Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Welcome to the Mesa family. I have a 400 that I used for years until I tried the Fathom head, and instantly fell in love. It's alot lighter than the 400, and I can dial in any tone I need. You defintly got a deal on that head. Didn't want to lug around the 6x10 eh?

johnallg wrote:

YukonCor55 wrote:Nice setup! I like those 37 pound cabinets.! I finally decided I'm going lightweight too. I've abused my back for about 44 of my 45 years and now I'm paying the price big time. I'm leaning toward a Carvin setup right now with the 2 x 10 cabs weighing in at 39 lbs each. The whole setup will fit in the trunk of my car and I won't need a half bottle of Advil after a gig!

Anthony, if you go this route keep us informed - I've looked at the Carvin cabs before and wonder how they do.

Just got my Carvin BR210N 2 x 10 cab today; Love it! I wanted to go lightweight and at just over 38 lbs this really fits the bill. It's my first time using NEO speakers but I gotta say I'm pretty impressed. When I compare the new cab to the SWR 1x 15 I've been using the sound quality is just as good but the range is a bit different. The 2 x 10 lacks that way down bottom end that the 1 x 15 can produce but it more than makes up for it with a nice mid punch that I've never had before. It seems to play to the Ric's strength in that regard. I think I'll eventually add a Carvin NEO 1 x 15 for a nice lightweight stack that'll give me everything. In the meantime, what I've got will do nicely for the small rooms my band mostly plays.

I like this 400+ more and more as I get used to it. I swapped out one of the 12ax7 preamp tubes for a 12au7 (common recommendation on Talkbass) and that really got me the tone I was after....eventhough I'm still using my ****** closet bass. It now has a more useable range of "clean" before getting into dirt as the gain is turned up. I can't wait to get my LK back to see what it really sounds like.

It was a great deal and the 6x10 cabinet wouldn't have cost me that much more but it could have been a pain to resell and I really can't afford to have extra $$$$ tied up in gear I don't need right now. Plus, with my luck i would have loved it and the I'd be hauling a giant cabinet around again......not my goal. If it was a "road ready" Powerhouse 1000 I would have buckled for sure though.

Update.......

Well, so much for the fantasy land I was trying to live in. The 2-2x10 EA cabinets just aren't up to the task. They sound great but to get the volume I need I have to crank the gain on the Mesa 400+ into Lemmy-like dirt territory. Not exactly the tone I was after. Eventhough I did a fair bit of research before getting the cabinets I never stumbled across the info that would have let me know that the speakers tend to break up with overdriven tones or when pushed with loud lows. Now they tell me! Anyway I'm sure they'd be fine in 95% of band situations and with suitable PA support but with our stupid-loud practices they fall just a tad short. Oh well.....I got a great deal so I should be able to unload them with minimal or no loss.

I ordered a Mesa Powerhouse 1200 today (4x10+1x15+horn)....that should do it! I thought about going with multiple small cabinets but figured that for the limited amount of gigs we plan on doing the larger cabinet shouldn't be too big of a hassle (or at least a big hassle but not too often). I'll see after my first 3AM load-out in a few weeks.

incubus2432 wrote:...but with our stupid-loud practices they fall just a....

What did you say, I can't hear you over the din...

Tell the drummer to play with brushes or try your taser on him.

Other than the overloading speakers, how's the LK sounding?

jps wrote:.....how's the LK sounding?

Great! I love the tone options available and I'm happy with my layout choice. Your "killswitch" suggestion was a good one and has come in handy. Thanks again for the quality job.....I'll post pics and a review when I get some time.

You can do tReMoLo with the kill switch, too!