Mesa 115 paired with a Mesa 112?
Great choice! I’m sure you’ll dig the amp! I haven’t paired my Subway 1x15” with another cab, yet, but I’ve read that some people really like using two 1x15” subway cabs, the 2x12” or combining the 1x15 with a 2x10”
Hi Mike, I’ve been using a D800 with Subway 115 & 112 cabs since not long after the subway line came out. The 115/112 cabs work amazingly well together. As in all caps amazing. So much so that I’ll bring both cabs even if it appears to be overkill. A few bars at soundcheck and all skepticism is vanquished! Be Safe, Manny
@@emanuelbassist Thank you for the reply Emanuel! I tried them live yesterday for the first time and they were totally impressive. We had our sub connected as well and it was total overkill; we didn't need it. Those Mesa Subways stole the show!
I think the WD-800 is a future classic! I love them!
Great amp! Thanks for watching!
I'm having a hard time testing out the "directness" of the power damping of the WD800. I currently have a Mesa M9 Carbine, and that amp is characterized as VERY direct. Does the WD800 compare to that when set on "high"?
It feels a bit more “squishy” because of the tube preamp and overall design, but the high damping setting is definitely punchy and percussive. For reference, the D-800+ feels a bit more “direct”
I own a M6 head and 412 cab, I adore that rig even if it hasn’t seen much action, especially lately.
Anyway “direct?” yep! Peace, Manny
Now you have to do a comparison between the WD and TT haha.
Yes! Unfortunately, the TT is extremely backordered for Europe
Thanks for running through this. I am upgrading my rig and am giving this strong consideration.
Thanks for watching! It’s a killer amp! You can watch the demos linked during the video for tonal references :)
I was looking to upgrade my current rig and a friend of mine suggested I should look into Mesa amps. It was this video what convinced me to pull the trigger. Got it two weeks ago, and it sounds great! This amp, combined with the YYZ pedal from Tech 21 and the Alpha Omega from Darkglass, is mind blowing. Would love to see what your settings are with these.
Thank you for posting this review, and for all the great content you put out there. Saludos desde Washington, DC!
Hola Jose!! Happy to hear that! Enjoy the new amp!
I also have those two pedals and love running them together with the WD-800 🤘🏽 There’s a demo of the YYZ on my channel and recently I did a bass tone tuesday video featuring the YYZ on a classic rock setting and also the Alpha omega together with the x ultra
ruclips.net/video/qKJmFT_9Vt8/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/HSb0ekhB4Zo/видео.html
Q vo tocayo. I've got the D-800. One of favorite bass amps.
Interesting Mesa got rid of the DI-level on these smaller amps. I know on the old MPulse and Carbine heads they still had that, I believe... good review. Excited to get one.
The DI is at a fixed output when using Pre-EQ mode, while in Post-EQ you control the output by using the input gain of the amp :)
IvanBassist Nice. That would've been a dealbreaker haha, thanks for clarifying that
A real review on this amp. I like how you said you’ve used it for over a year.
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed the review 🙏🏽
gr8 video ivan!! quick question, using the direct output on the back do you think that would be good enough to run to FOH while going speaker out to a cabinet in a live setting? im curious if i will need a DI/preamp either before or after the amp as well or if you think the direct output on the mesa would be sufficient for a good FOH bass tone? thanks man keep up the gr8 work!!
Hey Vincent! I’ve used the DI out of the amp for a lot of work (studio & live) and it sounds fantastic. Andy, who designed the amp, has had many year as a live engineer, which definitely helped when designing the DI and the whole amp :)
@@IvanBassist excellentttt.. I play in a reggae rock band no fancy fx on bass just want a nice round fat tone for the reggae stuff and another dirtier channel for the rock-ier stuff.. would you suggest this or the tt-800 since it is 2 channel? I rly like mesa but not opposed to other model if you have a better suggestion.. thx again ivan!!
@@LEIDBACKREGGAE I have no direct experience with the TT, but being able to switch between both channels would be a good feature for you if you need to swap between those 2 genres quickly and don’t want to use any pedals :)
@@IvanBassist tysm ivan.. you are so helpful my friend thx as always!!
Also, you can just put the pad on the mic pre when recording with the input gain all the way up.
Hey Ivan,
Sorry to revive an old comment section - have you had a chance to try the TT800? If so what are your thoughts on it vs the WD800. I’m torn between which to order and I can’t find any TT800s in the wild to try in person unfortunately.
Thanks!
Hey Kyle, unfortunately not. Haven’t even seen one here in Europe :(
That squishy pillow effect sounds a lot like the old Mesa Walkabout head. I believe that’s what they were aiming for with this iteration.
