Mesa/Boogie 50/50

Made in the USA with pride! This sucker is loud! Stereo output with presence and volume controls. 4 and 8 ohm output for speakers. High and low power switch that runs each channel at either 50 or 15 watts. I never use the 50 watt high power setting, even in clubs over my drummer and not running through a house PA. Has everything I need for a power amp; anything else would be frivolous. Uses 4 6L6 power tubes.

I use ESP and Ibanez guitars with Dimarzio's through a Mesa Boogie Triaxis. I play original metal/hard rock. Sounds like bliss with the Triaxis. I just sold my Triple Rectifier because this setup sounds like everything I've ever wanted. Using the 15 watt setting gives you a nice tube breakup and makes your cab sound fatter than Rosie O'Donnell. Clean, fat, and juicy, this power amp does it all.

Mesa Boogie amps don't break unless the bonehead that uses them abuses them. Never needed a backup.

If you ever need to call Mesa Boogie, there is always someone to help you out with whatever needs you have. I call and order tubes all the time. 5 year warranty with Mesa stuff, but if you need it you better rethink your methods of taking care of your gear. These amps RARELY break.

I've been playing guitar for 20 years. I don't loose gear, but if someone stole it I would beat the crap out of them because these aren't made anymore and a ***** to find one in this condition. I love this power amp so much, I would sell all my other amps to buy more of them. I hate carrying my rack around cause this sucker is heavy! But its so worth it! Everyone rants and raves about the VHT 2/50/2; my question is why? This amp smokes every other power amp in its class on the market. I chose Boogie because I've been through countless rigs and nothing compares. Perfect in every way.

The one I have was I beleive around the early to mid 90's. I really only play metal, but all the different genres encompassing it. It worked very very well for me in that respect. It has two channels with 50 watts per side with an option on going down to 15 watts. It also has a presence knob for each channel that really helps find your own sound in the power amp. I've used this amp in my room and on a stage and it delivered in both spots and everywhere in between with great tone and volume. It also runs off of 6l6's, mesa tubes of choice. I only give it a 9 becasue I wish it had a few more tone options or tube options.

I use a Jackson Soloist with a JB and a Jazz push potted in the neck as well as a Caparison Horus with a JB and hotrails in the neck. It was THE go to power amp at the time I was looking, especially for the price. I would recomend either this or if you hav a little more cash the VHT 2/50/2, pretty much the two best on the market. It was never too noisy, I used it with an Engl e530 pre amp, and the pre amp provided a little unwanted noise, but other than that they duo sounded fantastic. Blew away EVERYTHING in the price range by far.

It's mesa so I can absolutely trust it. It's built like a tank, you could drop it off a roof and it'd still work fine, if not better. I've NEVER had issues with it, and have gigged plenty with it.

never had to deal with them, so I guess I can't give a rating, but I'd say that's a good thing

I've been playing for about 8 years now and have owned a lot of gear and played through even more. I currently own a VHT 2/50/2 and that's it for me for power amps, doesn't get much better, but this is great. I also own an Engl e570 SE a dunlop rack wah and a g0major as well as a soloist and horus. I would be upset if it were stolen, if I could get a good deal again I would totally buy it. I never saw a problem with it, and can't imagine it hav a problem. I love the suprising sound quality, and didn't really hate anything about it...maybe it could look cooler but that doens't matter to me. I only giv eit a 9 because I think the 2/50/2 is a superior power amp, but this is pretty close, especially for the price.

pretty basic....50 watt stereo tube preamp....the coolest feature is the 15 watt low power switch for playing in smaller venues so u can still get that fat tube sound. 9 for not having a 16ohm output but its really not a big deal

this is probably one of the cleansest most articulate poweramps ive ever played on....my friend has a vht 2:50 and i actually prefer the mesa.(vht is damn good though) it has zero noise and no fizz whatsoever...i love this thing

its a mesa so its built like a tank

havent dealt with them...prolly wont need to

you can pick this poweramp up off ebay for around 400 bucks and get tone that would cost you around 1500 bucks for a newer unit

Straightforward two channel power amp with volume and presence control for each channel

Solid, thick and clean 6L6 sound. Replaced a small EL84 amp with these baby and it was a major upgrade in sound quality. Great headroom and "fullness"

It was built in 89 and stills works great

haven't need it

Been playing for 30 years and have played many amps, this is a quality unit with a big bold sound

Not many features. Why should it have many features.....?
Reminds me of a '69 Jeep Wagoneer in which you could survive a head on collision. Built to last.

