The name MESA/Boogie is well known to many guitarists and many have heavy dreams how to manage to get one because they are hard to get.  Of course there are shops where you can order but in Germany it is sometimes another question if you really will get it.

Well I myself have got one after I had waited a half year from Applied Acoustics Bochum, and here, that is an acceptable waiting time.

The amp is a Mark II, a further development of the Boogie Amp.  The price including hardwood cabinet, flight case, shipping, duty and all other available options supercedes 5000 DM and that's really a lot for a musician.  I have spent all my money on this amp but on the other hand I'm proud and happy to own it because this amp is fantastic and hard to describe in words.  During my tests I have never before used the word "perfect" but now I am sure to know what it means.

This MESA/Boogie is an absolutely perfect lead amplifier and there's nothing else like it on the world's market. And this is not exaggerated. The Mark I which I played for a while, already had me convinced but the Mark II is even better. If this amp wasn't so heavy I would always have it with me.

Like the Mark I, the Mark II Boogie is an all tube type amplifier but with additional controls.  This gives you more tone especially with the use of the overdrive channel.  My Boogie is a 60/100 watt version within a solid hardwood cabinet and with a 12" Altec loudspeaker.  I prefer the 12" speaker to the 15" because it's not so boomy.  But with the amp running in 100-watt position you need an additional speaker.  The Altec is a good speaker but I don't think that it is capable of handling 100 watts of Boogie power which is indeed more than 100 watts of Marshall power.  The available Boogie extension speaker cabinets are slightly smaller and perfectly matched to the combo cabinet.  Under aesthetic aspects also, the hardwood Boogie supercedes all other amps.  New too is the fan inside the 100-watt models which cools the tubes.

The Boogie's inside is done carefully by hand.  Many electronic components are specially designed and unusual for musical instrument amplifiers and are of outstanding quality and carefully selected.

One more option is the 5-Band Graphic Equalizer which is good to further alter the tone.  There are so many possibilities to vary the sound that you have to take some time to find the ones best for you. Again and again I am surprised by new tone settings. You can even get a good clear sound for playing an acoustic guitar through it, indeed you really get many, many sounds--for instance the old Fender sound which you can't get with the new Fender amps.

It's  surprising  to  see  some  new amps sounding much better than the new Fender itself and all date back in some way to the old Leo Fender amps. By the way, the development of the MESA/Boogie Company and their product is a very interesting story too, which I will tell you about in one of our next issues. I hope you will enjoy it.

But back to the Boogie amp. If 100 watts Boogie power is not enough, you can use the Slave Out to plug in additional power amps or to plug directly into P.A.

The Boogie is still handmade in the USA as it has always been and is not built on license In England or Japan as the story goes. There are still delivery times of several months and black market prices for getting it early, yet handmade perfection and individualism are rare and worth the price.

During the last Frankfurt Spring Music Falr I was anxious to look for alternatives to the Boogie amps and indeed there were several manufacturers showing very similar looking products but the sound and quality were terrible compared to the Boogie, so you'd better forget it.  To describe the Boogie's sound is difficult for me and for those of you who don't know, the most impressive thing is to listen to musicians using the Boogie such as Joe Walsh, Carlos Santana and Frank Zappa for instance.  And all of them have a different but typical sound and what else can I say?