Mesa Strategy PA's. 400 or 500 The One To Get?

Do you use the mono input or use the 2 sides separately?
Mono input when using a preamp... but 99% of the time I use it with a wet/dry/wet setup, so I use each side to power its own 4x12. I typically run four 4x12's at the same time. Two center cabs are dry and two outside cabs have both wet and dry signal. This allows me to get a massive full headroom sound without having to turn my amps up loud. I can play at mouse fat volumes when everyone is sleeping upstairs, or a little louder than TV volume when everyone is awake and my sound isn't even noticed. Only when I start to really push the amp and make the house shake is when my wife starts closing basement doors, etc. She doesn't mind me playing... only when someone comes over and cant play well...that's when she gets cranky. :ROFLMAO:
 
I’m sure you’ve seen me write about adding a depth pot/circuit to the S400. Stock it is great and gets the job done. With the depth circuit (1 meg pot and .0022uf caps or whatever your ear likes most) it sounds so massive and just fills out the room with sound.
you are single-handedly the main reason i am interested in the 400 and very jealous of your custom one with the matching rack graphics!
 
you are single-handedly the main reason i am interested in the 400 and very jealous of your custom one with the matching rack graphics!
Mine is stock outside f the depth mod I did.
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Here is the depth mod I did. My buddy gave me the “deep” sticker like Mesa uses 🤣. (note the little sticker for the power tubes installed 7/2015).

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FWIW if a guy does the deep mod, I would recommend making it switchable. Mike B. did mine and honestly it's way too much, I rarely use it. He also added presence to mine and in hindsight this was totally unnecessary. The M180 was perfect stock.
 
FWIW if a guy does the deep mod, I would recommend making it switchable. Mike B. did mine and honestly it's way too much, I rarely use it. He also added presence to mine and in hindsight this was totally unnecessary. The M180 was perfect stock.
You and Dave have all the cool mesa stuff…
 
Mine is stock outside f the depth mod I did.
View attachment 301485
Here is the depth mod I did. My buddy gave me the “deep” sticker like Mesa uses 🤣. (note the little sticker for the power tubes installed 7/2015).

View attachment 301488
by graphics i meant the custom stereo graphic eqs you have!
but i agree with @GJgo in that the standard deep voicing on the strategy and 290 can be a bit much so yoir variable mod is a winner!
 
Two center cabs are dry and two outside cabs have both wet and dry signal. This allows me to get a massive full headroom sound without having to turn my amps up loud.
That sounds awesome. I recently added a floor wedge cab to my rig that's pointed straight at my face, and it's crazy how full and loud things sound now while still being at a manageable volume. I imagine your rig sounds just as awesome if not more so. Have you tried putting the cabs at the corners of a square pointed in, then standing in the center of the square and holding on for dear life?
 
That sounds awesome. I recently added a floor wedge cab to my rig that's pointed straight at my face, and it's crazy how full and loud things sound now while still being at a manageable volume. I imagine your rig sounds just as awesome if not more so. Have you tried putting the cabs at the corners of a square pointed in, then standing in the center of the square and holding on for dear life?
I’ve run a total of eight 4x12’s with two different amps. I had set up some crazy delays with two different wet/dry/wet rigs that would bounce sound from different cabinets around the room. It was really cool.
 
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