Mesa Boogie Mark I Reissue 2011

The Mesa Mark I, despite its legendary status among amplifiers, came from humble beginnings: in 1972, Randall Smith, Mesa's founder, took a friend's Fender Princeton and, without informing his friend, added an additional gain stage and crammed a full 60W Fender Bassman power amp into the little practice combo. The result of this practical joke eventually became the Mesa Boogie, the first "boutique" amplifier ever made. Thousands of these Boogies were hand-built in a garage in California and were quickly made famous by legendary artists like Keith Richards and Carlos Santana.

Upon the launch of the Mark II in 1978, the Boogie became known as the Mark I. This Mark I Reissue is a faithful reproduction of those original hand-built Boogies, complete with Dymo-labeled rear controls, beautiful woven bamboo grille, and hardwood cabinet. Still built individually by hand in California, the Mark I reissue sports 100W of all-tube power driving an Electro-Voice C90 "Black Shadow" C90 12" speaker. Channel 1 provides dual gain stages for singing, saturated leads, while Channel 2 offers classic Bassman-style rhythm tones. The amp can be reduced to 60W with the flip of a switch, and features a "Tweed" mode which lowers the overall voltage across the amp circuit, invoking the smooth "brown", "saggy" tones of the classic Fender Tweed amps of the 1950s. Rear-mounted Reverb and Presence controls expand the front-mounted gain and EQ controls, while an automatic-switching variable-level effects loop and a variable slave line output round out the back panel.

This particular Boogie is in very good shape. Electrically, it is flawless--all original tubes produce a spectacular tone with no hiss, buzz, or hum. Cosmetically, the amp has a few small blemishes--three or four small dents and scratches in the wood frame, but nothing major. Grill is in great shape, original slip cover is included.