The makers of the ultimate amp, in terms of price and performance, have come up with the smaller Caliber range designed to offer that Big B oomph for a more reasonable price. Many bods around here are extremely enamoured of the Series III big boy, in fact they ran out of superlatives, and this new baby was greeted with eager anticipation. Its immediate advantage over previous Mesa Boogie gear is its simplicity of operation. The Series III has a host of knobs and switches whereas the Studio .22 has only two volume controls and no pullable knobs whatsoever. There still remains the lead/rhythm footswitch, but you can't adjust the relative levels, so when you switch over the lead it just gets louder and wilder but you have little control over the amount by which it gets louder.

Included in the price is a five band graphic eq, and although the degree of control of the sound is limited (of necessity because you're only paying half the price of a Series III), the sound is still superb and worthy of coming from the Mesa Boogie camp. Essentially, the Studio .22 is a Series III with less knobs on, and obviously it means that you lose a great deal in terms of sophistication. But you are only paying half the price and it still sounds very much like a Boogie amp. It has a wide range of brilliant sounds, and even though it's only rated at 22 watts, it's louder than most 50 watt combos and is capable of blasting your ears off. But at nearly £600, this is a small amp for real perfectionists.

MESA BOOGIE STUDIO .22: £595