Mesa/Boogie Blue Angel 4x10 Combo

I think if you look at features as "4 channels" "built-in digital amp modeling" "10 band EQ" "built in stereo chorus" well yor barking up the wrong amp. If your looking for features such as tube reverb, no master volume (hey that it a feature nowadays) and tube rectifier and a comliment of 6v6 and el84 tubes that beak up nicely with real power section distortion, well here ya go

This is a dynamic amp, very articulate to subtle nuances in playing style. If you play at with the same dynamics, you'll never see the true beauty of this amp. It's made to be used with the volume control of your guitar and subtle finger raking and such. The amp has a wonderful tweed (think deluxe ) sound with perhaps just a little more bark so you don't have to bother with the tube screamer. I think the reverb is one of the best verbs I've heard on an amp in years. I found the amp to be quiet although with tubes, one bad tubes can create alot of noise and with the quality of tubes from the east lately noise in any tube amo can be a potential problem

I've never had any problems with mesa products. Vey durable. As with all Mesa equipment the componets inside are top notch, Sprague caps and high quality resistors throughout. I can't imagine I'll have any problems

Never needed it, guess that says something in itself. I've heard that Mesa is quite accomodating with repairs

I've been a guitarist for over 16 years. I don't believe there's one amp that can do everything but for what I do, this amp really fits a niche that I couldn't find in other amps. I love old tweeds and voxes but I certainly wouldn't take them to a gig. This amp makes a great "player amp" Some may think the wattage isn't enough but from playing and doing sound for years, I've realized one of the best things you can do is find a tone you like and mic your amp. If a song needs more or less guitar let the sound main do it. I personally think this amp is loud enough for almost all clubs if you want power amp distortion (I think pre-amp distortion sounds weak and fuzzy) Remember a Vox is only rated at 35 watts and The Edge has used one for years on stage. Class a amps are a strange breed and they seem alot louder than there rated watts and have a harmonic complexity not found in other amps. I recently played a 68 super reverb that I don't feel had the tonal nuances and dynamics that this amp posesses but it looked cool and hey "it's vintage" and thats what alot guys want, buy with your ears not your eyes. For me the Blue Angel is a keeper

You've read it all before. I bought this amp because Randall Smith said it was his take on a vintage Fender and he would put this amp up against any of them. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.....He's a great deaf comedian. With the different valve complement arrangements, this should have been a fab little amp.

This amp just sucks. It lacks broad tone. It has the usual Boogie harsh nasty midrange. Next to a quality Fender, it's just a joke

No problems. But I don't think I'll be using it enough or owning it long enough to find out

Untried

Considering all the blurb says this amp is all about tone and is to be judged on that, I'm afraid it's a Turkey

Read other reviews, same features...
My amp was made in '94 and has the Eminence speakers. I never really liked Eminence, but these sound much warmer and fuller than the Jensen Alnico speakers. Black with a wheat covered grill. Specially wired seperating the 4 speakers into two sets of two. That way one can use 2x10's or 4x10's. Great idea. Have plugged into a 2x12 cabinet. Using the 4x10's and an external 2x12 cabinet gives an very full sound! This amps sounds great with just 12's but, but like the 10's better. Would have liked a tremolo, that is why the '8' rating. I love the Progressive Linkage switch. If you want distortion, pure tube even at lower volumes, the 6V6 can get the job done. To clean it up and bring in a British sound, the EL84 and combined do a great job.

Using a Fender '68 Strat Reissue (Japan) made in 1998. Ash body with a maple neck. Just replaced the pickups with Texas Specials. These pickups really drive this amp to a sweet distortion! Love it! To get a clean sound, turn down the amp or guitar. Fan on amp is a little noisy, but not through the speaker, just a normal fan sound. This is a blues amp! On the 6V6 setting, overdriving is so, so easy, sometimes a little to easy. Chord on this setting simply is great. To get a clean AC30 sound, use the EL84 setting. Clean, but not to bright. This not a metal amp, but really with a good pedal or two, this amp can do anything. For 18-33 watts, this amp can cook. On the 6V6 setting, you start to distort around 10:00, the others around 12:00. Using the middle as a gain (turning up all the way), you can get some over the top distortion. A great solo amp (to bad I'm not a lead guitar player!). Have a Fender '68 Pro Reverb (BF curcuit). I like this amp a little better (mainly at low volumes). I sold my son my Mesa Tremoverb to get this amp. The Tremoverb is a overall better amp, but this is more suited to my style and taste. I have read reviews on this amp. No it doesn't sound just like a Fender Deluxe or a Vox AC30, but it does get very close. It's much better than carrying around two amps and paying the price for a real vintage Deluxe or AC30. In some ways, the Blue Angel is actually better than the Deluxe and AC30. It can play with the vintage boys and some if not most times, eat there lunch. I like class 'A' power.

