Mesa/Boogie Quad Preamp

Ease of use? What's that?

;P With some searching you can find the manual online at the mesa website. Definitely worth the effort.

Tweaking takes some time, for sure. There is an amazing # of usable tones in this box, but anybody who says Mesa takes a lot of tweaking is spot on. Every single control alters the effect that others will have, and the EQ opens up an amazing number of options.

From my experience, the Bass control is one of the most important (at least, depending on where the treble is) Too much can sound very flubby and lose some bite, but too little thins out the sound quite a bit.

Basically, tweaking is difficult here, and the push/pull things are very easy to hit when the machine is in transit, so make sure to make notes of your tones.

Have to give this a mediocre rating, but don't get me wrong, it's not that much of a shortcoming... it's just that you will tend to find yourself constantly tweaking and your tone gets better and better... greatness takes time to achieve with this thing ;P

Play this with a few guitars... Les Paul Studio DC, Ibanez Jetking, Ibanez S series (occasionally, it's my brother's ax that I use as a backup sometimes) and every now and then, an old Cortez LP copy that needs some work but has tons of character. Right now, my rig is guitar ->Quad ->Peavey 50/50->Carvin Legacy 2x12 with V30s.
I haven't had time to finish the rack rig, or $, but we'll get to that later.

This thing can get sorta noisy, depending on the settings, check the manual for advice (with the treble very high, volume high, and the EQs high freqs set high, etc, you can get a nasty screechy noise, but it's not a big deal, it's a very specific issue hehe)

For the most part, this thing is surprisingly quiet, even on higher gain settings. It's not the most quiet thing in the world, but it's well beyond "usable" in a gig situation.

Tone... here's the money shot. Tone = Heaven for this thing. I believe that for the price it simply CANNOT be beat. Lots of tubes singing in unison, and boy do they sing. I bought it for the distortion/OD essentially, only expecting a "usable" clean (My musical tastes run the gamut of EVERYTHING, but the majority of my playing is distorted, I'm in a sort of, jam-alt-experimental rock band that's really hard to describe)

This thing was the answer to my prayers. Though I enjoy metal music (And believe me, this thing COOKS for heavily distorted metal tones, when I first got it I put some old Metallica and Dream Theater discs into my changer and just chunked along for hours) my tone has always been a little less distorted than the typical metal tone. Basically, modern hi-gain amps with the gain fairly low is where I feel at home. Plenty of bite, very tight/can get chunky, but still very clear, articulate, and responsive. This thing cannot be beat for this. All distorted tones remain articulate as all hell, and very responsive, no matter what the gain is on. Can go from mad saturation to a mild overdrive and still sound perfect.

The amazing thing? When recording our EP this summer, I brought this amp, and the engineer (who also happens to be a blues guitarist, played for 20+ years) plugged in his strat and jammed for about 30 minutes. His response? "The clean channel is amazing, how much did you pay for this thing?"

The clean channel shines on this thing. Very fender-ish, but of course it's not quite the same. Depending on settings can go from crystal clean, chimey, all the way to an overdriven SRV tone and still sound right at home. Beautiful.

As far as getting the sounds of other artists... 'tallica, DT, Stryper... any sort of old-school Mesa metal tone is there in the distortion. Can't quite get the nu-metal flub tones through my rig, but I'm sure with a big 6l6 poweramp and a nice 4x12 it could do so. The clean can do SRV/KWS blues amazingly.

Also, has a direct recording out with built-in speaker sim of some sort, according to the manual. From my experience, running it direct with the same settings you use live is bad news. This thing direct is like a whole new rig, so you have to treat it as such. With some serious tweaking though, it can put down some very usable direct tracks. More realistic sounding than my flex's outputs, but still far from perfect. It's a nice bonus.

Here's where this gets sorta sketchy to me.

Obviously, this is an older unit, and many older units have their problems. When I got mine, one of the output channels sounded WAY different than the other, different volume problems, etc. Oddly, one output channel held up fine for a few gigs and a recording session (though in retrospect, it DID sound a bit odd) but then gave out.

