A page dedicated to the tone and creativity of MESA Engineering's famous Mark Series. These little giant killers, first introduced in the early seventies, have been the choice of most major top players. Made famous by Santana and boosted by The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Grateful Dead, very few if any stadiums, coliseums or concert halls haven't been assaulted by a Boogie. Currently the state of the art is the Mark IV which represents the culmination of 30 years of evolution and refinement.
Big Brother
Although most of this site revolves around the MESA 12" combo amps, it would be remiss to not mention the most rare of all the MESA/Boogie amps made. The Mesa 1-15 combo was available as a factory option from the very beginning of Boogie's production of the Mark I through the early days of the Mark III and were discontinued long before the MArk IV arrived in 1991. Despite this long production run, not very many were ordered as compared to the popular 1-12 combo. MESA states that about 300 Mark I, 249 Mark IIA, 550 Mark IIB 100 Watt 15 inch combo models were made. the number of Mark IIC, C+ and III gets lost in the serial number jumble of the coliseum series. All models from Mark I to Mark IIB, is 100 watt or Simul-Class models had a three digit serial number preceded by a "B". Later models used the serial number of the series and if a Series 300, then the "K" from the coliseum series.
'79 Mark IIA, '83 Mark IIC, '84 Series 300 IIC+ and '86 Mark III (Clockwise from top left)
This combo set-up was of course an all tube combination amp with a fifteen inch speaker. the speaker was early on an Altec, then JBL and Eminence and then finally EVM. Whereas in the twelve inch models one had the choice of 60/100 watt or Simul-Class, the big fifteen inch came in the higher power series, available stock as 60/100, with options of Class A/Simul Class, Series 300 Simul Class and Series 300 180 watt. This configuration is superb for steel guitar or clean lead guitar work as the amps have incredible tone and clean headroom. The 'pull deep' on Master 1 knob that appears on the Mark IIC+ and Mark III amps is perfectly voiced for pedal steel.
MESA/Boogie 15" Combo Collection
1979 Mark IIA
60/100, Reverb, E.Q. and JBL D-130F
1983 Mark IIC
60/100, Reverb, E.Q., EVM-15L, Imbuya
1984 Series 300 Mark IIC+
75/180, Reverb, E.Q., EVM-15L
1986 Mark III
60/100 Reverb, E.Q., EVM 15L
Thanks to Mike H. for the use of his images form this excellent collection.