Mesa/Boogie Subway Blues

Just to add a note to my previous review.
If you don't have the owner's manual you may not know that the Mid control acts as a GAIN control when you get past midway. With that in mind be careful how you set it. It's probably the most important dial on the amp.

Bought this amp new in 1994. I am continually impressed with it as are all others who hear it. It does everything I want it to do. With it's low wattage, very minor tweaks in the controls can create huge differences in tone--from exceptional clean tones to great warm overdrive. I like the simplicity of it--volume, treble, mid, bass, and reverb. Since there is no master volume, I use a stereo volume pedal wired through the effects loop with acheives the same effect. Produces a VERY loud 20 watts--enough for any small club. If I need to cut through the mix better I have a 12 inch EV in a Thiele cabinet for an extension speaker. This setup is awesome and really shows what the amp can do. Unlike several of the reviews here, I have never experienced the noise that is mentioned.

I play mostly blues and blues oriented rock with humbuckers. It sounds incredible also for Telecaster and Strats.

Never had a problem yet except preamp tube replacement which is to be expected with any amp. It seems indestructable.

Never had to use company support.

If I lost this amp, I would have to find another just like it.

I have a '94 version of this amp (single input and microswitch for single coil/humbucker). The amp is for purists really (or old blues-men), which was OK former, but I haf the hum problem. Mesa knows about this, and there is a simple cure involving swapping a 103k '9434'resistor, and that sorts it.

However, the amp has now come into its own as I've discovered the Omnisonic Tube Amp Volume Box (see E-Bay), which you simply plug into the effects send/return, and hey-presto you can crank the amp right up and get a nice compressed tone that sings - and all for about ??10!

I use it with a '57 and a '62 strat (yes, the real thing), and I love the sound. If I was going for 'one amp', though, this amp wouldn't be it without the Omnisonic, since without master-volume it isn;t versatile in low-power settings.

I use it for a bluesy-boogie style. Overall the sound is pretty clean up to about volume 6. There is no harsh distortion or crunch.

It has been reliable apart from the buzz, which my amp-tech Theo Argiriadis, sorted inexpensively.

I have the original 15 year old tubes in it, which seem OK. I've tried Harma Vintage output tubes, but to no obvious advanatge so I swapped back.

Mesa sound very touchy-feely, but try getting an e-mail or fax through to someone. They were aware of the buzz problem, and ought to have made the solution more obvious. There is a circuit diagram available on thier site that refers to it, but you have to be looking for it. As it is I wasted ??50 swapping tubes around thinking I had a tube problem.

I've been playing 40+ years. I have a Mesa Boogie Mark III just for the hell of it. If the amp was stilen I think I'd look at the fender Blues Deluxe, or maybe an 'oldie'. I'm a bit of a retro-man.

It's a plug and play amp, and the beauty is in its simplicity. It's plenty loud enough for all sorts of situations, and without the Omnisonic box too loud for the bedroom.

I purchased it new in 1999 and still have it. It's not what I would call a versatile amp, but it works for me. I originally was going to get a Fender Blues Junior but the reverb on them was inferior to the Mesa (!)and just seemed to lack quality of build and sound so I shelled out some more and got the Subway Blues. I just wish it came with a 12 inch speaker but that is my particular taste and would probably defeat the purpose of a small carry-on type tube amp. I did convert mine to a head and play through a 1x12 cab. The folks at Mesa were great in helping me on this. I even came out about even in selling the cab!

The overall sound is what sold me on this amp. Unlike some earlier models mine has never had any problems with noise or hum. It is remarkably quiet and always has been. Really comes alive cranked up about 2 o'clock and loves humbuckers and especially single coils. Just a real good, quality sound that is somewhat unique. I have read it described as somewhere between a Vox and a Fender. That seems about right.

8 years in and no problems. I have replace the output tubes but the o.e. ones really weren't shot.

The best I have encountered by a good sized manufacturer. By far.

I have been playing off and on since the 60's. Have owned a bunch of Fenders, Peavey, and a Marshall. I wasn't looking for a Mesa Boogie when I got it as I had just started playing after a 10 year layoff and wanted something in my comfort zone (a Fender). Right now it's the only amp I have and I don't see myself ever selling it. Great value and great sound.
If I ever start playing out again I might get something bigger, louder but until then I'm quite content. I hate giving so many 10's but after 8 years I have to call it as I see it.

Simplest mesa ever, feels like fresh air...
13 kgs, not mesa-like at all again...
Lots of hum and unbearable noise level, very mesa in fact.
Fairly well constructed thing, seems to be quality components, excellent loudspeaker (but too soft for this amp, a tighter EV I had at hand was the perfect match here), and the loop works well.
Nothing, except the hum, one could ask more for.
Five points for the noise, and I am kind.

Very warm sounding thing, clean about to eleven o'clock after the farting begins.
Fingerstyle playing comes out exceptionnally, class A...
I can't stand single channel amps when they are not clean, matter of taste, so I am no judge for the natural overdrive of the subway blues (a loud fart with no finesse... or definition, of course).
Clean sound very good, eq is effective but natural, reverb vg also.

But the hum is so loud I can't use the damned thing more than 45 minutes at best! And on a small unsensitive speaker, sort of natural noise gate .
On a normal speaker, or worse a stack, there is no possibility to play at all, too much hum.

It is reliable, for the good it does.
I absolutely can't rely on it, for the noise it makes.
No tube swap helped, it is clearly a lousy design.
I had another subway blues eleven years ago, same thing.
On the f30 page there may be some leads about this problem (too small caps on the power section), I ll check it out when I have some time to lose.
Mesa doesn't install bias adjustment pots, no wonder all of their amps are the noisiest in the business.
Poor engineering, no customer listening, they may all be deaf after all...

Outside the USA it's up to your import company, and here they could as well sell ties... In clear absolutely useless.

For me the best mesa I encountered, useless because of the noise.
I'll post if I find a cure, which I highly doubt.
The speaker is way good, I use it in a Vox VR30 with fantastic results.
The hum is even there in the output recording jack, nonsense.

Read other reviews for details of features. Works great for me - nice and simple. I'm not into multiple channels with push/pull, eq, contour, etc. that many Boogies contain.

This amp sounds truly fantastic. It really gets that tubey, warm sound I love. I play a fender tele plus and my style is bluesy/rock/jazz. Turning the mid up on this amp really adds depth to the sound. It also makes the sound fatter. The clean channel sounds great and I use a TS9 for overdrive. The fat channel give a nice, pure old school overdriven sound when you crank the amp, but this amp is loud!! So, unless you want to go deaf or wear earplugs, the fat channel is out for me. The TS9 has always been the best overdrive/distortion box in front of any amp. I owned a Mark II which had really nice distortion, but I prefer the TS9 in front of the Subway. Anyway, back to the amp. I do have the later model so the hum found on earlier models is not that noticable, but it is there. However, I hardly notice once I start playing. I play mostly at home, so the volume is low. This amp sounds really full at this low volume. However, if I turn the volume knob up just slightly, this thing gets sooo loud! Wish the volume knob was more subtle. Overall, the sound is what counts with any amp, and this ranks up there with the greatest amps I've owned and played. The reverb is sweet! I like it more on this model than the Mark II I used to own. I have owned a Mark II, Fender Twin Reverb Reissue, Fender Champ (70's), and currently own a Fender 75 (Rivera Era). The Subway sounds better than the Twin. The Mark II, the Champ and 75 are right up there with the Subway. Of course, each has their own unique sound and are used for different purposes. The Champ is obviously just a practice amp, where as the Subway is both a practice amp, and an amp I would play a gig with. The Fender 75 is a great amp, but is too damn heavy to lug around! The Mark II was also so heavy, had a fan in it, and would make a loud popping sound whenever I switched the channels. The Subway is perfect for my needs.

I feel very comfortable knowing the Boogie is reliable. The Mark II I owned for many years never had a problem. Also, the Boogie factory is not that far from where I live, so if there were a problem, I'd drive up to the factory. My friends have done so and said the guys at the factory are really nice and enthusiastic about their products. I hear they give a great tour and are very helpful with any problems or questions about your amp.

Been playing for over 20 years. If this were stolen or lost I'd search for another. Again, this amp suits my needs for a practice/recording/gigging amp. No need to search for another.

1994 or 1995, purchased in Toronto. The Subway Blues I purchased was not extremely versatile but great for blues/classic rock. Decent reverb for such a small tank and very loud little amp, ~ but mine was also very loud as in HUM!

The sound quality was good if you could play it loud enough to overcome the hum. Fine for band practice/small gigs but sucked at lower volumes because of the noise issues.

