Mesa Boogie amps. Heard of them? Of course you have, they're virtually legend. I suppose that's what every manufacturer's looking for when he launches a new product, a new range or a new company: for it to become legendary. By that I mean a state where in even those industry people who know nothing about the thing in question will nod affirmatively on mention of its name, and hail it, in their own terms, as 'The Business'. Names under this category might include Fender Strat, SSL, Auratone, DX-7, U87, Steinway and, yes, Boogie. Naturally, there will be a minority of those who have tried a legend and really don't like it, or who are simply captious to the point of having to shoot at anything that raises its head above the line. But generally becoming a legend means acceptance and flourishing sales figures for a good few years to come.

Cowboys

Most people who have tried a Boogie, whether a bass or lead model, will rave about how good it is. In the next breath, however, they'll go on to bitterly bemoan its 'ludicrously high price' — getting on for £1,480 for the top lead combo with hardwood cabinet and all the trimmings. So now they've brought out the Caliber Series intended to offer that Big B sound at the right price. The series included the .38 Special, the .50 Caliber and the Studio .22, under review here, which is going for a song at £595. You'll notice that the model numbers allude to three common firearm calibers, an indication of the gun slinger mentality and gung-ho machoism often attached to US guitar heroes. They even sell a nylon lined, imitation leather Boogie jacket promoted as being 'tastefully tough' and allowing you to 'stay warm (but look cool)'; and you wouldn't believe the perm on the geezer modelling it in the catalogue. It's all a bit of a culture shock. And this from a company originally set up by an old Californian hippy, Randy Smith. What is occurring Randall?

Micky-taking aside, I'm a self-confessed fan of these hand made amps. I reviewed a top-of-the-range job a few years ago and ran out of superlatives trying to describe it. One thing to be considered about the Series III models is that, though they are only single channel amps, they have no less than four volume controls plus three front panel tone controls, and all seven knobs are 'pullable' to provide extra boosts or tonal changes. Needless to say it takes a while to get to know them before you can get anywhere near their full potential. With this in mind, an advantage of the Caliber Series is their simplicity of operation. Let me explain:

Triple Play

Most musicians are familiar with the 'Master Volume' set up on amps where separate controls are provided for the preamp and power amp levels. By altering the preamp gain you can control how hard the input to the power is driven and hence how much overdrive distortion you get. Mesa-Boogie were one of the first companies (possibly the first) to take this idea a step further with the single input, dual circuit idea. Here there are two separate preamps in series feeding a single power amp. By using only the second preamp and the power amp you can set up a tone for rhythm work anywhere from sparkly clean to an edge of crunchy distortion. Then, by bringing in the first preamp (usually by footswitch) to overdrive the second which in turn overdrives the power amp, you can achieve a whole range of complex and effective overdriven sounds full of harmonics, crunch or endless sustain, as desired.

The four volume controls on the Series III don't seem so excessive when you consider that these amps allow you to set up three different footswitch-selectable sounds referred to as Rhythm 1, Rhythm 2 and Lead. The Caliber Series amps have only two volume controls and no pullable knobs at all. There is still the lead/rhythm footswitch, but it doesn't allow the relative levels to be adjusted: when you kick it into lead mode it gets louder and more distorted by a fixed amount which may or may not be the amount you want. The simplicity, then, is at the cost of control. The price includes a five-band graphic which can be in all the time or be set to come in only in lead mode. This, together with the practised use of a volume control straight after the output of your guitar, could provide more flexible lead/rhythm relationship. To moan about what isn't there is probably a bit silly because if you want the extra facilities, there's the Mark III and the bigger price tag.

There is an unbalanced DI output on a ¼" jack with its own separate volume control. The only problem here is that, although the volume control does adjust the balance between the acoustic output and the DI, you can't completely silence the speaker. In fact even with the DI volume turned up full, I wasn't able to drive the amps at all hard without the acoustic level being too high for many studio applications. In instances where the DI is being used, it is not unlikely that acoustic crosstalk between instruments in a studio is a major consideration. If you want a cranked up HM sound but don't want it to spill into the drum mikes, you have to be able to crank it up and somehow turn down or even disconnect the speaker.

With reference to the use of the DI, the brief type-written instruction sheet provided stated that running the amp without a speaker load could cause damage and that you were advised to connect a load resistor of something like 8ohms/25watts if the speaker was to be unplugged. The characteristic of the 12" Black Shadow speaker undoubtedly has quite a strong effect on the sound of the amp and when using the DI it's important to be able to hear it in isolation through the studio monitors. When working at home or in the control room this means silencing the amp's speaker. I got around this problem by plugging a pair of 600ohm headphones into the speaker output socket and found that I could drive the amps reasonably hard without threatening the wellbeing of the cans. They were AKG K240s and hence were capable of withstanding high levels, but the principle should work with any relatively high impedance headphones. I'm not sure whether or not using a higher impedance load would alter the sound at the DI output, but if you were considering buying a Caliber, a 25w resistor wired to a jack plug would only cost a couple of quid and wouldn't be very bulky to slip in your guitar case.

Considering the glamorous appearance of some of their amps and how they see themselves as the Rolls Royce of amplifier makers, it's strange that they continue to provide such unsophisticated footswitches for all their amps including the lead/rhythm footswitch for the Caliber Series. It's a bare die cast metal box with no cosmetic finish at all (identical to those supplied by RS Components, for those familiar with them). It has a red LED to indicate lead/rhythm status, a chrome push button switch that makes a loud click when operated and a mono jack socket in the side for connection to the amp's changeover socket. Apart from the Mesa-Boogie sticker on it, it looks like something I might have built when I was pretending to be a studio maintenance engineer.

The real complaint is how noisy the click is. When miked-up it could easily spill onto the recording and be another concern for the engineer at mixdown. Considering all the effects pedals about nowadays with silent operation and LEDs, wouldn't it be possible to either make one themselves or buy one in? This might detract from the 'all hand built' status of the Boogie range, but it would be a plus in practical terms.

Conclusion

The Caliber Series amps could be described as a Series III with a list of omissions; only two voice presets as opposed to three, no control over their relative levels, no reverb in/out footswitch, no pull knob functions, etc. If you're expecting a Series III it's a little disappointing. But it is half the price and what must be emphasised is that the Studio .22 I had still sounded like a real Boogie. Though it's rated at 22watts it is incredibly loud — louder than any 50watt combo I've heard, and capable of a wide range of brilliant sounds — just like you'd expect. It was just the degree of programmability and control that was lacking. The Boogie range has become a reference to which most other guitar amps are compared, and when you consider how much drummers and keyboard players have to spend to get the sound they want, £595 isn't so much — even £1,480 isn't that much, considering what these amps can contribute to your sound. If I was a serious guitarist, pro or semi-pro, I would definitely consider getting a Boogie. The .38 and .50 probably won't reach these shores until next year, but there will soon be a preamp version of the .22 although no UK price has been fixed yet.

Mesa Boogie Studio .22 - RRP: £595