The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone used a Mesa Boogie amp for pedal steel guitar? If so, which model?

They are great amps ! I used to use a single 15" combo that was a monster. Make sure it is one of the heavy duty 4 6L6 power tube ones. You need the big power transformers and massive magnet speaker. They are sorta heavy. The single 12" combos have plenty of juice for most situations. The studio caliber (?) smaller combos don't quite cut it. Stay away from tube amps that use EL84's for power. They sound good but the tubes don't last with all the low end coming out of a steel.

Bob

My main steel amp is a EV loaded Boogie MKI.
Like Bob said go for the 4 6L6s and a huge speaker. It also took a little tweaking time to get to the sweet spot and have a lot of clean overhead.

Besides weighing a ton in the road case and the reverb being a little "transparent" it works well for me.

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I use my Mesa Boogie to amplify my Dobro. It works great. Better than my Webbs for Dobro.

They made a "300" or "Coloseum" series, mostly as seperate heads, with six 6l6 type power tubes, & about 150W rms out. Very reliable & easy on tubes, BUT.....use only a good quality, known good speaker cable(s).
I recently repaired one such Mesa, which a bass player had connected to a Cerwin-Vega 18" cabinet with a cheezy guitar cord that melted & shorted out.
The failure was reported as having been a spectacular one, so I feared the worst.
Total damage was:
!). Exploded power switch;
2). Exploded standby switch.
All output tubes, ca. 1982, were fine. Several preamp tubes tested as marginal, but could have been so pre-blowup.
Rugged amp? YES! Sound? Superb. Heavy? UGH!

I use a Mesa/Boogie Maverick prototype with a single 12" EVM. I love the tone for small venues, recording and rehearsal. For big jobs I stack it on top of a Webb.

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<I>Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra S-8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)</I>

David,

I heard Bobby Lee play through his Mesa Boogie in Sacramento and it sounded great. Of course b0b would make any amp sound real good.

I think what I enjoy about the Nashville 400 is its range and the 15 inch speaker seams to give a nice tone. I also use my Nashville 400 in church to play acoustic nylon string (Alvarez) through. I think its great. If you ever get a used one I can help you put in the Lemay modification if you buy the kit.

I have my eyes on the Nashville 1000 ----- I have written Santa who generally ignores me so I just buy it myself.

And by the way guys, Dave Biagini is a fine strat/tele player who plays in my band and has been bitten by that "steel bug" finally. Way to go Dave. I also heard from Dave that since he got his steel recently he has not been getting any sleep :--) .

Another person you might ask is Frank Carter who I think had a rack amp running a pair of spkr cabs. I heard him up at the last Sacramento jam. He was running a Zumsteel through this setup. What a nice tone .

See you Sunday Dave,
Rick Barber

I've not crazy about most of the speakers that Mesa puts in their amps. To my ear, the darker color of my 12" EVM is a better match than most of their "vintage sound" stock speakers.

Also, I don't have much use for the tube rectifier. My amp sounds a lot tighter in the "bold" position, which substitutes regular diodes for the tube. The tube rectifier tends to soften the attack, and makes the amp sound underpowered.

Mesa's preamp circuits are great. To me, the preamp is the real essence of a Boogie. The nice thing about the Maverick is that it is two completely separate preamps, a clean one and a dirty one. You get two of every control, including Reverb, and one big Master Volume to control your overall level.

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<I>Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra S-8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)</I>

No one has mentioned it yet, so I thought I should: Paul Franklin uses a Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp for most of his recording work. I think that says a lot for the quality of Mesa's electronics and their use with a steel guitar.

b0b,

Very interesting comments about the MB's and your experience working with them both as an employee and as a user.

I checked out their web site to look for what's currently available, and to see if there are nearby dealers for checking them out.

In your opinion, which models would be best matched for steel?

BTW, my old Webb has never sounded better since getting my new Carter - there are sounds in the Webb I never knew I could get before.

But, there's still a distinct sound that's fatter, more body (w/o compression) that I'm thinking I can find by using a quality tube amp.

Thanks for any comments, Bob

I'm not familiar enough with their current product line to make a recommendation. When I was there, though, we made one model that really stood out - the Mark IIB. I had a 60 watt version with reverb and no graphic EQ. It was the best sounding tube amp I ever owned. I really regret selling it.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>In your opinion, which models would be best matched for steel?
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I tried a bunch of Mesa's when I was looking for a "Twin" sound with more horsepower. I settled on a MKI reissue with an EV speaker. This is essentially a blues amp and during the "testing" phase I did a lot of tube substitutions until I found a combination that gave me tons of clean power. Boogies are LOUD. Once found, I ordered the amp set up how I'd like it from Boogie. After that I sounds quite a bit different from my old twin but has a great sound all its own.

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Is anyone here using their 50/50 power amp? I'm thinking about getting one.

I own a Mark I Reissue with a 12" EVM speaker. I don't play PSG but do play
a Fender Stringmaster through it, and various other standard guitars.

