Mesa/Boogie Subway Blues

This amp is pretty much basic no frills. However it has a silent recording jack feature that is real cool for recording and two other external speaker jacks. This baby will push the heck out of a Marshall 412 cabinet, I could not beleive my ears from 20 watts! It sure sings as you turn the volume up... 20 watts into 10" mesa black shadow speaker. One channel, with a fat switch and reverb. Controls volume, treble, bass, mid, reverb.

Great tone! I like it much better than the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe I was using before, for the type of tone I want. Great for blues, rock, and country type styles. I play a strat and an LP through it with good results from both. Amp stays pretty clean up until about 12:00 o'clock on the volume then starts pushing into overdrive. I use a TS-9. I get a beautiful, smooth tone out of it. Single coils sound beautiful through it too. The mesa reverb sounds as good or better than the best old Fender you ever heard. If you've never heard an old Fender's reverb you've got to check one out to see what you're missing. My HR Deluxe had decent reverb but it still had that tendency to sound like the speaker was disappearing further inside the cabinet as you turned it up, which I hated. I can crank up the reverb on the mesa and it still sounds very musical. The amp will push any speaker combo you want to hook it up to. It will be loud enough for a small club gig, anything else would need to miced anyway no mater how many watts you have. This is the best amp I have yet to own and I will NEVER get rid of it.

No problems so far and it is old enough to have crashed if it wasn't well made.

They actually return phone calls and really try to help. I called with some questions about the extra speaker jacks and silent recording jacks. They actually called me back and answered my questions. Try that with Fender.

Iv'e been playing for 30 plus years professionally and semi pro. I wish I had this amp when I started instead of playing, buying, and trading at least 10 other amps that didn't do it for me. My advise to all you people just starting is don't waste your money with cheap stuff. Get as high a quality guitar as you can afford, and one of these amps and your in business.

All I have to say in this categorie is that it has very few features that I use. All I wanted in this amp was killer tone at decent volume and I got it. I would have to say that tone is the only important feature here.

I use a gibson sg voodoo through a vintage vox cord straight to the amp, like a guitar should be played. If you like blues and classic rock this is the amp! Its only 20 watts so you can crank it and get that natural od/distortion that my solid state computer amp playing friends wish for. remember this is no heavy metal amp! Its just loud enough to be easily heard over a band in a small club unmiked (but I use an extra 2x10 cab for added fullness and volume). cleans sound is chimey and yet buttery smooth and the break up is just incredible, its beautiful. Some people complained about the "hiss" or noise that you can hear when you arent playing and couldnt take it. oh please you polished prissy fools! thats the sound of truth, your fingers and the strings together in some electric union! it sounds real like blues should be. not polished up and edited in some super clean studio guitar sound! you can even get some really nice crunch sounds from her but if your looking for that marshall crunch, this aint it. I am still finding all kinds of different sounds (more like nuances of its one good tone) from this little one trick pony. if you want a thick bluesy sound full of soul and enough guts to get crunchy and distorted for some good ol rock and roll this is it!

I have had this amp for 8 months and have had one power tube change. the amp developed a wierd metallic (aluminum?!)sound when I would hold a note for a long time. it had lost all of its gorgeous sustain power and would quickly fizzle off to a wierd transistor radio type sound and then wait for my next note. I took it to the shop where I bought it and they sent it back to get fixed. 2 months later I get it with a new speaker and some "circuit" work sounds better than ever!! I am not sure what they did but it sounds even better than before! All and all the harder you use things the more likely they are to break down or wear out on you but I only had this baby for 8 months.

I have been playing for 2 years and I love to play blues. I love everything about this amp. It seems to have this mojo that you would expect from some old vintage amp that has been through different players,clubs, pawn shops. it just looks like it has charachter and vibe! If it was lost or stolen I would search the earth for another one just like it, they dont make them anymore so I am hanging on to this one real tight.

