New Old Amp Day: Son of Boogie

[macg1]

Greetings all,

Picked a Mesa Boogie "Son of Boogie" 1x12 combo yesterday on the cheap (400 bucks). It is a 4x6L6 combo, Simul Class amp with a Black Shadow speaker. Don't know too much about these so, just wanting to know more about it, which tubes are working for everyone, schematic and such. I got some info on TGP and wrote Mesa themselves for info but this was their reply:

Garey Noble (MESA/Boogie)

May 24, 13:58 PDT

Hi Giordano,

Unfortunately, there is not much material available for the SOB. You may want to refer to the Mark I Reissue material for reference.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need assistance in any way. Thanks!

Garey Noble
Product Specialist | Artist Relations
Mesa/Boogie, Ltd.
1317 Ross Street | Petaluma, CA 94954 USA
http://www.mesaboogie.com

Educate me, Boogie experts! Oh for those of you who have never seen a S.O.B with Simulclass, here it is:

https://imgur.com/a/4dwL7b5#QGgJjNI

 

[Authorized Boogie]

Greetings all,

Picked a Mesa Boogie "Son of Boogie" 1x12 combo yesterday on the cheap (400 bucks). It is a 4x6L6 combo, Simul Class amp with a Black Shadow speaker. Don't know too much about these so, just wanting to know more about it, which tubes are working for everyone, schematic and such. I got some info on TGP and wrote Mesa themselves for info but this was their reply:

Garey Noble (MESA/Boogie)

May 24, 13:58 PDT

Hi Giordano,

Unfortunately, there is not much material available for the SOB. You may want to refer to the Mark I Reissue material for reference.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need assistance in any way. Thanks!

Garey Noble
Product Specialist | Artist Relations
Mesa/Boogie, Ltd.
1317 Ross Street | Petaluma, CA 94954 USA
http://www.mesaboogie.com

Educate me, Boogie experts! Oh for those of you who have never seen a S.O.B with Simulclass, here it is:

https://imgur.com/a/4dwL7b5#QGgJjNI

Correct. There simply is not much info we have on the SOB. No manual, no schematic. Sorry I couldn't offer you more... :roll:

 

[macg1]

Greetings all,

Picked a Mesa Boogie "Son of Boogie" 1x12 combo yesterday on the cheap (400 bucks). It is a 4x6L6 combo, Simul Class amp with a Black Shadow speaker. Don't know too much about these so, just wanting to know more about it, which tubes are working for everyone, schematic and such. I got some info on TGP and wrote Mesa themselves for info but this was their reply:

Garey Noble (MESA/Boogie)

May 24, 13:58 PDT

Hi Giordano,

Unfortunately, there is not much material available for the SOB. You may want to refer to the Mark I Reissue material for reference.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need assistance in any way. Thanks!

Garey Noble
Product Specialist | Artist Relations
Mesa/Boogie, Ltd.
1317 Ross Street | Petaluma, CA 94954 USA
http://www.mesaboogie.com

Educate me, Boogie experts! Oh for those of you who have never seen a S.O.B with Simulclass, here it is:

https://imgur.com/a/4dwL7b5#QGgJjNI

Correct. There simply is not much info we have on the SOB. No manual, no schematic. Sorry I couldn't offer you more... :roll:

No worries whatsoever. I totally understand. Just figured some current and former owners could chime in. By the way, thank you for the very quick reply also. This level of customer service is pretty incredible these days. Maybe there will be newer Mesa amps in my future.

 

[woodbutcher65]

I've been the proud owner of a 60 watt SOB for a number of years. They're simple amps but when they're right, they're RIGHT. Tone like an angry god looking to kill something.

The schematics...there are schematic repositories that have it. Easy Google search.

One word of advice: The SOB seems to be very sensitive to the condition of its filter capacitors. If the overdrive is harsh or rough, the first thing to look at after tube condition is those filter caps. In general, if they're more than 10 years old they need to be replaced.

