thumb|250px|The Mesa Boogie Logo
'''Mesa/Boogie''' (also known as Mesa Engineering) is a basses. It has been in operation since 1971.

Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a small repair shop which modified Fender combos to give them more gain. Soon the word spread, and with users like Pat O'Brien of Munky (from Prince, Die of Dir en grey, Malcolm Young of AC/DC, Michael "Padge" Paget of Bullet For My Valentine<ref>http://www.mesaboogie.com/US/Artists/artist_roster.htm</ref>, Brian Deneeve of From Autumn To Ashes<ref>http://www.mesaboogie.com/US/Artists/artist_roster.htm</ref>.

==History==
Randall Smith, the creator of Mesa Boogie began his career at Prune Music, a Chinese grocery store turned music shop. Working as a repair tech while his business partner and friend, David Kessner, ran the front, Smith quickly gained a reputation with the local San Francisco Bay Area musicians. This reputation lead to business from bands including  the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Carlos Santana.

In 1969, Smith, as a joke, modified Barry Melton's (Country Joe and the Fish) Fender Princeton amplifier. He removed the standard 10 inch speaker and modified the chassis to fit the larger transformers that were needed by the 4-10 tweed Fender Bassman, the circuit that he had added into the tiny 12 watt Princeton. Finally, Mounting a 12 inch JBL D-120, a popular speaker of the time, Smith had created what would be the first ''Boogie''. 

Randall Smith, needing to test his creation, took the "hot-rodded" Princeton into the front store. Coincidentally, Carlos Santana was present and "wailed through that little amp until people were blocking the sidewalk". Impressed, Santana exclaimed to Smith, "Man, that little thing really Boogies!" It was this statement that brought the Boogie name to fruition.<ref>Hunter, Dave. Guitar: A complete guide for the player. ISBN1-57145-561-2</ref>

The MESA name came about through Smith's other job, rebuilding Mercedes engines and repairing houses. He needed an 'official' sounding name through which to buy Mercedes parts and building supplies. The name chosen was MESA Engineering because it was seemingly familiar with a professional air. It was originally capitalized but has been written as Mesa in recent years.

In 1971, Bassist Patrick Burke approached Randall with a proposal for a custom Bass amp. Smith was persuaded and constructed the Snakeskin Mesa 450 - Smith's first bass amplifier and the first 'official' Mesa/Boogie product.

The real breakthrough came when Smith began his project of building a preamp for Lee Michaels to drive his new Crown DC-300 power amplifiers. Not knowing what signal was required to drive the power amps, Smith added an extra tube gain stage to the preamp to cover his bases, with 3 variable gain controls at different points in the circuit.

When Smith took the construction to Michaels and plugged it in, they were both disappointed, as they could only hear a very faint sound coming out of the speakers. They soon realized that the speakers had been plugged directly into the preamp, and rectified the situation by plugging them in correctly to the power-amp. After plugging everything together correctly, Michaels hit a power chord to test the new setup which "practically blew both of our [Michaels and Smith] bodies through the back wall". Smith had discovered High Gain, purely by chance. He set about designing a Mesa/Boogie amplifier around the new principle, and in 1972 the Mark I Boogie was released.

He produced a number of custom variations on the Mark I through the late 1970s, with options including reverb, 15" speakers, EQ, various speakers, koa wood jointed cabinets, and wicker grill. The Mark II released in 1980. 

In the 1980s, Mesa continued to produce combo and head-and-cabinet amps, and began production of rack power and pre-amps, developing power amplifiers such as the M180/190 and Strategy series, as well as pre-amps such as the Quad and Studio. Arguably the most desirable Boogie ever built was designed in 1983, the Mark II-C (and later the II-C+). The Mark series culminated in 1990 with the Mark IV, still one of the most advanced amplifiers in the world. Other models developed in the 1980s included the Mark III, the Son of Boogie, and the Studio .22.

In the '90s, Mesa launched the smaller Dual Caliber series and the more powerful Rectifier series. The newest models include the 4-channel Road King II, the Lone Star and Lone Star Special, and the Stiletto line of amplifiers.

==Current Products==
===Mark Series===

thumb|Mesa Boogie Mark IV

The Mesa Boogie Mark Series of guitar amplifiers is a guitar amplifier series made by Mesa Engineering. It is one of the most influential series of amps ever made, and was its flagship product until the introduction of the Rectifier series.  Introduced in the Mark II-B was the Simul-Class power amplifier stage, which combined tubes running in Class A and Class AB through the same output transformer.

===Rectifier Series===
The Rectifier series, commonly called "Recto" by modeling amplifiers, was instrumental to the success of detuned 7-string nu- and heavy-metal in the 90's. There are 3 variants: Single, Dual and Triple Rectifier. 

The Single Rectifier amplifiers are rated at 50 watts and use a silicon diode rectifier, as opposed to tube rectification. Currently in production are the Single Rectifier Solo Head 50, the Rect-o-Verb 50 head, and the Rect-o-Verb 50 combo, which is fitted with a single 12" Celestion Black Shadow speaker. The Rect-o-Verb line features the same circuitry as the Single Rectifier Solo Head 50, but incorporates reverb. All Single Rectifier amplifiers feature a pair of 6L6 power tubes as well as five 12AX7 pre-amp tubes. A bias select switch, which allows the user to swap out the stock 6L6s for EL34s, was added in the "Series 2" versions of all amplifiers in the lineup. Also, the Reverb control knob was moved from the back to the front on the Rect-o-Verb models. The Single Rectifer amplifiers feature two fully independent channels.

