BY ROGER NEWELL
 henever you’re confronted with a new piece of Mesa bass gear you know that you’ll begazing at quality. All of the company’s models are well constructed, using only the best materials, and the amps invariably offer high power with a full specification to match. Even so, the Walkabout Scout is a sheer delight! It’s incredibly compact and beautifully put together though, as you’d expect, a tad heavy for its modest size. Covered in Black Rhino finish with corner protectors and a single heavy-duty strap handle, it looks the business and is fully road-ready. It comes with a slipcover for added protection without extra weight.
Behind the front grille sits a 12-inch Neodymium speaker and a tweeter, but if you look underneath the cabinet a second grille is revealed. Behind this is an eight-inch Passive Radiator that amplifies the enclosure volume and drives out low-end response from beneath. The rubber feet lift the unit enough to let this sound escape freely and, as a final sound gesture, a rear sound port is also provided.
We took a close look at the Walkabout head in Guitarist 231, so see our review for a full description or see the spec panel here. For use in the Scout cabinet, the Walkabout head is loaded from the rear so the control panel sits at the top. Its modest size, coupled with the Simul-State Mosfet technology, turns this standalone head into a highly versatile, portable combo. But, with a reputation of providing for your every possible need on its full-sized amps, Mesa’s Walkabout is refreshingly easy to operate. Separate inputs are provided for active and passive basses and we get a stunning array of tone shapers, including a fully parametric equaliser section as well as three regular tone controls. Even the DI output level can be altered here. Essentially this is all about precise tone shaping and, amazingly, the Scout cab is fully able to rise to the challenge.
With sound radiating from all the various sources you just know you’re going to be felt as well as heard
SOUNDS: A proverbial quart in a pint pot, this Walkabout Scout packs a huge punch from such a small enclosure. And with sound radiating from all the various sources you just know you’re going to be felt as well as heard. Having the control panel at the top means it’s perfect in use. However, that does mean that the rear panel is actually upside down – so accessing that, or simply plugging in the mains lead, is not so easy. The effects loop is also situated back there too, and within the recess provided for access is also an attenuator for the high frequency tweeter. Once you’re up and running any accessibility problems are instantly forgiven because this relatively tiny combo has a huge sound and loads more tonal impact than you would think possible from the size alone.
With an impressive 300 watts of output, and the speaker compliment to allow you to take advantage of it, this is one seriously gig-friendly bass combo. The parametric EQ is wonderfully responsive and can inject new life into any player’s sound by finely tuning those critical mid-range frequencies. The overall quality of the sound has to be heard to be fully appreciated. And the eight-inch acoustic radiator puts it into a class of its own, giving the impression of a much larger enclosure – and this is only the 12-inch version, we can’t wait to try the 15-inch!
| VERDICT |
As always, much thought has gone into this design and it really shows. The Walkabout Scout is simply stunning! Any bass player would be proud to own one of these and, with this amount of power to hand plus the DI facility, it would prove extremely useful, and portable, in any live situation. It’s not cheap, of course, but then love at first sight always comes at a premium. And this will definitely prove to be love at first sight or sound for many! To be able to achieve this degree of power and tonal purity from an amp, and still be able to pop it into the boot of your car, verges on magic.
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