I could not depend on mine. It was a little noisy when I first purchased it. After a couple jams sessions it was unbearable. After calling Mesa in regards to the noise they told me mine was an early production model and that the switch on the front panel needed to be replaced and the circuit adjusted??? After footing the bill to ship it to Mesa I received my amp back and they had replaced the heavy duty style switch (like a solid metal Les Paul pick up selector switch) with a tiny little switch that looked like the small type used for coil splitters on Strats. They used a washer to cover the now too large hole and install the new switch! I had expected much more in 1994 for what was a $500 Canadian (about $350 American at the time) amp. The hum was still there but it was slightly quieter, but still not quite bearable playing at low volumes. After about ten hours of playing the hum came back in spades. Worse than the first time. In frustration I put it in the closet and hauled it around for about six years and a few moves before pulling it out again because my amp tech said he'd look at it and new tubes may help. This is same guy who restored my '68 Champ that I still use for practice (nice amp) and did tube replacements and maintenance on my HD65 210 Music Man that I used (and still use with no problems, thank you very much!) for gigs. He informed me that the plate voltages were off and way too hot. His best guess was the board was bad and that whatever Mesa did when they "fixed" it was BS. Because of the board construction/epoxy my tech said the only fix for it was a new board or if he were to fix it, basically a complete rebuild. He said it would probably be cheaper to find a good used one. I called Mesa back after being informed of this and was instantly told it was out of warranty and a discontinued model that they would not fix. I really would like to have been able to use it as it sounded great when it wasn't humming uncontrollably...

See above...

Good tone if it's working well... I would not consider buying one sight unseen, especially at the prices they've been bringing lately. Buyers beware.

I play blues and rock. This amp covers all. For blues it's a genie. Must be in the name... Features are suberb for me. 1 channel with volume, high/mid/low and reverb. What else does a guitarist want? I use effects a lot. For this amp I would use a TS9 tube screamer (Ibanez) and maybe a MT-2 Metal Zone (Boss). You don't need any effects at all if you own a good guitar (I have a '89 USA Strat which likes the amp al lot) and you know how to pick the strings and play with the pickups, volume and tone pots. The amp is loud enough for a small gig and allmost most practice situations. For a live audience of over 100 people/a larger establishment/outdoor performance I would mice the amp into the P.A. The amp has a line out as well if you fancy that more.

I've owned almost every amp in my 40 years of life now. For my stuff this amp is great. I have a Music Man 130 top + 2x12" cabinet as well and an original Fender '67 Super Reverb (4x10") blackface. The 3 can cover everything I ever wanna do. The Subway Blues I would use for practice, home, and a small gig probably (never did this up 'till now because I can't let the Super Reverb alone). The 3 tone pots are a miracle. Look at the Mesa site for the manual of this amp how it works. Tweaking the 3 knobs can give you almost every sound which includes genious ones. For blues this amps really sings all-right. It's really an amp that gives you back what you tell the strings. It's very fast (10") and sensitive about how you touch the string. Great actually! I would never give an amp a 10 because this would mean I could never buy another. Holy amp grails don't exist (I would give my Super Reverb a 9 though and the Music man another 8). This amp is perfect though for what I use it for. A must have! Just buy it!

I had Mesa Boogies before. The Mark IV and the Blue Angel. I like this amp more than the both of them. The Mark IV has like 60 controls (what for?) and the Blue Angel is way worse as it comes to price versus sound. Oh yes, the reliability. Never a Mesa Boogie has let me down. And the only thing I hear is that they send in a army of help if it does. I would gig wany Boogie without backup (actually, our leadsinger is my backup, if my amp stops, he will sing more and I will play a bit more but on his amp). Trust the Boogies I would say.

Never needed them.

I'v been playing for 25 years. I had every amp. The 3 I have now cover everything. The Subway Blues is one of them. Unmissable. I would buy another one (if I could find one for a reasonable price) if it was lost ore stolen. I love the sound and the 3 tone controls which give you a book full of sounds. I like the weight as well (I believe it's about 15 kilo's). Amp left, guitar right and a small bag with cables and a few effects, backup strings and other stuff on my back. Up the stairs one time instead of 2 or 3. It's fun to try an amp like this. You buy it for 400, you will certainly sell it for 400 or more...

Pretty much as simple as it gets. Has a so-called half power speaker input on the back. Fat switch on the front. Reverb and Tone controls. 10 inch Black Shadow by Mesa.

Using a G&L ASAT Classic. Tone is pretty good with the combo but still sounds "boxy", so to open it up I bought the companion Mesa Boogie extension cabinet with 12 inch speaker. Much better tone now. I still run some pedals with it, primarily Analogman's modded Boss pedals (BD,DS,SD) and an old Ibanez chorus. At one point it would all of a sudden sound like a transitor radio, very tinny. I would have to switch the stand-by switch off and on to get it back to full tone. Then I pulled the chassis to see if there was something obvious..burned chip, loose wire. Did not see anything, so I put it back together and it has not done it since. ???

See comments above about sound issue. Other than that no issues.

No had to deal with them. I have heard they are not as helpful or as knowledgeable as before.

Overall I am very pleased. Very loud for a 20 watter, especially with the extension cabinet. Would probably sound great with a Marshall slant cabinet. Very good for roots style players, particularly the blues (I guess, hence the name Subway Blues)

Subway Blues Oak Hardwood Cabinet

There are many reviews out there for the Subway Blues. I agree with the ones that assign all ratings a 10. I love the sound and feel and simplicity of the SB. It can go from a great cranked "violin like" output tube distortion to a nice bight clean twang with a lighter touch or less guitar volume. The Fat/bright switch is most useful as I play both humbuckers and single coils, and a Weber 10" speaker replaced the Boogie original which sounded fine, just different, I happen to like Webers.

But this review is not about this amp in particular, but about this amp and how it sounds in the new solid hardwood cab.

Doug Stalters at Vintone Circuits ( www.vintone.com ) builds heavy duty "boutique" amplifiers of his own design to order, along with gorgeous hardwood amp cabinets, also to order. I requested a solid wood cab out of American red oak built to original SB dimensions, and requested installation of my existing amp chassis, along with the Weber speaker and all the original SB hardware -- chassis mounts, handle, feet, reverb pan, etc. Mr. Stalters produced a furniture quality cabinet with flawless half-blind dovetailed corner joints, evenly stained finish and cane grille tight as a drum, perfectly aligned. A picture speaks a thousand words, so you might take a look at this cab at the following URL:

http://www.vintone.com/rc_boogie_blues_o

The natural finish hardwood cabinet definitely is more resonant than the original vinyl clad cab; one can ???hear the wood???. Tolex or other vinyl coverings have to mute the natural wood resonance, no? They don???t tolex the tops of acoustic guitars. Vinyl adds to long term durability though, I suppose. I ramble.

The finish is beginning to take on a deeper, richer appearance than the website photo reveals. That picture does not do justice now, though it did when it was taken. Its an heirloom quality cabinet! It can be seen and heard at some of the finest garages, basements and open mic nights in south central PA.

The price paid listed below is what I paid used for the amp in its original (acoustically mute) tolex cab.

One might contact Vintone Circuits c/o Doug Stalters for current pricing and design info for custom amps and cabs.

Doug Shaw

not incredibly versitile, but people don't buy these little buggers for the versitility. if you've read the other reviews you know what to expect.

*the model i'm using is the ealier single input with the bright/fat switch.

*surprisingly powerful for a 20 watt 1x10 combo. much more bottom end and projection than my fender pro junior (w/blue alnico 10") and silvertone 1482 (1x12 combo).

*the reverb is a nice touch. not too overpowering, blends in well.

*the halfpower output is cool if you wanna rock out by yourself at a more reasonable volume, but i almost never use it.

*i really dig the tone of the 50watt black shadow speaker. i tried some other 10s in it and the blackshadow is the best suited for this amp. more projection and body.

*there is a little noise (bare in mind this amp is cranked) but it varies a lot depending on tube selection. i've tried a variety of pre-amp tubes and trust me, it's worth experimenting!

*i recently started coupling this amp with a mesa widebody 1x12 (3/4 back) cab and ...wow! i liked the sound before, now I LOVE IT! i highly recommend running this little guy through a bigger cab to at least see what kinda results you can get.

*wonderful "crazyhorse" style tone when cranked with my les paul. drive the front end with a good overdrive and it sounds like it's about to explode!

i've experienced a few issues with this amp. the reverb tank had a nasty acoustic rattle. a small amount of foam insulating tape on the top of the tank fixed that. some microphonic issues. this seems to be mainly to do with the close proximity of the speaker to the preamp tubes. different tubes react differently. now that i'm running the subway blues through an external extension cab this isn't an issue. the stock speaker developed a bad rattle but i've since replaced it. who's to say if these problems were my fault of defective construction?

all of my issues with this amp i have been able to handle at home, myself with little effort. i'm used to working on stuff so it doesn't really phase me.

all in all i wouldn't say this thing is built like a tank.

