Mesa/Boogie 50/50

My 50/50 was made in 1991 (has year of manufacture on the inside). It's a stereo tube amp (50w per side), with seperate volume and presence controls for each side. It also has a lo/hi power switch. (lo is 15w, hi is 50w) and a standby switch.

I use a 1977 US strat with Kinman noiseless pickups and Yamaha Pacifica (standard Yam pickups). I bought this amp to go with my Mesa/Boogie Triaxis pre-amp. I was looking for something that would give a reasonable level of clean headroom and something that would add warmth and neutrality. I mainly use it on the lo power setting and drive the amp at around 6 on the volume dials as this gives IMO a warmer tone. I play in a gospel worship band in a large hall and also a 4 piece pop/jazz/rock band in much smaller places. So I get to play jazz, country, soul, pop - a bit of everything. This amp is versatile enough to deal with both my playing situations.

My set-up is:
Guitar -> BOSS Compressor -> Wahwah -> Triaxis pre-amp -> Rocktron Intellifex -> 50/50 amp -> 2 Marshall 1912 cabinets , Yamaha midi controller for Triaxis and Intellifex. A very musical, compact set-up. I love it !!

My amp is 10 years old. I bought is used from a guy who looked like he didn't take care of himself let alone his gear :) I had it checked out and serviced when I bought it. A few resistors and capacitors were replaced, a few solder joints re-soldered and I also had it re-tubed and re-biased. The amp tech said it was very well built and will last a long time with a service once a year. He also commented that the internals of the amp were very similar to that of a Fender Twin.

I contacted Mesa/Boogie after I bought the amp to see how easy it was to buy replacement compoenents and to find out what I should look out for when having it seviced. They were very helpful and replied back within 24 hours.

I've owned this amp for 6 months. I love the simplicity of it and of course its tone. The only down side is its weight. I looked at the Mesa/Boogie 20:20 and the 2:90. The 20/20 sounded great but was lacking in a few watts for me. The 2:90 is awesome. But just too expensive.

it's a 2 x 50W stereo amplifier, with presence and volume knobs for each channel. It also has a hi/lo power switch. On the back it has 2 inputs and 6 outputs (4 x 4 Ohm, 2 x 8 Ohm) That's about all the features and i can't think of a reason it should have more.
Built in '93

I run an Ibanez RG470 with EMG-89/ EMG S / EMG 81 or a Fender Strat through a Line6 Pod to the 50/50 into a Mesa Roctocab. First i ran it to the speakers of a Marshall VS8280E and it sounded great. But with the rectocab hooked up it sounds incredible!!! I mostly play metal and for this there is no better setup than Mesa gear imho (someday i will replace the pod with a triaxis). The amp itself is pretty quiet but some of the settings of the pod give a lot of hiss. I have to look into that. The amp is virtually transparent which i think is what a power amp should be. It does give you that nice warm tube sound that every guitar player should have. Solid state sucks compared to this! When i first hooked the rectocab up (just got it 2 days ago) and fired the rig up i was suprised to find that even with the volume on 8 for both channels it was still pretty quiet. So i started switching through the pod's amp models. Until i hit one with a fairly high output level. DAMN! I flew back 2 meters and had to pry myself out of the wall! I can't imagine anyone needing more power than this!

This thing is 7 years old and works great. Can't say that of the Marshall's i owned... This thing is probably going to outlive me!

I needed some information on cabs. They got back to me the next day with good information. Since then i e-mailed them some more with questions and they never failed to answer me the next day. I've tried to contact several company (Marshall, Line6, Ibanez, etc). Not one returned my e-mail. Mesa did. For this they get a 10.

