Mesa Boogie Kingsnake

[Bluesky]

Whats the deal with these amps?

https://reverb.com/item/5787775-mesa-boogie-kingsnake

Are they truly special or is it basically a stock Boogie with snake skin and a Carlos signature? I remember a really long time ago , around 93' in a Guitar Center in Brooklyn NYC. It was about the same time the Ernie Ball EVH Music Manns were first introduced. I remember this because the store had a new Blue one and I was blown away looking at it. I think it was sold as I was standing there......anyway I tried an Old Boogie , the one with the wicker grill. Same limited amount of knobs it was like a old Fender on steroids. Kicked complete ass. Before Boogie just went knob crazy and PRS became mainstream and they lost me.........I digress.

My point , is this amp a special model? I know nothing of Boogie amps since they went Chugga Chugga distortion. I cant stand the newer stuff with more knobs then the space shuttle. I mean $2700 bills for a small combo? Holy ***! Whats different about it?

 

[duaneflowers]

While I hate Mesa (the company), I love my Kingsnake... possibly my all time favorite amp (although my Kemper sees more play time and my Bluesbreaker still sounds amazing). In clean mode it is a chimey, bell-like, Fenderesque bundle of sweetness... in Carlos mode it has the perfect amount of gain while retaining that sweetness. In 100 watt mode it will melt your face off... in 10 watt mode, it will still melt your face off.

 

[alnico59]

Even though I've read great reviews It's hard to find a quality demo online. Owning a MkIIB loaded combo I think it's most likely a volume issue with the amp not being turned up to the sweet spot. Older Boogies and the newer reissues can be very loud, unforgiving and can also sound dull at lower volumes. With that said this amp grabs my attention and I would not mind owning it.

 

[drew365]

I nearly bought one when they first came out. I remember there's a different gain stage circuit on each of the two inputs. The KS was modeled after an amp that Carlos used for a live performance at Budokon, and he felt it had something special.

 

[Bluesky]

While I hate Mesa (the company), I love my Kingsnake... possibly my all time favorite amp (although my Kemper sees more play time and my Bluesbreaker still sounds amazing). In clean mode it is a chimey, bell-like, Fenderesque bundle of sweetness... in Carlos mode it has the perfect amount of gain while retaining that sweetness. In 100 watt mode it will melt your face off... in 10 watt mode, it will still melt your face off.

Favorite ever!? Wow.....thats an endorsement!!

 

[Bluesky]

I just went back to throw an offer down......it was sold 1 hr ago.
I'm guessing this is a special amp!

 

[Gridlock]

I'd love to own a King Snake or a vintage Mark I. Both are special amps.

Pretty sure the King Snake came out 5 years ago +/- but definitely not back in 1993.

I do love my Mark IIB, its one of my favorite amps.

I also think that Mesa is a great American company.

 

[duaneflowers]

They came out in 2014... I got mine in 2015 (it took a while to swim the Pacific with it).

 

[Robert Parker]

Don't know about the amp, but that LP is f'ing gorgeous!

They came out in 2014... I got mine in 2015 (it took a while to swim the Pacific with it).

 

[duaneflowers]

Don't know about the amp, but that LP is f'ing gorgeous!

Thanks... they make a great team...

 

[Bluesky]

I'd love to own a King Snake or a vintage Mark I. Both are special amps.

Pretty sure the King Snake came out 5 years ago +/- but definitely not back in 1993.

I do love my Mark IIB, its one of my favorite amps.

I also think that Mesa is a great American company.

lol. I know the remake of Santana's amp was made fairly recently. I was just saying I remember a very cool small little Boogie Combo back in 93' or so that was fairly incredible.
Small little 1x12 that could eat a 4x12 Marshall. Had only about 5 knobs in the front and a wicker grill. I was wondering how this amp compared becuase I hate the newer modern stuff. Dual and Triple rectifiers!!? Push Pull this , Toggle that so this works with this ..........but not that........sometimes..........Horrible. You are playing the amp more then the guitar.

A Modern Boogie triple and a PRS is soulless to me.

 

[duaneflowers]

The front panel is pretty self-explanatory, channel 2 is for low (for a Mesa) gain and input 1 cascades an additional tube high gain stage and the two volume knobs can then blend them... I'm old school so I pretty much just stick to channel 2.

But the real magic happens in back:

Starting with a choice between a blackface or tweed circuit and your desired splash of reverb it is pretty much a set it and forget it thing... unless you like to fiddle with a lot of pedals in the loop. For this amp I really don't feel any pedals are necessary and I plug straight in... but its nice having the circuit there if need be.

 

[Phil W]

Why do you hate MESA? I'm genuinely intrigued.

 

[Phil W]

While I hate Mesa (the company)

Why?

 

[duaneflowers]

I live in Japan and there are 3 companies that will never get my business... Mesa, Lollar and Fractal, all for exactly the same reason.

When the King Snake was first announced I knew I would get one. I play a lot of Santana, and so it was a no-brainer. IIFC they were about $3K at the time and Mesa's Japanese distributors were selling them for $6K... with Mesa's full blessing and support. There was a store selling one on eBay for $3K and was willing to send it to me here in Japan (shipping and import fees came to about $250) and so I contacted Mesa to see what kind of voltage conversion was necessary. They would not tell me and further said they would not support any amp sent from America to Japan and shipping it would void the warranty and disallow any support whatsoever for it. I explained about the Mesa distributor pricing and they couldn't care less... said the distributors were free to charge whatever they like and they were pretty rude about it in the process. Hence, the almighty dollar and their business partners are more important to them than their customers. "Fvck Mesa Forever" is my mantra...

In my (considerable) experience, no other company does this... except Fractal and Lollar... their prices are double here in Japan as well with the full blessing of the company... which earns them all a ban from my business and I will forever be telling people how crappy the companies are since they don't care very much about their customers. With my 35K+ Les Paul Facebook Group this is one customer that reaches a lot of ears and I hope I have cost each of them a lot of money over the years... and will continue to do so.

 

[sicko gear]

i don't think Amps from North America sold in Japan are any different...you mighta just used a relative's address for the warranty card and get it sent directly

 

[Big John]

 

[Kanga Blue]

i don't think Amps from North America sold in Japan are any different...you mighta just used a relative's address for the warranty card and get it sent directly

100V rather than 110v. The Japanese are weird.......

 

[ErictheRed]

Another necro post!

That said not to defend Mesa, but I'm pretty sure that if you were to contact any other major electronics manufacturer like Samsung, Apple, Dell, Marshall, etc, they would all tell you the same thing. Different countries have different types of power and also different laws and regulations to abide by, so they aren't going to support a product that was designed for one set of regulations and power supplies and then used somewhere completely different. No big company would support this and I don't blame them, more often than not the average consumer is going to screw something up, run it at the wrong voltage or with the wrong phase or whatever, and then expect the company to fix it. Hell no.

 

[Deftone]

"I hate this company because they won't bow to my specific needs and they don't recognize me as the super important person that I am."

Fucking hilarious.