Mesa/Boogie Express 5:25

Probably made this year (2007)
It's a very versatile amp
2 complete channels, separate reverb and contour (mid scoop) controls
The only thing I think it could use is a presence control, but boogie seems to neglect those frequently. Probably would negatively effect the "boogie sound"...
I use it for household jamming; thers plenty of volume for that. It has a switch to drop it to 5 watts class A but it's still a little above apartment level even then...

This amp is pretty good for anything except metal. Not enough presence or mid scoop for that. Excellent for the classic boogie tone (Santana - Black Magic Woman)The overdrive can go to insane levels though. The clean is very good, but warm about like a fender WITHOUT the bright switch on. It doesn't really get glassy, but that's often a good thing. It has a tone that I can only describe as boogie clean. The bottom and mid respond very well, but the high end stays kind of soft, but not to the point of being muffled. Most EL84 amps I've played share this tone. One of the things I like about this model is that you can set the contour "on" on one channel, and "off" on the other (via the front panel switch), and it will stay that way when you footswitch between them.

I originally was looking for a used Subway Rocket Reverb, but this model has so much more features. I used to own one of those, and all of my complaints about it have been resolved with this one. The reverb is way better, and the independant tone controls make it much easier to get tones for clean and distorted set.

I do recommend that anyone interested in this amp look at the B-52 tube amps though, because my AT-212 sounds better than this amp when side-by-sided, and it costs $300 less. Much more power too.

I'm giving it a 9 because it only needs a clear metal sound to be a 10.

It's a boogie with a five year warranty, though I doubt it will ever need that.

Never had to deal with them

I guess I'm the first to review one of these. If you have ever heard one of the 20-watt boogies, this amp is the epitome of them. It has more features than I have ever seen in such a small amp. It also sounds a lot louder than 25 watts. This is the first day I've had it so take that for what it's worth, although I've owned plenty of amps over the last 12 or 13 years, including boogies. This amp is a good example of the "classic" boogie, as opposed to the modern ones. I'll update after a few months, but first impressions mean a lot, and mine is very positive. Except for the insane price tag...

This is my first "high end" amp. After reading the reviews on here, talking to some of my friends, and playing this baby I knew this was the amp I wanted. Very versatile; you can go from great clean tones to a good heavy distortion in the flick of a switch/turn of a knob and everywhere in between. The high end distortion is not as heavy as a Recto, but works great for what I play.

LOTS of power even in the 5W mode, this baby can shake the windows in my house. I'm using it as a bedroom amp, even then I gotta keep it turned way down or it gets too loud.

The footswitch is really nice too - three buttons -> channel, reverb, and contour.

The only thing I wish it has was a headphone jack.

I'm using this with my '04 American Series Strat and my '06 American Deluxe Series Strat HSS. Both Axes sound awesome.

As I said above, this amp covers all the bases except the really high end gain stuff. I've only had it for two months and have only cracked the surface of what this baby can do. I really like the crunch on the channel one, and the burn on channel two - you can really get a ton of sounds out of these options to say nothing about the blues and clean settings. Suits my playing style perfectly.

I really like contour control - scoops the mids and gives you really great lead sounds. Reverb is really nice too.

Some have complained that it???s noisy, but I can't say that I have this problem.

Only had it two months and have not had any problems. Haven't dealt with Mesa, but from what I understand they are great.

The authorized dealers are kinda few and far between. I had to travel an hour to get to a place that carried this amp. No repairs needed as of right now.

I have been playing for three years. I was playing through a VOX AD15VT (great amp) but after plugging into this guy I found that I was missing a lot and decided that I needed to upgrade. If this were lost or stolen I'd definitely look at buying another one. Just wish it had a headphone jack for those late night jam sessions.

The power from this amp is really something to be heard. Combine that with all the great sounds you can get out of it and you have one really solid amp.

This amp was bought new 6-12-07. The amp is very versatile and can be used for most styles of music. Its got 2 channels with 2 modes on each. The effects loop is serial but I never tried it out. I think it would be great to have a headphone jack on it,, but it doesnt. I was planning on using this amp around the house which it would be perfect for that. Plenty enough power avialable for most people when using it at home. I think it could easily do a small bar type gig without a P.A.