This is the best amp i ever owned. I'll probably never buy another (unless i have money to burn... as if that's ever going to happen!)
It is definantly worth it's money even if you have to buy it new.

this amp has totally the right amount of power and more!!! it is all tube. what a beast! i never owned an all tube power amp and now i wonder why that is. helped my tone tremendously! has 2 channels. 2 volumes and 2 contour controls. the contour controls go from 0-10 just like the volumes do. countour adds color and clarity...gets rid of the mud. 0=normal with 10=no mud and more presence, clarity, brightness, etc. great for tone shaping. i usually leave mine on 3. amp also has a 1/2 power control. this is good for practicing in your apartment. turns the amp to 1/2 power. although i don't notice much difference, it does overdrive the tubes a little more and gives it more of a bite.

i use jackson guitars with dimarzio pickups and ibanez RG470 with stock pickups. i'm running a Rocktron voodu valve preamp to BBE sonic maximizer to the boogie amp. this amp adds so much depth and power and warmth it's insane! i'm very very very picky and when i used this amp i was happy. i'm notorious for returning stuff to the store the next day if i'm not happy. it's been 2 weeks and i'm still happy. with my other power amp...solid state, when on higher volumes, the tone got thinner. it was louder but sounded noisy, thinner, etc. it was louder for the sake of just being loud. with the boogie, at high volumes, it is still full as hell and really warm and loses NO tone; in fact, the tone is better louder! gives my tone mean growl; i play mainly metal. you won't be unhappy.

i read a lot of reviews and horror stories of musicians dropping their boogies from high areas and it worked great. mesa's are built like tanks. i haven't dropped mine yet and don't intend to. if i do i'm sure it will work great still. the cool thing about mesas is that the tube amps don't need to be biased when you add new tubes! that will save money and you won't have to take it anywhere. i never replaced them; amp is only 2 weeks old.

i have called mesa a couple times and spoke with Tien...he was awesome! i called to just get info on their products. we talked for a long time. they return calls within a day if they are unavailable. they make you feel comfortable and don't rush you off the phone like other co's would.

i have been playing 15 years and own crate amps mainly. for my main rig it's the rocktron voodu preamp and mesa 5050 power amp, crate cab with 4X12 celestions, 50 watts each. jackson and ibanez guitars. i chose mesa for the name and all my friends seemed to know about the 5050. i thought about getting the triaxis preamp by mesa but then i need another FX unit and i spent enough money lately. my rocktron preamp is delivering killer tone lately through this 5050. get one.

Made in 91 i think. 2 channels and seperate volume and prescence controls for each channel. This baby is all tube and all TONE !!!!!!
Not too many features but simplicity is the key here.

I use mostly Charvel and Ibanez guitars. My pickups tend to aim towards the "hotter" end of the market. I wanted a warm,powerful sound and this amp gives me just that. It seems to sit well in the rack too, along with an ADA MP1 and BBE 362 Sonic Maximiser. The whole thing just feels warm and full. No thin,tinny, scratchy sounds. Just POWER !!! There is some noise when you're not playing but nothing severe.

I've only just bought it so i cant really comment, but it seems to be constructed along battleship lines. The tubes seem a bit exposed at the back but so far so good. I have no plans to use a backup but i will carry a spare tube of each type, just in case.

I contacted them via email when i couldnt download the manual for it from the website. They very kindly posted me one the very next day, and it arrived in 4 days, which considering it came all the way from California to London England is pretty good going. Thumbs up all round !!

As long as i use rack gear, this little beauty will provide the power. I cant see me ever needing another power amp again. This is loud enough to play Wembley Stadium with !!! It is a bit on the heavy side, but there again you only carry it from the house to the car and back. If it blem up or was stolen i'd definately get another, but i dont think i'd find anther 50/50 for the same price. This was an absolute bargain.