*when the stock 10 crapped out on me i called mesa a couple times to find out about speaker options. the customer service guy was helpful but not very well informed on discontinued items.

*been playing about 15 years
*current live rig also includes - 70s tele with rio grande pickups, '56 reissue les paul gold top (p90s), boss tuner, mxr distortion +, analog man modded boss trem, vintage ibanez ad-9
*if this amp were stolen or lost i'd definitely consider another subway blues or maybe investigate the blue angel or maverick models.
*love the tone (especially now with the 1x12 widebody cab). sounds great with both my tele and my les paul.

Mine is an older one, no 1/2 power switch, no fat switch.

One channel is all you Need!

With Humbuckers this Amp rules. P90's also great.
It sounds best when plugged into a 2x12 cabinet.
The stock 10" sounds OK, but the low-end clips a bit when
the Amp is cranked (& it's always cranked)!

I use this Amp as a Head, straight into my 1x12 or 2x12 cabinet.

It is as close to Pure Tone as you'll ever find. Why Mesa hasn't
started making these again is beyond me. I guess they're too busy
making Multi-Channel amps to be bothered with the best sounding amp
they've ever produced.

It's a solid little Amp with Huge Tone.

It's rehearsal/studio amp. Or a Small club.

Mesa does return phone calls & do try to please their customers.

Always searching for tone. I can't wait to record with this little monster. It's very hard to describe how killer these amps sound. I'm not a huge Mesa Boogie fan, I dislike their multi-channel amps & hate anything that has push/pull knobs on it. That leaves only a few models left that I dig.
This is the Best Amp ever to come out of the Mesa plant! It has the Mesa Gain, plus the transparent tone that most Mesa's lack.
It is one of my Favorite Amps of all time. If they had the same preamp section & 10 more watts I can't imagine how many thousands of these they would have sold.

That being said, it still is one of the Best Tube Amps on the planet
even at 20 watts. Simple is better!

The 10" speaker may not deliver the goods all the time. If not, plug it into a 2x12 cabinet & you won't believe your ears.

Hey Mesa, try & keep it simple - you might just end up pleasing some people!

Not sure, but it is the later version with the 1/2 power jack on the back. One channel,very minimal, but extremly usable in that you can keep it cranked up in either power range with some killer overdrive. Just basic killer tone, Perfect for blues or rock!!

This amp has enough crunch to sound awsome with single coils, but it really cruises with humbuckers, not very noisy considering it's almost always on ten. Not alot of variety, smooth blues distortion, killer tone!!!

Very reliable, Have not called about this amp, but in my experiance they have been extremeley helpful and generous in their support way after the sale.

These guys are the best, extremely accessable, just a phone call away, too reliable to need a repair.

Off and on, 35 years, loads of equipment, I love this amp!! This is definitley the last amp I would sell if I were forced to sell my equipment.

I bought the amp from mesa/boogie in Hollywood, probably sometime around 1993 or 1994. I needed a small amp to take along with me to the gigs at small places and for blues jams. At first I bought the Subway Rocket, and it didn't work for me so I took it back to Boogie, and they told me try the Subway Blues. And I thought this is it!!! Payed the difference or they gave me back difference (I forgot)and took home the Subway Blues. Controls are simple, fat sw, vol, treb, mid, bass, did it have presence?, and reverb. Had an effects loop, recording out too. 1-10inch speaker. And a special gig bag, which comes in handy when you need to carry it with you. Never used the recording out but records well when mic'd. Has great lead overdrive when the volume knob is at 3or4o'clock. Usually used it around 12 or 1o'clock.

Used it with both strat and lespaul. It's great blues amp. Great sustain and reverb is also pretty good. If your style is jazz, blues it does its job really well. when I need volume or play rock, fusion, I used an splitter and ran another combo (most of the time some peavey) together with the Subway Blues amp. I needed another amp to take of the lack of head room problem with the SubBlues amp. Peaveys were set pretty clean so I would get great tube overdriven sound and crunch sound from the Blues amp and peaveys would keep the articulations when the volume is needed. Never used it in a big venue but at most of the small, medium sized venue, I never had problems. I used the amp most of time with volume at around 12'o'clock, and it gave me great clean/crunch tones to overdriven tone with the guitar volume and your picking. Past 3or4o'clock this amp can't stay clean. Overall, it has a nice warm tube sound and this sound feels great to play, and big point is that it has a tone that's friendly to anyones ear. I love 22watts deluxes too but I bet this one won't make harsh sounds to your ears. It doesn't mean it can't scream. Goes well with drive pedals, and the parallel loop is pretty good too when you record. Remenber, this is a 20watt amp, so don't expect volume and headroom of a 50or100Wtube amplifier. But, try it with a 4X10 or 2x12, you should be able to get a little more volume. Speakers and spk configurations makes a big difference. Or try the Blue Angel if you need similar sound but bigger. Blue Angel(quad of EL84) can go louder but seems a little less forgiving(faster) amp compared to the subway blues.

I've dropped it few times, but nothing goes wrong. owned it for about 3years, and changed the pair of EL84 power tubes just once. never had a problem with it. The guys at mesa/boogie are just great. They really care about your satisfaction. They seem to have pride there too, not just there amps sounds. My friend even got one for himself since he loved the tone from it. Just mike it well and get monitored when you need more vol.

They're great! Only dealt with them twice. First time was when I didn't like the Subway Rocket. They took back the rocket and told me try the Subway. I loved it and took it home. The second time, I went there and told them that I love the tone, but need more vol, and they showed me the Blue Angel. Took that home too.

I actually don't have it with me now because I had to trade it for new gears. But I kind of regret it now. I don't have any boogies left. I used to own the subway blues, blue angel, and a re-issue Mark1withJBL12inch. They are all great!!! Just have to get used to their interacting preamp tone section. If you need tips, I bet the guys at boogie will help you out( at least they'll probably send you some sample settings to start you off.). Although subway Blues is an EL84amp, I think it's closer to a fender. And boogie made history with fender based small combos, they really know what they're doing.

Ihave this amp for six years.Although there are only five knobs what else do you need if you have a good effects set?It sounds really amazing and i think there s no better sound for a 20watts amp.
The half power plug allows you to crunch with lower volumes for small places.I ve already done few recordins and it sounds really great.
I also use it in several small and medium places gigs,i think its really better to amplify this combo than uses some jcm 900 and stuff like that.

I use a Fender Stratocaster with a noiseless pick up on it and i ve never heard a better clean sound!
Its a crunch sound if you want something heavier you will need a distortion effect and it also has few of completely clean volume cause its a saturatin amp, but i guees people who buy this amp knows exactly what is looking for,or should cause its a Mesa!
Perfect for blues soun like Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff specially when added by a TS-9 pedal.And awesome for alternative stuff when you want the power of distortion with the clean brightness.
Actually its good for almost any kind of sound.

It's really a tank! I use it for a long time and i've made the first tubes change few months ago(in this six years i ve probably made about a 2 gigs per month medium)It s also started some pots hum after 4 years.

When i had this pots problems the answered my mails on the next day with the pots informatio...till now they were great!

If it were stolen or lost i would look for another one.To me Mesa and Vox are simply the best tube amps with no doubt.If you have the chance dont let it pass by...buy it!

The features are basically non-existent. It is simply put, a 20 watt tone machine. Simple, efficient....awesome

The sound is simply incredible, I plug in a strat and get lost. the sound is pristine. Lower volumes are scary good and when turned up, the gain increases and sounds are very articulate. my only reservation is the 10" speaker. I can't wait to plug this baby into a cabinet!

It's a Boogie.....Probably the best made amps ever....I have had everyhting and this is on par with the best regarding build quality. I am a huge fender , Vox and rivera fan and this is right there!

My only experience was to call them regarding an F-50 and they were very accomodating...probably second to none

I have played and owned everything. this is a great little amp. The speaker causes some reservation, but it's a "small" amp. The ebst practice or small club amp i have every heard. i don't gig with it much because I play large venues, but it is the best sounding amp I have....

Don't know when made. I play it through a Marshall Power Brake and it kicks ass! You can really get lost in the sound of it and it has nice bottom too.

A Stratostien that I built. A Carvin Bolt with a lot of changed out parts over the years. Fender Custom Shop Texas Special pickups that I use with the Bright setting - they wail nice. I have a Moses graphite neck with thick frets also.

It's a tank.

Easy to get tubes through them. No biasing required too.

They don't make them anymore - so buy one if you see one. They are a great recording amp and have nice gain. I use mine to drive half of a half stack (8 ohms) and it sounds nice [Behringer 412H 100 watt 4 ohmers].

