Princeton boost - The Very First Boogie

The Start of it all

 

Introduced in 1969, the very first Boogie was more of a practical joke than a serious attempt at a new line of amp design.  Randall Smith was playing drums at the time in a local area bay area band.  One night at a gig, the guitar player's amp blew.  Randall offered to fix the amp, and despite some concerns, the guitar player decided to let Randall have a crack.  Well, with little effort, wonderkid Randall fixed the amp in quick order.

Perhaps what the lucky guitar player forgot, or did not know, was that Randall's next door neighbour grwoing up was a man named Stillson, who, among other things, designed componens for nuclear submarines and had taught a few things about electronics to young Smith over the years in Stillson's Frank Lloyd Wright designed workshop.  One of Randall's bandmates was so impressed that he suggested that the two of them open a music store together, where Randall would repair amps in the back of the store (an old chinese grocery) and the friend would run the front.  Thus Prune Music was born in the bay area in the late 1960's. 

Well the passage of information from Stillson must have stuck as Randall was a whiz in amp repair, and was so quick that he charged a dollar a minute, with most bills being on the order of 10 to 15 dollars!  As with most things, location and timing is everything, and in this regard, Prune music was at the epicenter of the music explosion on the west coast.  Before the boys knew it, the local hitters of the music scece were dropping by to partake in the store and the services of the amp guru.  No small company either, Grateful Dead, Jorge Santana, Country Joe and The Fish among others were regulars.

So, at some point, Barry Melton from Country Joe and The Fish brought in his amp for service, and Smith had the idea to hot rod the amp beyond anything that had been done before.  He stripped down a 1x10, twenty watt amp and rebuilt it around a 100 watt bassman circuit with a 12" speaker, all in the same tiny enclosure.  The effect was so impressive, that Jorge told his brother Carlos about it who subsequently dropped by the store to give it a play test.  His comment was "shit man, that little thing really boogies" and a legend was born.  Randall realized that he was on to something big, and started buy new Fender Princeton Reverb Amps and tear then down and rebuild as a little suped up monster!  This included changing the baffle, new transformers etc., a total tear down and rebuild.  Carlos' name stuck and Randall silkscreened and acrylic coated his own logo. 

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The first Boogie logo, note the two lines underlining the word and the scratching of the silk screened text.

The lines were later dropped with the aluminum logos.

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Like the amp, the logo was sublte at first site, but as they say, still waters run deep.  The logo simply said.......Boogie.  Thus the Prune Music Princeton Boost Amps were born. After players such as Carlos and other heard and played one of these amps, word spread fast at the upper echelons of music.  Soon Eric Clapton and George Harrison came calling.  Mick Taylor played one on the classic 1971 solo on Can' t You Hear Me Knocking.  After about 300 or so of these amps were made before Fender caught on and refused to supply parts, and Randall realized that this was a very ineffient way to make amps by starting with a perfectly good amp and throwing a bunch of it away!  He started the journey that would ultimately lead to MESA Engineering and the creation of so many different solutions to the needs of guitar and bass players all over the world.  Amazing feat for a chap that is not a guitar player. 

Well, this all happend a long time ago, and there weren't many of these amps to role out into the world, so here is a chance for you to see one up close.  This is a 1970 Boost from Prune music, originally a Princeton (serial # A 5990) that was re-built for Greg Tesdell.  It is in spectacular shape for a 35 year old amp.  It was serviced by Mike B. in April of 1998 and was still in perfect working condition.  It was part of Richard Ray's collection until recently when he lost his battle with cancer.  I would like to dedicate this page to Richard.  I regret that I never had the pleasure of meeting such a fine afficianado and from all acounts a very nice man and discussing our mutual love and tapping his great knowledge.

Note the replacement of the Fender 10" speaker with a 12" Altec-Lansing 417-8H

 

1070 - does this mean October 1970?  Note the two GC6L6 tubes instead of 6V6 tubes, a 20 watt amp now pushing 50 Boogie watts!

 

Original tube sticker from Fender

 

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Updated: July 15, 2004