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Mesa/Boogie BASS STRATEGY Eight:88, Owner'S Manual

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Mesa/Boogie BASS STRATEGY Eight:88 Owner'S Manual Download Page 1

Owner’s Manual

Summary of Contents for BASS STRATEGY Eight:88

Page 1: ...Owner s Manual ...

Page 2: ...own Your reward is that you are the new owner of an amp bred of fine all tube heritage benefiting from the many pioneering and patented Mesa circuits that led to the refinement of your new model We feel confident this amp will in spire many hours of musical satisfaction and lasting enjoyment It was built with you in mind by players who know the value of a fine musical instrument and the commitment...

Page 3: ...______________________________________________________________________ 14 POWER CABLE__________________________________________________________________________________ 14 15 EXT SWITCHING____________________________________________________________________________________ 15 FOOTSWITCH OPTIONAL ____________________________________________________________________________ 15 SPEAKER OUTPUTS__________...

Page 4: ...ey exit from the apparatus Only use attachments accessories specified by the manufacturer Unplug this apparatus during lightning storms or when unused for long periods of time Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel Servicing is required when the apparatus has been damaged in any way such as power supply cord or plug is damaged liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the app...

Page 5: ...o avoid damaging your speakers and other playback equipment turn off the power of all related equipment before mak ing the connections Do not use excessive force when handling buttons switches and controls Do not use solvents such as benzene or paint thinner to clean the unit Always connect to an AC power supply that meets the power supply specifications listed on the rear of the unit Export model...

Page 6: ...lins are but a few of the international stars that put the 400 center stage to anchor the band during its 20 year build cycle Those iconic amps still bring top dollar when you can find one changing hands on the pre owned market While MESA has since pioneered an entire line of tube driven mosfet amplifiers that shored up our place in the Bass market the discontinuation of the 400 left a gaping hole...

Page 7: ...ns LOW opens up many stylistic possibilities in the recording domain and may also work for some lower volume gigs An important collection of vintage inspired sounds await you here in HALF and LOW POWER ranging from round and warm to edgy to clipped and growling depending how you dish it out from the MASTER All the sounds in HALF and LOW POWER beg to be recorded A MUTE PLAY SILENT RECORD switch all...

Page 8: ... pair of jacks for the SLAVE and TUNER Outputs The SLAVE jack provides a 1 4 output for capturing the sound of both preamp and power section tonality right off the SPEAKER OUTPUTS to send on to additional power sections and cabinets for truly coliseum grade rigs The SLAVE LEVEL control is located on the upperTube Deck just above and to the right of the Rear Panel LOOP jacks Always begin with the S...

Page 9: ...e tubes internal components are allowed to warm up slowly before hitting them with the high voltage controlled by the STANDBY being switched to ON 3 Flip STANDBY to ON 4 PLAY Following this startup procedure will lengthen the musical life of your power tubes and decrease the chances of untimely power tube failures HELPFUL HINTS IMPORTANT The SPEAKER OUTPUT Jack s AUTO MUTE function is triggered an...

Page 10: ... chase great Tone around in circles Instead use your IQ and constantly reference a less altered state of play when experiment ing with the Controls VOICE and EQ By going back and forth to a more flat or conservatively voiced setting you will avoid ear fatigue and end up with a more balanced sound The SOLO Feature can be used to not only boost your level for featured parts but as an additional MAST...

Page 11: ...eat choice if your bass or cabinet or both leans toward being a little on the bright side or if you find the STRATEGY to sound bright with other elements of your rig A quick flip of the switch here and the STRATEGY is tuned to your playing style or other aspects of your rig NORMAL features a rounder warmer Tone that is perfect for old school sounds and classic pas sive Basses This setting may also...

Page 12: ...rol all rolled into one with the Q center at 55Hz As mentioned above though it is centered here frequencies harmonics in both low and high directions are affected because of its broader band nature Twelve o clock NOON on the BASS con trol delivers a basically flat response no boost no cut As the BASS control is increased past 12 00 NOON it produces a 6db per octave boost in gain starting at the ce...

