What made you decide to buy a mesa boogie?

[paintballnsk]

Honestly it was the name.

I bought a mesa without even hearing a real one. I heard some recordings from a friend and was amazed. Also I found out that you can easily buy a DC-5 or DC-10 for less or the same prices as many other high end tube amps.

I was never happy with the marshalls. Their gain to me just has nothing on the mesa.

I know that a DC-10 isn't very popular and that it's on the cheaper side of the mesa lineup. But you can get a dc-5 for half the price of a Marshall DSL or TSL. So I jumped at it and havn't been disappointed since.

The only complaint I have with the DC-10 is that the reverb on it is really really weak on the lead channel. Also, the amp is simply too loud with a 412.

 

[Reg]

Because I thought buying really expensive gear would make me a great guitarist.
Sadly I have eventually come to the conclusion that I just need to practice a hell of a lot more :roll:

 

[ne2i]

I found out about mesa when I saw Ice T and Body Count way back
about 91' or so. They had dual stacks of Dual Rec's Super thick sound!
never could afford one untl......
just recently bought a dead rocket 44 that is now resurrected and
waking the neighbors!

 

[MusicManJP6]

Friend had a Mark IV and let me put it through the ringer while he tweaked all the knobs. I was hooked when I heard John Petrucci and Ty Tabor tone come pouring out!

 

[MetalHorse442]

Friend had a Mark IV and let me put it through the ringer while he tweaked all the knobs. I was hooked when I heard John Petrucci and Ty Tabor tone come pouring out!

For me it was Petrucci's tone for one. I was going to buy a Krank revolution at the time I got my triple rec and it sold the day before I got the money and I got my triple rec and i'm very glad I did, the new 3 channels sound good but don't hold a candle to my 2 channel. It's so big and open sounding the new ones kinda sound like they have a blanket over them, idk that's the best I can describe it. I didn't fall in love with my recto for a while, it took 6 months of tweeking and adjusting to get the perfect tone out of it, now that I have it and have played over 30 shows with it, I just can' play anything else, I know the nuances and inflections the amp has and it just breathes and it's as big a part of my style as the guitar itself is.

 

[phattskis]

I find myself a Mesa Boogie owner for many reasons. Some tangible, some not so tangible...

I guess first I have to give props and a RIP to the late Michael Houser of Widespread Panic who played with a Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinet at just about every concert I saw them play (over 200.) I have an image of him from a photo that I took of him jamming hard at Red Rocks park in Colorado with the Mesa/Boogie emblem prominently displayed. Mesa was ingrained into my brain years before I started playing guitar.

Then, when I started playing guitar a few years ago, I had to have a Mesa. My friend Wheaties, (who is a HUGE fan of the Maverick 2x12 and posts around these parts, but since this is MY FIRST POST I'm too newbee to have found him yet) started telling me about Class A and A/B and telling me about Randall Smith and then, well you know what happened. Less than three years later I find myself a member of the Boogie Board. hahaha

I personally own an f-30 that I call Darth Tonar because when I bought purchased the amp it reminded me of something from the Death Star. F'n LOVE IT! My PRS CU24 sounds amazing thru it as does my strat. It will not be the last Mesa/Boogie that I own I promise!

This past summer I did some time as a guitar sales associate at Guitar Center in Knoxville and got to play many kinds of Mesa amps, (many other major and smaller brands also): heads and combos alike, including all the Road Kings, Dual and Triple Rectos, Stillettos, Lone Stars and Express models in the store.

The Road King II combo was the most incredible sounding combo I have played through but way outta my price range. The different channel setups and tube configurations were OUTTA HAND!

I also dug the express models but the Lone Star 2x12 won my heart as the over all favorite combo (that I could actually get)

My dream rig is a new Lone Star Head and 4x12 slant cab. With its ability to get the clear as a bell Class A tones as well as a sweet Class AB tone that Mesa is famous for, I will never need anything more than that and if I do, then I bet you might guess what I would get.

Oh, and I know some might not agree, but I will NEVER own a Marshall. My time at Guitar Center DID actually make me a fan of a Les Paul but NOT Marshall...Mesa RULES. Sorry Jimi but I reckon if you had played a Boogie, you'd have felt the same...

