The Mesa Boogie name is known around the world as one of the first boutique guitar amp builders. Mesa amps are a staple in every professional recording studio and touring rig, proving to be a driving force behind the evolution of some genres of music.
Let's explore the extensive range and find the right amp for you...
Mesa Boogie began life in a small repair shop owned and run by Randall Smith, who tinkered with Fender amps in his spare time. His first popular creation was a modded Princeton practice amp, which he fitted with the power section of a Bassman and a larger 12-inch speaker. People loved the hot-rodded sound so much that Smith went on to make hundreds more for willing customers.
Smith says the “Boogie” part of the name came about when Carlos Santana tried out one of his modified Princeton amps. Santana was blown away with the fiery tone, exclaiming “that really boogies!”. The former “Mesa” section comes from Smith's other business in rebuilding Mercedes car engines, where he first inspired to fit the Princeton with larger, more powerful components.
Mesa's reputation grew throughout the '70s and '80s. The amps were championed by some of the biggest bands at the time, including The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Police, The Clash and Dire Straits. By the 1990s, Mesa had established themselves as the premium amp manufacturer, with highlights in the line-up consisting of the flagship Mark series and heavy metal-suited Rectifier.
That brings us to today, with the current range grander and more diverse than ever. The Californian-built amps cover a wide variety of vintage crisp characteristics, classic rock and metal crunch, and even contemporary tones.
...You're after the most highly-regarded blues, rock and metal amps in the world. Mesa were one of the first manufacturers to pioneer high gain tones for the extreme ends of those genres. Mesa amps sound great when pushed hard and possess an almost unrivalled amount of clarity, combined with the warmth of a full low-end. The tones crafted in Mesa amps are simply masterful.
Despite their popularity in metal music, each Mesa amp is packed with extremely diverse guitar sounds, including smooth American cleans, edge-of-breakup tones and classic rock bite. Arguably no valve amp comes more jam packed than the Mark series thanks to multiple channels and voicings, as well as deep EQ controls.
It doesn't stop there: the current Fillmore, Triple Crown and Recto-Verb ranges all excel in their own unique way, but there's still plenty of tonal crossover whatever Mesa you buy. You're guaranteed to get proven tones at the highest level and a massive amount of sonic potential.
Not satisfied with the knowledge that Mesa are the pick of the bunch for Keith Richards and Mark Knopfler? Well, here are a few more names in rock and pop known to use, or have used Mesa Boogie amps: Frank Zappa, Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Ed O'Brien (Radiohead), Prince, Steve Lukather (Toto), Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac) and Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge).
Mesa Boogie continue to be a mainstay in metal and more radical, progressive genres. Most recording musicians have used them at some point. Here are a few more guitarists playing through Mesa amps on the further ends of the musical spectrum: James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett (Metallica), John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Mark Morton and Willie Adler (Lamb of God), Adam Jones (Tool), Alex Lifeson (Rush), Eric Peterson (Testament) and Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse).
Mesa Boogie make only the very best amps in the world. And being completely honest, it's reflected in the prices. This is AAA studio quality tone you're getting in every sonic department, packed full with extensive customisation.
You've got some serious thinking to do as there's a great choice of wattage, tubes, combo, head and rack configurations and specialised tones to choose from. Every amp is made to slot right into your existing setup, with the likes of attenuation options and cab sim potential to streamline your rig. Let's dive right in.
Mesa's flagship amp and probably the most versatile of any high-end amp range ever created. Pro guitarists flock to the latest Mark V because it really is the best of the best. Any valve tone can be summoned to your fingertips and toes. Crisp cleans, slight saturation and heavy high gain all come easy to the Mark V. And with the added benefit of Mesa Boogie's legendary five-band EQ, you've got plenty of room to tweak your to tonal perfection.
