NAD: I bought a Boogie

[kidsmoke]

I got this just before the holiday, so, Merry Christmas to me. This addresses my need for a smallish combo that I can play live and be heard.

I love love love my custom DuhVooDooMan 5F1 110, but it just can't compete in a live setting when other amps and a kit are involved. I considered pursuing a 5E3, thinking I'd be staying in a similar sonic realm, but recent exposure to a Mesa 5:25 Express had me reviewing their lineup of small combos. The 5:25's are pretty pricey, being a later model. Several others appealed to me, and this one turned up within a couple hours of home.

This is a Studio Caliber DC-2. It's a 20 watt 112, with two completely separate channels, each with their own set of preamp tubes (3 per) and two EL84 power tubes, for a total of 8. It's got a tube driven accutronics reverb tank on board (must have for me, wanted that pedal off the board), and the original Boogie foot switch, for switching between the rhythm/contour channels. Has an effects loop, and a headphone jack with a speaker mute switch(!!) a feature which makes this a much more practical beast in my view. A friend on another forum is a fulltime gigging pro, and turns out this is his everyday amp. His enthusiasm and council played no small role in my final decision, so it's basically his fault.

Lots to learn, and sadly, very little play time right now, but early impressions: built like a tank, not light @ a robust 47 lbs, loud as hell, and very very versatile. The previous owner (since '03) had taken excellent care of this, and included the spiral bound owners manual, which goes into great detail, knob by knob, channel by channel, as to the impact of each knob, and then suggested set ups for ea channel for a desired sound. Provides a great starting point. Each knob is remarkably impactful, something I've not experienced. I didn't expect much from the contour channel, based on the comments I've read hear about the high gain tones, but I did find some sounds I like. Oh, and the bugger is LOUD. Did I mention that? So far I'm really pleased.

Here, with it's main partner in crime...

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/tiokimo/boogie/6ce02636a141fe3bea09482f0f58bbec_zps16eea6e4.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/tiokimo/media/boogie/6ce02636a141fe3bea09482f0f58bbec_zps16eea6e4.jpg.h tml)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/tiokimo/boogie/df9b9ff9e3556aaf1338944d7a9fa7d0_zps0cfeb1f9.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/tiokimo/media/boogie/df9b9ff9e3556aaf1338944d7a9fa7d0_zps0cfeb1f9.jpg.h tml)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/tiokimo/boogie/7798f049a13c715bb6c74abf3d03a9d0_zps29112994.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/tiokimo/media/boogie/7798f049a13c715bb6c74abf3d03a9d0_zps29112994.jpg.h tml)

[tjcurtin1]

Those two look like a great combo - and I imagine they sound like one, too!

[duhvoodooman]

Nice amp! I love my Express 5:25, so I can relate....

[marnold]

Excellent! One thing I've always wondered: do all the knobs make it overwhelming or hard to adjust on the fly? Of course, that doesn't have as many as some Boogies do.

[Tig]

Very cool! HNAD!

[kidsmoke]

Nice amp! I love my Express 5:25, so I can relate....
I'd been under the impression that Boogie's wouldn't give me the tone I wanted, then I took an 8 week hard rock class with a guy on a R8 and a 5:25....that changed everything. As I mentioned I just couldn't find one at the price I could justify, and then this turned up. My good buddy locally just scored a used 5:25, so I know I'll get to use one and do some in depth A/B testing. GREAT amps.


Excellent! One thing I've always wondered: do all the knobs make it overwhelming or hard to adjust on the fly? Of course, that doesn't have as many as some Boogies do.
You know I was daunted by that as well, but the tone made it worth the risk. Then I got ahold of the manual, a paper representation of this, exactly....
http://www.mesaboogie.com/manuals/Studio%20Cal%20DC-2.pdf

Using that to build your baseline was a tremendous advantage. Then it becomes simple tweaking here and there, and the knobs seem less daunting. Keep in mind what your seeing is the exact same array, displayed twice, once for each channel.

[Robert]

Congrats, those are great amps!

[marnold]

You know I was daunted by that as well, but the tone made it worth the risk. Then I got ahold of the manual, a paper representation of this, exactly....
http://www.mesaboogie.com/manuals/Studio%20Cal%20DC-2.pdf

Using that to build your baseline was a tremendous advantage. Then it becomes simple tweaking here and there, and the knobs seem less daunting. Keep in mind what your seeing is the exact same array, displayed twice, once for each channel.

Now that I look at it, it's really no more complicated than my JCA22H, except mine has a shared tone stack and presence and no reverb. Since I had my JCA20H already, I just basically set all the tone knobs to noon and backed the presence to 4 (aka 11:00).

[Monkus]

That looks great!!! Happy New Amph Day!

[piebaldpython]

Nice score. Yeah, all those knobs look pretty daunting to me to.

[helliott]

Congrats. I'm a Mesa nut and love my Lone Star, main gigging amp. Do you find it's also good for bluesier stuff as well as hard rock? I'm now thinking of a TA-15 or perhaps a 30. But yours has the loop and reverb for less than the 30. Interested in your thoughts on that.

[kidsmoke]

I'm learning the benefits of the loop for delay. Nice change. And the reverb is fantastic. Also, I believe that you can do a LOT with 20 watts, especially when it says Boogie on the grill. This frickin' thing is LOUD.

As for blues, it gets gainy fast, but I found the lead channel, gain low, master up, p'ups dimed, sounds FANTASTIC. I've currently got two humbucker guitars in the house, the 535 with sheptones (A PAF clone that spec out around 8) and a Larrivee that has hotter p'ups. The larry will take straight to Santana land in a heartbeat, but particularly with the lower output Sheptones in the Semi, it's got a great organic crunch sound, not as glassy as I thought the Mesa might be.
I haven't had a chance to play the !%) with Fralin's yet, but I expect it to split the difference and allow me to imagine myself playing a Lester, in front of a Soldano, next to 2 dudes named Matt and Allen......

Hey, a guy can dream.

In other words, Hell, yes

[duhvoodooman]

I'd been under the impression that Boogie's wouldn't give me the tone I wanted, then I took an 8 week hard rock class with a guy on a R8 and a 5:25....that changed everything.
There are very few tones that a 5:25 won't do, between the 4 gain mode settings. The cleans may not quite attain the level of gorgeousity (is that a word??) of my Allen Sweet Spot, but there's pretty much everything else inside that black box!


....I'm now thinking of a TA-15 or perhaps a 30. But yours has the loop and reverb for less than the 30. Interested in your thoughts on that.
My dos centavos: The lack of an effects loop was the sole reason that I sold my TA-15 and bought the 5:25. Time-based effects just sound like a** when run through a high-gain preamp.

[marnold]

My dos centavos: The lack of an effects loop was the sole reason that I sold my TA-15 and bought the 5:25. Time-based effects just sound like a** when run through a high-gain preamp.

My zwei Pfennige would go along with that. That is also the main reason I upgraded from the JCA20H to the JCA22H. That and the SLO preamp is pretty rad too :)

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats Tio!