Mesa Boogie Bass 800D

[Sean]

41 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

Stan’s a fantastic service engineer, one of the best I have worked with. Say hi to him for me.

I shall say hi from Andy. But he's a tough one, not what I'd call very "front of house" but that's where all my amps go now for that level of expertise and it's nearly 2.5h each way, which for the UK is a long drive 😉 

[agedhorse]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

I shall say hi from Andy. But he's a tough one, not what I'd call very "front of house" but that's where all my amps go now for that level of expertise and it's nearly 2.5h each way, which for the UK is a long drive 😉 

He is tough, but he gets things done right. That’s what you are paying for, not his personality!  😂

[Chimike]

On 21/09/2025 at 11:31, Chimike said:

 

Hoping to hear about shipping to my home, quite soon. Will report back .

Amp turned up today, Factory packaging superb , should be bomb proof in transit !

All now unpacked ,manual studied,  and ready to be used tomorrow night !

Exciting, it is .

 

[Beedster]

17 minutes ago, Chimike said:

Amp turned up today, Factory packaging superb , should be bomb proof in transit !

All now unpacked ,manual studied,  and ready to be used tomorrow night !

Exciting, it is .

 

If it doesn’t work out I can collect Thursday Mike 🙂

[Collin Bass]

On 24/09/2025 at 11:45, Russ said:

Downsides? Sadly, it does seem to have a big one - it just doesn't seem very loud. My RM800 is louder when turned up to about 9:00 (see pic) than the Mesa is turned up to about 7 or 8. 

This too is my first time using an amp with a fender style tone stack. From what I understand (both from reading reviews and for my own experience) the mid knob is a cut, not a boost. Don't be afraid to turn that sucker up! And then dial up your bass and treble to find the unity tone you're looking for. 

 

The input gain and master volume knobs also work linearly from 0 to 10 unlike a lot of amps that don't do too much past 6 or 7. 

 

Really don't be afraid of the input game on either channel. The amp can handle it and they make a huge difference as far as bringing out more harmonic frequencies making the same volume feel louder and fuller.

 

Another thing you can do is make sure that your impedance switch matches whichever cabs you are using. Makes a huge difference in not only damping and volume but also feel and fullness.

 

I hate that I have been working as much as I have been this week I've only had one night since I picked mine up a couple of days ago to really play it. Very happy that it was the night that I got it otherwise the anticipation would have killed the But I did get to play it for hours and found it to be one of the best sounding amps I've ever played. Can get wooly and gritty that can also get that nice fat low gain saturation and stay clean with plenty of headroom. I still need more time with the tone controls myself just to get a better feel for them but don't be afraid to turn them all the way up when finding what you want! It is a very different tone stack to get used to but if you put the time in it is very rewarding! I can't wait to spend more time with mine!

Edited October 1 by Collin Bass

[Chimike]

On 30/09/2025 at 19:16, Beedster said:

If it doesn’t work out I can collect Thursday Mike 🙂

Thanks Chris . It's reassuring to know that there are thoughtful Bass chatter's out there , willing to help out when needed !😉

Edited October 2 by Chimike
spelling

[ossyrocks]

So, to everyone in this thread who managed to snag one before UK stock vanished, how are you finding it?

 

I can see from his posts on Facebook groups that @shug is very impressed with his. 

 

Rob

[Russ]

I returned mine in the end. Just couldn’t get it to sound the way I wanted it to. Even with minimal gain, minimal EQ, etc, the sound was a little too “hairy” for my taste. It was hard to get something that sounded reasonably clean, at volume - I wanted loud, with just a hint of hairiness, and I struggled to get it.

 

But, of course, that’s an entirely subjective perspective - you may be looking for precisely that sort of sound. 

[ossyrocks]

14 hours ago, Russ said:

I returned mine in the end. Just couldn’t get it to sound the way I wanted it to. Even with minimal gain, minimal EQ, etc, the sound was a little too “hairy” for my taste. It was hard to get something that sounded reasonably clean, at volume - I wanted loud, with just a hint of hairiness, and I struggled to get it.

 

But, of course, that’s an entirely subjective perspective - you may be looking for precisely that sort of sound. 

I am surprised to read that to be fair.

 

Out of interest, what's the rest of your setup, and what context were you using the amp in?

 

A loud clean tone is something I would expect ALL 800w Class D amps to be capable of. I have a GK Legacy 800 here that can do just that, and that amp is designed after an amp that is famous for getting a bit hairy.

 

Rob

[Russ]

10 hours ago, ossyrocks said:

I am surprised to read that to be fair.

 

Out of interest, what's the rest of your setup, and what context were you using the amp in?

 

A loud clean tone is something I would expect ALL 800w Class D amps to be capable of. I have a GK Legacy 800 here that can do just that, and that amp is designed after an amp that is famous for getting a bit hairy.

 

Rob

I was running it into a Barefaced Big Twin 2, mostly using my pair of Maruszczyk Frog 6-strings. I’ve been using an Ashdown RM-800 as my primary head for some time, so that was my benchmark in terms of tone, volume, etc. Agedhorse made some suggestions earlier in this thread about how to use the EQ (which works additively, effectively as volume controls for certain frequencies), but, even with that, I couldn’t get the gain up past about 10 o’clock without the whole thing fuzzing up. I like some hair on my tone, but I also like to be able to not have it. And using the EQ controls in the manner they were intended to be used did make things louder, but not sufficiently so for me.

 

I owned a Bass 400+ back in the day too, and I don’t recall ever having issues with getting a clean tone with that, with it only getting furry when you hit it hard, and in a pleasant, “creamy” sort of way. If you cranked the input gain it would fuzz out, but only towards the extreme end of the gain knob. 

 

I’m not giving up on Mesa though. Probably going to revisit the WD-800 at some point - I had one for a while and liked it a lot, but couldn’t justify holding onto two heads at the time.