Introducing | Mesa/Boogie Amplifiers
Shop Mesa/Boogie’s Full Lineup of Guitar & Bass Amplifiers Now Available At CME!
While you may have seen the odd Mesa/Boogie amplifier listed among our vintage & used inventory over the years, now Chicago Music Exchange is your Midwest destination to shop the full lineup of Mesa/Boogie amplifiers—including guitar and bass amp heads, cabinets, and combo amplifiers, plus Mesa/Boogie effects pedals!
Redefining the Sound of Rock Music
What started as a prank played by Randall Smith, when he rewired a Princeton amp to pack it full of high-powered parts, would become the first “Boogie” amplifier, after Carlos Santana plugged into the hot-rodded combo amp and played, pronouncing afterward, “Man, that little thing really boogies!”
With his ear for tone, passion for tube technology, vision for designing high-performance amps, and unwavering devotion to redefining what music lovers think of as “the sound of an amplified guitar,” Randall Smith released the first Mesa/Boogie Mark I in 1972, introducing the world to High Gain Overdrive and launching the modern era of guitar tone.
In addition to becoming the trusted touring amplifiers of countless classic rock acts, such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood, and the Eagles, throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, Mesa/Boogie’s flagship amps helped redefine the sound of hard rock and metal music.
With the debut of channel-switching on its Mark II Dual Mode amplifiers introduced in 1980, each successive iteration of Mesa/Boogie’s Mark Series models powered hard-rock and metal performances by acts like Metallica, Whitesnake, Ratt, and Van Halen, among others.
Now, the Mark VII amp represents the Magnum Opus of Randall Smith’s over 50-year career in visionary amp design—taking the knowledge, history, and innovations accumulated over time and distilling it into the most versatile 90-watt Mark Series amplifier ever!
Mesa/Boogie Amplifiers — Now @ CME
If you’re a guitar player looking for the latest Mesa/Boogie flagship high-gain amplifier with the new Mark VII 90-watt head, the Rectifier series’ new Badlander EL34-style amp, a vintage-voiced Fillmore combo, or the California Tweed—Mesa/Boogie’s ultimate single-channel bedroom amp with— now you can hear them all in CME’s Lincoln Avenue Showroom!
Or, if you’re a bassist, head downstairs to experience the 350-watt Class D–powered punch from the smallest and lightest bass amp Mesa/Boogie makes with the Subway D-350 Ultra compact bass head, now available in CME’s BASSment!
Learn more about each amplifier below. Plus, browse Mesa/Boogie effects pedals, cabinets, and accessories, now available at Chicago Music Exchange!
Mark VII
With his ear for tone, passion for tube technology, vision for designing high-performance amps, and unwavering devotion to redefining what music lovers think of as “the sound of an amplified guitar,” Randall Smith released the first Mesa/Boogie Mark I in 1972, introducing the world to High Gain Overdrive and launching the modern era of guitar tone.
Over a half-century since the Mark I debuted, the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII released in 2023 distills Randall Smith’s 50-year career in visionary amp design, innovation, and performance into the simplest, most versatile, and most compact full-powered amplifier ever!
Mark V
Offering nine modes, Multi-Watt Channel Assignable Power, Variac Power reduction, Preset and Slider EQ Assignability, and independent Reverb control, the Mark Five models first introduced in 2009 continue to provide guitarists with some of the most versatile Boogies ever, but in a simpler, more intuitive layout than any of its predecessors!
Combining the power of Mesa/Boogie’s most famous Mark Series preamp predecessors with the exclusive Dyna-Watt 2xEL84 power section, the Mark Five platform offers unprecedented portability, clip-ability, and high-speed, tactile expressiveness.
Badlander Series
As the newest member of the Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Family, the Badlander is a Rectifier tuned for the times and built to raise the bar in hard rock guitar tone! If you’re a guitarist leaning into a hard rock sound who likes some Brit influence with your American-voiced gain, the Mesa/Boogie Badlander may very well be the ideal amp platform for you.
FILLMORE SERIES
Mesa/Boogie’s Fillmore Series amplifiers provide guitarists with tweed amp architecture like you’ve never experienced before with a new vintage-voiced and -styled amplifier, inspired by the other branches of the Boogie Family Tree! Humbly named in tribute to the renowned bi-coastal venues that showcased the biggest names in Classic Rock over decades, the Fillmore series boasts the most expressive gain Mesa/Boogie has ever presented in a simple two-channel (identical), three-mode platform, served up in traditional-sized formats.
California Tweed Series
Inspired by the timeless sound of a classic tweed preamp, the Mesa-Boogie California Tweed draws from over 50 years of boutique amp-building experience to raise the bar for single-channel amp simplicity. Featuring “Normal” and “Low” input options, plus Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence, Reverb, and Master Volume controls, it boasts Mesa/Boogie’s legendary vintage all-tube, long-tank spring reverb with external reverb switching jack, and a fully buffered, tube-driven series FX loop.
Powered by four 6V6 power tubes, plus a preamp equipped with five 12AX7 tubes and one 12AT7 preamp tube, the California Tweed combo amplifier offers five power levels, two operating classes, and three wiring options, accessible via a single 5-Way Rotary Switch.
Subway D-350
Weighing in at just 3 pounds, 2 ounces, the Mesa Subway D-350 represents the smallest, lightest bass amp in the history of Mesa Engineering! Boasting a solid-state preamp coupled with a lightweight Class D power amp and switch-mode power supply, the Subway D-350 offers loads of world-class bass tone in a small, lightweight package that’s perfect for home and studio use—yet, it also provides plenty of power and punch in small and mid-sized venues, gig after gig!
Whether your bass is equipped with active or passive electronics, the MESA Subway D-350 easily adapts with the flip of the Active/Passive switch. Featuring separate Gain and Master Volume controls, bassists can dial in a wide range of tones—from shimmering clean to mild overdrive and everything in between—while the built-in fixed high-pass filter (HPF) blocks unwanted, non-musical, headroom-robbing sub-sonic frequencies.
Call CME, or chat us online (or in the app) to learn more about our Mesa/Boogie amplifier options! To hear the difference between each of the new Mesa/Boogie amps now available at Chicago Music Exchange, head to our world-renowned Lincoln Avenue Showroom—then, plug your preferred instrument in and let it rip!
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