This amp is not about feastures its about tone. Howver, have some useful features such as a fat switch, eefects loop and mute switch.

This is where this amp shines. I had a Subway Rocket but sold it when I bought the subway blues. The sound from the blues is warmer and smoother. This amp is not for metal but for my style which is jazz, blues and classic rock it is perfect.

I purchased the amp used and it would develop a loud hum after about an hour. Mesa Boogie said that it is due to an epoxy board and the board would have to be replaced. Since I was not the original owner Mesa Boogie charged me $50 for labor. Since I had the board replaced no problems.

It was very easy to deal with Mesa Boogie. When I had the circuit board replaced they did a little extra work on the inputs and thru in some tube retainers that were missing for free.

I have been playing for about 30 years and have owned many amps. I play mostly blues and classic rock and this amp fits that purposes perfectly.

This amp is basicly Boogies Princeton Reverb, so with that in mind it has a lot of features. The recording out with speaker mute switch and adjustable effects loop are the coolest additions to the usual Princeton-like features of this amp. Also, it has a very effective mid knob not present on it's Fender breathren. I love the fact that it has a full size reverb pan instead of the cheesy little pans found on so many small amps. Yes, you can give it a knock and get that grrrrrrrrang effect like an old Fender!

I am going to start the sounds rating off with the hopes that all Subway Blues Owners will read this. The loud noise that this amp puts out after an hour or so is caused by a epoxy coated tone circuit that heats up after a while and causes the noise. Boogie has acknowledged this and replaced my tone cicuit free of charge. If your amp makes this noise, you should contact Boogie right away. That aside, this amp has one of the coolest blues tones you will ever hear. It sounds great with all guitars and has a tone switch (fat and thin) that accomodates humbuckers and single coils. You can crank it and get a very cool SRV/Robin Ford blues tone.

Built very solid, everything about it is heavy duty/toss it in the trunk worthy. The EL84 tubes have to be replaced about once a year under normal use (3 to 4 nights a week)

I dealt with customer service on the one aforemetioned issue with the tone circuit. They were pleasant and fast.

This amp is my favorite amp hands down and I own quite a few mostly vintage amplifiers. Hey blackface Princeton Owners, you think your amp sounds cool? Crank up one of of these babies!

I owned this subway blues one week before returning it. I liked much its look, simplicity and the rich, full tone. Nice reverb too, and recording out jack, along with dummy load to bypass the loudspeaker.
I couldn't stand the noise, very there and especially when recording through the provided speaker-emulated output(what a nonsense...). In fact it made recording impossible this way, except for dead kennedys stuff...
We tried changing tubes, no way. Since I owned a farfisa all tube amp from the sixties which was very quiet we found the reason for the noise in the Mesa: the transformers. In the farfisa they(input and output) are big and separate while there is only a tiny one in the subway!
So forget about the noisy blues...

Treble/Mid/Bass knobs aren't so much EQ as a gain stage: start with them all the way off. Try a setting of 9 o'clock/off/9 o'clock to start with. Crank the volume knob to get different tones.
Don't start with the usual "tone knobs straight up" concept.
This amp is not about features, it's about sound.

I sat in at a gig on this amp and was unexpected hooked.
Archtop jazz guitar works well on this amp for me, both as an "entirely clean sound" (by running it into nonlinearity, but not obvious linearity) and for jazzable sustainy lead sounds.
The only purpose in using a tube amp is for running it hard enough to get the power tubes into nonlinearity. This amp is small enough you can do this at any gig. This amp is extremely good at what it does.
This amp is plenty loud for any gig where the amp isn't miked. And when the amp needs to be miked, it's quiet enough to get good channel isolation.
This amp is fantastic for recording. It has a wide enough range of sounds to cover a lot of styles. Most importantly, though, it sounds real.
I switched from a Deluxe Reverb for this amp, and rarely need the Deluxe Reverb for any studio work any more.