First of all, there are 5 knobs, not 25. This is a simple amp that sounds killer with any setting... What people should say is with featuring 5 knobs what can this amp do.... It can do more with 5 knobs than most with 10 or more knobs. Remember sometimes LESS IS MORE.

This is probably the best sounding amp for it's price in the world as far as I'm concernced. Use a couple of your favorite stomp boxes, tube screamer and maybe a little delay, you will loose your mind.

so far so good, no probs. this thing has head room for days for 20 watts. You won't play a large venue with this but for what it is it's great.

Boogie really is great with support

I have been playing for a long time and have had many amps. If you need power get a powerful amp, For a practice amp this exceeds anythig that I could imagine. You could play a small club with this. If it were stolen I would look for another... Just out of curiosity I have looked but I can't find another one anywhere. The sound from this amp will fill the room. I will never get rid of this amp unless someone offers me something rediculously stupid for it.

you know the features......5 knobs indepentdent to each other.
A relationship like no other......All knobs from one fat mother.......
reverb is lush....run for cover. EL84.......wiill never smother......your face....
and speaking of face let's talk about the solid face plate. Mesa Boogie logo.....
Pin it on the front with pride, take it off that's a no-no.
Little amp wonder what shall i deed you...electricity runs through your tubes and stings you 12Ax7....seventh heaven...on the WB......wait and see....take your ticket...let's ride the subway....and never get off.

Lipstick single coils......ring with antiquity...seymore made them for me...custom bridge and texas hot.....put the butter in the pot..and cook with it....
it's better than corn oil......Humbuckers spoil........who says two coils are better than one. Let's have fun and BREATH DAMN IT. I can't sleep with a plastic bag over my head. Noise is nota factor in the quietzone. I can't hear the 60 cycle hum...dum-ditty-dum....politics run through the air in this trying time of "election".....Once chanel is all I need.....keeping me healthy and clean. Washing
my private. Spear me and I'll screem...pintch me and i'll thank you for days. Distortion will be king when the rulers of the anti-christ take over the sceen....until then I'll stay with grit grime and pushed tubes....."STEP DOWN PRE_AMP! DAMN IT. " I'll wait for you outside...CLASS A is GOD HERE....and HERECULES IS DEAD!!!. Sounds like silk is being woven in my basement.........standard smooth.....you sound like a tube amp.....are you "why yes master I....I am....please don't hurt me....please make me safe" You did a bad thing today" (I did a bad thing last week to...but you never found out) Just don't hit me...I...I...I don't desever it......

YES

mesaboogie.com

The features on this amp are subtle.
The guy who reccommends turning the tone controls fown to start gets a big kiss!
I really love small amps . This one is very refined.

A great sound. Almost a cross between vox and fender.
It sounds especially good with my Tele-Sonic guitar w/ DeArmond pickups.
It made a noise and I had tthe board replaced. It still makes some noises so I live with it.
The first preamp tube is hard to get the right one.
Great recording output .

This is an amp you can carry with two fingers into a gig and be just fine.
Use a tube pedal.(when you need it)
Again It hummed badly and needed the board replaced because of the epoxied circuits. Pain in the butt.

They gave me a break on buying the board. I had it done by a graet guy locally. But Mesa was not "up front" about the problem.

played 40 years. Always wanted some small amps. This one =was a good choice.

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.

One channel amp but everything you need is here! volume,treble,mid,bass,reverb(simply the best i've evere heard). For christmas i bought to my baby blues a tubescreamer ts9...they still have fun togheter, but when i want to feel my baby only for me i crank up the volume and...oye como vas!

This amp is awesome: beautiful warm clean, it's just a little bit dirt like i like! crank up this amp and you can get an amazing creamy blues distortion; i never heard a so midranged amp, it's so boogie!

Ok: fender and vox are beautiful amps; i had a boogie dc3 and i loved it but this baby is so sweet that i finally got my tone! I use 2 subway blues w/ 2 mesa boogie 1x12(electro voice speaker) cabs and a 2 channel triple rectifier. Of course: i love the Boogies!

This amp, although has not a ornate panel...
does have versitility. It's not a true cameleon, but it does have quite a range of tonal variey. The el84's produce a great grind at high volume... Gets a little muddy on the bottom if cranked. I use this amp for jamming by myself. I Won't get emotional until I reach the sound section of this review. I wish this amp had a tube rectifier. Otherwise the record-out and effects looop are great. It also has a mute switch for silent recording. (great addition) n comparison to a Blues junior...it blowes it away. The mesa is a much more mature sounding amp...with flavor to last for days and tone for life.

I agree with most of the past reviewers. It's a gem! It's a gem times 3. You hve to mike it to play live, but it wails like a stuck irish pig. This amp as GUTS when cranked. TOne you can really dig into if you know what I mean. It's RAW as hell. UN BELIEVEABLE!!!!!! The clean is great as well as the OD it gets as you dial up the clock. Splendid sound you can get lost in for days at a time. I played it for 10 hrs one day! Verrrrry buttery...with a harsh bite! This pup has teeth...but it'l love you.

no problems

SOLID 10, and I don't give 10's.
It's a masterpiece in amplification

the basics

tone for days. I won't bore you with the schematics and details...I'll tell you this.....WHAT WAS BOOGIE THINKING
WHEN THEY STOPPED PRODUCTION ON THIS THING?
I don't understand why. It has the best tone of any amp (small amp) I've heard

TAN LIKE WARRIOR.

I'm can't honestly say, but I'd give boogie the benifit of the doubt!

unbelievable amp

class A. 20watts. 10" eminence black shadow speaker. All-tube reverb w/ long 3 spring tank. All tube (el84-12ax7). Solid state rectifier. effects loop. fat/bright switch. standby switch.

Pure unadulterated TONE.

it's one of the best little amps I've ever played.
sounds like a most beautiful vintage tube amp with a bite and a dark and evil twist. NOT A HIGH GAIN AMP. The overdrive this amp puts out is more of a power tube growl than a pre-amp tube grind. It sounds natural. It sounds organinc. It sounds like a tube amp should sound and reflects the players style.

never had a problem.

simple.
versitile within ist's self...but not to many hands
on options for sound. A long span of versitility is not why you would purchace a class-A combo. To me the less features the better. The one great feature about this amp is the reverb. It's simply the best. It all tube w/ a solid state rectifier. Not noisy at all. It uses el-84's which produce a midrangy-vox like tone (to my ears)

Holy shit. This amp sounds so incredible! It is reminicent of a delux, but with a more stand-out ish sound. It can be very loud for 20 watts. I always use the half power jack. (which makes it 10)
This amp has such a great clean sound, and the natural, organic overdrive is to die for. Sounds so buttery smooth, with just the right amount of bite.
I usually keep the mid way down, and use the bright channel. I think the amp has an inherent mid-range quality and does not need more . Overall this amp is a 10. SOunds better than some 5,000 dollar amps I've tried. I'm very serious when I say that.
The amp is killer, just killer. Simple, great, refined,buttery, wholesome, full, warm, thick, creamy, TONE!

No- problems at all. Used matched tubes and you won't have any problems.

they always get back to you.

absolutly the best. Not just for the size, it's just the best.

I was born in 1999. I am the last of my generation. Ever since the
cut backs were introduced at the factory, times have been very pressing on me and my ansentors. They thought that creating me with what they call a half-power jack would boost my sales. It really hurt to have that put in. I screamed in pain. Now I can achieve distortion at half the volume. Some folks never bought us because we but a 10" speaker. Don't they realize we were made for portablility...if they want more volume we could give it..just plug us into a larget cab! But not many people took notice of that. It was hard for us to find masters. My cousin the dc-2 was just a tad bigger than me...and he too has yet to find a master. He just sits and collects dust in the guitar center...somewhere in NJ. I loved him very much and miss his versitile sounds. I am versitile too...I..I swear....If you give me a chance I'll show you that I can play the cleanest bell-like note...or growl like a gypsy. I can too growl! I can bite as well. I just wish people would look past my size. My tubes are new and for a class A amp...well...I tell ya, I can really wail. Sometimes at night, when the demons creep in and I can't sleep....I dream of a master that can bring out the best in me....I have a big heart... and dreams of tone....won't somebody take me, and keep me in their home?

Features of this amp are well described in the other reviews. I play mostly blues and blues rock. It has but 20 watts though it sounds louder. How much louder? As long as you're not playing in a small room with an aggressive drummer and another musician with a larger amp you'll probably do OK. However it is better suited for recording, practice, or small venue. It has 2 channels: BRIGHT and FAT. The fat channel really boosts the lower stuff and muddys the sound at higher volume.
This amp is used only for solo practice. I plan to buy a more powerful amp for playing with others so that I will have enough volume to be heard with plenty of reserve (just in case). I bought this amp b/c Guitar Player? gave it a great review a few years ago. It is a simple, solid tone machine that ALWAYS sounds great. I picked it up used for $295 and have had zero problems. Only has one 10" speaker.