My setup consists of a Fender Strat Standard USA (no modifications) plugged in a Marshall JMP-1, with an Intellifex in the loop.
I love the direct amplification. Clear and honest. Didn't have the opportunity yet to push the volume to its limits since I have owned the amp for just a couple of days.
I am still lacking a decent stereo cabinet so I use a 12 inch cabinet which comes with my seventies Polytone Minibrute. Even with this setup the Boogie passes with flying colours.
Hats of!

Haven't had the opportunity yet to kick it, drop it or drown it.I would use it on a gig without backup. Never had any backup, period.

Haven't dealt with them yet

I have been playing for more than 20 years. I basically play Jazz but at given times I like to wake up myself, my neighbours and my audience with rock/blues/funk oriented stuff.That's why I bought myself a 19" setup.
Other gear: 80's Gibson ES-175, Gypsy Guitar, Vintage Ibanez PF200,
Seventies Polytone Minibrute (to go with the '175 Gibson) and a Koch Twintone II 50 watts amp.


What I hate about the Mesa is that the 50/50 doesn't come in Pink, Red or any other colour which seems to be hip nowadays (just kidding..)

Mid to Late 1990s power amp with two 50-watt channels. Presence and volume controls only. 4 or 8 ohm outputs available for each channel.

I bought this amp expecting the best possible power amp for my setup. I was right.

69 Tele w/SD little '59 in the bridge -> Mesa Studio Pre -> 50/50 -> Marshall 1960 Cab. Monster Rock cable for all connections. No effects or processors or anything.

I play guitar-driven proggish rock with some poppy hooks. This is the sound I needed and wasn't getting with a JCM 900, which is what I replaced with this rack setup.

This power amp sounds very present and articulate. It is excellent at maintaining individual note clarity even when you drive it hard. Clean sounds ring through this amp with so much sustain that it sounds like 10 Fender Twins in parallel.

I purchased this amp about a month ago and I have not taken it on the road yet. Based on other reviews, I plan on taking it on tour without backup.

I have never dealt with Mesa.

In building a rack setup, I originally intended to get a JMP-1 and some old Marshall power amp. It's a good thing that I had to save money up over several months, because over that time I read a lot of reviews (I love H-C) and priced various other options. I don't really have time to find used equipment in stores to try it out personally, but this is the next best thing. I finally settled on Mesa stuff because of their excellent reputation. I am very satisfied with this decision. The amplifier looks and sounds even better than I thought it would.

I have a respect for companies that make machines that do one thing really well. Mesa seems to be a manufacturer who realizes that useless features are funcionally and aesthetically obtrusive. Many reviewers note that they wished it had a 16-ohm speaker output, but there is always some way around this if you are perceptive enough. I don't see this as a shortcoming.

If this rack gets stolen or lost... (By the way, I love reading the answers to this question)

I would be pissed at myself for letting it happen for about two weeks and then I would move on. After all, there is more to life than material possessions, however important they may seem. In the meantime, I am going to guard it carefully.

Bought for #400 UK second hand in the mid 90s. This amp does what it says on the tin with minimal features necessary and has been my work horse now for 10 years.

I use the 50/50 with a Marshall JMP1 preamp and a few boss pedals with my Gibson Les Paul Standard 1989 typically. This is a monster set up and I don't think I'll ever want to change.

Has had a trouble free existence through many gigs and many journeys up and down the UK and Europe's motorways. However, the coupling capacitor to one of the 6L6s shorted recently. As I know what I'm doing, this was quickly diagnosed and replaced (with the help of the circuit diagram found on schematicheaven.com) - one valve was repeatedly going bright orange, that channel was weak sounding - then a new valve did the same, then fuses started blowing. Thankfully, I spotted this before my latest tour and a quick soldering job has sorted it. I still think this is a reliable amp as I could have run it on '3 cylinders' and still p*ssed the other band members off with the sheer volume. Maybe I've just been unlucky. However, I thought it best to mention. (For the geekos - you may want to keep a stock of 0.1uF 400V polyester capacitors and 3A slow blo fuses as well as spare 6L6s)

Not used.

In general, this amp is the dogs b*llocks - long may I hope to use it!