There are some choices to be made in the Mark V line-up with a pick of both combo and head formats. The two full fat models come equipped with three channels, covering the complete sound spectrum. These possess two voicings each, even covering older versions of the Mark back catalogue. Switch the five-band EQ on or off and attenuate for each channel. On top of that, there's another special switch for each channel, changing between the standard voicing and a bolder, thicker tone. Phew.
If you don't quite need that much customisation, there are also more affordable 50W and 25W models, taking a slightly further stripped back approach. That being said, we're still talking Mesa Boogie here and they're still jam packed with two channels each, six voicings and the extensive EQ.
The Rectifier is Mesa’s all-out heavy sounding amp. This thing thrives on crushing rock and metal tone. Forget the mindblowing versatility of the Mark V – the Rectifier possesses an elite gain channel thanks to its 6L6 valves (with a little help of a Blackface style clean channel) utilised by many a professional musician since the ‘90s. Even then, it doesn’t stop at the one voicing. It’ll cover everything from the raw sound of grunge, through to fat, thick power metal and up to modern standards when paired with a good mids-prominent drive pedal.
In the range you’ll find the Mini, Dual and Triple Rectifier amps, each increasing in size, wattage and features. The Mini stick with just the two channels, while the Dual and Triple add a double dose of high-gain for added customisation. As with all latest modern Mesa amps, the Rectifier series gets controllable wattage selection, FX loop and simple bias select when changing tubes.
The Triple Crown is what you'd refer to as the most “modern” of all Mesa amps. Contemporary music changes up lots of different tones at a dramatic rate, so you need an amp that excels whatever the requirements. The Triple Crown does that and more.
It contains three distinct channels: Clean, Modern Crunch and High-Gain, with tight switches and a drive switch for the former. These let you dial in pretty much any tone a tube amp can make – especially the tight switch on the High-Gain channel, which pushes the Triple Crown to modern metal realms Mesa have previously not touched. In addition to all this great content, you can easily replace the EL34 tubes for a drastically different base voicing. There's no bias adjustment needed here – all that's required is a flick a switch on the back of the amp.
The Fillmore range is a celebration of Mesa Boogie's first steps into amp production. These classy numbers boast sleek retro aesthetics and glorious hot-rod American tone. This is a real throwback to those early days of amp modding performed by the small Mesa team. The first thing you'll notice about the Fillmore is the relative lack of controls - especially for a Mesa amp. Here it's all about dialling in a great tone from the get-go and adding a splash of presence and reverb to taste.
Quite unlike anything else in the Mesa brochure, the Fillmore fills that classic rock and bluesy breakup spot the Californian company have been missing for some time. Lower 25 and 50 watt options let you tap into those gorgeously saturated 6L6 tube tones easier than some of the Fillmore's larger counterparts. Combo models are equipped with sweet sounding Celestion C90 speakers, which are designed specifically for open back cabs, releasing a robust low end and excellent dynamic response.
Yep, Mesa Boogie also make guitar pedals! They fill their awesome stompboxes with the same sonic quality as their amp ranges, mainly specialising in overdrive, distortion, boost and EQ effects. Mesa do what they do best, providing with studio-worthy crunch suited to all types of rock and metal. You know you're in great hands, here.
Highlights include their double-sized Throttle Box, Flux and Five-Band Graphic EQ pedals, all fitted with signature Mesa EQ sliders. These allow for seriously extensive tone tinkering, letting you shape shape each frequency band to perfection.
Elsewhere, you've got three colourful options in the form of the Cleo, Goldmine and Dynaplex. Each performs a different drive role to extremely high Mesa standards, delivering indie/blues breakup, thicker old school high gain and classic Plexi tones, respectively.
Mesa certainly aren't depriving basses and acoustics of their attention. The Subway squeezes the essential features of the incredible Subway D-800 amp into a compact preamp pedal, catering to any type of bass guitar input. Meanwhile, acoustic players get the Rosette preamp pedal, possessing the same premium components and versatile EQ as its namesake full size amp.
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