Page 13: ...g It s no wonder many first time STRATEGY players make the comment that just these three controls even set at noon combined with the GAIN create the best tone they have ever heard NOTE As with the BASS control may we remind you that a control of this type with its increased power should be used with finesse in the TREBLE s case almost more so because higher frequencies seem louder to the ear and a...

Page 14: ...located directly below the switch NOTE A quick word of caution is in order here The 9 Band EQ while easy to dial understand and ap ply can also be a dangerous sonic tool in the wrong hands We make this plea for your benefit and that of your audiences Use the 9 Band EQ with taste a musi cal ear and a tempered hand It is easy to Over EQ your sound with this kind of shaping power at your disposal Mak...

Page 15: ... STRATEGY can in the FULL power setting HALF PWR utilizes four of the eight KT 88s to provide approximately 250 watts of sweet tube power This option has a less shim mering top end warmer attack and a little less emphasis on midrange punch HALF can be pushed into a furry clip in medium size venues for added Rock attitude or for an old school R B sound that can meet lower to medium headroom require...

Page 16: ... subs employed POST gives you the entire preamp signal including INPUT SELECT Tone Controls the VOICE Mode selection and processing in the FX Loop POST is appropriate for recording situations where you want to capture the closest thing to what you are hearing when you play or live situations where the sound engineer requests your stage sound as a Direct feed to the front of house NOTE The D I OUTP...

Page 17: ...arranty and put you at risk of damaging your amplifier and increasing your risk of electrical shock NOTE COLD START PROCEDURE When powering up your STRATEGY from cold ALWAYS follow this Start Up Procedure We have found the currently available KT 88s to require substantially more time than 6L6s or EL34s to warm up to full operating temperature If you hit them with high voltage sooner than three min...

Page 18: ...es or a hour or so If you know you won t resume using the amplifier within a reasonably short time go ahead and turn the POWER switch off and save the electricity and your tubes Just be sure to follow the Cold Start procedure every time you wish to play It will save your Tone and your money NOTE IMPORTANT Do Not flip the STANDBY SWITCH in and out of STANDBY mode on and off while the amplifier is b...

Page 19: ...of KT 88 power tubes creates potential for expensive repair bills and premature tube failures with no speaker load connected Never play loud or long if you hear no sound from your amp and always check the speaker connection first in any no sound situation NOTE Remember the Front Panel MUTE LED Indicator will illuminate as a safeguard against a no load condition when there is no speaker jack connec...

Page 20: ...ilenced but the signal at the TUNER jack on the Footswitch will still be active so you can tune your instrument silently without having to run a cable back to your amplifier The VOICE button allows you to toggle the VOICE feature from Mode position 1 2 4 and 5 back to the Bypassed Flat setting of Mode 3 The female 8 Pin DIN receptacle on the Rear Panel just to the right of the EXTERNAL SWITCH JACK...

Page 21: ...NCE MATCHING AND HOOK UP GUIDE toward the end of this manual MULTI WATT and SPEAKER OUTPUT CHOICES NOTE When switching between LOW HALF and FULL POWER of the STRATEGY s MULTI WATT options the impedance chang es slightly at the SPEAKER OUTPUT jacks While you can t really damage the amplifier with an impedance mismatch the sound and feel of the amp can be either optimized or compromised sometimes pu...

Page 22: ...r load is present by confirming the connection at your cabinet AND the amp NOTE When there is nothing plugged into the SPEAKER OUTPUTS the front panel MUTE LED will be ON This is an indicator that there is No Load connected NOTE IMPORTANT MAKE SUREYOU HAVE A SPEAKER CONNECTED TO THE SPEAKER OUTPUT JACKS AT ALL TIMES NOTE IMPORTANT NEVER UNPLUG THE SPEAKER LOAD Cabinet WHILE THE AMPLIFIER IS IN USE...

Page 23: ...though usually very sparingly There is no right way to apply compression or the other effects mentioned above so where you place them in your signal path is up to you Typically though the devices mentioned above sound better and are more widely usable when used on the Front End and not in the LOOP The FX LOOP is a junction point between the end of the preamp and the driver stage to the power secti...