I recapped mine recently and it got a lot smoother but it will never have the smooth lead tone that SOME amps are known for. It's always more bold and aggressive than that even when set up to do an edge of distortion tone.


There's a video on youtube demonstrating a '74 Mark 1. Sounds fantastic. Allowing for the speaker differences, my SOB sounds a lot like that one.

 

[woodbutcher65]

A little update: My SOB has never had what I'd call a really smooth sounding overdrive. Even with good glass and fresh caps, it's been a bit raw and brutal. So I did some investigating and found that the primary cause of this harshness is a .003 uF disc capacitor which bypasses a 220K resistor which in turn connects thru a .047 uF capacitor which connects to the plate (pin 6) on V2B. Remove that capacitor and the tone is greatly improved just by that single change.

I'm looking at other options for further tone improvements as well, but simply yanking out that one capacitor took the amp's tone to a totally new (and better) level.

 

[DavidMenke]

Greetings all,

Picked a Mesa Boogie "Son of Boogie" 1x12 combo yesterday on the cheap (400 bucks). It is a 4x6L6 combo, Simul Class amp with a Black Shadow speaker. Don't know too much about these so, just wanting to know more about it, which tubes are working for everyone, schematic and such. I got some info on TGP and wrote Mesa themselves for info but this was their reply:

Garey Noble (MESA/Boogie)

May 24, 13:58 PDT

Hi Giordano,

Unfortunately, there is not much material available for the SOB. You may want to refer to the Mark I Reissue material for reference.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need assistance in any way. Thanks!

Garey Noble
Product Specialist | Artist Relations
Mesa/Boogie, Ltd.
1317 Ross Street | Petaluma, CA 94954 USA
http://www.mesaboogie.com
Educate me, Boogie experts! Oh for those of you who have never seen a S.O.B with Simulclass, here it is:

If you still have the SOB here is my invoice from back in 85. Still have the amp.

 

[user 41014]

If you still have the SOB here is my invoice from back in 85. Still have the amp.

View attachment 2748
View attachment 2748View attachment 2749View attachment 2750

Just got a SOBR today with presence mod and was comparing it to my KOB which like yours has both presence and limit.

What are your extra 2 jacks and pot on the back? Is there an effects loop with wet/dry pot? That cab looks like a DC series.

The SOBR has an extra jack railed to the speaker jacks but looks abandoned where it used to attach to something.

Plenty of real estate and chassis holes.

Anyone happy/unhappy not having a mid pot? I thought about adding in a middle pot to the back. Anyone out there that has done a "mids" mod? I'm not interested in limiting my output in any way.

 

[DavidMenke]

Just got a SOBR today with presence mod and was comparing it to my KOB which like yours has both presence and limit.

What are your extra 2 jacks and pot on the back? Is there an effects loop with wet/dry pot? That cab looks like a DC series.

The SOBR has an extra jack railed to the speaker jacks but looks abandoned where it used to attach to something.

Plenty of real estate and chassis holes.

Anyone happy/unhappy not having a mid pot? I thought about adding in a middle pot to the back. Anyone out there that has done a "mids" mod? I'm not interested in limiting my output in any way.

Yes it does have an effects loop, and the control in the middle of the 2 open jacks is for Reverb. The original amp was just a head, with no reverb or loop.
I previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and just an hour+ drive to Petaluma where Boogie is located. They did the reverb and loop, also they did the cabinet. It may have been a DC series, (not sure) but the chassis fit and they installed a 12" Mesa Speaker.
That beast is heavy. It is a simul, and can be run at 15 watt with the 2 EL34 or 75watt running 2 more 6L6 tubes.
My suggestion is use the Limit vary sparse if needed. In input 2, very clean. Input 1 is where it takes off! LOUD!
Back when I was playing in Clubs, the 15watt setting was usually enough. This was the only Mesa I kept. I had a studio 50 head and 2 12" cabinet, and also a combo Mark 3. Never really meshed with those.