The Dual Rectifier Solo Head was the most popular model of the Rectifier series. The name comes from the use of 2 rectifier tubes, which are switchable between silicon diodes. Equipped with a quartet of 6L6 power tubes, the Dual Rectifier will produce 70-100 watts, depending on options chosen. For a looser sound, Dual Rectifier amplifiers allow users to utilize tube rectification rather than the common silicon diode rectification at the flip of a switch. Like in the Single Rectifier series, a bias select switch is standard. The Dual and Triple Rectifier amplifiers, which also feature 5 12AX7 pre-amp tubes, were originally designed with 2 channels (though not true parallel channel circuits), but recently were redesigned to incorporate a third channel. However, many people consider the older 2 channel models to have a superior sound. These Pre-500 rectifiers are said to have superior tone due to specific transformers that were only used on these early models. In addition these first 500 also feature a unique circuit board that was changed toward the end of 1992. One can distinguish the Pre-500 dual rectifiers by their serial number found on the back of the amp and should fall between # R-0001 to R-0500. 

Other than the Dual Rectifier Solo Head, there is the flagship Boogie model (replacing the Mark IV as the company's most advanced amplifier), the Dual Rectifier Road King. The Road King is well known for its vast number of options. It has 4 channels, each with two different speaker outputs, two effects loops and Progressive Linkage, which allows five different power tube configurations (2x6L6, 2xEL34, 2x6L6+2xEL34, 4x6L6, 4x6L6+2xEL34), which are signaled by different LED lights on the front of the amplifier. The amp also features Recto-Tracking, which automatically selects the appropriate rectification (single or dual 5U4s or silicon diode) depending on the power tube configuration.  

While these options provide ample tweaking opportunity and customization of tone, they are also the one drawback of the Road King - it's just too complex for some. In response, Mesa announced the release of the Dual Rectifier Roadster, a scaled down and less expensive version of the Road King with fewer options for the power amp and speakers, but retaining 4 independent channels.

The Triple Rectifier utilizes 6 6L6 power tubes for 150 watts output power, with 3 5U4 Rectifier tubes. It was designed with the tag line "When excess is barely enough", and used by bands such as Metallica, Cannibal Corpse, Limp Bizkit,KoЯn, and Avenged Sevenfold.

===Lone Star===
The Lone Star amplifier was released in 2004 with the tag "Tone as big as Texas", and now comes in two variants, Classic and Special.  In very generic terms, the Classic can be compared to vintage Fender amps, while the Special would be more in the range of an old VOX AC-30.  However, since no two models of amp really sound alike or even operate the same, this is just to have some idea of an amp with the same type tubes as each of these.

Mesa/Boogie's description of the Classic connects the sound with Texas blues, a style exemplified by Class A amplification.

The Lone Star Special was released in 2005, having been previewed first at a NAMM show. The differences are mainly in the power amp section, primarily the use of EL84 tubes rather than 6L6, giving a different sound than the "Classic" Lonestar. It also comes with 3 different power settings: - 30, 15, and 5 watts.  The 30 watt selection uses a solid state (diode) rectifier for a cleaner tone.  The 15 and 5 watt settings use a tube (valve) rectifier for a warmer, "grittier", sound.  The 5 watt setting uses one power tube producing singled-ended Class A amplification, whereas the other two settings produce push/pull Class A/B amplification [http://www.mesaboogie.com/US/Smith/ClassA-WebVersion.htm].  Not only does this lower the power but also enables the tube to be saturated for an overdriven sound at much lower volume.  In addition, the 2nd harmonic (an octave above) is not cancelled out, resulting in a richer overtone.

===Stiletto===
The Stiletto "Stage I" was released in 2004, and is designed as a British-flavored variant of the Rectifier series. This was in response to musicians using Marshall amplifiers combined with Mesa/Boogie amplifiers. Two models were released; the Deuce, and the Trident. Both come standard with EL34 tubes.

'''Mesa/Boogie''' (conhecida anteriormente por Mesa Engineering) é uma empresa localizada en Petaluma, Califórnia que produz amplificadores e produtos para guitarra e baixo.

A empresa surgiu quando Randall Smith, que trabalhava em um pequena loja de reparos de instrumentos, modificou combos da Fender dando mais ganho a eles. Com o tempo, a marca cresceu e com guitarristas como Carlos Santana usando os produtos, se tornou uma das grandes marcas da indústria musical. Outros nomes que usam os produtos da marca incluem Allan Holdsworth, John Petrucci do Dream Theater, Emppu Vuorinen do Nightwish, Buckethead, Metallica, Prince, Jerry Cantrell, Frank Zappa, Andy Timmons, Cannibal Corpse, Rammstein, Helmet, Jeff Buckley, El Hefe e Tool.

== Os Amplificadores==

Os amplificadores Mesa Boogie se dividem em diferentes series que estas apresentam varias similaridades entre si, cada uma dessas series tem vários amplificadores

=== LoneStar ===

Lone Star

Lone Star Special

=== Rectifiers ===

Single Rectifier Solo 50 Rect-O-Verb

Dual Rectifier Solo Head

Triple Rectifier Solo Head

Road King

Road King - Series 2

Dual Rectifier Roadster