What first sold me on this amp was the blues sound you can get. And the reverb was just awsome compared to the boogies ive tried and own. It offers a very nice clean sound but its not a Fender clean. You have numerous available sounds this amp offers you from great cleans through beautiful blues, a very nice hard rock bordering metal sound but it will never get into the recto area without some sort of additional pedal. It just wont do that. I used a Gibson lp custom and standard mex. tele with upgraded stacked buckers in it and both sounded very nice. Now for the problem,, I wound up returning this amp because of the background hissing noise. It wasnt just a hiss,, it kind of got louder and quieter and pretty much turned me off after I tried trouble shooting. It wasnt the tubes, wasnt the reverb, wasnt the speaker,, I had no pedals at all hooked up. The odd thing about the hiss was that raising the gain knob didnt make it any louder,, it was the master volume knob. It was just too much noise. I called mesa,, I forget the gentlemans name I spoke to,, very helpful but he explained that the hissing noise is an inherent sound of the amp.
O.K. enough for me thanks.
If this amp was a 50 or 100 watter meant to be played live I could almost see keeping it,, but because it was bought for home use and relatively quiet playing,, it just made it unbearable if you ever paused.
I thought if I was lucky and kept playing and pushed it hard I might just work it out. Nope. It didnt go away. Those el84's get real hot and after 3 hours of 75% volume playing this amp got real hot. I mean hot. But the hissing was there when I turned it on and was still there when I turned it off to take it back. If it wasnt for the hiss I would rate the amp a solid 9 for sound but I can only give it a 6.

I would imagine the amp will give many years of problem free service. Its built fine and tough. It reminded me a lot of a f50 I once owned,,, very similar. I currently own a rect-o-verb series 2 combo with a 2x12 recto cab and use it just about daily and never once had any issue.
Very well made amps.

I have spoke with Mesa 3 times I think and they took care of me each time. Other than today I called them once for rattling tubes under warranty on both the f50 and my ROV. Both times they sent me brand new tubes within 10 days no charge and solved all rattling problems.
Not even a mesa problem really,,, probably got bumped around a bit. Thats customer service. Im very grateful and will always remember mesa when a new amp is on the horizon.

Believe it or not I purchased a peavey classic 30 before the 5:25 which is a nice little amp in itself but needed a speaker change and new tubes pretty much right off the bat to make me happy which would put me within a few hundred of this boogie. I chose the boogie but couldnt keep it due to the hiss. I will say that the boogie is a much more solid, higher quality, and better sounding piece of equipment. Well worth the extra doe if it wasnt for that hiss. I was very amazed at the deep full sounds that little 10inch speaker puts out. Incredible really. It blows the stock peavey 12inch out of the water. The amp alone wont get anywhere near to the sound of a 2x12 cab or larger but for a single 10inch combo it will equal a many 12inch speakers out there. Other than that I still own my ROV which the 5:25 doesnt have a chance in hell to compete with, but then again I will end up there sooner than later carrying the ROV around.
For now my quest for the perfect little practice amp will go on.
Again if it wasnt for that hiss I would give this category a solid 9 but because I gave the sound rating a 6 and reliability, customer service 10's,, I will give it an 8.

I got a deal on a "used" 5:25, something like the 275th Mesa made. You can read about features below, or go to Mesa's website. They still don't have a manual on line, and mine is an obvious edit of the F50, missing tube position drawings, etc.

Previous comments about lack of a boost footswitch and limitations on channel switching are correct. Using the gain controls, you can get quite a bit of overlap between the clean, crunch, and blues sounds, so you can set up for something like a boots if you want by switching channels. It would be nice... It would also be nice if you could turn it off and use headphones in the 5W setting.

This is a very strong entry as a "grab and go" amp. It carries easily in one hand, and it won't scare anybody. It didn't even scare wifey until I started playing it. It has a much wider range of sounds than a Subway, and it puts out very nicely in 25W mode.

I sometimes think that it would be nice if the controls didn't interact. Reading the manual, it's clear that Mesa thinks that making the controls interactive is the way that they can create. As long as you read the manual, always start from the left, work to the right, then do it a again a time or two, you should find the tone you're looking for.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned the "Dyna-Watt" feature. As Mesa describes it, it is "our patented way of wireing up a pair of EL84 output tubes that delivers a massive bust of headroom at the initial attack of the note. From there, a "timed sag" circuit loosens the feel as the notes decay and the result is a little amp that is twice as powerful as its rated wattage on the attack - where you need it - but sweet and clippable, bouncy and dynamic as the sound decays." They call it "enjoyable", "expressive", "friendly feeling", and "incredible sounding". It's generally nice, especially for blues, but for smooth jazz, you'll call it "pick noise". Sag is good for jazz. Fortunately, the 5W setting doesn't have this problem, and it sounds good at the volume you'll want with an archtop. If you want to put people to sleep louder, run into a amplifier with more power and a big speaker.

You also get a nice padded cover and a Mesa sticker for wifey's forehead.