It's been around for 6 years and still has most of the orginal tubes. A very tough built amp, as with all Mesa products.

They are the best, no kidding, the very best. They return your calls and always are very, very friendly!

This is about my 10th amp. I'm going to keep this one and my Pro Reverb. Been playing for 28 years. If lost I would buy one, but would look for one with the Eminence speakers, couldn't be a new one, they have Jensens (very very bright). Again, I wish it had a Tremolo, but a pedal can do that if I really need it.

As past reviewers have said, this is your bare-bones one channel tube amp. It has basic passive EQ controls, reverb, and a choice between 6V6 power tubes, EL84's, or a combination of the two. I almost always use both for maximum headroom and volume. If you try to crank it while only selecting the 6V6's, it starts to fart out.

I use just about any guitar you can think of,(Tele, Strat,LP,SG,ES-335) and this amp responds well to all of them. This amp is SWEET with beautiful reverb. If I only played blues this would probably be my amp for life. However, at times it lacks the headroom necessary for funk,reggae,jazz etc. But you really can't complain, this amp was designed to breakup, and the power tube selector switch helps you decide when that should happen.
I use a V-twin preamp pedal either on the clean or blues setting with the gain knob at 4o'clock which works great for a Santana sound.
Also, I prefer the bass response of 12" speakers but I got a good deal on this amp used.

This amp did start to make some noise once, it was a tube problem most likely from road damage. but it was easily solved by a retubing

Never contacted them

I'm 17 and have been playing guitar for almost 10 years and this is the first great sounding amp i've ever bought. Though for my preference I wish they would make a 2x12 combo with a little more wattage. but that's more heartbreaker/tremoverb territory, I'll probably end up buying a t-verb soon just to fit my personal preference but I strongly reccomend this amp for anyone looking for a great one channel blues amp.

Fist of all, it doesn't have the rectifier selector which they say that it has in the manual. It's got nothing but real basic stuff: volume, three-band eq, reverb, a fat/bright switch, effects loops and...oooooh..the high-tech Simul-Link crap...bull shit. I can't stop laughing at their ridicules. Anyone with decent ears would notice in a second that this Simul-Link bull shit is just another scam that Mesa/Boogie pulled to confuse and make innocent buyers believe that everything done at Mesa is SOOOOO different, great and right, while in reality that isn't true. This is called "differentiation strategy" folks, where companies emphasize that their products are of higher quality and thus have higher prices. Sometimes, the difference in quality really exists and other times it doesn't. I admit that some of the other Mesa/Boogie amps are of higher quality, but even that doesn't justify their ridiculously high price tags compared to the amps from other companies. Now, these other companies have raised their amp prices, seeing people spend their fortune for Boogies. Just be aware and don't get ripped off by companies like Mesa/Boogie.

It has nice clean sound that breaks up at medium volume. It doesn't get as distorted as other class-A boogies like Maverick. I find this amp to be very suitable for blues or classic r'n'r. However, my initial intent for buying this amp was to use it for my jazz combo in small venues. I wish it had just a little more headroom or a separate gain control. This amp is very, very specialized amp for blues without modern heavy distortion.

I'll have to wait and see what this amp is made of. (I'm expecting this amp to easily outlast me considering its price.)

At their product price range, they better be good. They did answer my questions promptly, on several occasions.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Boogies are bad sounding. If you have tons of money sitting in your living room, go ahead. But if you are a reasonable person like me, think seriously before you buy a Boogie. I paid $700 for a used Blue Angel, which still a little steep for the amp. I'd give this amp a nine if it was $550, but at $1199 my rating for this amp is 7.