I use a Fender Strat? and a Vantage? "Flying V" copy. The strat has the usual SC pickups but I have it strung with .010 - .048 strings. The 'V' has 2 HB. Both guitars just beg to play blues and blues/rock. The amp is quiet. It is solid. The controls are:
1. Volume
2. Treble
3. Middle
4. Bass
5. Reverb
The middle works well at higher volumes. A greater degree of detail is in the manual from MesaBoogie. Sweet M/B distortion-it sings, has the 'woman tone' and generally sounds just the way a tube amp SHOULD sound.

No problemos since I bought it in April 1997. I don't fire it up ALL that often though so the question of reliability can't be answered with much accuracy.

It came without a manual but one call to Mesa Engineering and they sent me one free o' charge.

I been playin' 26 years. I've got a Zoom 505 and RhythmTrak 234 as well as a Kawai 'PocketBand'. and that is it. If it were lost or stolen: I'd get something different b/c I want something more flexible & louder.
I'd been looking for a bigger amp and, with a family, had to keep my sights set a bit lower. I found it by accident at a guitar store that specialized in used equipment and knew that it would be PERFECT for practice (it was and is). Though it is perfect for those who want the feeling of playing the WHOLE amp, I end up wanting to play the drum/ rhythem machine at the same time and you just can not do that and get that great overdriven tube sound with a single channel amp. The Mesa sound is great

Tube amp, 20 watts, EL34 and 12ax7 tubes. Bright/Fat switch. Hardly any features, but this amp is LOUD for 20 watts!

I have a 1950 ES-175 with one P-90 in it and it definitley sounds the best with this amp. Nice, fat, toneful and the reverb sounds very nice as well. I do a lot of bedroom recording with this and it often gets compared to a Vox AC30, even with low volumes. With the P-90, it sounds very warm for jazz, and anything mellow. Ironically, I also utilize this amp in my rock setup, where I use a customized mongrel Strat with a Duncan Hot Rails. On channel A, I have a Marshall JCM800 which has that sharp, abrasive, razorblade tone while I use the Boogie on channel B with an old Ibanez pedal and that gives me a warm, smooth overdive for my power chords, both channels on simultaneously. Plus, like I said, it's loud and powerful for such a cute little box! I'd give it a 10, but I wish it had more natural overdrive without having to crank it up so much. Basically, I like the bass and warmth of this amp.

I like the way it's built solidly and compactly. It's nicely made. I can depend on it, but I have spare tubes just in case.

Gave me free tubes! No B.S.

I think that while this amp may be small and only 20 watts, it's still a very nicely built professional-quality amp. Like someone else said, you could fool a lot of people if you record with it. Still, it's not a Marshall, so if that's what you're looking for, look into that.

New Amp. You know the features. NOISY effects loop. Stanby Switch(nice).I used this at home. I TOOK IT BACK THE NEXT DAY! TOO NOISY.White Noise.

Peavey guitar Humbuckers. Blues and Jazz.Like I said this is a noisy amp. Like the other reviewers said they changed tubes and that helped. WHY should I pay good money and have to hassle with changing tubes on the first day of use? To keep the noise down I had to turn all knobs below 4 o,clock. Lame. Too bad, the TONE is GREAT. Nice and WARM.Good for Dark sounds. No SRV that I could find. Try the Fender Blues Junior for SRV. NICE!

I don't know. Returned it to soon to tell.

Didn't need it. But I heard they are great.
ONLY a ONE year warranty on the Subway. 5 year on the FENDER!

I have been playing a few years. Wanted to replace my Peavey Special 130. The Peavey was too Big and Loud 130 watts Solid State and Plain Jane.I wanted a Fender Blues Junior but they were out of stock. I got the Subway because of the name. DON'T WASTE YOUR EXTRA CASH ON THE MESA. Buy a Fender Blues Junior for over 100.00 less. I am thrilled with the Fender. I don't need the worthless goodies on the Subway.

Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Reverb... 2 Inputs Bright/Fat
SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE ! 1 Channel, effects loop with level control, recording out and a speaker cutoff switch...perfect for blues! Guess that's why they name it Subway Blues...? Very loud 20 Watts...2 El84 power tubes and 4 12AX7 preamp tubes. Tube driven reverb ( the best part )

HOLY SMOKE! I play a USA strat with the stock single coils and even with stock pickups this amp sounds superb! I've owned a ton of gear over the years and this little guy has that soulful, tone for days...sound you can just get lost in! I didn't like the stock tubes so I reloaded it with groove tubes and WOW! fatter, warmer, richer... you get the point....it just got better! This amp has one of the best jangly clean tones I've heard! and yet I can turn it up a bit and get those tasty Clapton licks that just seem to drip out of the amp all by themselves....I've owned rack gear, floor gear, trash gear...I recently got tired of all that and went back to the basics with a strat and a clean amp...and boy am I thrilled! I use an Ibanez Tube King for heavy overdrive and I have a delay and chorus laying around but they just seem to take away from the awesome self declaring tone of this little amp! The reverb is the most useful and soulful I've found! This amp reaks with TONE!

Built like a truck! I especially like the cool little touches Mesa/Boogie added like leather cabinet corners instead of those typical chrome things! I keep spare tubes handy ...but that's kinda like keeping a spare tire in your car...hope you don't need it..but just in case....I haven't had any real problems yet other than some noise that new tubes fixed and a buzzing sound that I corrected with some aluminum shielding tape( trick I found regarding this amp in the newsgroups )

Haven't had to deal with them yet regarding this amp but they have been good in the past

I've been playing guitar for about 18 years. I have owned tons of gear while on that "road to tone" that many of us have been down. My styles have changed as well...this amp is the best I have found for rich soulful bluesy tones...I don't get out to play as much as I used to so quality is now more important than quanity! This is the kind of amp you can plug into and just get lost for hours at a time! It doesn't do everything, but what it does it does well and is built like a tank so I give it a 10!

Bought the amp new in Feb of 2000, but I think it is a few years old. It is a single channel tube amp with 2 el84's and 4 pre-amp tubes (stock 12ax7). This amp is designed to get natural overdrive by turning up the only volume control( no master) There is a effects loop, but I never use it. I bought this amp because it was a single channel tube amp, in a small affordable package. It has all the featues I wanted.

I play a PRS CE24 through this amp. I love the singing overdrive, but this amp really loves single-coil pick-ups, which my prs doesnt have. It still sounds sweet. This amp majors in blues. Period. It is 20 watts, but those are a lethal 20 watts! It is a bit noisy, but I swapped out some pre-amp tubes and replaced the power tubes and that fixed the problem for the most part. I recomend tightening the chassis, because mine had an annoying cab rattle until I tightened the chassis. There is not a whole lot of clean headroom, but the mid control is very sensitive, so use it sparingly. It can actually increase overdrive( all you fellow boogie owners know what I mean) I was very surprised to hear pleasant distortion when everything was cranked to the max. The tone was very smooth, almost Santana-ish.

All Boogies are built with TLC, but just like any quality product , you must take care of it. They are buuilt like tanks, but that doesnt mean you can thrash it. If you treat it with respect, you will be rewarded with a quality tone for the rest of your life. I have thought about seeking better tubes (NOS) but it sounds great without them...

They are great to deal with. They are busy all the time, but they usuall y return calls within the next 24 hours. They sent me a users manual for my DC-5 free of charge within a week of my requesting it. They know their amps!!

Ive played for 8 years. I own a boogie DC-5 head, a boogie 4x10 cab, a boogie 1x12 thiele cab and the Subway Blues. I think boogies are the best product on the market. One thing about the Sub. Blues I want to address is the pre-amp tube sockets. I dont think they are the ceramic sockets like all the other sockets are. I am thinking about replacing them.

This amp was made in 1998. Contains volume, bass, mid, treble, reverb, effects mix, bright/fat switch, parallel effects loop, line out, ground lift, speaker on/off, and external cabinet out connections. A basic single channel all tube amp that works great for clean to slightly overdriven sounds. This model has a wicker front grill and grey "leather" body.

I use this amp with a Warmoth LP equipped with Seymour Duncan JB and 59 humbuckers and a Warmoth strat style with Carvin single coils. The LP comes thru a bit dark and muddled depending on the EQ settings. The strat sounds very crisp and ringing. I play mostly blues and jazz. There are occasionally some microphonics and crackling sounds but overall quiet. For 20W this amp can get LOUD. I usually keep it around 10-11 o'clock volume for normal practise and tweedling. I also run this amp into a 2x12 extension cabinet with Carvin 12 inch 100 watts. Really opens up the sound.