I can make all the noises with this amp. With its puny 10" speaker, you can do clean, crunch, jazz and blues. With a compressor up front, you could do some hideous high gain stuff.

I like to make all the noises. I have a blast with the amp using my Kinman equipped tele (clean, crunch, blues), my Ibanez '335 clone with '57 Classics (clean, jazz, blues) my jazz boxes (jazz), and even my EMG ACS equipped Martin (clean).

Here's the cool thing. I'm very mobile now with just the amp, a guitar, a strap, a cord and a pick (you could walk the whole setup a half mile in one trip), and I can run the effects output into the effects input on my Peavey BAM 210 bass amp, which has 350W through 2 10" drivers and a horn, nicely flat and ported, and get totally incredible tone at whatever volume I want. I mean wet your pants good tone. Really.

The reverb is great too.

The amp is pretty solid, but it does have those antique funky tube things. I suppose you could use it without a backup in church or something, but I don't think that this is really a gigging amp, is it?

Since the circuit is fixed bias, you can change tubes with impunity, as long as they are input tubes, Mesa power tubes, or you really know what you are doing.

I haven't tried the support, but the transferrable warranty will keep up you resale value for a long time, and there are lots of authorized service centers. A list comes with the amp.

Amp good. My little 15 Watt $79 Crate that sounds like angels with the nice reverb, and my Line 6 AX2 will be going away now. My Deluxe Reverb better watch its step. It's now a smooth-jazz one-trick wonder. $1059 is a lot to pay for a cute little amp. I'd buy one again if I could get it close to its resale value. When these start turning up on eBay, buy one.

If I give it a 10, the review might say "fantastic value". If I didn't have more money than brains, or at least a credit card, I might have held out for a more cost-effective solution. It's a great amp. Call it "9+1".

Brand new 2007 model. All-tube lowish power amp with great versatility in a small, attractive and not-madly-heavy black box.

2 channels, with two switchable voices each. First channel Clean or Crunch. Second channel Blues or Burn. Gain increases from Clean through to Burn, with the latter having absolutely loads.

Treble, Mid and Bass EQ per channel. Gain and Master per channel.

"Contour' voice adjustment per channel.

Two power amp modes: 5 Watt single-ended or 25 Watt push-pull. Unlike Mesa's pricier models, you cannot have the two channels in different modes; this is a shame as you might like to use the 25W for clean to ensure maximum headroom, and 5W for distortion, to drive the power amp hard. But can't complain too much, given all the other excellent features and the low-for-Mesa price.

10-inch speaker. Will drive an 8-ohm extension as well as the built-in speaker, or instead of it.

Spring reverb.

Effects loop, but no effects blending: it's all or nothing, so your effects had better have their own blending controls. Or use effects in the old-fashioned way before the input, of course.

Included foot-switch controls Channel, Reverb, Contour (on/off).

I've a bit of a reputation with my band for pointlessly changing my gear too often and I get a bit of stick for it. But after hearing this amp, I got absolutely none of that for this purchase. In fact, the other guitarist will probably buy one if he can swing approval from the wife. Basically, this thing sounds superb.

Clean is very nice, though best on 25W mode. Reverb goes well with this. Wind up the gain, and you get a nice bit of break-up.

Crunch and Blues do what they say. So far, with my guitar, I've found I use these less.

Burn is awesome. I had no idea a Telecaster could sound like that. It's not quite modern metal, but pretty full-on all the same. Ideal for me.

Can't really rate a 2 week old amp for reliability. It's working so far!

People say nice things about Mesa service, but I've no experience of it myself.

I am 37 but have played guitar only 3 years (other instruments for ages). I have tried various guitars, but now own only one electric and one acoustic. The electric is a USA Telecaster.

You've read the various features, so I don't need to restate others posts. Purchased mine over a month ago and love this thing. By far the best amp I've ever owned (compared to Crate, Peavey, and Fender). Four channels give me more than enough sounds for any gig.

I play a variety of styles, the band I'm in plays alot of 60s, 70s and 80s style rock. I run a Fender American Strat, Epi Dot, and a PRS Singlecut Tremelo through this amp. It will cover blues, and country twang, as well as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Robert Palmer, Tommy Tutone, Pat Benatar, Skynard, Sheryl Crow, Clapton, etc.

In addition, I play worship music on sunday mornings and at the low level, clean, smooth and "comfortable" I would describe the sounds.

The 5watt setting is damn loud. Most of the time, I leave it on this setting. For the occassional outside rehearsal, I will crank up the 25W on the duo converter.

1 month and counting. Purely awesome.

Haven't had to call

I've been playing for 20+ years. I own four other amps, and this is my new #1. Its portable (31 lbs), and covers everything and then some. I am looking into getting an express xtension cabinet to see how much it will compliment the amp. Will post when tested.