Lots of issues, was told it was most likely a tube issue, despite the fact that I was reassured the tubes were brand new when purchased on Ebay (can never trust that)

New tubes (JJs, highly recommended, make this unit sing even more, take a bit of the harshness out of the highs) helped those problems, but new ones have arisen. One output channel will (not always, but usually) die after being played on for about 20 minutes, though it sounds great. The other will usually have this god-awful noise. I'm assuming some circuitry problems have developed. I frequent a few forums related to guitar, and have seen people ask questions about similar problems with their Quad. However, I have also heard of many, many people that have had no problem. So, my conclusion would be that it's as reliable as any other piece of gear from 10-20 years ago. Many pieces need some work to get back into nice working order.

Haven't dealt with them TOO much. Basically, any correspondence ended in "check the website for a list of licensed Mesa repair shops, and take it in"

Haven't had the money or time to go do that, yay for being a college student :/

Don't feel right really rating this, as the responses they gave were probably all they could really do, and were fairly quick, but I dunno just how in depth they go/how the repair center will be.

My style of music, as said before, runs the gamut of damned near everything, and this thing fits it pretty perfectly ;P

I've been playing guitar for about 8-9 years, but only seriously played for about 5-6. I've been heavily involved in music of all sorts since I was five years old (I'm currently 19). My other rig for practice/jamming/backup(currently my main) is a line6 Flextone I. Cool thing, nice and reliable, nice and versatile, and I don't want to get rid of it, but the Mesa really smokes it for most things.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd find another one in a heartbeat. Hell, if I had the money, I'd buy three of the damned things just to keep on hand.

I was in the market for something tube, and really liked the versatility + relatively low price of a lot of rack gear. The ADA mp-1 just didn't quite do it for me completely, though I might buy one eventually. The Marshall JMP-1 sounded like trash to my ears, it just isn't my style, though I've heard people get some nice tones out of it on some albums. The Mesa Triaxis... aside from being expensive, i can't say I really liked the tone either, I spent a few hours fiddling with it and it was pretty nice, but I think the quad sounds more "alive" for lack of a better term. Long story short, this seemed to be my best option, especially for the budget I was on, and it still seems that way, despite the reliability issues.

My biggest issue is that I wish it had midi control capability. I'll end up getting it modded or buying a Midi Octopus or similar type controller, as it does have remote switching inputs.

I think this is one of the best kept secrets as far as guitar tone goes. I kinda hope it doesn't really catch on, just so they don't skyrocket in price. Virtually the same schematics as the legendary (and expensive!) MkIIc on top, virtually the same schematics and the MkIII on the bottom, and only a couple hundred bucks? where do I sign up? ;P

Do note that it doesn't sound exactly like the above amps, obviously, but it has its own tonality that is smokin in every possible way.

the sound of the quad is amazing. channel 1, LEAD, is a Mark IIc. you can compare the distortion sound of the channel 1 with Metallicas "Master Of Puppets". the clean, RYTHM, sound is lika a fender tweed. ultra clean. All from jazzy blues fusion cleans to Santana.

The grafic eq onbord is awsome! it makes the sound come alive! i like fat bottoms, and the 80 hz comes in good hand.

Channel 2, RYTHM, allmost the same as LEAD 1. but a bit more gain. great for crunch rythms. you can get a good sounding clean with it allsow, but the Distortion on LEAD 2 effekts on that.

Channel 2, LEAD, GAIN!! GAIN!! GAIN!! GAIN!! that all i can say =)
LEAD 2 is the most used channel on my preamp. tight distortion, Petrucci sounding gain. it works great with 7 stringed guitars. fat rythm and nice leads. The eq is the same as channel 1.

with the preamp comes a footswitch, the FU-2, 6 buttons, rythm 1-2 lead 1-2 and Eq 1-2. its sad, but if you lose the cable to the FU-2 its impossible to get a new. i have tried all over the internet and Mesas homepage. so i bought a Rolls RP patchworks.