EL84 power tubes will shake themselves into mechanical rattlers. You'll be replacing them often if you run the amp hard AND do studio work.
I started taking this amp to nonjazz gigs just because it's easy to carry around, and now use it as my primary amp for everything because I can create useful sounds with it at a low enough volume the sound guy can get excellent isolation onstage.
Run the volume knob at "10" (if you want) for screamin', use the half-power jack in the back for how loud it is. Add a cabinet if it needs to be louder.
This amp has gone to quite a few Burning Mans. No problems. That's reliable.

Never had to use customer support.
I wish the power amp stage (EL34s) was shock mounted to extend tube life.

I'm a full time professional musician.
I've never written an unsolicited product endorsement before.
I've played through everything at one time or another. I rarely have to buy a piece of gear, but I bought this.
For certain sounds, this amp is exactly perfect. The more I use this amp for its ease of recordability, the more I find it useful in more diverse situations.
This amp was probably discontinued for lack of sales.
Lack of sales was probably due to people demoing the amp with the all the tone knobs at 2 o'clock or higher, which is a useful starter setting on most amps, but not on this one.
Lack of sales was probably also due to the size of this amp and potential (testosterone poisoned) customers thinking "small is small" and "practice amp".
If the gig requires the audience to see something "more impressive" from the guitarist it's entirely possible you'll see a stack of big amps and cabinets from another manufacturer, but the cable (or wireless) just might be going to a Subway Blues sitting backstage.
If you've been trying to find a non-full-shred good sound in a Twin, or a smoother sustain, singing distortion from a Deluxe, and you either record or gig enough to know the sound you want, find one of these amps. It might be EXACTLY the amp you want. Really.
No, it doesn't produce the right sound for everything.
Yes, it's more limited than some other amps.
But what it does, it does extremely well. It's probably on more CDs than you'd guess.

Subway Blues: vol, treb, mid, bass, reverb, bright/fat switch, record out, effects loop, speaker mute. Comes standard with a 10" 50 watt speaker. This amp has everything you need (and I don't need/want a gain circuit). I like the simplicity of the design. Can't figure out why Mesa stopped making these???

I've owned a number of Mesa's, vintage fenders, Marshalls, and Matchless amps, and the Mesa Subway is where I seem to have found the amp that I like best. I use a Les Paul and an ES-175. One note that other Subway owners may find interesting: I found the 10" speaker to be "tight" sounding. I knew there was plenty of power in the amp, so I purchased a Mesa 1x12 combo cabinet and installed the Subway chasis, a 50 watt Jensen ceramic speaker, and some Groove Tubes. This made a very significant difference that resulted in a warmer, more open, sound that I'm very happy with. Works well for cleaner jazz, and rock (with a Maxon OD808 overdrive out front). From my experience, you can generally be 100% satisfied with your tone on about 25% of your gigs, given all the variables. Well, I've been there on the last few gigs with the Mesa Subway.

Seems reliable. These are well made amps, compared to some of the newer Fenders. You can get an indication of this from looking in the chasis. I never go without a backup to a gig any more, not with only one tube amp (regardless of the make).
Mesa made some improvements to reduce noise in the later Subway years. They now recommend taking out the second jack input on the earlier models.

From my experience, Mesa seems to provide adequate support on their products.

I've been playing for 20+ years. Starting with rock, with a gradual transition to jazz. I own a 64 Fender Princeton Reverb, and Polytone Brute II. If stolen, I may not go to another Subway, only because of the other "refinements" that I endured to get the amp where it is. I'll just make sure it doesn't get stolen. I love the lightweight portability, thicker tone, reliability, decent reverb, and simplicity of the design (I steer away from amps with an overdrive channel). The EL-84's offer a certain tonal complexity that sounds great for rock. The midrange dial on this is really interesting and useful. Other Mesa owners understand this.

