Mesa/Boogie Walk About Bass Amplifier owner manual HELPFUL HINTS Continued, Front Panel

HELPFUL HINTS: (Continued)

and boost these frequencies when the control is set above 12:00. The MID works like a normal passive control and boosts a broad band of frequencies as it is increased.

5.When using the Parametric EQ keep in mind that cutting (notching) undesirable frequencies is often preferable to boost- ing desirable ones. By using this technique you will keep noise to a minimum and ensure ample headroom at all times. The Paramet- ric is a powerful tone shaping tool when used tastefully, but all too often they are abused and set to their extremes which can result in an unbalanced tone that is “full of holes” or excessive noise.

6.When using Outboard Signal Processors, the best results are usually found by inserting them into the Effects Loop which provides a patch point between the preamp and the power section of your WalkAbout. The processors’ Input should be connected to the SEND jack and its Output should be connected to the RETURN jack. Always use the shortest length possible (1-3 feet) of good quality low capacitance cable to preserve the integrity of your sound.

7.The DIRECT OUTPUT circuit provides a GROUND LIFT that disconnects chassis ground from circuit ground. Should you encoun- ter a hum or buzz when interfacing to live or recording consoles, try flipping this ground lift after you have muted that channels’ input or zero’ed the fader. Many times (but not all) the hum is created by a ground loop between the WalkAbout and the console and lifting the WalkAbout chassis to circuit ground will remedy the situation.

Hopefully these hints have helped get you up and running with your newWalkAbout and you are well on your way to having the best tone you have ever heard! Now that you have a better idea of the layout and features, we are ready to move on to understanding the individual controls and circuits in more detail.

FRONT PANEL:

INSTRUMENT INPUTS: ACTIVE / PASSIVE These are the Instrument Input jacks and between them you can match the signal output level of virtually any instrument.

ACTIVE

INSTRUMENT

INPUTS

PASSIVE

The ACTIVE Input is padded down for greater input stage headroom and this works well with basses that use an on-board pre-amp with an active tone control circuit. Usually these instruments put out a much hotter signal than conventional basses, even when their tone controls are set “flat”. The added headroom is needed to prevent clipping in the first stage of the pre-amp and the ACTIVE Input should be used whenever instruments that utilize active style pickup/EQ harnesses are used.

You can use the ACTIVE Input for conventional passive instruments also, for heavy handed players needing extra headroom or simply a “cleaner” sound. However, note that unless you have Kong size hands it may be difficult to bring the amplifier to full power with this reduced front end sensitivity.

ACTIVE

INSTRUMENT

INPUTS

PASSIVE

The PASSIVE Input is set up for more conventional basses with passive pickups that produce lower output signal levels. This jack is more sensitive than the ACTIVE Input and therefore can drive the first stage to clip with a much lower signal. Keep this in mind if you play with a heavy touch or want a little bit of growl or front end clip. In those scenarios this jack can be quite useful to push the first stage of the pre-amp.

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