Mesa Boogie Bass-800D Head

A classic, updated! The MESA/Boogie® bass 400+™, the apex model of MESA’s long-running and storied tube bass amplifier line, reigned supreme throughout the 80s and 90s with players looking to upgrade their tone with a boutique-class tube head. With a supremely musical tube preamp, powerful 7-Band Graphic eq, mighty bank of 12 x 6L6 output section, and a power supply ready to deliver instantaneous pitch, punch, and power on demand, an amazing bass tone was a given.

Top artists from jazz to R&B, funk, and blues to stadium rock chose the bass 400+ for their tone on stage and in the studio, citing its defined attack, clear pitch, and exciting, lead-the-band, dynamic content. Now, the classic gets an update, keeping pace with the times and modern bassists’ needs while retaining the nuanced tone of the original, yet without the cumbersome size and weight.

Introducing the MESA/Boogie bass-800D, a Class D-powered imagining of our bass 400+, with its sound and attributes combined with highlights from our successful Subway™ line of bass offerings. The tube preamp follows architecture and cues from the bass 400+, along with Boogie® Channel topography from our popular Subway TT-800. From there, added gain and further tweaks are included to achieve an even warmer, more dynamic tube-enhanced character with additional capabilities for musically relevant overdrive.

The bass 400’s Graphic eq has been retired in favor of more relevant, simplicity-minded switches offering voicing options preferred by players in our Subway line. These include a preamp Gain switch (Low/High), Deep switch, and Bright switch (with bypass), all conveniently positioned on the front panel and tailored for adding the desired character quickly and succinctly without the finicky tweaking of a graphic eq. These savvy features are joined by the addition of our popular variable High Pass filter control, which allows tailoring of non-musical sub-lows that can muddy a mix or reduce the cohesiveness in the overdrive, as well as the time, accurately, with a friendly, musical approach.

Further welcome upgrades from the original include speakON® style locking speaker jacks, comprehensive impedance switching with 2, 4, and 8 ohm operation to cover your cabinet choices, a headphone output jack, a Mute footswitch jack, Aux In and tuner Out jacks, as well as a handy USB Device Power jack.

Now you can have the bass 400+’s iconic tube tone and warm, musical character with added overdrive potential, mated with the stunning power, clarity, and accuracy of our Subway line’s top Class D models. All of these benefits are now available in a compact, lightweight, travel-ready head that won’t hurt your back to move or destroy the interior of your ride en route to gigs.

The MESA/Boogie Subway bass-800D brings forward iconic tube preamp design and Boogie bass tone for bassists in a way that honors and inspires the musical creation that we all share as players.