I believe it was made in 1997. This is very much a "one-trick-pony". It has two sounds, on and off! There is strictly speaking a rythmn, a lead and a contour channel but they all kick out of the same pair of EL84's into a quad of ECC83's and there is little variety. You can forget all about "glassy and shimmering clean"! The rythmn channel just can't stay clean at a giggable level; think Stones and "Brown Sugar" and you won't be far away. However the fact that this little beauty can be gigged without mic'ing (at smaller veues) is testament to the boys and gals at Petaluma. This is just incredibly loud for such a small amp. It's louder than the Studio .22 which definitely needed mic'ing up even in little pubs. It would have been better with an GEQ but having said that you have two independent channels and three modes. The Contour mode is a "kick-ass" menace! It really is a big-time sound for such a little fella. The FX loop is no use for vintage analogue effects, it just doesn't want to know. Overall it is a little "toppy" but as everyone who has ever had a Boogie knows: you gotta tweek the knobs and the sound is there. I found that the mid and trebble needed to be very, very low as did presence, I ran bass on about 4.5 and the gain at 5 with the master at 5. The 19" speaker really barks; I rate it far superior to the 12" eqivalent in the .22.

I use single coils; an American Strat and an American Tele and the Tele really sounds great. What an underestimated rock guitar the Tele is. Just ask Jimmy Page. There is sc hiss but what the hell, it's a valve amp with massive gain! Set the controls to stune and let them have it, say I. I would use a JD Cry Baby and a Boss digital Delay. No need to run a fuzz box here. If you want shred then forget it as this is Vintage rock tones, Hendrix, Page et all. No Limp Bizkit here.

Never use backup but always pack spare valves. I put Mullards into the power stage and they sound really huge and the bass end is incredibly tight. Mesa/Boogie build these things like tanks. They are so well made. You knew that anyway, didn't you?

They sent me a manual free of charge but you can download them from the web site as pdf files.

Been playing 30 years. I would certainly have another but would probably go for something a bit louder but with EL84's. Maybe the DC3. I will ahve to convince the wife first! I love that little Rocket; portable with great vintage rock sounds. It is a little lacking in versatility but playing in a rock covers band it gives me just about all the tones I need.
Try one yourself!

Picked-up this amp back in 97'. Went in a music store to check out thinline guitars, and after playing a few through the Subway, decided to bag the guitar purchase and walked out with the amp! The somewhat limited amp features have been covered by other reviewers, but a few noteworthy features include the mid tone control, which adds quite a bit of gain over 50%, half-power switch and a handy speaker mute which allows for silent recording. Of special note is the Subway's tube reverb - very sweet without the splatty sound you get with some amps. After listening to, and playing, quite a few tube amps from a variety of companies, I'm baffled as to why Mesa discontinued these particular amps, they sound outstanding.

The Subway provides very sweet, fairly complex tone at lower volumes with nice harmonic swirl. Over the years, I have upgraded the EL-84's with Sovtek EL-84M's and the preamp tubes with JAN/Phillips 12AX7's. I ended-up leaving the original reverb tube driver in because it sounds so good and hasn't given me any trouble. The resulting tone is excellent, especially with single coils. The amp gets a little dark and mildly compressed when pushed past the 50% mark, so brighter sounding guitars really shine with it. I play surf, blues and jazz so clean headroom is an issue. Alone, the amp is great for low-volume gigs but I like to play it with a 2X12 cabinet, which really opens up the sound and juices-up the low end. I imagine a good 1X12 or 2X10 cab would also sound great. Cabinets work great with it, but alone the single 10" speaker sounds surprisingly good, and as a grab and go, lightweight tube combo, it's right there. In any configuration, I play strat's, tele's and humbucker guitars through a Line6 DL4 and into a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, then straight in the front. I'm not a big fan of effects loops so I don't use it. The Sparkle Drive is amazing with this little amp - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I'm not into using a lot of pedals, but the Sparkle Drive has a fantastic clean boost which allows you to dial-in just the right tone with the volume control and then just boost the volume to taste. Now I can play-out with this little tone monster and not have to lug my Fender 4X10 around. The Sparkle Drive also allows me the option of kicking-in tube screamer style overdrive as well. Nice to have a little dirt available if needed.

