September 2007 \ Features \ A Mesa Boogie History

A Mesa Boogie History

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From their humble beginnings to the newest products, we trace Mesa's history.
Premier Guitar September 2007
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Birth of a Boogie
Mesa Boogie has accomplished a lot in 40 years, without ever giving up their roots. We trace the evolution of the Mesa Boogie product line from the humble beginnings in a converted dog kennel to the newest Express line.



A Mesa Boogie History

1967 - Princeton Boogies
Randall Smith begins modifying Fender Princeton amps as a practical joke on a friend and the first high-powered 1x12 combo is born. Carlos Santana says, "Man that little thing really Boogies!" and the baby is named.
 
A Mesa Boogie History 1969 - The Toneshack
The infamous converted dog kennel, where the earliest Boogies were created.
 
A Mesa Boogie History 1971 - 130 Bass & 130 Lead Heads
After modifying more than 200 Princetons, Fender cuts off the supply and Smith builds a garage/studio as a more efficient way to meet the growing demand for Boogies. As Smith makes money rebuilding Mercedes-Benz engines, he also makes the 130 Bass & 130 Lead Heads from scratch.
 
A Mesa Boogie History 1972 - Snakeskin Mark I Boogie
After building about a dozen of the early heads, Smith yearned for something more, and experimented until he developed the high-gain cascading pre-amp, multiplying the normal amplifier gain by 50. The Mark I continues to be a Mesa Boogie staple.
 
  1980 - Mark II-A
Mesa Boogie pioneers yet another development in guitar amplifiers with the Mark-II, the first channel-switching amplifier. Before long, separate channels for rhythm and lead will be commonplace.
 
A Mesa Boogie History 1982 - Mark II-B
Effects junkies everywhere rejoice as Mesa Boogie develops the first amp with an effects loop.
 
A Mesa Boogie History 1983 - Mark II-C+
The legendary C+ brings such incredible sounds that the amp perseveres to the point of tripling in value for today's discerning tone-seekers.



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Comments

 (17 comments) display by
UsernameComment
gordon james
on 05/02/2013 		Hi I just got a CLEAN w/cover Mesa Boogie Mark lll with eq,large transformer,ev, it has a small mike mount in front at bottom corner, seial# 11103 is this probably a 1985?? thanks in advance
Martin Kurz
on 07/27/2012 		Don't forget to mention the Studio .22. Got me one in '85, still playing it.
Il Leone
on 07/19/2012 		Caliber 50? were's the 22 Cal? I had one when they first came out and liked it better then any boogie I tried. I have a fellow session player friend with a mid/late 80's Dumble ODS, and the 22 (non EQ) and is very close in tones it can get, mildly saturated, very buttery smooth horn like mids. I wish I had never sold that amp. And I got it because it was the cheapest boogie at the time lol!
Michael-Cale b
on 09/02/2011 		Trem-o-verb anyone? That was the first boogie i ever played through..went home sold my marshall to buy a recto and never looked back. Randy Smith is a genius!
Matthew
on 12/05/2010 		I recently picked up a 1x12 combo 35watt DC-3 Dual Caliber blonde tolex. I was told the blonde was very rare and only 36 of them made. Also when I've looked @ pictures of the Dual Caliber DC-3's the Mesa Boogie insgnia has Mesa in big letters & boogie underneath in small letters mine says "Mesa Boogie" both words same size running accross,(not Mesa above the Boogie)Does anybody know what I have here, and is the story of there only being 36 of the blonde dc-3's ever made true?I can't find any pictures of my amp or confirmation (mentioned above)anywhere!
3boogs3reeds
on 11/21/2010 		How does (pull bright)@(pull gain/boost)compare tone wise in the early mk1 to the reissue mk1 which does not have these features?
minty
on 05/09/2010 		where's the Triaxis?
RICK DAUPHINEE
on 05/21/2009 		The MKII version actually came out during 1978. I ordered a MKI 100w/reverb/eq/15" cab(empty)/export transformer, blonde tolex model, in the road case, from Randall (when he actually used to answer the phones himself!) in early '78 & by the time I got mine, in Sept or Oct. of '78, the MKII, is what arrived. I just thought that you'd like to correct your date on the MKII.
Michael
on 05/04/2009 		I would like to know the history of the DC 2 combo.
Metal Lover
on 12/12/2008 		When Kirk Hammett loaned James Hetfield his Mark IIC+ amp for rhythm tracks on Master of Puppets, he changed alot. He defined Boogies for Metal from that point forward. Long live metal!



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