Mesa/Boogie

Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for electric guitars and basses. Mesa/Boogie was started in 1969 by Randall Smith as a small repair shop that modified Fender amplifiers, particularly the diminutive Fender Princeton. Smith's modifications gave the small amps much more input gain, making them much louder as well as creating a more heavily distorted guitar tone. Prominent early customers included Carlos Santana and Keith Richards and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. Exposure from these top players helped to establish Mesa/Boogie's position on the market, and it is frequently referred to as the first manufacturer of boutique amplifiers. Subsequent design revisions to Smith's early amps lead to the Mark Series, which popularized modern, high-gain circuits with the Mark IIC+ model, while the 1990s saw the introduction of the flagship Rectifier amps, the success of which made Mesa/Boogie a staple of modern rock tone. In 2021, the brand was acquired by Gibson.