Mesa Boogie Bass 800D

[Beedster]

Damn, decided to go for the 800D given stock arrived in the UK today AND THEY’RE SOLD OUT ALREADY 😡

[chris_b]

If this amp is that good it deserves a cab that doesn't get in the way or arbitrarily alter the sound.

 

2 makes immediately spring to mind that would fit that description perfectly.

[Beedster]

9 minutes ago, chris_b said:

If this amp is that good it deserves a cab that doesn't get in the way or arbitrarily alter the sound.

 

2 makes immediately spring to mind that would fit that description perfectly.

Mesa and Boogie….?

[Russ]

My old one.

 

It has to be said though, whomever decorated this rehearsal room in Sainsbury's colours needs to be humanely destroyed. 

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, Russ said:

 

It has to be said though, whomever decorated this rehearsal room in Sainsbury's colours needs to be humanely destroyed. 

 

Why humanely?

[Sean]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

I must dig out my two 1516 stories, one in which it broke the singer’s car, the other in which it created its own horizon rendering it apparently invisible to the human eye 👍

Would you like a slot at the SE Bass Bash to regale us with your 1516 dits, Chris? 

 

I'd be front row, obviously 😀

[Sean]

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

If this amp is that good it deserves a cab that doesn't get in the way or arbitrarily alter the sound.

 

2 makes immediately spring to mind that would fit that description perfectly.

 

I shall be taking both my 400+ and a Monaco (two actually) to the SW + SE Bashes if anyone is interested. 

Hearing the 400+ vs the 800D through the same cabs would be interesting. 

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, Sean said:

Would you like a slot at the SE Bass Bash to regale us with your 1516 dits, Chris? 

 

I'd be front row, obviously 😀

 

Here's the first, it still makes me laugh every time I think about it mate......

 

 

[Beedster]

5 minutes ago, Sean said:

Would you like a slot at the SE Bass Bash to regale us with your 1516 dits, Chris? 

 

I'd be front row, obviously 😀

 

I can't find the car thread but the immortal line that sticks with me is "Mate, your f***ing cab has broken my car.....". We got the 1516 in the back, were walking around to the front seats to get in when we heard an ominous crack from the suspension. The rest, as they say, is history 👍

[Sean]

Being a shameless Mesa fanboy (I've had a Mk IV guitar combo and a Stereo 2:50 power amp) gigged a Carbine M6 for years, currently have a WB Scout and a 400+, I'm interested in @agedhorse view or the industry take on new solid state analogue amps. The new Gallien RB Legacy heads were a huge surprise, they're big, heavy and really expensive and seem to be bucking the trend that we're seeing with the move to class D. 

 

I thought the Fusion 550 would be the last big analogue GK but was wrong. I look at the RB Legacy (I own 3 GKs) and wonder what customers, that don't have a road crew, touring budget and trucks, are going to buy them. 

 

Mesa must've gauged the market and conceptualised, however briefly, doing a modern take on a Carbine/BigBlock/Titan? Like a WD/TT/BD-800 front end with a big analogue power section? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Russ]

F**k it. Broke out the credit card and ordered one. 

 

This I have to try. 

[sshorepunk]

Just seen this today

Damn! 

[Russ]

When it comes to gear, especially amps, I like to be able to go with companies where I have a point person - I've been using Ashdown for so long mostly because I've known Mark and Dave for a long time, and I know that if I have any issues with anything that they've got me covered. Luckily their gear is good.  Mark arranged tour support for me on a couple of occasions 20-odd years ago at no charge, and Dave has been brilliant when I've had technical questions about the gear. 

 

When I've flirted with other amps over the years, I've never felt like I had that level of support - I'm actually comfortable with the idea of using Mesa though, because we have @agedhorse here to speak to. Never underestimate the difference the personal touch can make. So thanks so much for that - you got a sale out of it! 

[Beedster]

11 minutes ago, Russ said:

When it comes to gear, especially amps, I like to be able to go with companies where I have a point person - I've been using Ashdown for so long mostly because I've known Mark and Dave for a long time, and I know that if I have any issues with anything that they've got me covered. Luckily their gear is good.  Mark arranged tour support for me on a couple of occasions 20-odd years ago at no charge, and Dave has been brilliant when I've had technical questions about the gear. 

 

When I've flirted with other amps over the years, I've never felt like I had that level of support - I'm actually comfortable with the idea of using Mesa though, because we have @agedhorse here to speak to. Never underestimate the difference the personal touch can make. So thanks so much for that - you got a sale out of it! 

I totally agree, trust is a big part of choosing gear for me, which is why I’ve ended up with amps from only two brands, Mesa and Ashdown, and cabs by Mesa only. Both Andy at Mesa and Dave at Ashdown have given me great advice also 👍

[agedhorse]

1 hour ago, Sean said:

Being a shameless Mesa fanboy (I've had a Mk IV guitar combo and a Stereo 2:50 power amp) gigged a Carbine M6 for years, currently have a WB Scout and a 400+, I'm interested in @agedhorse view or the industry take on new solid state analogue amps. The new Gallien RB Legacy heads were a huge surprise, they're big, heavy and really expensive and seem to be bucking the trend that we're seeing with the move to class D. 

 

I thought the Fusion 550 would be the last big analogue GK but was wrong. I look at the RB Legacy (I own 3 GKs) and wonder what customers, that don't have a road crew, touring budget and trucks, are going to buy them. 

 

Mesa must've gauged the market and conceptualised, however briefly, doing a modern take on a Carbine/BigBlock/Titan? Like a WD/TT/BD-800 front end with a big analogue power section? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good question... Of course we looked at our legacy models, the first one was the Walkabout and the weight was one of the biggest complaints (and it wasn't a very heavy amp compared with say the Carbines). Moving up to the heavier amps, size and weight very much factored into the decision because our players placed this very high on the "wanted list". Back in the day, I did design a number of substantially sized, heavy amps like the GBE-750 and 1200, but these found their way mostly to those who were either touring with big rigs or didn't need to worry about transportation. 

