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comments MESA/BOOGIE Formula preamp

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2/23/2000 8:27 PM
Andy	comments MESA/BOOGIE Formula preamp Hi there Does anyone has comments on the Formula, particular for live use? Would it be an easy to amp to modify? Many of the reviews from users are bad but in the magazines it's exceptional good. I've heard Peter Frampton uses it too. Can anybody help me to get the schematic for it? Andy

2/24/2000 10:36 AM
GFR	It may not be easy to mod because as every MESA product it must be PCB based. The preamp section is probably based on the preamps of previous MESA amps. The real interesting part would be the schematic of the speaker emulated recording output, that MESA claims to be entirely new and the best ever

2/27/2000 7:04 PM

quote:
"It may not be easy to mod because as every MESA product it must be PCB based."

Mighty hard indeed!! The components are so close together that it makes it very, very hard to work on these amps. I've modded a couple Dual Recs and I've gotten a couple calls to mod ome more Dual Recs. The problem is they take to long to work on because they put 10lbs of "stuff" in a 1lb box.

For what it's worth;
Trace

2/28/2000 6:01 AM

Hence the whole concept of Boogie-- The first Boogie, remember, was a bassman shoved into a princeton chassis, with a12" speaker to boot.... LUCKILY the only boogies I ever had to work on were simple things such as a microphonic preamp tube etc... I agree with you 100% decent amps, as long as you dont have to work on it... hmmm sounds like their company philosopy is a Detroit philosophy!!

Andy> Definitely keep the user comments higher priority than magazines.. remember magazines are secondary marketing... I know marketing people who can market airconditioners to eskimos and it works!!
The BEST test, however should be YOUR ears...I NEVER liked the sound of ANY boogie, yet they still sell tons... and some people never liked fenders or marshalls... if it gives YOU the sound YOU want, ignore the name of it and go for it!!

2/25/2000 3:44 AM
Carl Z	Andy; I've never seen or heard one but by your comment that most of the actual user reviews are anything but good that should throw up a big red flag! The past few years the magazine reviews have been anything but accurate. So take that for what it's worth. Carl Z Summit Amps

2/27/2000 6:52 AM

I had one a year ago, and sold it! ..... The clean is great! the overdrive ok.... I used it with the 2-90 simulclass, the overdrive is basically Marshall with the cathode follower, the 3rd ch has the same but before the cf there is a notch type filter to tighten up the bass and focus of the overdrive (classic Boogie sound), since the 3rd ch shares the eq with ch2. The notch filter, from my memory was 2-470k resistors in series with a 82pf cap paralleled with the 2-470k's and where the 2-470k's are tied together, there is a 470k res. going to ground(this is a variation of a notch filter)You could try 220k's for a more Fendery-Boogie, The Marshall section has 2-1meg resistors-voltage deviders for the Marshal voice.(they are switched by a relay) Then of course after the cf, the follower or the cathode has a .047 uf, 82k to ground, take the signal from the .047-82k junction to out or eq. It was good for a raw rock voice, but I was after a more refined tone. If I only knew what I know now I would have saved some time and money, but for a decent preamp(if that is your tone) I suppose its ok.

2/27/2000 12:33 PM

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the information about the Formula!
I'm wondering, how did you figure out how it works?
According to Mesa Engineering there are no schematics
made yet.
If your right about it this preamp it works very different
(the cathode follower thing)than other Boogie amps (DC-2, Maverick,MarkIII etc.)
Basicly i'm looking for the earlier Boogie sound (mark III)
and not the Dual rectifier sound (too dark for my taste!)

Also i'd like to thank you for the information regarding
the caps Boogie uses for cathode bypass etc.
I've found them at Mousers (Type 173D solid tantalum capacitors)

Please let me know if you have more information about the Formula.

Regards Andy

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