2 channels, 4 modes. push pull controlls. grafic eq's. FU-2 footswitch

The Mesa has never failed me. is sounds insanely good everytime i hotten the tubes.

Mesa has always replyed on my Emails. i live in sweden and we dont have a MB dealer her. so the only way is to contact MB in USA or a dealer in germany. but they are nice people over there.

overall this preamp has it all. from clean sounding fender tweed to all monster blown away fat evil gaining sounds. buy one now!

WOW AMAZING PREAMP,,i have a marshall jmp-1 witch i dont use ANYMORE i have a mesa studio pre and the quad pre,i use the studio pre for clean cause nothing can beat it, i use the quad for heavy rhytm and lead cause nothing can beat it,the channel 1 is so amazing fat sounding clear sounding so freaking crunchy i love it the second channel is more marshall sounding as a bit more gain to it,,the quad reacts beautifully the piking attack and volume on the guitar its the best sounding pre for heavy rhytm and lead for me so far if you are looking for a nice sounding clean amp i would sudgest the studio pre here its as good as any fender twin..

the most simple yet versitile preamp i have ever owened.2 channel each with clean and lead +eq and reverb,most knobs or pull bright or pull deep ..

11 years old never boke nuff said..

i emailed for info got a reply within days

wow just buy one and sit back and play its like magic

Parker Fly Classic (stock custom Dimarzios), in a rack with Mesa 20/20 and Samson powerstrip and I use a modified Marshall 1936 2x12.

I use Rhy1 for clean, Lead1 for heavy rhythm (Metallica meets Dream Theater), Rhy2 for overdrive and Lead2 for lead (John Petrucci - Dream Theater). Gets the John Petrucci tone (Mark IIC+, really smooth leads) perfectly which can be very ellusive. I'm having trouble tweaking the lead tone but I have not owned it for that long (a few months) and the controls are so complex that I feel it will take some time to completely master it. My rhythm tone is sounding really nice though.

Very quiet preamp which is cool and a new set of preamp tubes (try some JJ's) will make this sing! The difference between new and old tubes is like the difference between new and old strings.

September 1988 (hey, it's only 4 years younger than me!). I play progressive metal (Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Opeth) which requires a versatile range of sounds. Features mentioned everywhere, it's basically a 4 channel amp but by using the EQ's you can pretty much create extra channels.

Well it's from 1988 as mentioned, very nice condition, the face plate is very clean and aside from some rack rash (unavoidable) it's very nice. It is actually built like a tank like all Mesa gear. I think this thing will outlive me!

Never dealt with them, I bought it second hand but when I was looking at buying it, I e-mailed them with the serial number to find out when it was made and I got a very helpful reply the next day. I'm in the UK and I don't know what they are like here though.

If you are looking for the Mark IIC+ and Mark III sounds but don't want to be a victim of the current craze of these amps (and having to pay a lot of money for one) then look no further. This preamp sings beautifully and every Quad ownder I know that has also tried a Triaxis (or owned one) has prefered the Quad - most said it is far more dynamic and natural.

I use maily a Hamer Artist Custom, all styles of music but I like AC/DC, Gary Moore, Hendrix, Clapton, GnR...

Sound is versatlie, quiet and flexible. I recommend you download the manual from the Boogie website to get the best out of it. Careful 12AX7 selection makes a useful difference

Lovely clean on channel 1

Not sure of the age, but it's pretty old. I like that it has 4 channels with switchable EQ. FX loop, recording out, reverb. I wish it had midi, but the footswitch is pretty good

High end Boogie, what do you expect. It's SOLID, when I got mine it had been seriously dropped. My tech put it back together for #80. Most other gear would have been written off.

Really good pre-amp. I'm using it with a 50/50, G-Major and homemade, oversize 1x12" cabs (Celestion Century drivers). It sounds great, it's flexible, it's solid.

What more can you want.