 

[Spherion]

Back when I started getting a little serious about playing guitar I decided to go amp shopping in the Musican's Friend magazine, decided I should probably buy a "real" guitar as opposed to the borrowed pawn shop guitar I was playing on, eyed the ADA stuff and went with it just because the preamp thing appealed to me more than a bulky head. I think I lucked out in that the MP-2 has served me well over the years, however, I longed for a "real" amp sound--something that would limit me more than the ADA. Yeah, I said "limit" because the on-board EQ of the ADA confused me into getting way out of the range that I think I guitar amp should have (too bassy, too high--the range was too wide to control after playing with settings for 2 hours and becoming tone deaf).

The ADA started to die and it was time to upgrade. I've always been a John Petrucci fan and loved the tone on "Awake" and "Images and Words" back when he was using Ibanez stuff and a Triaxis. I always figured I'd get a Triaxis since I've been wanting one for about 10 years, but I hit YouTube and a few other sites for demos of various amps to get a comparison.

I spent about 2 or 3 days listening to samples and in about every sample that I liked it was either a DR or a TR. To me, they have a more "hollow" scooped (not as in "EQ scoop") sound than the any of the other amps I sampled. I listened to everything from VHT's, to the Marshall hotrods, to even the cheaper amps. I went to GC and sampled a Peavey JSX (at that point I knew my mind was open because I typically don't care for Peavey's). The JSX just sounded too "solo-ey" and had a color to the tone that I figured would get on my nerves after awhile.

So I went back home and listened to a few more samples. It seemed that even the bad home recordings and the studioesque recordings all seem to have one, consistent thing in common--that unique, chunky, smooth but angry tone. So I ordered mine blind without an in-person test.

 

[Moot]

After wanting a PRS for 2 decades I finally saved up for one and got a Singlecut. I loved the guitar but had never seen abybody playing through their Fender amp (although I'm sure many do it.)

It seemed to me that most people with PRS's play them through a Mesa amp, so when it came time to buy another amp I decided to buy a Mesa.

The Stiletto Ace had just come out, and I wanted something close to a Marshall, so I ordered the Ace without even trying one out. (I live in the Yukon, so I would have had to travel over 1000km in any direction just to find a dealer with one to try).

Now I'm a big Mesa fan. I have 2 Ace's and I'm looking at the Roadster.

 

[smgrimes]

MX Machine - Manic Panic (actually their live sound was way better)

Hetfield's ...And Justice For All - there is NO substitute



Mush-all has NOTHING on a roaring MESA/BOOGIE!

 

[secretsoundz]

I was looking for a Marshall syle amp and came across the Stiletto Ace. As soon as I plugged into that thing I was sold! That amp has redefined what Mesa Boogie can accomplish. It's like a Marshall on steriods but does an almost Fender blackface clean that no Marshall can do.
I'm a Mesa/Boogie Fan for life!

 

[Demoncleaner]

Metallica and Tool got me into guitars. Not wanting to sell my first born for a Diezel I went with a Roadster.

 

[kmanick]

For me personally, it was the quality, versatility and Jeff Loomis from Nevermore. He plays a 7-stringer in Bb and it still sounds tight as hell without loosing the huge bass response. I just couldn't get enough of that tone.

So I had to get a Rectifier myself, and nowdays I own a Single Recto (series 2) Solo 50 head, and I am loving it.

+1
same here.
I got into Nevermore about 2 years ago and fell in love with Jeff's studio
sound on "Enemies of Reality" and "Dead Heart in a Dead World".
Then I got into Dream Theater/Petrucci and getting a Mesa became inevitable.
Now I've got a Rectoverb head and I think by the end of the summer I
will move it for a Roadster head so I can set up a lead and a rhythm channel and switch on the fly.
I still love my JSX but it sure is seeing a lot less play time these days
A Mark IV is probably going to make it's way into my hands at some point as well.

 

[vertigo_]

early tool stuff, creed, godsmack, and disturbed. The distortion sounded so huge...and when I saw a roadster live I knew I had to have that amp. ditched all the digital stuff and went with mesa roadster. Loving it for the last one year!

 

[srf399]

I was looking for a Marshall syle amp and came across the Stiletto Ace. As soon as I plugged into that thing I was sold! That amp has redefined what Mesa Boogie can accomplish. It's like a Marshall on steriods but does an almost Fender blackface clean that no Marshall can do.
I'm a Mesa/Boogie Fan for life!

