Is this hardwood combo cab a real Boogie or not?

[CyrilW]

Hello everybody,

I recently bought this hardwood combo that was advertised as an early 90s Mark IV. I'm having doubts that it was built by Mesa Boogie because the wood is stained, the corner radiuses and pedal mounting cutouts are different than my 93 Mark IV cab and there are no casters.

Can any Boogie experts confirm or deny that it was built by Mesa Boogie based on the following photos?

Thanks for the help,
Cyril

 

[FXR]

Looks plausible based on this ad from Mesa.

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Out_of%20_Production/Mark_IV/Mark_IV_Closeup/Mark-IV-closeupStack.html

 

[CyrilW]

The wood on my cabinet is definitely stained. According to Mesa, they only stain maple and I'm not sure if my wood is maple.

According to "The Boogie Files" site, besides imbuya, koa, maple and bubinga, hardwoods cabs also came in oak, rosewood and cherry. So I guess my cab could be oak or cherry.

 

[DaveP]

It looks to me as being an Original Mesa cabinet in Imbuya. A Mark IV Cabinet. If you look on the back panel on the inside they sometimes write the wood type.

 

[>Photi G<]

It's definitely a real Mesa cab. Somebody apparently removed the footswitch mounting brackets, but it does have the original SUS4 shock mounts, and nobody made a cab with shock mounts except for Mesa. This may actually be an earlier Mark III cab modified to fit the Mark IV footswitch, as the cutouts do look a bit misshapen. The wood could be either Imbuya or Bubinga, as that is the natural color of both woods. They are tough to tell apart. It is definitely not stained, just finished with oil and wax coated, as that is the wood's natural color, believe it or not. No Mesa cab is stained besides maple.

 

[MrMarkIII]

The plate on the interior side panel identifies it as a Mesa SUS-4 cab. Those are too hard to remove from one cab and stick in another without serious damage. My Imbuya cab looked the same, especially the inside. There should be a note of the wood type and a build date written in marker on the inside of that removable bottom rear panel.
It's "real... and spec-ta-cular!' :lol:

 

[CyrilW]

You can see the real color of the wood on the inside of the shock mount and in the ding at the bottom edge of the cab. It's a light wood, at least it looks like it is. I did not see any writing on the inside of the back panel.

I want it to be real, I'm just want to make sure I didn't get ripped off.

Thanks for the help,

Cyril

 

[RR]

It looks an authentic Boogie unless some enclosure builder put the effort of routing the protective bar rout.

 

[CyrilW]

Thanks for the input everybody. I'm convinced that it's official Boogie and not homemade.

 

[boogiemon]

i didn't know that mesa used cherry at all, but that's what the grain looks like to me.

(i actually had a temp job at mesa many years ago for all that's worth)

 

[crguti]

it looks sweet

 

[O==00==O]

It looks real, and my guess is stained maple. The grain looks like a Maple wood, like many maple drums and guitar necks I have seen. I am no EXPERT on wood species, but I'm no Klutz either. The joints are Mesa. They only have one jointing machine. And, the design and parts are Mesa parts.

 

[RR]

...The joints are Mesa. They only have one jointing machine. ...

Not sure what you mean. These are half-bind dovetail joints. You could purchase these dovetail jigs anywhere, Home Depot, Lowe's, ... I think even Harbor Freight. With a router, dovetail router bit, ferrule collar, and dovetail jig and reading instructions on the jig, you could do-it-yourself.

Here's my attempt at hardwood cabinet using poplar.