Don't know the year the amp was made. The Blue Angel isn't especially versatile because it's built pretty much for one thing: blues. It can also be used to play rock, but it won't do hard rock/heavy metal. But blues is my thing, so this class A amp is perfect. The four 10-inch speakers are 20-watt Emminence, and they're really warm. I tried a Celestion-loaded cabinet and didn't think it sounded as smooth.
No channel switching, but there are hi and lo inputs. I always use hi input. The amp's controls, from left to right, are volume, treble, middle, bass and reverb. No master volume - it's mostly power tube distortion, which to me is so much more pure and sweeter than front-end based amps.
There is a fat/bright switch, too. The fat switch emphasizes low mids. There is a parallel effects loop with a mix control on the back, a slave out, a single 4 ohm speaker out, and two each at 8 and 16 ohms. I don't use any effects, but I know the parallel loop and mix control work well.
The amp uses two Chinese 6V6s, four Russian EL84s and a Chinese 5AR4 rectifier and five Chinese 12AX7s. They're OK, but my plan is to substitute the 6V6s with NOS Phillips, the EL84s with new Czechs and the preamp tubes with Groove Tubes ECC83s (Czech, I think). I can make all these changes without worrying about bias because the Blue Angel is cathode biased.
But the Blue Angel's magic is in it's "simul link" setup. With the flick of a switch, I can go from 15 watts with the two 6V6s, 30 watts with the EL84s or combine both tube types for 38 watts. The differences compliment each other well and balance out the lows, mids and highs. It's nice and smooth.
38 watts might not sound like much, but it's plenty for gigs. My problem is that this amp is actually TOO LOUD to use in my apartment without a stomp box for low-volume grind. But give the opportunity to really open the amp up gives all the sweet distortion I need. Class A output distortion sounds and feels so much better to me than high-gain preamp type amps.
I give this category a 5, but only because this amp is intended to deliver one basic sound, and that's what I was looking for.

I use two guitars - a Heritage H150 (Les Paul-style) with stock Schaller humbuckers, and Korean-made Hamer Flat Top with cheesy Duncan humbucker copies, but those are soon to be history. On both guitars, I've upgraded the 500k volume pots to 1 meg for more presence and connected special capacitors to maintain highs when the volume is rolled off. It really works well with this setup, because the Blue Angel is very touch and attack sensitive, so using the volume control on my guitars help when I want to back off the distortion. Any good amp should do this for you, but most amps with hot preamp sections generally won't.
The Blue Angel starts to really break up with the volume somewhere between 11 and 12 o'clock. It gets thicker with more complex mids as you go higher, but 5 o'clock is about my limit. Thereafter, it gets too noisy. The distortion is very, very smooth and sweet. Listen to Kevin Eubanks on the Jay Leno show - he uses a Blue Angel, too.

I will depend on the amp once I get better tubes in it. I don't trust the Chinese or Russian-made tubes. They just don't last. The amp hasn't quit on me, but I haven't really used it night after night, either. It's mostly used for playing at home. I plan to get into the performing scene again once I get all my gear in order. I used to use a big MIDI rack when I played professionally, but I've simplified things to just a couple of guitars, no effects and a simple combo amp. I can't really offer an opinion here other than the fact that Mesa doesn't make cheap stuff.

Mesa's customer support is the best I've ever encountered, and I've had all kinds of amps over the years (I've been playing for close to 20 years now). When I first got the amp, it was too noisy - too much hiss, even at the lowest levels. But I was certain it was something that could be adjusted. So I took the amp to their factory, and after a wait of a couple of weeks (because their amp engineer was on vacation), they invited me back to make a simple adjustment of this teeny master volume control inside the chassis. A few turns and the noise problem was solved without hurting the tone. I lost some volume, but volume wasn't a concern. You can do this yourself or have a pro do it for you if you have the same problem. The Boogie people say this amp has a natural noise floor that is just "there," and adding circuit features to kill the hiss would kill the amp's attack responsiveness. But just making that little adjustment worked for me.
Tien Lawrence is Mesa's customer service chief. He was very helpful and friendly. He let me go into the tech room and check out the factory. He made the adjustment for me in just a few minutes. I am highly impressed with Mesa's service. They've always answered my questions and returned my calls. Defintely a 10.