Love this amp. If stolen I'd replace it (I have all my gear insured)

As the other wrote already - it has all the features needed.
Something is missing:
a solo boost

For any style ?
Mesa writes at there homepage:
"... Higher Contour settings, especially in Crunch and Burn, take you into Recto??? turf, tight, huge and menacing."

I ordered it because I thought it could do this (Recto) sounds - but it can't.

Nice clean, crunch, blues, rock sounds (for the size) but no heavy or high gain sounds at all (even not with my LesPauls or Ibanez JEM).

Mine was noisy after I started it up for the first time (some tube noise) in the clean channel - it when away after some hour of use - don't know why.

This small amp is really quiet (noise) and loud (sound) - hey it's a 10" and even with the 5Watt setting is it loud. 25Watt setting will be ok for a (not to loud) band.

The sounds of this one are very versatile - as long as you are not looking for high gain (this is NOT possible). Clean (when set to 5Watt class A is very nice), blues and crunch fine, 'burn' ok for some 70th & 80th rock.

I gave a 8 because it does not sound like a clean, crunch of a 2*12" combo - if only size matters - and I compare it to the other stuff in this size than it would be a 10

My other Boogie (Lonestar Special) is working all the time without any problems - and this small one looks very dependable too.

If you are looking for a small amp - very portable (about 17KG) - and don't need high gain sounds - then this one may be for you.

It's small but it seams to sound best when not to quite - so it's not the perfect bedroom amp.
If you like a bedroom amp - then set the amp to 5Watt (switch on the backside) before you try it - it sounds different then and can be used at lower levels then.

I bought this one via the internet with money back guarantee - and I will return mine - since I wanted this one (beside the possible sounds) for a recto (high gain) sound.
Btw. it's NOT the speaker - I tried the 5:25 with different larger cabs.

By playing this small fine amp I felt in love with the 5:25 - but will return it anyway since for clean/crunch do I still prefer my larger 2*12" Mesa Lonestar special.

If I would not own the Lonestar then I would keep the 5:25 for the clean/crunch sounds.

I bought this amp in spring-2007. It just was introduced when I got it and it's one of the very first they made. This amp is very versatal in that it easily get any sound you can think of. I play roots and classic rock mostly and this little beauty covers everything. It only takes seconds to find EXACTLY what I need.
It has 2 switchable channels but either can be set up with 2 levels of gain structure. It has an effects loop and a set of jacks on the back for some fancy switching systems. I wish it had a solo boost and a slave out like my Lonestar does, but those are the only features I need that it doesn't have. My lonestar, on the other hand, has lots of features I don't use. It has a choice of 5 or 25 watts, but let me tell you, the 25 watts is as loud as 98% of all players will ever need.

Prepare to be shocked! Just like the ad says! This little amp with it's 10" speaker has enough bottom end to make the room shake. I mean that literally! Things in my practice room rattle around when I push the bass on this thing. It has as much (or more) bottom end as a 4x12 cabinet and 100 watts. But it's not just amazing bass that this does well. Almost any sound you can imagine can be dialed up in seconds. You know that great sound you heard on that cd the other day? Well you can find it in this amp! It's got everything possible in there. I've got every type of guitar and pickup and they all work great with this thing. It's the best amp Boogie (or maybe anyone) ever made (that I've tried) and it won't break your back (or your wallet) when you carry it.

It's worked great but I had a couple small problems right away. The amp itself has had no problems.
First of all (with all that bass in such a small box it's no wonder) the Chinese tubes it came with started rattling after about 5 minutes of playing. I called Boogie and they mailed me 5 new Russian tubes the next day. They didn't even ask for proof! The new Russian tubes didn't rattle and they even sounded better too.
Second, The footswitch went out immediately. It has a weak spot on the multi-pin connection point and with just the slightest bending of the cord, it would short out. This really wasn't a problem because it has an extra channel switch jack on the back that I can use with any mono-plug footswitch. I used a switch from another amp while Boogie had the original one in the repair shop. I don't ever turn the reverb on-and-off with the footswitch and so I never used that 2nd funtion of the footswitch anyway.
I'm giving the rating a 9 out of 10 because I felt the issues were minor and didn't take away from the main function of the amp.

As I mentioned in the other section, I had 2 problems that Rich at Boogie Support was great about fixing right away. If you need to call the support phone number, they ask you leave a message and they'll call back. This is true. Rich called back within an hour or so and was as helpful as he could possibly be.