50/50 watt stereo guitar power amp, with presence and volume controls for each channel. Hi/Low power switch. 4 6L6's and 2 12ax7's.
I haven't found much use for the Hi/Low power switch - it's allways on Hi. Running the amp on Low makes power amp distortion available at lower volume, but that volume still hurts my ears!!! and besides that, my Marshall Blues Breaker II pedal sounds much better

My rig consists of Hamer Studio w. two humbuckers, Marshall JFX-1 reverb/chorus/flanger/delay, Marshall Blues Breaker II overdrive, Mesa/Boogie Studio preamplifier.
The amp sounds great in this setup. Nice, ringning clean sounds, smooth lead sounds, great "crunch" sounds etc. The amp simply does its
job really well, which is to amplify, whatever input the rest of my rig gives, and doing it whith a slight amount of pleasing tube distortion as opposed to solid state clipping

I've own this unit for a year, and it has never given me any problems.
Once members in my band set it up, and, thoughtfully, turned it on to warm it up. They didn't know, however, that a speaker load has to be connected to the output in order not to fry an amp.
It had been "warming up" like that for about an hour, when I arrived and at that time i could have fryed bacon on the chassis. I thought it was toast, but after plugging in 10 minutes later - no problem!
For that, I give it a 10

I have contacted Mesa/Boogie once to give me a manual for my Studio pre, since it wasn't posted on their web site. The mailed it to me
(air mail overseas) emediatly.

Great power amp. This unit works really well for me. I just have to turn it on, and forget about it, so I can concentrate on my playing.
I highly recommend this amp

My 50/50 was built around 1990 and had the Deep Mod that became stock around 1992-1993 installed in the late 90s. The amp is 50 W per channel, through two pairs of 6L6 tubes, with volume, presence, and a half power control. The amp can be run one channel only in mono, which is important for me since I run a mono guitar rack.

I play jazz/metal through Ibanez 7 string guitars. I use a Peavey Rock Master tube preamp to get a shimmering clean sound, a thick heavy crunch, and a phat lead tone. The 50/50 is my first tube power amp, I was running a TubeWorks Mosvalve, which is a very rugged, punchy amp.

The 50/50 has a very full rich sound, with tons of low end. My clean tones have more richness and clarity and my distorted tones have more bite. The low end is so full that I had to dial back my preamp EQ settings.

This unit is at least 10 years old and still runs great. The construction is rugged, and I have had no problems in the short period I have owned it.

Boogie's people are usually always helpful when you contact them, and they told me how to ID an older unit containing the Deep Mod.

I don't like the way Boogie forces you to buy tubes from them to fit the fixed bias specs of all their amps, but many after-market tube dealers will now sell tubes for less that are just as good [if not better] to match those bias specs.

This is a very toneful, solid power amp. I am so pleased with it that I am buying a Mesa 20/20 for my home/portable rack.

I used to use solid state amplifiers, until I bought this Mesa Boogie 50/50 all tube power amp (4 6L6 Tubes and 2 12AX7's). I was pretty skeptical of the 50 Watts per side power rating, but when I plugged into this thing, It almost blew the guitar out of my hands. The tube power section has had the biggest impact on my sound. (TONE - TONE - TONE).. and I've tried alot of preamps (Peavey, ADA, Rocktron, etc..) This amp is built like a tank. I was using a Rocktron Pihranna Tube Pre with it, until I purchased the Mesa TriAxis. I can't rave enough about this unit.

This thing is Loud even when you have the low power setting on.
It is very warm and very dynamic with great pick attack.
This adds great feel.. (provided you're a guitarist that plays with feel).
I have to take one point away due to the fan that cools the tubes. It's a pain when recording.. you have to isolate the rack from the speakers so the fan doesn't get recorded. (It really isn't that loud.. I'm just very picky).

I had one problem which was my fault. With stereo tube circuitry.. you have to have a load capacitor (speaker or power brake) attatched to the amp. I didn't have one of the speaker cables plugged all the way into the cabinet and when I turned the amp up.. one of the tubes blew.
Like I said.. This was my fault. Ever since then I've never had any problems with it. It is built like a tank. I even accidentally pulled rack off of the top of the speakers once and the entire rig went to the floor. I placed it back up there and it worked fine.

