flw wrote:Mine says Bassman 100-4ohm. use it for bass witha v4b, sounds good. someone told me its about the distance from the cab where it sounds best or loudest. not sure but I think the pyramidical formation relocates this closer to the cab, compared to a plain one. might be useful for recording.

Yeah.. we were pretty confused as to how the pyramid formation would project. We found it at a pawn shop for $250- we went ahead and got it to see how it'd sound for recording. We have to try it out. Sounds good though.

when I brought up the pyramid cab on this forum a few months ago, zom-zom said he used to have one and he liked it. steve said something like every time he's tried to record the pyramid cab, it's been a nightmare. that would stand to reason, with crazy phase interactions and whatnot.

I have one that i'll sell if anybody wants it. $200 or something.

Little Atlas Heavyweight wrote:

hogrot wrote:why ugh?

i don't like what i've heard from them.

What have you heard? I have a mesa d-180, which is the 200 watt little brother of that amp. It does bring the balls and the rock, though I haven't had the chance to play through a Mesa.

I think the problem with a lot of Mesa Boogie equipment is not so much the equipment, but most of the people playing them.

llllllllllllllllllllllll wrote:
I think the problem with a lot of Mesa Boogie equipment is not so much the equipment, but most of the people playing them.

I partially agree. Many colonsnorkelers play Mesa and are "sponsored" by them. I particularly despise the "dirty" or "distortion" channels on their amps.

They sound (and look) like a saturated and compressed hissy fat-ass pressed up a window. Great if you are a chowderhead with neck tattoos and dirty fingernails dressed up like a clown from Jacksonville playing an Ibanez 7-string with 'buckers. Not so good if you actually want to sound good.

That said, the Mesa F30 has a very nice clean channel overdrive when dimed.

The Dual Rectumfryer (aside from the ugly truck grill faceplate) has a decent glassy clean sound when cranked.

Better than generic Marshall JCM800's with 1960 4X12's, that's fer sure.

I have never played a Mesa Bass amp. I imagine there are too many unnecessary knobs.

The Mesa thiele-style cabinets and the 2X12 half open back slant cabs are a treasure. Well built. Especially the 1X15 Diesel with the EV15ML's. Cheap and they sound great. Use any head and you can coax a great sound out of them.

scott wrote:when I brought up the pyramid cab on this forum a few months ago, zom-zom said he used to have one and he liked it. steve said something like every time he's tried to record the pyramid cab, it's been a nightmare. that would stand to reason, with crazy phase interactions and whatnot.

I have one that i'll sell if anybody wants it. $200 or something.

i played bass through one of these cabs. it was magic.

it worked. when i played by myself i could hear it. it seemd loud.

anyone else comes in and that amp goes invisible. fucking crazy.

i hated it. i'll give you $10 to just break it for me.

A friend of mine has left his mesa 400 w/ the Diesel 2x15 indefinitely at my practice space. It sounds great. It also has about 18 tubes in it. I'm guessing it costs $300 to retube.

I'd get one of those blue front acoustic solid state amps not played by John Paul Jones. The one (360?) played by John Paul Jones is kick ass, but it's expensive, because it was played by John Paul Jones.

The Bassman AB165 is totally awesome, totally more awesome than most at six times the price, but you might get buried by everybody else playing bass through it. If there's one for $150, fuck it, get it and use it for guitar if it doesn't work out.

mr.arrison wrote:

llllllllllllllllllllllll wrote:

I have never played a Mesa Bass amp. I imagine there are too many unnecessary knobs.

Dunno about the solid state stuff, which might require more knobs, but mine has the following: volume, bass, mid, treble. Don't knock it til you try it, natch.

i just recorded a 4x10 satellite arond a a single 15" mesa cab. it was physically heavy as fuck, no casters, built like a brick shit house, good for live things, and blue as hell in the roadcae...i have a habit of micing in the center of speakers. the mids were impressive, the low end needed help. i used a r/e 20, sm7b (both set flat) and an octava 219 mod flat w/ a 10 db pad. i have never recorded any mesa boogie that resulted in: "high fives! you got that right!" my earlier post of my bass setup was pretty futile in a recording environment today as well. the cab was great, the amps just had artifacts that sucked. use what works for you!

In high school I had a silverface Bassman 70 head and a no name 1x15 cab that i loved very much.
It even had a "recording out" jack on the back that made it great for 4-tracking.
I traded it for a stupid 80's korg synth that sounded like shit and then blew up when I pluged it in to a 60's roberts reel to reel preamp.

I made three mistakes!

OK, my Bassman 50 deal fell through. My friend was offered too much for it and he (obviously) took it.

I'm convinced I want a tube bass amp though, and the Bassmans/Bassmen seem like a good deal. The Ampegs that I'm finding are a bit pricey.

I'm a guitar player, so the Bassman appeals to me, but I want more power, so the 100 or 135 is what I want.

The other option would be a Traynor, but I'll want at least 100w. I love the way the 50 sounds.

So:
-Anything I should look out for if I decide to buy on Ebay?
-Any of you selling anything I might want?
-Any other suggestions? I'm not dead set on an exact sound, as I usually roll the tone back to bassy/thudy and I've had good luck with most amps. I'm sort of keen to get something that will work for guitar as well - that's the main thing. Plus, I've decided that I really prefer tube amps for bass.

Thanks, as always.

-A