I've been playing guitar longer than many readers of this have been living. I've had lots of different Marshalls, Fenders, Peaveys, etc... and 2 other Boogies but this is the best I've ever had by far. Do not go out and buy ANY OTHER AMP until you've tried a 5:25 Express. There is currently a waiting list to get one, so if you come across one, buy it immediately! If this were lost or stolen, I would cry like a baby and go get another one immediately.

Brand spankin' new... check out the Mesa website for the details... supposed to replace the F-30 Model, which is no longer made.

Amp is lighter than any Boogie I've had in the past... which is nice for a change!!!

I can't get my ears around the fact that this is only a 10 inch speaker.
I plugged in the EV SRO/12 that's in my Fender 75, just to compare, and the 10 sounds just as good... again, hard to believe.
This is my 4th Mesa amp, and is by far the easiest to use, and the most tonally flexible...
Being able to have a choice of 4 modes, contour on or off, 5 watts or 25 watts really gives you 16 basic sounds you can mix/match/footswitch around to (5W switch is on the back though)

Based on my previous experience with Mesa products, it is built like a tank, and will be outstanding... but this is a prediction at this point since I just bought the amp two days ago.

Mesa rocks... they just don't get any better.

I've been playing 35 years, and have been in quite a few different bands. My tastes run from Blues to Rock.

Jimi, Steely Dan, Stevie Ray, Zepplin, Def Tones, Satch, Robin Ford, Dire Straights, The Cult, Tool, Rage, Billy Squire, I could go on...

There's not much I don't like... I own a bunch of stuff, and have had lots of stuff... that's what happens when you've worked in a music store for a few years (back in the late 80's) and had 30+ guitar students.

Again, the amp will do any of this stuff.

This is a new 2007 mesa boogie moel with new duo class power section which allows the user to select via a rear mounted toggle switch the option of single ended class A @ 5 watts or 25 watts class A/B for differing levels of headroom and saturation. The amp I have is the 10:speaker combo, there is a head available and also additional express cabinets. The amp is two channels with many voices. It has fully adjustable master, gain, bass, mid, treble, reverb and conotur for each channel. It has voicing options for each chanel as well and they are clean, crunch , blues, and burn. The amp has 2 EL84's in the power section and the 5 preamps are 12ax7's. The amp has three speaker outputs, 1- 8ohm and 2- 4 ohm. The amp has jacks on the back to enable the user to control the amp through a master switching system and or via a midi system. This amp is the most portable and versatile amp I have ever seen !! It aso has long spring tube driven reverb and a line out with controlable level. The footswitch can turn on and off the contour otion, the reverb option and switch between the 2 channels.

The amp can cover so many grounds it is UNREAL !!! You have to go try one !!! All types of cleans and so many differing levels of overdrive, sustain and distortion ...The cleanest of the cleans.....Vintage fender blackface punch with massive headroom from a tiny portable...... the hardest distortion...... very similar to a dual rectifier. The amp has all tones in between these two totally nailed. Tone of course is subjective, but this amp should make many tone addicts very very happy !! Not much noise at idle. There is a bit when the gains and contours are nearing the "dimed" level but nothing out of the normal realm for a good quality high gain tube amplifier. It produces workable and enjoyable to my ears sounds with PRS dragon humbuckers in my standard 24 as well as Seymour duncan hotrail single coils in my 1984 squier bullet japan.

I got this amp 7 hours ago from the great guys at Ron's guitars in Groton, CT and as with all of my current and past mesa products, I don't worry and I have never had one problem and trust this one, as I do my others with just spare tubes in the bag !
I will report back after I spend hundreds of hours on this amp. for now, 6 hours of ripping and all is well !

Mesa Boogie and my local dealer, Ron's guitars in Groton, CT., are great to deal with. Both always willing to help and also answer my stupid questions. The amp has a 5 year warranty , 3 years on the speaker, and 6 months on the tubes. That is darn good in my opinion !

I have been playing for over 25 years and have so much stuff I feel guilty and won't list it all because I feel like I am bragging. Suffice it to say I am blessed. There is nothing out there that even comes close to tones, features and size, I know, I have looked, the only thing close is an older subway rocket reverb. If it were stolen , I would flip out !!! Then get another one when I got paroled for murder 1 !!!! I have many amps and I was not really in the market for anything else, but I heard a little buzz of a new mini mesa and I have some of there older small amps and love them. So when Ron's called me, I went and checked it out and traded in my F50 and the rest is in the books. It has so many totally unique voices that it is just a great amp, you won't loose money if you bet your friends to guess the speaker size by the tone and volume. I love this amp like you can't imagine. Please... do yourself a favor and go play this one and try the express 5:50 with the 6L6's you will be making room for it !!