It’s a really cool amp!
ok so in the future, if I got this amplifier, there's a way I could safely run it to mesa's 400 watt 1-15 bass cab without blowing it? I'm very very uneducated when anything impedance related comes into the conversation so if someone could explain that I would appreciate it. I see that he uses the 1-15 cab in the video but I just wanna know HOW and WHY it would be ok to use. I ask this because I think it would dope to have 2 400 watt 1-15s, so that I could carry less when the 2nd cab isn't needed. Thanks in advance!
edit: I think I understand now that if you have the switch to 4/8 ohms you shouldn't have any trouble with that specific cab but I'll leave this comment if anyone would be kind enough to educate me on impedance and how that interacts with running multiple cabs and such. I really gotta learn because it's my biggest barrier to entry with buying amp head/cab stacks, I'm too scared I'm gonna misinterpret something and blow a cab lol.
Hi! Yes! You can use this with for example the Mesa 1x15 400w cab. That cab is rated at 8ohm. Putting together two 8 ohm cabs results in 4 ohm. With this amp you can even run four (4!!) 8 ohm cabs when using the switch in the 2 ohm position. Alternatively, you could run two 4 ohm cabs. Hope this helps!
@@IvanBassist ok that makes a lot of sense thanks! If you don't mind I have one more question since we're on the topic. So say you have a 800 watt amplifier at 8 ohms. would the power output be identical if you ran 1 800 watt cab at 8 ohms, or running 2 400 watt cabs at 4 ohms each? I'm wondering because I think I've seen that there's a relationship between impedance and wattage. for example the amp head in the video says it puts out 400 watts at 8 ohms and 400 at 4/2 ohms.
Hmm not quite. If you’re amps put outs 800w it most likely do it at 4 ohm. For example: You could send those 800w into one 4x10 cab rated at 4ohm or two 2x10 cabs rated at 8 ohm each. Both combinations would give you the 800w of power.
@@IvanBassist ok, after thinking about it for a minute I think I get it. I assume that the reason two cabs at 8ohms puts out the same amount of power is because 2 8ohm cabs equals 4ohms when put together like you said. well, anytime I have impedance questions I'll just have to come back to the comments section of this video lol. Thank you so much for the explanation.
@@scrappybadger4369 happy to help!
Great review. But come on.....too big? haha
Ivan, i might have misunderstood what you meant, but to me it sounded like you said that you hooked up a single cabinet to the 2 ohm output thinking that you were sending less wattage to the cabinet, correct? If so, never do that again! For a 4ohm cab, @2ohms you are sending twice as many watts as you wanted, @8ohms you are sending 1/2, hope that helps clarify. And if that's not what you meant and i misunderstood, again i am sorry. Cheers.
Hey there! This amp is designed to send less output when the ohm selector switch is set to the 2 ohm position. It’s been confirmed by Andy Field/AgedHorse, the guy who designed the WD-800 😊
@@IvanBassist i was unaware of that. Thanks for the explanation.
No worries! Maybe i should’ve explained better or in more detail what I meant 😊
@@IvanBassist hello Ivan. Thanks for the great video. Regarding the 2 ohm switch, is that true of all Subway series amps? In particular, the D-800? Thanks again 👍🏽
Yes, it is :)
Yup, it's the tube! A tube amp section colors the sound a lot less than a tube preamp.
Cool tips, thanks Ivan!
Thanks for watching 🙏🏽
Thinking about pairing this with an epifani dist 2 2x10 cabs do you think they will mix ok ?
I’ve never tried those, but i don’t see a reason why that wouldn’t work. You might want to check out the Watt handling of the cabs though. This puts out 400w at 8 ohm and 800 at 8 ohm
Wish I could afford one....
It took me over a year of saving to get my first Mesa amp. Patience and not spending in unnecessary stuff definitely helped 💪🏽
very helpful, thank you
Thanks for watching!
I really enjoyed your video dude!
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it!
WD800 or TT800?
I haven’t tested the TT800, yet, but I’ll be doing a review and some comparison videos as soon as it lands in Europe ✌🏽
Based on your excellent review, the WD-800 will be my next amp. Such a great job you did!
That’s great! Let me know what you think about it once you get it :)
Thank you!!!!
Thank you for watching!
@@IvanBassist HOW MUCH WAS YOUR 1X15 CAB?
Hello Ivan, I recently had my Darkglass 900 watt amp breakdown on me so I'm in search of a new amp. Can you advise how the subway d 800 plus compares to other mid focus type of amps. This model seems great but the d plus seems like a good middle ground from the three models that are offered. I usually do hard rock, metal, and some funk stuff as an FYI and have already a 2x12 mesa cab. Hope to hear back from you and keep at it with your cool videos!
Thanks for the kind words! The WD is definitely more mid aggressive than the D-800+. The D-800+ has a more “round”, thick and punchy tone. Both amps are great, though! If cash and size isn’t a problem for you, I’d definitely consider getting the Plus version instead of the D-800. You get the flexibility of the mid bands, bright switch, effects loop and the variable HPF, which is a life saver. A big selling point for the WD is the feel/response of the amp. It’s got a very unique feel to it. You can hear both side by side here: ruclips.net/video/F1wcVRVEqcU/видео.html