Mesa Boogie Guitar Amplifiers

Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is a company in Petaluma, California that makes amplifiers for guitars and basses.

Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a small repair shop which modified Fender combos to give them more gain. Soon the word spread, and with users like Carlos Santana, Boogie became one of the big names in the industry. Other notable Boogie users include: Les Claypool, Jade Puget from AFI, Tom Delonge from blink-182 and Angels and Airwaves, Mark Tremonti from Alter Bridge, Allan Holdsworth, John Scofield, John Petrucci from Dream Theater, Steve Lukather, Buckethead, Metallica, Munky (from Korn), Tim Mahoney (from 311), Prince, Jerry Cantrell, Frank Zappa, Eric Book, Andy Timmons, Cannibal Corpse, Terry Balsamo from Evanescence, Devin Townsend, Fall Out Boy, Flea, Rammstein, Helmet,Trivium, Dir en grey, Gavin Rossdale and Nigel Pulsford of Bush, Lamb of God, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

History

Randall Smith, the creator of Mesa Boogie began his career at Prune music, a Chinese grocery store turned music shop. Working as a repair tech while his business partner and friend, David Kessner, ran the front, Smith quickly gained a reputation with the local San Francisco Bay Area musicians. Smith, taking great pride in his work was soon seeing business from the likes of the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Carlos Santana.

In 1969, Smith, as a joke, modified Barry Melton's (Country Joe and the Fish) Fender Princeton amplifier. He removed the standard 10 inch speaker and modified the chassis to fit the larger transformers that were needed by the 4-10 tweed Bassman, the circuit that he had added into the tiny 12 watt Princeton. Finally, Mounting a 12 inch JBL D-120, a popular speaker of the time, Smith had created what would be the first Boogie.

Randall Smith, needing to test his creation, took the "hot-rodded" Princeton into the front store. Coincidentally, Carlos Santana was present and "wailed through that little amp until people were blocking the sidewalk". Impressed, Santana exclaimed to Smith, "Shit, man. That little thing really Boogies!" It was this statement that brought the Boogie name to fruition.

The MESA name came about through Smith's other job, rebuilding Mercedes engines and repairing houses. He needed an 'official' sounding name through which to buy Mercedes parts and building supplies. The name chosen was MESA Engineering because it was seemingly familiar with a professional air. It was originally capitalized but has been written as Mesa in recent years.

In 1971 Bassist, Patrick Burke addressed Randall in hopes of a custom Bass amp. Smith was persuaded and constructed the Snakeskin Mesa 450 - Smith's first bass amplifier and the first 'official' Mesa/Boogie product.

The real breakthrough came when Smith began his project of building a preamp for Lee Michaels to drive his new Crown DC-300 power amplifiers. Not knowing what signal was required to drive the power amps, Smith added an extra tube gain stage to the preamp to cover his bases, with 3 variable gain controls at different points in the circuit.

When Smith took the construction to Michaels and plugged it in, they were both disappointed, as they could only hear a very faint sound coming out of the speakers. They soon realized that the speakers had been plugged directly into the preamp, and rectified the situation by plugging them in correctly to the power-amp. After plugging everything together correctly, Michaels hit a power chord to test the new setup which "practically blew both of our [Michaels and Smith] bodies through the back wall".

Smith had discovered High Gain, purely by chance. He set about designing a Mesa/Boogie amplifier around the new principle, and in 1972 the Mark I Boogie was released.

He proceeded to evolve the Mark series, with the Mark II released in 1980. The 1980s saw Mesa instigating and leading in the 'Rack Revolution', with popular power amplifiers such as the M180/190 and Strategy series, as well as pre-amps such as the Quad and Studio.

Arguably the most desirable Boogie ever built was designed in 1983, the Mark II-C (and later the II-C+). The Mark series culminated in 1990 with the Mark IV, still one of the most advanced amplifiers in the world.

In the '90s, Mesa launched the smaller Dual Caliber series and the more powerful Rectifier series, the latter of which is perhaps the most important amplifier of the '90s.

The new millennium has not seen Mesa slow down, with new models like the 4-channel Road King and perhaps their best clean channel yet, the Lone Star and Lone Star Special.

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