No problems after six months. All controls are smooth.

Never contacted them.

Been playing about 4 years. I love the clean no frills sound of this amp. Just a plain guitar and amp sound. I compared this to various Fender, Marshall, and Pignose products and for pure sound value and no frills cosmetics amp this won out. Bought at Fancy Music in Santa Barbara.

This is a very basic amp. It's an all tube (2x EL84 power section), single channel, five knob wonder(vol. treb. mid. bass. rev.). It does have a nice reverb, and it also has an effects loop. No amp (or any piece of gear for that matter) can do everything. This amp does not have many features, but that is the way it was designed. If you need 1)channel switching, 2)high gain, 3)huge headroom, LOOK ELSEWHERE!!! This amp is the older model with the separate Bright and Fat inputs. It's too bad that Mesa went to the Bright/Fat switch because you can run your signal into both inputs, on the older model, and get great break-up at lower volumes. I believe that gear should be evaluated in light of what it is intended to do. This amp was designed to produce great raw tone for roots type music. I would actually have given it a higher score in this category if it did not have the effects loop. In my opinion it is really useless. The loop is noisy, and lets face it, if you are going to play this amp on gigs in rooms of any size, you will want to mic it. If you do, you could add your effects at the board. Anything that is placed in the signal path degrades tone. This amp has serious tone, but I would like to hear what it would sound like without the loop.

I play a modified Fender Mustang with a Duncan JB single space HB in the neck and a Duncan Pearly Gates in the Bridge. I also play a 58 Gibson ES 225TD with original P-90's. I use an A-B-Y box to split my signal between this amp and a Deluxe Reverb. I use the Deluxe for almost all the chord work and some leads, and I use the Subway pretty much for leads only. I can get a really fat biting sound if I run both amps together. I play mostly blues, but I also play bluegrass, classic rock, praise and worship, and a little jazz. I bought this amp for blues because my band was moving in that direction from classic type rock. It turned out that the blues bent was short lived, and I ended up putting this amp in the basement and not playing it for about 3-4 years. I have recently started playing it again, and it was like getting a new amp! I have tried to play this amp for all the styles of music that I play and this is the conclusion that I have reached. PLAY IT FOR BlUES(FIRST AND FOREMOST) and for some Roots Rock and Roll. It also has some limited use for Jazz if you use the bright input. In my opinion this amp only has a couple of sounds. The sounds that it has are great, but they definitely don't fit all types of music. This amp is RAW, it is DARK, and I wouldn't call it warm at all. It definitely accentuates the mid-range frequencies. In fact the mid range pot is actually a mid/gain boost, and if you crank it much past 12:00, it will cut you in two. As a result, it is great for smoking, dark, cutting blues and rock leads. Another plus is that, even though it is only 20 Watts(very loud 20 watts), you never get lost in the mix. I've played with many other players sporting 40 and 50 watt tube amps, and I've never had a problem monitoring myself on stage. Also, this is one of those amps that just stands out in the mix from the PA. They should have called this the MESA/BOOGIE SAMURAI SWORD because it will cut through anything in its path!!
This amp sounds nothing like any Fender I've heard or played. One of the differences I have noticed is that it doesn't seem to sag like my Fender (I don't even know what kind of rectifier it has, but I will look into that). I have limited experience with Vox amps, but this amp reminds me a lot of an AC 15, and to a lesser degree an AC 30(it doesn't have the low end of the AC 30) If you're looking for the elusive SRV tone, I think you'll be disappointed. You can, however, get pretty close to some of the stuff you hear from Tom Petty. The other thing I will say is that this amp definitely prefers single coils. Since it is so strong in the mid range dept. I think p/u's with a V shaped frequency response are the best with this amp(i.e. strats and teles). P-90's are single coils, but they are much more mid-rangey then strat p/u's. They do, however, sound better then humbuckers through this amp. When I bought this amp, I had a strat and I have played strats through it recently. It is a much warmer friendlier amp with a strat then with the guitars I play now. That's not to say that It doesn't have a bite when playing the middle or bridge p/u because it does. On the other hand, for lead work with p-90s or humbuckers, it is hard to beat the blues tone this little amp cranks out if you want dark, raunchy, cutting leads. It doesn't have the high end bite of a fender but if that's what you want, get a Fender. I give it an 8 in this category because it is not as useful as I think it could be for chord work. This could possibly be rectified with a good 12 inch speaker cabinet.

I've never had a problem with it (it was not played for about 3 years) but I have played it quite a bit(1-2 hours per day) for a total of 3 years. It is a little noisy but I think its due for some new tubes. I have the deluxe as a backup (and it backs up the Deluxe) but I would not be afraid to take it to a gig by itself. I would probably have extra tubes and fuses, but I have never blown a fuse or had a tube problem in this amp.

Never talked to Mesa before. Hope I never have to.

I have been playing music since I was 5 years old(so for about 30 years), but I have only been playing the electric guitar for about 11 years. I went through a number of amps and effects processors trying to get the sound I was hearing in my head. Unfortunately, I bought into the "the more it does, the better it is" fallacy. It took me several years to realize that I wasn't looking for someone else's sound, and that no matter what you play through you are going to sound like you. When I buy gear now, I buy gear that is designed to do one thing really well. The bottom line is that it must be toneful. I don't care how many bells and whistles an amp or guitar has. It may be able to do a truck load of different things, but if it sounds like crap, it sounds like crap doing every one of its tricks. Why do you think Eric Johnson plays vintage Plexi's? And, why do think SRV played vintage Vibroverbs and Dumble's? All these amps have one thing in common. They were not designed to do anything but reproduce awesome raw guitar tone. As far as versitility goes, none of them would be considered very "versatile" (but great players show us just how versatile a simple amp really can be). I am not saying that this little amp is in the same ball park as a Vibroverb or a Dumble, but it is a great little amp for the money. I compared it to the Fender Hot Rods when I bought it, and chose it because it had better tone especially when overdriven, and it was cheaper. This may be kind of a one trick pony (at least in my hands) but it is great at what it does. If I lost it or someone stole it, I would probably look for a Vox AC30 or another vintage Fender for the simple reason that I could afford one now. If money were tight, I would go out and get another one of these, but only if I was playing a lot of blues because thats where this amp shines.

This is a simple amp, manufactured in 1996. It has volume, tone controls and reverb. Two input jacks, Bright and Fat. There's an effects loop with a mix control on the back pannel. It has a recording line out and a speaker mute, for those late night tracking sessions. This is a one channel amp for people who want to have a good warm tube tone. The amp has more than enough power to cover a club gig or a small outdoor show. My band rarely lets me push it past about 30%. Works well for Blues rock and jazz. Not a good amp if you're into metal and a bit round for country. The line out is nice for practice only, but I would never seriously record this way.

I play a Fender Custom-shop strat (single coils) and a Gretsch Tennissee Rose. I bought the amp to go with my Strat, and looked at a ton of different makes and models in all price ranges. I settled on this amp for one reason, the tone. What it lacks in features it makes up for in a very rich tone. With the strat it goes from an even sound in the neck selection to a nice punchy sound in the middle/bridge selection. When driven to about 55% it has a nice break-up for leads. It gets muddy at around 80%, a sound that I don't really like but that seems to get a fair amount of radio play. The amp has a fair amount of noise, but no more than most other amps of this design. It doesn't work as well with the Gretsch, though it still sounds very good. The Gretsch has a lot of phantom tones that don't translate as well to this amp as other's I've heard. If you play the blues, this is an amp you should try out. If you play metal, go buy a Marshall and turn it up to 11. I rated it a 9 because of the Gretsch tone, if you play a strat, I'd say it's more like a 9.9 (I don't give 10's).

I've had it for 3 years and it's never had a problem. I'm very careful with it, more so than your average player. I have used it on several gigs without any backup. I do have an extra set of tubes and fuses just in case, but have never had to use them.

I was checking out the Mesa website and saw they had listed a half power jack as an option on the latest version. Since I practice late at night and have 2 kids, it would be nice to be able to get the amp to distort without having to shake the foundation. I called Mesa and they were a few days in getting back to me, but were very helpful once we connected. Gave me a number of options to help me in my situation and gave me some resources in my area.