I play std. strat, peavey eVh and ibanez s-7 (with evolution pickups). It sounds very dirty, and that is what I like. The clean channels are very clean and "outfenders" a lot of fine amps though! But I always play with a little overdrive or full distortion. It really does what i want it to do, but surely not everybody would love it. It is not a mordern high gain amp, but it is a cool, rough and hardcore amp. You can really hear what you play. In my opinion the newer things like Randall warhead, 5150 II, Marshall TSL ect. are borring amps. The only have this spinning and buzzing distortion. They lack tone and growl. The quad, does not offer as much gain as these mordern machines, but the quad sounds more proffesional. I use a sansamp XXL distortion for the highly sustained and spinnig solosounds - it works!

It has all you need. Who are using 20 different basic sounds.

Mesa has the worst service avaliable (that is when you live in DK) - fuck you Randall... Okay... a Mesa tool never breaks down. So Randall is lucky. Otherwise he would be dead. It has a fine balanced output, and tubes are used, and switched once in 2 years. I rehearse at loud volumes twice a week. Never had any troble (I also use other machines from Mesa, and it never fucks up)

Grrrr - must kill Randall!

I have been playing for 14 years, and my style has only gotten more brutal and fast. My freinds bought combos, and started playing blues - not me, I an into the heavy stuff. I use it with an ENGL 2x50 tube slave, and a Mesa halfback 4x12. I also use some old stompboxes chorus, delay ect. I love my gear. It has been assembled in a simple signalpattern, and it works (even for blues...).
You can hear samples on my website: www.geocities.com/randscient

I play a 70s lespaul-copy with p90s and i really love the sound.
once you figured it out, it's a really joy just to play simply chords and check out the whole distortion and crunchy sounds.
I would totally agree to the other reviewers, as regards on versatality and sound quality.
I bought mine, because i was so much in really lead sounds, and looked for a really brutal, fat and primary very versatile distortion sound. But since i have been using this amp a time, a get really fascinated by the sweet crunch or clean sounds.
I changed the mesa tubes in the preamp 1 to tesla ecc83, and the tone became more agrressive, treblish an dirty.
I love the channel one, when overdriven, it makes a sound very sensitively to the input signal and to the pickups, it's for my taste the perfect balance between transparence, aggressivness, rattle and so on.. It's perfect for a kicking wave-punk rock rythm style.
In that case the channel two is similar. You can get really dry and "straight to the point" rythm sounds, that sound, even on bigger chords extremly warm and ringing or organic.
Also by the graphic eq and the parametrics, that are really effective and hard to figure out, you can get those really cranked and lofi-explosion like sounds.
But this is also the only problem: this beast is noisy, espacially in lead-channels, but the point is that you have acces to the really electronic-sounding raw shred or resonance effects.
The lead channels are in many case the rythm channels in more brutal, they kick really ass.
A problem is, that the lead2 is in my opinion the most unusable in this amp. I use it for ,more brutal parts, that sound exactly like rythm 2, but lead 2 kicks more ass and is more dynamic.

My one is made in 88, i guess everything is said...
I own it since 2years.

I think you can depend on it in every case, it's all tube and big and very stably...'
it's a normal metal-case rack unit...

don't know

it's the most versatile, organic and musical sounding amp i know...
I cannot say how unique it sounds, but the access to the tone and the possibility to make experimental guitar sounds is icredibly.
You'll get anything you want and it takes a lot of time to figure out.