According to the stamp on the cooling fan, it's from 1989.
This single channel power amp is built for clean power, and that's what it does. Features are minimal. There's a volume and tone control for your left and right sides, with a lo-power 20 Watt mode and thats about it.
This amp would have benefitted from having an on/off switch for each individual side, but thats the only thing missing from this straight ahead rack unit.

I use 2 musicman luke guitars (with EMG's)through an old Digitech 2120 processor. This amp pretty much gives you a punchy and even sound, which at first is deceptively uninspiring. Sure, it's loud, but you don't go away "blown away" by the sound quality. That is, until you A/B it with another amp, then you see the potential. What comes through is the warmth of the sound, and colouration which is deep enough to dive into.
The sound of these late 80's models had fallen out of favour after the "grunge" and "nu-metal" sounds became prominent. However, as a player of many styles, including pop, rock, blues, jazz, etc.... this amp fits the bill. The downside for many players these days, is that they don't need as much power. This applies here too. My band has a great monitor system, and we don't need so much backline power. Consequently, this amp never gets turned up much beyond half-way, and that's in 20 Watt mode as well !!
Its a shame, because it really does come to life when cranked to around 75%.

This thing is built like a tank.
I bought this used, and it already looked like it had been dropped a few times. I re-valved it, and you can just tell it won't break.

Never dealt with them, but why would I?
This amp will last forever.

If this unit were stolen or lost, frankly I would be gutted. They don't make them anymore.
I would probably replace it with a VHT fifty/two/fifty.

This is definitely one of the older models, it only has four 6L6?s and no 12AX7?s. Has 2 volume 2 presence, power, standby and high/low switch. It?s Stereo 50 loud, clean all tube watts per side.

This is without a doubt the best amp I have ever used. I have a Rocktron Voodu Valve pre-amp running trough it into 2 1960 Marshall cabs. This amp can handle any sound I can throw at it. Playing with a loud band is no problem, I don?t even have to turn up past 5 ?. I can?t say enough about how great this thing sounds, and I don?t even miss the 12AX7?s of the newer models.

I play melodic Metal, Classical, and some Jazz. This amp can handle it all. And it?s very quiet, not a sound out of the amp.

I bought it used; only had it for about 6 months, and replaced the 6L6?s once. No problems so far.

N/A

If it were stolen I would be so pissed off!! It?s hard to find an amp like this for as little money as I paid for it. Compared to any, and I mean any solid state amp, It will just smash it. The tone is so rounded and full of body, you get this nice warm tone from it, not that sterile shrillness form most solid state amps I?ve used.

As far as tube goes I?ve only really compared it to other Mesa?s, like the Recto?s. In my opinion since this is only a power amp its much more diverse as far as what sounds its capable of producing, I would chose this amp in my rack set up over most heads out there. I?ve also heard a 2:90 with a mesa pre, and I wasn?t too impressed.

Don't know when it was made, but I'm oscilating about end of 90's.
This is basically the power amp - if you will turn it up over than 5 than your sound gets specified "punch". This is the old one (50/50, not 2:50) but it's still kicks asses (stereo tube preamp).

I'm using epiphone explorer korina with dimarzio superdistortion on bridge and standard epiphone pickup on neck. It's sounds very aggressive, but I think I'll change that dimarzio to some gibson ceramic '57. Mainly I'm playing hardcore music, sometimes when I want to jam I like to play some blues / free jazz :) I'm using engl 620 with it but I want to change it to marshall jmp-1 (and I want to mod it, because it doesn't have too much gain on-board). The sound from this power amp is typicall to similar mesa power-amps: it's great!

I'm 100% satisfied user, if I will ever want to change it I'll change it to 2:90 stereo simul-class, but right now it's quite good for me.

don't know - never have been to mesa customer service.

I think that every hardcore player should use that power amp (if you decided to setup rack system yourself). It sounds very good, specific for boogie stuff, it's price is ok for that kind of power amp and I you've got v-twin rack/pedal system it will sounds crazy :)

BTW: I'm looking for some option - I've got some old, but very rare PARK cabinet with T3120 celestions on board, and I want to attach my power amp to it. It has got 4 ohm entrance but it's only mono without bridging. My question is: is there any method to bridge mesa 50/50 to use full 100 watts on one channel ? Something like bridging on 8ohm right channel on marshall 9004 (to have 100 watt mono). If no - maybe you can tell me how to do it - that PARK column is f***ing good and I don't want to make that mono entrance into bridged stereo entrance.