I have been playing for 13 years and have been into tone for the last 10. This amp sounds great. Not big on features and not very fancy looking, but it does the job exceedingly well. With each guitar being different (even 2 Strats off the same line will sound different) it's hard to say this amp is for everyone. I would say, that you shouldn't dismiss this amp based on the size or the price tag. I was looking at amps that cost 5 times this much and was ready to pay the high price, and then I tried this on the recomendation of the guy at the store (I know its rare to have a salesman push you from a $2000 amp to a $400 amp, but that's why I don't shop anywhere else). It met my needs perfectly and I would never try to replace it. I will buy a second amp for use with my Gretsch which was a rather recent purchase. Forget: Good amp for the money; this is just a very good amp.

Bought amp Jan. 99. I think its a 96'. 10" speaker, 20 watts from 2-EL84's. Tube driven reverb. Fat/Bright switch, vol.treble, middle, bass and reverb with recording line-out. Not alot of features but perfect for Blues & Soul.

I play a 40th Anniversary American Std. Aluminum Body Strat, with a Cool Rails in the neck position. I play in a St. Louis band (Bonedaddy & the Blues Shakers) see website www.pearlcomputer.com/shakers. I've had more compliments on what a fat sound I get! I use this rig for small to medium club ( I run the recording lineout to the mixer for a little extra coverage). For larger clubs I use my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. The 20 watts are just right, and help keep the stage volume down. *No more complaints from club owners since I started using this rig, to turn down. Stays clean till about 1/2 way up. I don't go beyond this point, I get my dirt from a TS-5 modified to TS-9 specs. Sounds great- now if I could only find a good compressor for those single note BB King runs.

When I first got this amp it was a little noisy but it just needed some new power tubes and a little cleaning up. Steve Simpson a great amp tech with Gravity Strings in St. Louis went over it top to bottom ( he even called Mesa and updated some circuits ). I don't bring backup , Steve's also in the band.

Never dealt with Mesa so I have no opinion.

Would definitely buy another if lost or stolen. Perfect for my needs.

1999 One channel 20w 2 X EL-84 power amp section based Combo amp. Vol, treb, mid, bass controls. Reverb. One input, bright/fat switch. 1 X 10" Eminence speaker. Effects/record send (can slave) w level adjust. Ext speaker jacks + "half power" jack (more useful than you'd think). A practice amp, basically, though I also use it for low volume jobs. 38lbs. Super for blues!

I use a Telecaster for everything from pop standards, jazz, blues, gospel, classic R&B, to Rock. This amp almost has enough power to do it all, and can slave another amp (which I have done with OK results), but I have a bigger rig for more clean headroom and greater versatility when required. This is pretty basic and runs out of clean headroom quickly (great for blues that way, but...). It has a little inherent noise, no worse than the single coils, but it's there. With its on-board 10" speaker, it can get a bit raspy sounding. Sometimes I plug in an EV for less rasp. The bright/fat switch alters the sound in the mids some, but not drastically. Rectro/primitive sounds are easy. Superb reverb.

OK for a month so far. I take a spare for GP, also extra fuses and tubes (though I have not needed them yet). Actually, THIS amp is my spare amp, but it's easy to use and light, so is starting to be my first choice if I can get away with it. It's borderline on power though. An extension speaker or slave helps, but some sounds it just won't get. Not high tech. I worry about that stock Eminence speaker's low handling ability over time. I may upgrade the speaker. We'll see. It's easy enough to add an extension speaker.

I haven't called about this amp, but I have other Mesa gear. They're very responsive. Call and leave a number, they'll get back to you on their dime. One year warranty.

39+ years experience. All styles. Also have a Mesa rack rig, but it's big and heavy and not too quick to set up. This thing is a grab and go affair, light, uncomplicated, sounds good. Killer reverb. Just a bit low on power, but with a Tele and some midrange tweaking, can usually cut through the din. In fact, it sounds better in a band setting than at home! The raspy tone quality really blends great with a band! I'd get another in a heartbeat, but not as an "only" amp.

Strictly from a features point of view, this is a plain jane amp -- it had the three features I wanted: reverb, tubes and a great price. I wish it had tremolo, more wattage and gain -- but that's another amp entirely. This is like a Sherman tank -- it ain't pretty, and there are much bigger guns out there, but it does the job well.

I hate giving tens for anything but the sound this little box makes are unbelievable! I wouldn't consider a 20 watter for a club amp, but I really think this one could handle a room full of beer crazies. I play blues, jazz and surf and between the fat and bright channels and the reverb, this amp has handled them all. Bright channel with reverb and treble up gives me a great Dick Dalesque sound and using the fat channel with more bass and less reverb moves me closer to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi. Fat with no reverb and the guitar's tone pots down on 1 on the guitar gives me a fair jazz tone -- its kinda muddy, but if you play Bill Frissell, the audience will be too busy wondering what the blazes you're doing to notice. I use a standard Strat, and this amp loves the single coils, especially the bridge pickup. I'm thinking about replacing the Mesa tubes with GrooveTubes -- I can't leave things alone.

I've only had it for one month, and it hasn't failed me, but I haven't pushed it yet. I'd play without a backup, but only because at this point I can't afford a backup.

I bought it from Thoroughbred in Orlando, and I'd go back to them if it died. My second avenue would be my Dad -- 49 years in radio and television. Seems like he still has some old L6L Sylvanias lying around in the garage ... So, Mesa's customer support would be third. By the time I got to them, I probably would have bought another amp. On the other hand, their web page contains the user's manuals for their amps, and I downloaded the manual for the Subway. It's full of useful information, such as don't turn the bass up all the way or you'll burn it in for the duration of your gig.

Admittedly, I've only been playing electric since Christmas, 1998, so my experience with amps is limited. This was NOT my first choice in an amp -- the Fender Blues Junior was, but this had more power and a lower price and after testing it out for an hour on my Christmas present (wife bought me a Strat -- love that girl!) I had to have it. I also tested out the Fender Hot Rod, and the sounds are so close -- both amps cut through a superstore full of Dimebag Darrell wannabees without any problems. Would I buy it again? Probably not, because I'd opt for at least a 40 watter. Prior to this amp, I never would have considered anything other than a Fender amp, but now, I may look at the Mesa Heartbreaker when it comes time to buy a club amp. I'll definitely keep it for a practice amp and to learn what I'm doing with a tube amp and keep the beastie running for jamming in the garage with friends (I live next door to a retired marine colonel, so I hafta watch the volume).

This amp does not have any features to speak of, but that's why I bought it. All it offers is a great tone!!! Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, and Reverb - can't be any simpler than that. Also comes with an effects loop. I don't really need this feature, but when I tried it out it sounded a bit noisy to me.

I am playing it with a Fender Strat and it seems like it was designed for single coils. This little amp sings!!! It is perfect for my blues/jazz sound. With my modified TS-5 for boost it can crank some serious lead tones. It almost sounds even better with my old acustic Hagstrom jazz guitar (humbucker in neck position). Again the effects loop is kind of noisy. It comes with two inputs: bright and fat. I only use the bright input, but using the two together gives you the "half powerjack": overdrive at half volume. Too bad they made it a one input with a switch on the later models. It breaks up nicely on higher volumes. Perfect for a club gigs.

I've only used Mesa Boogie's because I trust them. This is my second one and I really doubt anything will happen to it. Tubes must be changed once in a while though.

Mesa used to be better at customer support. I remember they even sent me schematics etc for my other amp at my request. I've tried emailing them - it didn't work. I sent them a letter with some questions I had about this amp and it took them 4 MONTHS to get back to me. They apologized, but sorry that's not good enough. Maybe they got too big. I don't know. They are good at the phone though. For servicing it's not a problem since they have tons of authorized service centers around.

I've played for 8 years and I have to say I love this little thing. My other Mesa was pretty cool too (the S.O.B.), but this is the tone I'm looking for. I will keep this one, nad if I ever need more fire power I'm buying the Blue Angel as well. Fot the price and size of this amp it is loud and has great tone! I have the cool grille instead of the black. They should make it standard because it looks so cool. Now you have to pay $150 extra to get it. I just lucked out with my demo-used one for $370! This amp has the tone I've looked for.

This is a very sweet, musical sounding amp. It is also very simple. I like simple. I play everything from blues to country to jazz to R&B. It sounds great in every style. It has one channnel with 2 inputs (1 is Fat). The newer ones have one input with a fat switch, probably a better idea. If you are looking for a straight ahead, great sounding amp that is versatile this is it. It is also a very light amp. Important at my age. I have been playing for 32 yrs. It has an effects send/return that is noisy. I am going to have to have that checked out.

I play thru a Tele that is customized with a Strat pickup in the middle. This amp loves single coil pickups. It sounds very clean until about halfway up and then starts to distort in a most singing timbre. The mid switch sounds like a presense control. I use a Boss DD-5 delay with it but have had to plug it in the input jack because of the noise in the effects loop. I purchased an extra speaker cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 12" speaker in it. Now I am able to play my 335 thru it as it sounded BAss-deprived thru the 10". Mesa should offer this amp in a 12" speaker configuration. It's like a Deluxe on steroids.