Although Mesa likes to say that the clean channel sounds like a Fender, it doesn't. The Mark I's tone is not nearly as glassy and three dimensional as a good Fender amp by a longshot. It's too midrangey. I feel this way about most of the Mesa clean sounds though.

I've tried various mods and EQs to make the amp sound more Fender-y. Currently I'm using a Line6 POD as the preamp (using POD's Fender simulations) and inserting the POD into the effects loop line-in to bypass the Mesa's preamp. The POD adds some noise but I like the tone a lot better, and I have the flexibility of the various POD amp models etc. This is by far the most successful setup I've used to achieve a Fender-ish tone with the Boogie.

I guess this begs the question of why I don't just sell the Mesa and buy a Fender. I guess because the Fenders I like (the older ones) are expensive these days, and don't have effects loops. I'm a bit wary of the quality of the newer Fender amps, and they don't sound like the older ones to me anyway.

Also, the Boogie sounds great with my Gibson ES-335 (Larry Carlton heaven, which is why I bought it in the first place). Sounded terrible with a Strat though.

As always, your mileage may vary!

-Bill

I have a good friend and player who finally settled on a MB Mark III for psg. He claims to miss the 15" speaker at times but the boogie will stay clean and loud with an efficient speaker and good tubes. The reverb was very polite so he added a rack unit in the efx's loop.

A few years ago I met Tommy Hannum and he was using a Tri-axis preamp that had been tweaked by MB for his rig. Some sort of tube stereo amp and TL boxed speakers.

Good amps but I prefer different speakers from what usually come loaded for guitar. Boogies can be very loud and clean so they may be a good choice if that's what you want.

I would love to hear about anyone gigging around using a POD for guitar and/or PSG? If so, I would like to know if a full-range monitor/amp setup is working or how they're getting their sound on stage with the POD?

I've been blown away by POD on recordings and in headphones and I'm wondering if I could get a good stage sound out of one? Completely different topic I know, but if anyone has an idea, let me know, ok?

Cheers, joe

I have a good friend and player who finally settled on a MB Mark III for psg. He claims to miss the 15" speaker at times but the boogie will stay clean and loud with an efficient speaker and good tubes. The reverb was very polite so he added a rack unit in the efx's loop.

A few years ago I met Tommy Hannum and he was using a Tri-axis preamp that had been tweaked by MB for his rig. Some sort of tube stereo amp and TL boxed speakers.

Good amps but I prefer different speakers from what usually come loaded for guitar. Boogies can be very loud and clean so they may be a good choice if that's what you want.

I would love to hear about anyone gigging around using a POD for guitar and/or PSG? If so, I would like to know if a full-range monitor/amp setup is working or how they're getting their sound on stage with the POD?

I've been blown away by POD on recordings and in headphones and I'm wondering if I could get a good stage sound out of one? Completely different topic I know, but if anyone has an idea, let me know, ok?

Cheers, joe

There were a couple of Mk III amps....The most powerful was the Mk III series 3000, or what was known as the Collesium model ....It ran 6 power tubes and was simalclass where you could run 4 -6L6's in the middle, and have the outside tubes either 6L6's for a total of 6 - 6L6's or have the outside tubes being EL-34's for more of a Marshally type tone....Running this amp with 6- 6L6's was best for the clean tones needed for pedal steel ...That gave you 120 watt's of tube power !!.....If you take the amp away , and have only the preamp section of the Mk III , this will give you a Mesa Boogie Studio Pre that a lot of folks use.....It'a a GREAT preamp that sounds good with whatever amp you plug it into !!....It has graphic EQ and reverb too !
You can't go wrong with either setup..Jim<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by James Quackenbush on 19 October 2004 at 07:53 PM.]</p></FONT>

I built those amps when I worked for Mesa/Boogie. Way too much power for most gigs, I'm afraid.

What an old topic!

I still insist that the sweetest Boogie I ever had was a 60 watt Mark IIB with no graphic equalizer. It had the most perfect harmonics I've ever heard from a pair of 6L6's.

Lately I've been using a Mesa/Boogie 20/20 through a pair of Tone Tubbie speakers. It's not the kind of sound that most steelers look for, but I like it a lot.

Hey Bobby,
I have a single 12 Maverick also (white tolex). I use it for 90% of the recordings done in my studio (guitar & steel). It kicks butt clean or grinding! I have a large assortment of amps for players to choose in my studio and most hone in on "The Boogie"!
JR

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Slide It On Over!

years ago I repaired a SOB, I think that was the name, not sure, but I tried it and thought to that point anyway it was the best tube amp I ever heard, as I recall it was around fifty watts or so, and no reverb

b0b,
I don't know that I've ever had an amp that had " way too much power " .....
I never used all the power that the Mk III had to offer, but using what was needed from it was very fat and clean with no nasty artifacts, and great overtones !!...
That's like the VHT 2/90/2 .....It's got even more power than the MkIII , but it sure does sound incredible with whatever is plugged into it ....Again , if you use all the power that it has to offer, you would most surely be walking around saying "what ? "
"HUH? " ......" do you hear that ringing sound ? " .......Jim