Page 24: ... SLAVE captures the entire sound of the amplifier from the SPEAKER OUTPUT jacks and is padded down to create an optimum signal level for insertion into the INPUT of other Power Amps This allows additional STRATEGY slave amps to be used as support power for larger Concert venues by connecting to their FX LOOP RETURN and using only the power section leaving you with just one preamp to navigate The S...

Page 25: ...PAGE 20 NOTES ...

Page 26: ...CE MASTER 3 2 4 5 1 NORMAL B R I G H T A C T I V E Eight 88 MUTE SIL REC P L A Y SAMPLE 4 Rock Growl INPUT POWER ON ON STANDBY D I LEVEL SOLO EQ 0 EQ IN EQ FS HALF FULL PWR LOW PWR 33Hz 80 150 300 600 900 2K 5K 8K D I PRE POST GAIN BASS MID TREBLE VOICE MASTER 3 2 4 5 1 NORMAL B R I G H T A C T I V E Eight 88 MUTE SIL REC P L A Y SAMPLE 5 FatThumb INPUT POWER ON ON STANDBY D I LEVEL SOLO EQ 0 EQ I...

Page 27: ...0 600 900 2K 5K 8K D I PRE POST GAIN BASS MID TREBLE VOICE MASTER 3 2 4 5 1 VINTAGE N O R M A L A C T I V E Eight 88 INPUT POWER ON ON STANDBY D I LEVEL SOLO EQ 0 EQ IN EQ FS PLAY MUTE HALF FULL PWR LOW PWR 33Hz 80 150 300 600 900 2K 5K 8K D I PRE POST GAIN BASS MID TREBLE VOICE MASTER 3 2 4 5 1 VINTAGE N O R M A L A C T I V E Eight 88 INPUT POWER ON ON STANDBY D I LEVEL SOLO EQ 0 EQ IN EQ FS PLAY...

Page 28: ...de our designer s sweet spot are unnecessary and usually undesirable unless you like paying a tech to re set your amp s bias voltage But KT 88s are different and sampling them from various suppliers revealed a far greater variation in plate current for any given bias voltage compared to 6L6s And with the 88 s greater size and capacity the current draw varied from 15mA milli amperes to 50 mA wherea...

Page 29: ...top Tube Deck and consists of the following steps SET BIAS For Non Technicians 1 Set both BIAS SWITCHES located on the upper Rear Tube Deck to OPERATE Make sure the amp is set to FULL POWER setting the Bias while in HALF POWER will give an incorrect measurement 2 Follow the Cold Start Procedure under POWER in the Front Panel Section of this manual and Switch the PRODIGY to STAND BY ON after three ...

Page 30: ...results but too low of a resistance will likely cause problems MIS MATCHING When running a higher resistance for example 8 ohm output into 16 ohm cabinet a slightly different feel and response will be created A slight mismatch can provide a darker smoother tone with a little less output and attack This response is a result of the amplifier running a bit cooler Sometimes when using more than one ca...

Page 31: ...ive side of Speaker A to the Negative side of Speaker B COMBINATION OF SERIES PARALLEL This is really just two sets of Series wired speakers connected in Parallel This is how you maintain a consistent load with multiple speakers The importance of this is more evident when you have more than one cabinet to connect to your amplifier This is when you need to figure out the loads and how to wire them ...

Page 32: ...SCHEMES Amplifier to Speaker Cabinets 4 OHM 8 OHM 16 OHM Partial back view of amplifier 16 Ohm Cabinet 4 OHM 8 OHM 16 OHM Partial back view of amplifier 16 Ohm Cabinet SAFE MISMATCH 8 OHM 4 OHM 4 OHM Partial back view of amplifier 8 OHM 4 OHM 4 OHM Partial back view of amplifier 8 Ohm Cabinet 4 Ohm Cabinet 8 Ohm Cabinet ...

