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MESA/Boogie Releases the Subway TT-800

A powerful, compact head that features an 800-watt power section.

Petaluma, CA (June 9, 2020) -- MESA/Boogie announces the addition of the new compact Subway TT-800 to its award-winning Subway Series of bass amplifiers and cabinets built in the company’s Petaluma, California shop. TT-800 players will find a tube driven preamp allowing bassists to experience the rich, blooming tube character of the legendary tone stack architecture from the Bass 400 in the Boogie channel or footswitch to the modern tone of the award-wining Subway Channel with enhanced tightness in the low end, accurate punchy mids and crystal clean highs. Both channels feed MESA’s time proven 800-Watt Class D power section. Packed with tone shaping features, the TT-800 features a HIGH GAIN / LOW GAIN Switch that offers the ability to reconfigure the input gain stage that feeds the TT-800’s tubes. The LOW gain setting provides a clean, clear sound in comparison to the HIGH setting that ramps up driving the tubes and is especially notable in the Boogie Channel MESA reports. The Subway’s DEEP and BRIGHT switches bring added tone shaping opportunities and allow for taming “boomy” rooms by switching DEEP off or kicking it in for styles such as Reggae. The BRIGHT adds sparkle and sheen and Subway fans have been known to use the feature for advanced techniques such as slapping and adding dimension and clarity to chordal work.

The TT-800’s Class D power section features MESA’s O/D SYMMETRY control which allows players to control clip characteristics in the power section of the amp. SYM provides a tighter, dryer feel in overdriven tone while ASYM offers players a warmer sound with increased bloom and harmonic complexity. To keep things cool, the TT-800 is fan cooled, similar to other models in the Subway Series. Other notable features include speakON speaker outputs and speaker impedance can be set at 2, 4 or 8 ohms to accommodate any speaker array desired. A headphone jack is located on the rear panel for monitoring and an optional footswitch is available for mute or switching between the TT-800’s two channels. Worth noting is that each channel has its own FX LOOP accessed on the rear panel and being keenly aware of the modern bassist’s needs, MESA opted for a patch-point style configuration. This is useful in scenarios where a player might choose to use another preamp and substitute it in place of either TT-800 Channel, being foot switchable, and delivering the external preamp’s signal directly to the TT-800’s robust power section. The TT-800’s TUNER OUT always has a signal going out to tune and an AUX IN for rehearsing with MP3s or other sources. The TT-800 DIRECT OUT capabilities have been well thought out. Two XLR jacks are available, a PRE EQ out for sending a signal to the house mix where the soundman may prefer an unequalized signal and a POST EQ out that may be useful for sending to a monitor or monitor mix so band members can all hear the stage sound in their mix. The POST EQ XLR out also allows players to use the TT-800 solely as a preamp to plug directly to a console or DAW, shaping their tone in the studio. Each XLR can be set to LINE LEVEL or MIC LEVEL and each has a GROUND LIFT control as well.

“With a powerful feature set, new Subway tube preamp and the addition of super musical Bass 400 toplogy, the TT-800 stands atop the Subway line and delivers that award-winning performance while also reigniting the passion so many bassists feel for our legendary 400+. Before today’s portability, for nearly two decades the Bass 400 and later 400+ stood alongside the other Tube Classic as our Iconic contribution with its tone stack architecture, providing some of the top artists of the day with a warm, musical alternative. Now the TT-800 combines yesteryear’s tube magic with today’s definition, punch and portability and packs all that (footswitchable) versatility into one manageable Subway package” said Doug West, Director of R&D at MESA/Boogie.

Watch the company's video demo:

For more information:
MESA/Boogie