I would not hesitate to get another Blue Angel if I lost this one. The only thing I wish Mesa would do is use better tubes in their factory models.
Other than that, this amp is perfect for me. I can get soft, clean sounds and in-your-face vintage blues without any stompboxes or channel switching. And the reverb is great, too. The 4x10 sound is for me, and this amp delivers. You can get one used for probably no more than $700, and it really sounds great.

Its a single channel amp. No BS just one channel. Its got all the knobs you need--volume, treble, mid, bass, and reverb. and has a knob that lets you change between power sections which puts this amp in a class of its own. It has enough power to fill up small clubs with sounds, but the cool thing is that you get to turn it up and use the power because it is only 15-30-38 watts. It does not need any other features--go get yourself a couple of good stompboxes on or off and you are on your way to the fattest of tone.

I use a custom shop telecaster. I play the funk, blues, and jazz. its not very noisy and I do crank the animal up. This amp will get you the best and smoothest sustain imaginable. It gets a little nasty at times, but just go to the 38 watt power section and turn the mid down and it gets much cleaner.

I use this amp hard and take it on the road a lot. It broke twice.. once because my Dumb A.. droped the thing and smashed a couple of knobs(it weighs alot). The second time it broke there was a fire behind it on stage and a few small things had to be replaced. both things costed about 60 bucks

Mesa has been very customer supportive of me. After I ordered it it took over 2 months before it arrived though. It has a 1 year warranty which I think is very cheap of Mesa.

I am 21 and have been playing for 10 years and have had many amps and none compare to this amp at all --except for fender pro reverbs, and vibrokings which I also use on the road. It has great tone and I love the thing. My advise is to pay the extra 300 bucks and get it covered in leather-because you are never going to want to get rid of it.

Features? We don't need no stinkin' features! Truthfully, I got this amp because of its simplicity. The output tube selector is a neat idea. The reverb is good, too. I could care less about the effects loop--I never use them.

My main guitar is a 1995 G&L Legacy with Fralin Pickups. It's considerably warmer and more "Tele-ey" than a stock strat. One would expect the 6V6 stage of the Blue Angel to be in the Deluxe realm, and the EL84 mode to sound Vox-ish. Not so. My crappy Crate Vintage Club 30 produces MUCH more credible AC30 tones than the Blue Angel. The 6V6 mode sounds better IMHO, but not quite there. I play lots of semi-overdriven stuff, and use effects heavily. Every pedal I tried through this amp sounded terrible. Vintage Rat, TS-9, Boss CE-1, EH Small Stone--all absolutely terrible. I had to sell the amp. If I had been a blues or even a country player, I could have dug this amp, but as it was, I found the overdrive when pushed to be harsh and barky.

Seemed reliable enough. You know about Mesa's policy, don't you? You're supposed to buy their Russian and Chinese relabled tubes exclusively so you can drop them right in without rebiasing. No bias pot is present, and installing one voids the warranty. Well, ha ha, the Blue Angel is cathode biased, so I tried NOS 6V6GTYs and Sylvania EL84s. This yielded a slight improvement.

I hear customer support is good.

Sorry to bad mouth for what many is the holy grail of amps, but for me the Blue Angel doesn't live up to the hype. The clean sounds ARE very nice. This amp will suit many players, just not me.

Year built: 1998 Versatility: I have two other amps: a rack mount Carvin Quad 4X/Peavey Clasic 50/50, and a Sundown 50. Despite the variety of sounds, I rarely use them all, so the Blue Angel is plenty versatile for MY needs; nevertheless, others might find the lack of channel switching to be a problem. Despite the apparent lack of options, the amp IS capable of producing a variety of sounds, albeit not at the tap of a footswitch. Again, this is a single channel amp, though it does have an effects loop and a slave output jack as well as provision for a reverb footswitch (though I have never actually used one of these, considering the price of the amp, Mesa might have included it rather than making an option. Once again, I chose this amp specifically because of its simplicity, so there really aren't any features I'd like to see added. Also, the 15-33-38W configuration is precisely the range I find most useful for jamming, playing small gigs and home recording.