Page 33: ...back view of amplifier SAFE MISMATCH 8 OHM Partial back view of amplifier SERIES BOX 8 Ohm 4 Ohm 4 Ohm 4 Ohm Cabinet 4 Ohm Cabinet 4 OHM 4 OHM 8 OHM Partial back view of amplifier PARALLEL BOX 8 Ohm 16 Ohm 16 Ohm 16 Ohm Cabinet 16 Ohm Cabinet 9 4 OHM 4 OHM 7 WIRING SCHEMES Amplifier to Speaker Cabinets CORRECT MATCH CORRECT MATCH CORRECT MATCH ...

Page 34: ...Ohm 8 Ohm Cabinet 10 SAFE MISMATCH 12 4 OHM 4 OHM Partial back view of amplifier 16 Ohm Cabinet 16 Ohm Cabinet 11 8 OHM 8 Ohm Cabinet 16 Ohm Cabinet 16 Ohm Cabinet 4 OHM 4 OHM 8 OHM Partial back view of amp PARALLEL BOX 8 Ohm 16 Ohm 16 Ohm WIRING SCHEMES Amplifier to Speaker Cabinets CORRECT MATCH SAFE MISMATCH ...

Page 35: ...net 8 Ohm Cabinet SERIES BOX 16 Ohm 8 Ohm 8 Ohm 16 Ohm Cabinet 13 SAFE MISMATCH WIRING SCHEMES Amplifier to Speaker Cabinets 4 OHM 4 OHM 8 OHM Partial back view of amplifier 16 Ohm Cabinet 16 Ohm Cabinet PARALLEL BOX 8 Ohm 16 Ohm 16 Ohm 16 Ohm Cabinet SAFE MISMATCH 14 ...

Page 36: ... You ll probably be successful with much less effort than is required to disconnect everything and haul the unit to a technician who will basically perform the same simple tests If the tubes are still within their six month warranty period we will happily send you a replacement Just note the color designation on the tube label so that we can send you the appropriate match DIAGNOSING PRE AMP TUBE P...

Page 37: ...d possibly damaged Pre amp tubes don t normally wear out as a rule Therefore it is not a good idea to change them just for the sake of changing them If there isn t a problem don t fix it If there is no result from your substitutions it may be possible that you have more than one problematic tube Though rare this does happen and though it makes the troubleshooting process a little more intimidating...

Page 38: ...ORE CHANGING TUBES FLIP POWER STANDBY SWITCH TO OFF INPUT JACK 12AX7 V3 12AX7 V2 12AX7 V1 KT 88 V4 KT 88 V5 KT 88 V6 KT 88 V7 KT 88 V8 KT 88 V9 KT 88 V10 KT 88 V11 FRONT OF CHASSIS OPERATE SET BIAS TUBE REPLACEMENT Bass Strategy Eight 88 V1A 2nd Gain Stage V1B 1st Gain Stage V2A B Driver Phase Inverter V3A B Driver 2nd Stages PREAMP TUBES LOW V4 V8 HALF V4 V5 V8 V9 FULL V4 V11 POWER TUBES ...

Page 39: ...e order Be sure to reinstall the LED connector in the same position Installing it incorrectly may damage the display LEDs Use caution when reinstalling the top two screws on each side of the lid DO NOT force the screws in MAINS FUSE EXT SWITCHING LOOP EXT SWITCH HAND BUILT IN PETALUMA CALIFORNIA U S A TUBE GUIDE 3x12AX7 8xKT 88 BASS STRATEGY VACUUM TUBE AMPLIFIER FOOT SWITCH USE WITH TWO 8Ω CABS 4...

Page 40: ...Y VACUUM TUBE AMPLIFIER FOOT SWITCH USE WITH TWO 8Ω CABS 4 OHM 4 OHM 8 OHM 2 OHM 2 OHM D I OUT MUTE SOLO VOICE EQ SLAVE LEVEL RETURN SEND TUNER SLAVE POWER ON ON STANDBY D I LEVEL SOLO EQ 0 EQ IN EQ FS HALF FULL PWR LOW PWR 33Hz 80 150 300 600 900 2K 5K 8K D I PRE POST CAUTION WARNING D I LIFT GROUND PATENTED 6 724 897 h 10 A SLO BLO 120 V 60 Hz 10 A USE WITH TWO 4Ω CABS GAIN BASS MID TREBLE VOICE...

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