Mesa Boogie Strategy 400

I've been using Mesa guitar amps off and on since the Prune Music modded Princeton days (a long, long time ago…*sigh*...), and I've found they are an amazingly high quality amp company. That Baron amp was simply ahead of its time, and I'd love to get one someday.  I prefer to not have attenuation pots in my stereo hifi rig but Mesa was also know for their clean punch…a Mark 1 Boogie if used clean (I had one with an Altec 15!)…master volume up with the preamp low…would strip the chrome off a trailer hitch from 30 feet, although just about everybody messed with preamp gain as otherwise it was simply too damn loud, and hey…ya gotta have grease in yer guitar tone. I use other tube amps for guitar currently (low wattage, class A, yada yada), but a stereo tube Mesa power amp, even with input pots, has to be a GREAT hifi amp…it just does. Compare prices of modern well made tube guitar amps with hifi stuff and its sort of a joke really, and one of those companies should cash in on the hifi thing as I bet they would make some killer stuff…and not have to do reverb and tone stacks…Mesa…Matchless…Fargen…Swart…Divided by 13…Burriss...make a little tube stereo amp…please.

Yeah man…I can’t recall any tube hifi amp that does what a Baron does in terms of features. Maybe we should start a "bring back the Baron" petition. As an aside, a couple of years ago I bought a barely used Burriss 18 watt, hand wired, made in USA, all class A (tube rectified…that’s supposedly important), all Mullard tubed EL84 driven spring reverb with tremolo guitar head for 500 bucks. Is it made as well as a Jadis or McIntosh? You bet yer --- it is. Does it sound good?...oh yeah…loudest and sweetest 18 watts I’ve ever heard.

I bought a Jolida 502p for my hifi rig a while back…it's one of the most inexpensive high quality tube hifi amps out there (a little more expensive now as there's a newer model that can use various tube types, and includes some of the factory "upgrade" mods I payed a little more for). Try one of these things if you have the tube amp itch…it scratches that itch with aplomb.