It had a problem with a pre-amp tube about 2 months after I got it. It would make sounds like it was shorting out or something. I took it back to the Dealer and they replaced the offending tube and that was it. It was fine. The Effects loop is still noisy tho. Very reliable since the pre-amp tubes were replaced.

The dealer (Makin' Music in Chicago) were very good about standing behind the product. Haven't dealt with Mesa.

Been playing 32 yrs. I don't play a lot (once or twice a month) anymore. I wish I could have had this amp 15 yrs ago when I needed it!! I would definately by it again. Wish it were offered in a 1-12" configuration. So I wouldn't have to lug around the extra speaker.

The Subway is very simple to use, yet is quite versatile. The amp has five controls(volume, bass, middle, treble, and reverb) w/ a fat/bright switch that comes in handy when switching guitars. It also has an effects loop w/ an adjustable level, mute switch while plugging the amp directly into a mixing console or whatever. Not quite lightweight, but its size makes it easy to carry around.

The amplifier itself provides a good starting point for simple mods. After replacing the tubes w/ Sovtek premium EL-84s, and the 12AX7s w/ the 'Telefunken' preamp tubes, it did give the amplifier a little more 'zing' and clarity. I also switched to a Kendrick Blackframe speaker, which improved the tone as well. Using a strat-style guitar w/ Duncan alnico II's, the amp produces a really full, almost beefy sound considering its size. By using a Heritage Les Paul-style guitar, I was albe to get really good bluesy sounds, and when cranking the volume(there is no master volume), you can get all the distortion you would ever need for blues and rock(Trust Me!). When using this amp in conjunction w/ a modded tube screamer(w/ TS-808 specs) and an XXL, I was provided w/ a good variety of very useful overdriven tones. I will say that this is NOT a Fender Deluxe(a fantastic 20-watt amp), however, with given time to tweak this baby(it really does work well w/ good overdrive pedals), you would be hard-pressed to find something that sounds as good as this amp does for $449.00. The reverb is very nice. It does not stand idle in the background, nor does it become unuseable w/ effects. The Bright/fat switch really does change the tonal characteristics of the amp. I highly recommend it.

I haven't had a problem with it yet, and I don't predict that I will. This amp is built solid.

I've never talked to them, but I'm sure they have very helpful customer service support.

Unless you can find an old Fender Deluxe for a good price, you are not going to find many amplifiers out there that can compete w/ the Subway Blues. If you can, contact me on my website. For club gigs, it is ideal(especially its size). A lot of amps out there would probably sound better if the tubes were changed as well as the speakers. Some people might be put off by the amp because you CANNOT get distortion at lower levels w/out a pedal. But when you crank it up, it provides good overdriven power tube distortion w/ lots of sustain and pleasant harmonic feedback.

This amp is not versatile, and that is why I bought it. I have never found an amp that does everything well. This one simply has a fantastic clean to bluesy vibe that makes me play at my best. It is very loud, I play in a 5 piece country rock band in small to medium clubs, and have never had it up past 1/2. Never had to mike it either. Simple to operate and get a great tone from. I use a modified TS-5 on the front end that sounds great with it.

Turn up about 1/2 way, control everything from your guitar volume knob. Plug it into a 2-10 ext. cab for maximum sound coverage.

Having had 3 other Boogie amps at various times, never any problems with any of them, don't anticipate any either.

The best.

For this sound, I would buy again, without a doubt. Worth every penny.

This amp has very interactive knobs, therefore a surprising amount of tones can be gotten with this simple setup. Note previous reviews. I can add that this amp has, for me, the very cool feature of a half power jack in the back! This gives you a 10 watt tone box! now you CAN crank it without neighbor irritating volume, getting that last part of the tone puzzle, namely the saturation of the power tubes! Wish it had a headphone jack, for sure, what a blast that would be to have!

I'm attracted to the blues. I got rid of those grainy Chinese tubes, and have used both the 5751 preamp tubes, and Telefunken...Sovtek EL84's sofar for the power tubes. This went a long way to remove a lot of that inherent Mesa Boogie "nervousness" ...Amp become much more refined, and soulful, for sure,,, This little amp will definitely distort under right settings. Try it out with your own guitar before you buy makes the most sense to me, since everyone has different tastes, and guitars... I use a Guild Nightbird with Kent Armstrong pickups. This guitar has a coil splitter, so I get either HB or SC performance. Th Subway works with both, however, you will have to adjust the knobs for sure to find the right settings. They CAN be dialed in! Great clean channel. Really great reverb, especially after switching to the Telefunken tube to drive it! Amp is nicely touch sensititve and dynamically responsive. Small speaker, small box, open back... back amp into a cormer to enhance the bottom end performance. Backround noisy when cranked flat out. Too bad!

Everything works

Wish they communicated netter via Email

Yes, I would buy it again. Good, loud for it's size, really nice reverb, it has a soul for a little amp

It's a budget Boogie, but it doesn't lack the 'essentials'. Vol, Treble, Mid & Bass controls, parallel FX loop with mix control, direct out for recording/PA, 4&8 ohm speaker outs, and probably the best verb I've heard on a boogie. I doesn't have separate channels, but it does sport two inputs, a Bright one and a Fat one, which do color the tone, but I use the bright exclusively.
The power is a LOUD 20W that breaks up pretty nicely, but not nice enough to do without an OD box. the 10" speaker sounds fine for low volumes, but a seales 2x12" cabinet is a nicer gigging set-up.

I play various styles & guitars for each, so here's some notes: ? Cool for mellow jazz stuff with your favorite arch-top (watch where you stand! The pre-amp can really move the top on a hollow body!) ? Tight for rock/alternative rhythm work ? Warm enough for blues with the right OD box ? Jangly enough for strummin' Rickenbacker fans ? Does sing really well when pushed into drive for Santna-ish stuff ? Not a Fender clone. More Vox-like than Fendery.
It doesn't have built-in OD, but it gets along with various distortion boxes I've tried, like a Fat Cat, a DS-1, and my old TS-9. All work well. It breaks up around 2 o'clock, but I don't recommend that as your 'sound'. Not too smooth. The verb is lush and deep. Nice, long tank.
All in all, a versatile little thing with the right outboard gear, but then I bought it for the straightforward 'good amp' sound.

Haven't had it too long, but it has taken some physical abuse (dropped once or twice!) and still purrs like new. My guess is than anything that would go (like transformers or other non-tube parts) would go under the warranty, which is what that's for anyway. Beyond that, it seems quite solid.

Haven't had to deal with them, but they have authorized repair places just about everywhere, so support shouldn't be a problem.
I give a 6 for 'better than average but don't know.'

I'd buy it again, and I've recommended it to a few friends looking for smaller, but gutsy amps. And it made me do something that I though I'd never do-- but a Boogie. Frankly, because I never liked what I heard from them before. But then my life took a turn for the better, and I'm sure yours will, too =8P
The main competition was the Ampeg JT 'reissue' which sounded great, but was too much like a Fender I have, and lacked key features, like extra speaker outs.

All in all a pretty simple amp. Five knobs (vol, treb., middle, bass, reverb) with a toggle switch for bright vs. fat. I thought the amp sounded a bit like a Fender Deluxe Reverb at higher volume levels, but I only had the Subway Blues set to 9 o'clock! A great "foundation" amp, put a distortion pedal out front if you need more crunch and use the FX loop and you've got a great combination suitable for a lot of sounds. I like it the way it is, but some will want more flexibility.

Great for that Tom Petty twangy/grunge mode! I think the amp is incredibly loud for a 20 watt combo. As I said before, I had it at nine o'clock with a Les Paul Studio. Nice overdrive/breakup, but definitely not a "headbanger/thrash amp". Some people think the Mesa Subway series are a bit boxy and a tad harsh in the midrange category. I tend to love those cranked VOX AC-30 sounds so I kinda dig this

It looks very well made to me. It watched the guy at the store change a tube in 15 seconds. I think it would work well at a gig if it was miked or fed to the PA. I just worry about little amps being pushed too hard at super-high volumes for a long period of time. But that's just me, I don't like to abuse things.

I've always had a prompt response when I've contacted them for catalogs. You get that warm, fuzzy, family oriented feeling from Mesa/Boogie

Compared to others in the price range, the Subway Blues sounds like "something". Like a little version of a classic amp like an AC-30, or like an old Twin Reverb or Deluxe. It does not have that cheesy bedroom amp sound, I think you could fool a lot of people if you used it to record. It's really a toss-up between the Subway Blues, and the Subway Rocket, they both have their merits, and are alot of fun! (IDEA: BUY BOTH!!!!) I really can't decide which to buy!