I've never had to deal with their support, which automatically gives Mesa a 10.

This unit is my favorite piece of gear next to the guitars themselves.
It has broadened my sound immensly...

Not sure when the amp was made. I have had it about 5 years. 4/6L6 tubes (there are also some 12AX7s inside, but I have never looked inside), volume and presence for each stereo channel, standby switch, half power switch (which cuts the power a little, but not a lot, don't assume it will let you play in an apartment) and main power switch.

I play a Warmoth custom hollow Tele with SD Alnico Pro II humbuckers. I use it with a JMP-1 preamp. I have also had the "deep" mod done to it, which really adds bass to the amp. I would highly suggest getting the "deep" mod done because it really improves the bottom end, and the parts are only like 20 bucks. The fan can be a little noisy at times, but overall, it is a quiet amp. It is a very loud amp as well, I have never gone past about 6 or 7 on both channels, and even then my ears were ringing. Overall sound quality is very good, however I have little to compare too since it is the only rack mounted power amp I have ever owned. I also think that perhaps EL84s would work better with the JMP-1 power amp. But, after I had the deep mod done to it, it really sounds good. I would suggest perhaps a Triaxis over a JMP-1 depending on what kinds of sounds you are going for.

Never been broken, and I have used it A LOT!

Never talked with the boogie people but from what I hear they are great.

Been playing 20 years, I own lots of other stuff. If it were stolen I would probably move away from rack gear, just because it took me a very long time to get the best sounds out of my rack. By that I mean, finding the right cabinet, speakers, pre-amp, effects, case, guitar etc.... Some of those decisions are taken care of for you when you buy a combo. Even now I am thinking I should probably get a EL34 20/20 to go with the JMP-1. It would be lighter, take up one space, and probably match the JMP-1 better. However, overall, for a 6L6 rack power amp, the 50/50 can't be beat.

Black metal case... tubes (glass with metal inside) ... various wires and electrical components... a few switches... just read the other reviews.

LOUD. Fed by a Quad Pre. Cleans are fabulous. We do a lot of metal and punk recording with the quad and the 50/50 is for the road. We just got it and it sounds fine so far. Did I mention it's LOUD! With the half power enabled, set the volume to 4 and you will keep up with a full band fine (in a small room). Also, it's LOUD. Turn off the half power switch and the thing opens up like a pteradactyl with a 40ft wing span. It's a big bird. Its LOUD too, with a very LOUD quality to it. All kidding aside, it does sound fantastic, and along this something like the quad, you get whatever you want out of it.

We got this beast from a cat in Baton Rouge; and when I picked it up at the post office, the box looked like it was dropped out of a crop-dusting bi-plane. Railed! The amp wasn't looking so good. The right rack ear was bent almost all the way flush to the side of the unit. It was probably just packed in a plane under a shipment of 3 tons of gold bullion, 'cause a shock (drop or hit) that would cause metal that thick to be bent like that would've broken everything inside the amp into a million pieces (even wires). This was not the case ... all tubes were intact. I wasn't too concerned 'cause we all know mesa's reputation for building solid gear. Brought that thing home, bent the ears back into shape in the shop, racked it, wired it behind the quad, and oh yeah. Works fine. That's how you build amps man. I'm telling you.

no need.. I got a shop with a vice and I'm tough AND strong.

built ford tough man!!! anything that could look like what I pulled out of that sorry excuse for a shipping box and still work fine is worth every penny. Oh.. and it's LOUD.

of course it's easy

I had a Crate Blue Voodoo and switched to the 50/50. I have a digitech 2120 effects/preamp and now I need better stuff because the 50/50 is so good. Everything is bringing it down. It has the tone, and it has the power.

Had it for about 4 months. no problem

Mesa always pulls through.

I play rock,shred,jazz,classical,and anything else that has good guitar licks. In my opinion, the 50/50 gives you a bite with the tone like a strat would. Is it the tubes? I think it's just a good amp.