Second-hand Mesa Subway D800+ advice needed

G

Gallinago

Nov 26, 2024
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#1
Dear all, maybe specifically @agedhorse, I am looking for some help regarding the potential purchase of a D800+ with serial number D8P-001552. How can I go about authenticating this amp? I will test it out tomorrow and can probably get it for a really fair price, but I don't want to dive headfirst in a deal that may be 'to good to be true'. Mesa customer service indicated that this amp may have originally shipped out in May 2018.
  • After short negotiations, agreed price went down to € 650 from an asking price of € 825;
  • Pictures originally weren't great, but just clear enough. More photo's were added by the seller to his posting;
  • Provided invoice indicates purchase in March 2019, but for a WD800 and the shop (Music Store Professional) "made a mistake back then";
  • Indicated as 'mint'/'in new condition' but is scratched on its rear top edge (from "bumping into laptop on the table");
  • The provided case does not look original.
Should I open it up and check the insides? Have Mesa amps been counterfeited? Any advice on testing this amp? Your help will be much appreciated.

Long time lurker, first time poster. Hope I didn't do anything wrong.
 

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#2
Gallinago said:
Dear all, maybe specifically @agedhorse, I am looking for some help regarding the potential purchase of a D800+ with serial number D8P-001552. How can I go about authenticating this amp? I will test it out tomorrow and can probably get it for a really fair price, but I don't want to dive headfirst in a deal that may be 'to good to be true'. Mesa customer service indicated that this amp may have originally shipped out in May 2018.
  • After short negotiations, agreed price went down to € 650 from an asking price of € 825;
  • Pictures originally weren't great, but just clear enough. More photo's were added by the seller to his posting;
  • Provided invoice indicates purchase in March 2019, but for a WD800 and the shop (Music Store Professional) "made a mistake back then";
  • Indicated as 'mint'/'in new condition' but is scratched on its rear top edge (from "bumping into laptop on the table");
  • The provided case does not look original.
Should I open it up and check the insides? Have Mesa amps been counterfeited? Any advice on testing this amp? Your help will be much appreciated.

Long time lurker, first time poster. Hope I didn't do anything wrong.
Click to expand...
Those pics are kinda blurry...
 
#4
I think a non-original case is not an issue. The case Mesa provides with the amp is a nice addition to the package and suitable for careful users, but what you show here looks like a laptop case, which might very well offer more protection - mine does ($5 at a second-hand store). Does anyone counterfeit amps?
 
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#5
I’m not aware of any counterfeit Subway amps. Like any used amp, be sure everything operates correctly.

If you are concerned about buying a used amp, the alternative is to buy a new one with a warranty, of course the cost will be higher.
 
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#6
Gallinago said:
How can I go about authenticating this amp?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't worry about it. It seems highly unlikely there could be such a good counterfeit of a niche item like this. As for the invoice, it seems pretty plausible that a retailer might have made a mistake like omitting a '+' mark. You'd have to make your own evaluation about the condition, but I wouldn't worry too much about that either; you've already negotiated a lower price. Cosmetic damage is what it is -- cosmetic. It doesn't affect functionality. If you want pristine, buy new or hold out for a unicorn. That last option seems pretty unlikely in the EU.

Edited for snarkiness reduction.
 
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#12
When I worked for Bose, we definitely received counterfeit BT speakers in for repair. When you work on stuff day in, day out, it's easy to see that it is a fake. To the average person getting the to good to be true deal, some are very convincing looking. It's very comical to see the crap inside of them to make "sound".
 
#13
My thought is if you are on this site asking for advice, you probably have that little voice telling you this may not be a great bargain. My advice is to listen to it! IMO, that voice is there to keep you from doing something you may regret. I can assure you that this isn’t the only suitable amp in the world for sale. There zero need to take this risk.

Best wishes.
 
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#15
MultiScaleMale said:
I've seen a counterfeit amp of any sort. Have there been any? If you're worried about an amp being authentic, you should maybe buy new with a return policy from a well known dealer.
Click to expand...
do you mean you've never seen a counterfeit amp?
dbsfgyd1 said:
My thought is if you are on this site asking for advice, you probably have that little voice telling you this may not be a great bargain. My advice is to listen to it! IMO, that voice is there to keep you from doing something you may regret. I can assure you that this isn’t the only suitable amp in the world for sale. There zero need to take this risk.

Best wishes.
Click to expand...
i'm not the OP, but i worry about any and all used purchases. if i listened to that little voice, i'd have never bought anything used. yet i've never had an amp, bass, or camera fail while i owned them, used or new.

the only 2 used items i ever had that had issues were a GK 112 (GK sold me the replacement part for a low price and was very helpful) and a peavy that had been owned by SIR, and by special arrangement between peavy and SIR, it was fixed under warranty when it failed. but amps? never had one fail on me.
 
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#17
I have seen counterfeit amps, but they tend to be very popular budget amps that are sold in high quantities in markets like South and Central America, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

I have yet to see a counterfeit Mesa amp, it may be because the cost of the materials and tooling if the chassis is an awfully steep investment and the feature sets are more than what most counterfeiters are willing (or able) to reproduce.
 
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#18
6thplanet said:
When I worked for Bose, we definitely received counterfeit BT speakers in for repair. When you work on stuff day in, day out, it's easy to see that it is a fake. To the average person getting the to good to be true deal, some are very convincing looking. It's very comical to see the crap inside of them to make "sound".
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how relevant this is. A BT speaker is consumer item costing at most a couple of hundred clams -- quite literally a commodity item. Bose probably sells tens, if not hundreds of thousands of them. A Mesa Subway amp is a specialty, niche item costing seven to ten times as much and Mesa probably sells in the very low thousands of units in a year, and possibly not even a thousand of the D800+'s specifically. My point is this isn't a particularly lucrative target for counterfeiting. Mesa products are not even available on Amazon -- it's possible the offshore counterfeiters aren't even aware they exist.

I also tend to believe that products that aren't manufactured in Asia to begin with have a much lower likelihood of being counterfeited or cloned.
 
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#19
Having recently bought one used, it’s a great amp. Make sure it works and if you can’t do that make sure you have some buyer’s assurance via PayPal (*not* Friends & Family) or something along those lines.

Fantastic amp, my favourite of all that I’ve owned, which have included Ampeg ‘77 V9, Ampeg PF500, PF800, MarkBass CMD121P, GK RB700, RB800, Darkglass M500v2, Traynor Yba200, and more solid state Traynors than I can list, maybe a few others I’ve forgotten, if that comparison is helpful at all. I’m using Aguilar 2xDB210s, 2xGS112s, and a non-neo Avatar 212 with it, sounds amazing on all cabs I own.
 
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