Had the amp for around 5 years now and only had to replace the power and preamp tubes. Everything else is fine.

Been playing for 25+ years. Love most types of guitar music, especially intrumental groups, so a quality clean tone is my most important concern. This amp has it, and it's not just the "tone", it's how the amp "feels" when you play it. You know how some tube amps feel really soft and spongy while others are a little too tight feeling? The Subway Blues is like my prized Fender 4X10, it has just the right amount of dynamic elasticity without sounding and feeling to strident. If someone bothered to rip it off I would be hosed, as I doubt I could find another one like mine on ebay (I have a dark green model with a nice tan grill). These little amps pack a lot of tone in a small, portable package and would be an ideal choice for any guitarist that appreciates articulate clean tones. I've been stoked with this amp for years and give it a solid overall rating of 9.

Covered well enough below... for an inexpensive amp that's just supposed to be a tone machine, it actually DOES have a lot to offer: reverb, speaker out, effects loop. It's just about perfect in that respect: no gain, but tone junkies don't want gain, although we may want verb and such... (I could do without the effects loop).

I have a G&L strat with Kinman noiseless pickups, and a McInturff H/H Taurus Sportster. Both guitars sound nice through it, but I prefer the McInturff. I wouldn't call this amp so much bluesy as jazzy... very throaty and warm. The tone controls work well: you can dial yourself in extremely well. Like others, I'd say this amp is more VOX'ish than anything, (go figure: it's EL84 based).

Noisy? Yes, but not terribly so... you here it until you start playing... then again, I hate buzz (hence the Kinman's on my strat), so the buzz is annoying to me. The is not nearly as bad as your typical single coil buzz, so all in all isn't that bothersome... but it's there... (and this is after changing tubes, as aforementioned reviews suggest).

For 20 watts, this amp really screams... even at 10 watts, it's plenty loud. It all depends on who you're playing with, though: if you're buddy is playing a VOX AC-30, (or worse, an Orange 212 combo based on similar VOX design), then you simply won't have the same headroom and he'll have to turn it down a notch... (er, this is my direct experience, too). I generally run this through a 212 cabinet and it sounds AWESOME through it... a hundred times better than the little 10 inch can do... the 10 inch sounds fine, but just doesn't have the depth or fullness of a 212 cab... not even close.

Basic tone: as noted, I hear jazzy tones: warm, clear, detailed... crank it a bit and you're in blues territory... crank it a lot and it's getting out of its territory: use a boost pedal of some sort instead. Works well with good pedals. Reverb: is good, but any amp that is considered to have "great" reverb (like Carr, and in my opinion Rivera) will probably have better verb than this one.

This amp is a "keeper" amp: small and light, plenty of tone, makes a GREAT backup amp... I can't think of anything better for the price... (maybe Carvin, but they have quality issues, and would get around the same 8 that I'm ranking here... perhaps 7 for them).

It's a solid little sucker, but try to keep some air on the EL84's. They seem well placed, so that shouldn't be a problem. As noted, this is my backup amp... it's nice, but I need more power for a real gig with a full band including another guitarist.

Never dealt with 'em.

Been at it about 14 years... have owned numerous amps, but currently my main amp is a Rivera Fandango 55-212; (as noted this Subway is my backup amp). If stolen or lost... hard to say since they aren't in production any more... if replacing with something new, I'd probably go the Carvin route, or if used, something just like this, (e.g. Soldano Astroverb).

Love: the tone... a good set of EL84 tubes will have awesome tone, and this amp shows off that tone wonderfully.

Hate: it's not as quiet as something boutique would be... then again, it only cost me $425 used... (and I see others have gotten better deals than I did). Based on that price, I knock overall rating from an 8 to a 9: great value.