I purchased a quad thinking that I would get the legendary sounds of the studio pre and "then some more" for nearly the same price. This is not true. I had been deeply affected by the sounds of the studio pre and believed that the quad contained the same circut as the studio. In extensive A/B tests with my quad and two studio pres I and my tech as well as multiple listeners concluded that the quad did not measure up to the studio pre in both the clean and lead channels. Upon extensive research online and looking inside the two preamps I have chosen to discarded the quad and am now the happy owner of a studio pre. My previous assessments of the quad must be revised. It is an "okay" piece of equipment (perfectly fit for a metal man and thrashing about) but it certainly does not measure up to the stunning, breath-taking tones of the studio pre regardless of the price difference. It has taken years but discriminating tone meisters are now becoming aware that the zenith of classic boogie tone resides in the studio pre. Do not buy the quad in the vain attempt to capture the studio's greatness. It simply is not there. Although, the quad is still a better piece for the metallica crowd that relies on gain and one-dimensional pummeling more than subtle nuance, complexity, and textures of the studio preamp. Why do you think Walter Becker used the Studio Pre in the studio? Because it is the finest.

providing an update after much enlightenment

Okay but not as good as the Studio Pre. The quad is like a keg of inexpensive domestic beer (fine for a garden party, Joe Six Pack, and slurping down with hotdogs and chips) where as the studio pre is like a fine wine that has aged with beauty.

my setup:
Ibanez JPM100 P4 -> George Dennis Wah Wah -> Mesa Quad -> return of my Bedrock tubeamp. OK, I need to have an poweramp, but this setup still rocks pretty rough.
lets make an review of te channels:
rhythm 1: always clean, but in some settings it has an edge. in my settings it is a warm, Fenderish sound.
lead 1: searing. Not to much gain, it is not an bone rattling channel, but more sophisticated. most used channel (at least mine is). Together with te bridge P/U it gives an really punchy, great sound.
rhytm 2: less used channel, nice for some rock chording (really nice) but not really useful.
lead 2: tearing apart! really radical. sounds floating, really much gainreserves, but to be honest, it is not agressive, also more sophisticated (like all Boogies, even the rectifiers). Sounds great with the neck P/U. Gives an violin alike sound, without the strangled cat =D.
BTW, it sounds that way in my settings, but there are so much possiblities, from jazz to metal settings, it is unreal. Fore some nice basic settings, check the Boogie Site (owners manuals).

It is an oldy, must be 'bout 10 years old. Well, it is a 4 channel amp, and if you know how to handle it, it is possible to use it as an 8 channel one. I bought it because I wanted an Boogie, and I wanted somewhat more channels then the rig I had. I play progressive rock/metal (mostly) and this thing covers all the needs I might have.
Right, some techtalk right now:
2 independant channels, rhythm and drive on each one. besides that 2 EQ's, both channels have one. All this is switchable by a large footswitch (6 knobs). One minor lack, just switchable by the floorboard, so if that one messes up, you have some sort of problem.
It has an effects loop, mono out, and stereo return. The channels are MIDI switchable. It has a spring reverb, not switchable, which I consider a pity. Lots of the knobs on the amp are push pull, but to be honest, the difference is not always that obvious =D. It is (of course) an tubeamp, 8 tubes are mounted, 5 used at least.
I use it at home, with the intention to use it live.

My band is not ready to hit the roads (yet), so I don't know yet.

not dealt with em, and I inted to keep it that way =D.

I play over 12 years right now, but only 4 years the electric, so I am still building my rig. I owned some things before, but this baby is the most beautiful amp I ever layed hands on (even better than the dual rectifier I once tried). I had the choice to buy an formula or this one, and I am glad I chose one. It sounds great.
I personally think it is a pity Mesa doesn't make em anymore. I heard the tone is better than the one of the Triaxis (because of the lack of digital shit), but I can't confirm it, never played on one.
to go shortly: the Quad is an really great preamp, and worth buying!

cuando lo escuche por primera vez me parecio grandioso,tanto que vendi mi triaxis,ya que pienso que suena mas organico.
Un sonido muy versatil,desde jazz hasta full overdrive.

mi quad fue hecho en 1986. tiene opciones que me interesaron en particular:
reverv a resortes (accutronics)
perillas en vez de botones (mas facil y rapido de usar en vivo )
la posibilidad de acceder a dos canales a la vez.
me gustaria que hubiesn puesto un nivel independiente de reverv para cada canal.pero puedo vivir sin eso

nunca un problema!!!!en serio!!y tiene muchos a?os de uso.