Hey there Bob,
Indeed, as others have said, great writeup! Accurate, articulate, with good insight on how to approach a Boogie. Lots on forums deride Mesas en masse because they "require tweaking" to get a "decent" tone. LOL ...there is truth there, but as you state the reward is great tones and great versatility. Nice of you to mention that. FWIW, once I wrapped my
mind around how to approach a Boogie, I was hooked on both their tones and (here it comes again) the
versatility their amps bring to the player! That was
well over a decade ago. Not a lover of
every Mesa, mind you, but lets just say I've had many more positives than otherwise!
I also appreciate your comments at the end with regard to RMS, or any standard (or lack thereof) for that matter. In my humble experience as a Boogie enthusiast, Mesas are one of the most conservatively rated amps I have ever experienced. Any of their amps rated at x watts simply seem louder than others, if not most, rated equally. Either Mesa is abiding more by the "standard," or others are, er, very liberal in their approach to badging their amps. My 5:25 10 combo gives up nothing in terms of usable gig
volume to my DC5 12" widebody combo. And for that matter, my beloved DC5 has hung with others' bigger toys with aplomb. Gotta love Randall and company for making great tone machines that are more than just loud, but offered in many different flavors, are tonally versatile, and built to outlast a nuclear winter. Ok, so that last one may be a bit overstated ...but only by a bit
Edward