+1

 

[kiai_lee]

I have always been a JCM800/Peavey Classic 50 Player, and when i started my current band i decided to upgrade my gear so i sold the classic 50 and went out and tried a few amps. I went for the stilletto after trying out engl powerball and richie blackmore models, another JCM800, a lone star and a dual recto....the stiletto suited the sound i wanted to go for more than the other amps.

 

[GLiDE]

Okay, let me just face reality... the Road King II v2 just gave me a giant woody and I had to have it... aCk!!! Thfpppttt!!! :shock:

Used to have a Nomad 4x10 combo. Have a Dual Recto (just sold an ready to pack up), a custom made amp by a local unbelievable tube amp geek (amp has a tone-control-less channel with nothing but a volume and a Fender flavored channel. Really good amp for pushing pedals or cranking up the toneless channel and enjoying the sweet overdrive), a 65 Fender Twin. I push the twin with a Vox Tonelab SE more than anything now 'days. I've actually gotten some great tones from that combo (and I'm a tube amp guy all the way). Still have all my Keeley modded pedals and other miscellaneous ones from my old pedalboard gigging days.

I've owned a lot of amps, but Mesa's just have that oomph that just can't be described appropriately.

 

[SURVIVEtheNIGHT]

1. Metallica
2. Lamb of God
3. Wanted a tube amp with more punch and more gain than a marshall

Altogether they make my Mesa Roadster

 

[Charles Reeder]

I ended up with my first Mesa Boogie due to a fortunate accidental encounter.
More on that in a bit.

I started playing guitar in 1966. Owned and played through Marshall stacks. The 70s found me favoring Orange 80 and 120. Of course many places I played the Marshall and Orange were impractical overkill. So I had the usual Fenders, Twin, Super, Bassman, Deluxe Reverb etc. for those jobs.

Mid 1980s stopped playing and sold ALL my gear. Early mid 90s realized I was even more insane from NOT playing than I had been when I was playing... so chose to start up again. Hadn't been following amplifier development...but figured small combos were the way to go.
Made a few bad choices...and suffered lackluster tone as a result.

One day I was 'cruising' through a pawn shop and saw nothing of interest. Just as I was about to walk out the door I took a backward glance and spied something in the far corner I had missed. It was cream colored with a brownish red grill. Got close enough to read the name tag. It was a Mesa Boogie. Turned out to be a DC-5 112 Combo in immaculate condition. Played it with some crappy badly setup guitar that was on hand...and was floored by the sound of the 'clean' channel. Bought it on the spot. I have never been truly happy with the distortion channel but I can use it. Every place I played after getting that DC-5; I got compliments on my sound.

This experience prompted me to get a Mesa Catalog and start reading. I found that they had a model that seemed as if it were 'made for me'. It was the Lonestar. I knew that they had gotten channel-1 of the DC-5 right for me...so I figured the Lonestar would be 100% right for me on both channels. No place anywhere near me had one to try out so I bought one without ever hearing it. Loved channel-1 from the start...not so happy with channel-2...but I eventually solved that problem to my complete satisfaction. I have that Lonestar 112 Combo...plus I recently bought a LSC Head and have converted a LSC Combo cabinet into a speaker cabinet. I still get compliments on my tone.

I still 'technically' own the DC-5; but presently my eldest son is using it to 'get back into playing' himself. I have some Fenders and Riveras and Marshalls and others that do get used...but whenever it's practical...the Lonestar goes to the gig.

Charles

 

[MarkofXlnts]

My motivation for purchasing Boogie amps was primarily rooted in build quality and construction, at least initially. I owned modern amps by Fender, Crate, Marshall, Laney and Carvin and had problems of one kind or another with most of them (and I am VERY easy on my gear). I also began to notice the build quality, and became tired of cheap particle board cabinets, thin PCBs and plastic pots. So, I discovered Mesa and was instantly impressed with the quality. I have no desire to ever purchase anything else.

 

[Nikostrat]

After playing what I thought was the best of the best.....I tried a LSS on a whim. Floored. I stereotyped Boogies as long as they have been around and Im sorry I was never open minded in the past.

My bad. Years and years of tone possibilities lost due to my own ignorance. Still kept a Marshall, but the Fenders are all gone now. Hooray for Mesa Boogie! What an incredible piece of art and craftsmanship.