 

The older models sales had fallen to almost nothing even before we released the first Subway model, was better for what our evolving player base wanted and had asked for. Listening to a large number of players provided a huge level of clarity here.

[goonerjoe]

Seriously tempted by this, but my D-800 is incredible and keeping my GAS at bay.

 

@agedhorse sorry for the segue - are there any plans to release something similar to the Prodigy again (all valve lunchbox head)

[agedhorse]

39 minutes ago, goonerjoe said:

Seriously tempted by this, but my D-800 is incredible and keeping my GAS at bay.

 

@agedhorse sorry for the segue - are there any plans to release something similar to the Prodigy again (all valve lunchbox head)

Good question, I really don't know. We have tossed this idea around before but it's never gained enough traction.

[shug]

On 16/09/2025 at 23:46, agedhorse said:

 

Correct, this is my work.

 

Good question and I agree (in general) somewhat, but we now have 3 different hybrid models, and all 3 are very different from each other in tone, texture and feel. The WD-800 is modeled after the Walkabout, with the updates that many players asked for, this amp is modeled after the Bass 400+ with significant player driven updates as well.

 

I spend most of my time over at TalkBass, there were over 300 players over there that provided input on what they would like to see if we were to do an amp like this, and a LOT of the suggestions made it into the final version. 

 

Here's a link to the thread, there are informative comments and a couple of our test players have contributed to the thread, including some gig videos. For a (refreshing to me) change, we deemphesized the obligatory bass slap w**ker videos because that's not representative of real life, and instead are focusing on gig and studio demos. I would expect  there to be more of these in the next week or two, once players receive their amps.

 

I also begged for better EU access to these amps (we all share your frustration), and it looks like making a fool of myself groveling may have produced results! Thomann says they will have them available within the week on their website.

 

Here's a link to the thread:

(sorry, link won't embed)

 

Here's a link to the owner's manual:

https://www.gibson.com/cdn/shop/files/MESA_Boogie_Bass-800D_Product_Manual.pdf?v=14438764719515208578

 

 

 

 

I'm keen to check one of these out, for sure, but I wish you'd asked ME what features to include as then this otherwise perfect looking amp would have at least one 9 volt output on the back to power a tuner ( or other) pedal. That's got to be a good, useful and relatively cheap feature, surely? I don't want you to feel too bad about it, though; I've been playing for 50 years, owned scores of amps and only just thought of it myself...

Next time, maybe...

[shug]

@agedhorse Are you involved in writing the manuals? Mesa manuals are consistently the best I've seen - low on marketing -speak, NO bullshit acronyms and full of actual useful pointers for real-world use. Well done , whoever it was.

I can see one of these featuring heavily in my life very soon.

Edited 22 hours ago by shug
Correction

[agedhorse]

4 hours ago, shug said:

I'm keen to check one of these out, for sure, but I wish you'd asked ME what features to include as then this otherwise perfect looking amp would have at least one 9 volt output on the back to power a tuner ( or other) pedal. That's got to be a good, useful and relatively cheap feature, surely? I don't want you to feel too bad about it, though; I've been playing for 50 years, owned scores of amps and only just thought of it myself...

Next time, maybe...

We stuck with USB-A for a reason... there are a variety of USB-A to 9V, 12V, 15V and 18V converter cords available for use with pedals, but also the USB-A to USB-C and USB-A to lightning cables are readily available and very inexpensive so you get the best of both worlds.

 

https://lovemyswitches.com/usb-to-9vdc-power-cable/?srsltid=AfmBOopZVrbjs29mAccByIl4AMwGF66xRajKnUtln5fc-rE7Rd5RIkAR

 

3 hours ago, shug said:

@agedhorse Are you involved in writing the manuals? Mesa manuals are consistently the best I've seen - low on marketing -speak, NO bullshit acronyms and full of actual useful pointers for real-world use. Well done , whoever it was.

I can see one of these featuring heavily in my life very soon.

Yes, I write all the basic outline and structure of the manuals, and then I have a couple of our outside test players who help with the editing process. One is a very experienced aerospace mechanical engineer who writes operations manuals for NATO compliant equipment (the big stuff) and the other has outstanding communication skills combined with really good intuition. Both are also excellent bass players (I'm a somewhat-mediocre keyboard player), so the goal is a technically complete manual written and edited from the perspective of bass players, to be accurate, clear, concise, useful and free from the vomitous marketing babble that makes manuals virtually unreadable. 

 

Thank you for appreciating our efforts. ❤️   We figure that if you are going to pay for a premium product, you also deserve a premium manual.

[ossyrocks]

8 hours ago, shug said:

@agedhorse Are you involved in writing the manuals? Mesa manuals are consistently the best I've seen - low on marketing -speak, NO bullshit acronyms and full of actual useful pointers for real-world use. Well done , whoever it was.

I can see one of these featuring heavily in my life very soon.

@shug I will be beating a path to one of your gigs to hear it if you get one. Keep me posted, you have my number.

[Merton]

On 19/09/2025 at 09:41, Chimike said:

Deposit Paid, off to Andersons today , Just in case they manage to get these amps in as listed on time.

I have to mention, this is NOT normal for me . I seldom buy new ('cos I love old valve amps ),

But the confidence inspired by "Agedhorse's " helpful and informative attitude, and the design remit , that so reflects my requirements,

Simply too hard to resist ! I have every confidence it will sound Fabulous.

PLUS What a Looker !  Classic !

 

So @Chimike, assuming Andertons had stock, what are your first impressions? 🤓