I use a number of guitars through this amp: A Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion-III with stock Humbuckers, a '57 reissue Strat, also with stock pickups (single coil), and a '61 Melody Maker 3/4 with a Semour Duncan Hot Rails pickup. In general, I like the Strat a bit better through this amp, but everything sounds good through it.
I tend to play Jazz and Blues, and the amp is excellent for those styles. I don't know that it has the gumption for thrash or metal, but it does sound just fine for more moderate rock styles as well.
The amp is VERY quiet, even with eerything wide open. The scarcity of controls is deceptive, and the amp can produce a reasonable variety of sounds through appropriate combinations of the tone controls. For example, the Middle tone control acts like a crunch dial after the half way mark, and the treble control interacts significantly with the other two. All this is well documented in the manual, and with a little practice you can get a reasonable palate of sounds. Nonetheless, it's not like playinbg through a Triaxis or even the Carvin Quad-x with respect to variety. This is an amp that aspires to do one thing and does it extremely well. If that thing is what you want, then it's perfect.
Since it has only one channel, if you're looing for clean sounds at high volume, you're pretty much out of luck. I would use an A/B switch for this and run the signal through a more powerful amp. The clean sound at low-mid volumes, however, is sparkling and among the best I've ever heard. If more clean volume is needed, another option, of course, is to mike the amp, or use the slave-out to drive another opower amp.
Driven to distortion, the sound remains smooth and tight; reminiscent of a black-face Super Reverb (the 4-10s may contribute to this similarity as well.)

Can't comment on this aspect, since I haven't owned it for long, but if the Mesa reputation is any indication, I don't expect any problems. Visual inspection suggests a VERY well made amp.

Again, I have no direct experience (and hope I won't have to), but I've heard nothing but high praise for Mesa's support.

I've been playing since 1966, and have owned MANY amps since my first Epiphone back then. I've owned solid state and tube, Marshalls, fenders, Kustoms, Bruces -- you name it. I can say without hesitation that this is the best built and best sounding amp I've ever owned. This of course is subjective, and the next person might not like it quite as much, but I can't imagine ANYONE saying they HATE it. I will admit that, for some situations, and some sounds, I like my Quad-X rig better, but that's a huge, heavy unit that serves best anchored in one spot. Also, after a few beers I often find myself slobbering over the controls trying to find just the right sound. The Blue Angel is simple enough to operate regardless of how sh*t-faced you get 8^)

The Blue Angel is a very good amp for straight ahead blues. There's no master volume, but the amp distorts nicely at about half volume with a strat (texas specials) and about 10 O'clock with gibson humbuckers. It is difficult to get a good clean sound though; there is not much headroom. It also doesn't sound very good at low volumes... it lacks 'tone'. Not good for surf, jazz or country, but like I said, great for straight ahead blues. The reverb sounds great. It's all tube, one channell, standard tone controls and a nice array of doo-dads on the back panel such as an effects loop. It's a little lacking without a master volume or a little more headroom though.

Very noisy at low volumes (pre-amp swish sound). I also pick up a radio station regularly on it. Not very versatile, but it is good for blues and blues only. Sort of a medium distortion sound; lacks clean, especially on humbuckers.

No problems. This is my third mesa amp, and all have worked flawlessly. Seems to be well built.

I called Mesa to ask about the pre-amp noise and the service person (Tian I beleive) was very knowledgeable and concerned with providing a good product and good service. He sent me 2 new 12ax7 pre amp tubes to try and get the noise down. It didn't help with the noise, but the radio station went away.

I've been playing for 44 years (wow that freaked me out when I calculated it!) It's a good amp but I wouldn't buy another blue angel. It's a little too limited for me. My other current amp is a Matchless Cheiftan 2-10, which suits my purposes a little closer. I would suggest to Mesa to back off a little on the pre-amp hotness to give it a little less distortion and a little more headroom. That also might help clean up the noise so you can use it low volumes. It's still a very good amp for what it is though.